USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 56
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The Hamilton House, a brick building on the south side of Douglas Street between Fourteenth and Fifteenth streets, was built by Charles W. Hamilton, C. B. Smith and H. M. Judson and was opened for business in August, 1856, with a man named Burnham as proprietor. The upper floor of this house was one large room, in which beds were arranged along the walls after the fashion of a college dormitory or the charity ward of a hospital. During the fall and winter seasons the bedsteads would be taken down about once a week for a ball. On such occasions the music was generally furnished by an orchestra composed of Aaron Cahn, Frederick A. Schneider, Byron Reed and Washington Griffith. When the time came to furnish the hotel, Mr. Judson went to St. Louis to pur- chase the necessary furniture, etc., and on his return he brought up on the steam- boat with him about half a dozen colored servants-the first in Omaha. Among the boarders at the Hamilton in early days were B. P. Rankin, the United States marshal, Acting Governor Cuming, John M. Thayer, Gov. William A. Richardson and other well known celebrities of that period.
In 1857 James M. Woolworth published a little pamphlet entitled "Omaha City, the Capital of Nebraska," in which he made the following reference to the hotel accommodations: "A company of twelve gentlemen, largely interested in the town, have recently purchased, for $15,000, a steamboat of the first class- the Washington City-which is moored at the landing and used as a hotel. Cheap and comfortable accommodations are thus afforded to 250 persons. The necessity of large hotel accommodations may be inferred from the fact that there are now one thousand people in Omaha over our population of last March, and it is reasonable to expect this number will be considerably increased in two months."
Among the twelve gentlemen referred to by the author were: Jesse Lowe, then mayor of the city, his brother, Dr. Enos Lowe, Alfred D. Jones, A. J. Hans- com, Robert B. Whitted and Mr. Woolworth himself.
The Farnam House was built by William A. Gwyer in 1858. It stood on the north side of Harney Street, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth. One of the early proprietors of this hotel was St. John Goodrich, whose son, Charles S.
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Goodrich, was afterward city comptroller. Mr. Gwyer was elected to the lower house of the Territorial Legislature about the time the hotel was built. In 1859 he was elected a member of the Omaha city council; was elected state senator in 1873 and was president of the senate during the session of that year, and in 1876 he was a member of the city board of education.
The Union Hotel was built by William G. Florkee in 1860, on the northwest corner of Fifteenth and Dodge streets, and the Pacific House, on Tenth Street between Capitol Avenue and Davenport Street, was built in 1866 by David T. Mount. Both these houses were two-story frame structures and depended more upon the permanent guests than transient trade for their income.
One of Omaha's historic hotels was the Cozzens House, which stood on the southeast corner of Ninth and Harney streets, on the site now occupied by the Carpenter Paper Company. It was built by George Francis Train in the early part of 1867 and was completed in sixty days from the time ground was broken for its construction and cost $35,000. It was opened by a man named Cozzens, from West Point, N. Y., who conducted it for about a year. Philo Rumsey then took charge of the house and conducted it until the fall of 1871, after which it stood vacant for several years. About 1880 it was reopened and conducted by various persons with indifferent success until Mr. Rumsey again assumed the management. He built up a good business, but lost his life while trying to save a little girl in a hotel fire in Buffalo, N. Y. Dr. J. W. McMenamy then pur- chased the building and used it for a medical institute until his death, when he was succeeded in the same line of business by A. T. Mclaughlin. Owing to the criticism of the newspapers, on account of some reported questionable, trans- actions, the institution lost standing and Mclaughlin went out of business. For some months the building again stood vacant, when it came under the manage- ment of Edwin Jennings and was reopened as the Jennings House. The property was finally purchased by Mrs. William Thaw, of Pittsburgh, and an attorney named McDougall, of Cincinnati, Ohio, who gave the building to the Omaha Theological Seminary and sold the lot to the Carpenter Paper Company.
George Francis Train, the builder of the Cozzens House, was a peculiar character. He was born on March 24, 1829, in the City of Boston, Mass., where his ancestors had settled more than two hundred years before. He became identified with Omaha through his connection with the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1864 he was one of the organizers of the Credit Mobilier, which was chartered early the following year under the laws of Pennsylvania. In 1865 he purchased a tract of 500 acres of land, between Pierce Street and Deer Park and east of Twentieth Street, eighty acres of which he platted as the "Credit Foncier Addition." Here he erected ten houses at a cost of $1,200 each and rented them to some of Omaha's leading citizens at sixty dollars per month. The addition was sold to the "Credit Foncier of America," of which he was president ; George P. Bemis, secretary; James G. Chapman, local superintendent. In purchasing the land from Samuel E. Rogers and the Kountze Brothers, he paid $38,000 and gave notes secured by mortgages for the remainder. Suits were brought by the original owners in 1872 to foreclose the mortgages and the court records of Douglas County contain much interesting information concerning the entire transaction. Train fought the case at long range, being at the time confined in the Tombs Prison in New York, on the charge of publishing obscene literature in
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his paper, "The Train Ligue." In his championship of the Woodhull Sisters, he had incurred considerable public ill will, and when, in a spirit of bravado, he printed certain quotations from the Bible in his paper, he was arrested and the edition containing the objectionable quotations was confiscated by the authorities. His arrest came just after the presidential election of 1872, when he returned to New York from a lecture tour throughout the country, ostensibly as an indepen- dent candidate for the presidency. He was finally discharged, when it was found that the charge of circulating obscene literature could not be sustained. In the foreclosure proceedings in Omaha, he was represented by John I. Redick, William J. Connell and Arthur N. Ferguson, who asked to have the suit dismissed, on the ground that Mr. Train was of unsound mind and that a guardian should have been appointed to protect his interests. The court, however, held the action to be legal and the plaintiffs recovered all the land except that in the Credit Foncier Addition.
About two years later George P. Bemis brought suit against Mr. Train to recover $47,660.68, which he claimed was due him on salary as Mr. Train's private secretary from November 15, 1864. He obtained a judgment in the courts for the full amount of his claim and Mr. Train's interest in the Credit Foncier Addition was levied upon and sold, but the amount thus realized was not sufficient to satisfy the judgment in full. In the Omaha City Directory for 1871, under the heading "Real Estate," appears the following entry: "Train, George Francis-N. P. A. Owner of 5,000 lots, a hotel and ten other buildings in Omaha, 1,000 lots in Council Bluffs, and 7,000 lots and a hotel in Columbus. Represented by his private secretary and agent, George P. Bemis, Cozzens House." It is said the N. P. A. after his name in the directory stood for "Next President of America."
Another hotel erected in 1867 was the one on the corner of Ninth and Farnam streets, which was built by Dr. Isaac Edwards at a cost of $21,000. It was opened as the Edwards House, but about a year later the name was changed to the Casement House, as a compliment to Gen. Jack Casement, one of the builders of the Union Pacific Railroad. In fact, no hotel in Omaha has been known by as many different names as this old three story frame building. While known as the Casement House it was conducted for awhile by John C. Higby, whose son, Beecher Higby, was afterward city clerk of Omaha. A. S. Paddock succeeded Higby, who was his brother-in-law, and conducted the house for a year or two before his removal to Beatrice. After Mr. Paddock came W. D. Nichols and T. S. Davis, eastern men, both of whom afterward lost their lives in the Johnstown flood in Pennsylvania. This hotel was next known as the Wyoming, but only for a short time. It was then purchased by L. M. Rheem and George Canfield, who rechristened it the Canfield House, with George Canfield as proprietor. Later owners were S. G. Faris and G. F. Elsasser, each of whom named the hotel for himself, and finally the house became known as the Bailey Hotel. About the beginning of the year 1916 the property was sold to the Lee-Coit-Andreesen Com- pany as a site for a large depot or warehouse. With the destruction of this old three-story frame hotel another of Omaha's landmarks disappeared.
The first really large hotel in Omaha was the Grand Central, which occupied a plat of ground 132 feet square on the southwest corner of Fourteenth and Farnam streets, where the Paxton Hotel now stands. A stock company was formed early
WAGON SHOE
OMAHA IN 1867, LOOKING WEST FROM FIFTEENTH AND DOUGLAS STREETS Old Capitol Building in the background
BOOTS SHOES WHOLESALE RETAIL W.V.MORSE.
THE GRAND CENTRAL HOTEL, CORNER OF FOURTEENTH AND FARNAM STREETS
Stood on site of present Paxton Hotel.
Burned September 4, 1878.
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in the year 1871 and the money to build the hotel was subscribed by about one hundred different stockholders. The plans for the building proved to be greater than the fund on hand and a vexations delay was experienced in the completion of the structure. Conditions were further aggravated by some of the stockholders refusing to pay their subscriptions. Part of this was due to a change in name that did not meet the approval of quite a number of the stockholders. It seems the name "Grand Central" had been decided upon in the beginning, but when the house was about completed the name of "Pullman House" was selected. The change did not meet with public favor, some of the stockholders declaring they had subscribed to Grand Central stock and that would not pay to build the Pullman. There was considerable newspaper comment on the subject, most of it in the way of protest. About that time there was a popular patent medicine known as "Hembold's Buchu," and a correspondent pertinently suggested : "Hembold has done as much for Omaha as Pullman, why not call it the Buchu House? Or why not name it the Georgefrancistrain House? There is a name whose owner has advertised Omaha more than any other man." A number of names were suggested, some of them in dead earnest and others in a spirit of facetiousness, but the dispute was finally settled by returning to the name originally chosen-the Grand Central.
There were several suits filed in the courts to collect stock subscriptions and at last a loan of $100,000 was made to the company by Edward Creighton, A. J. Poppleton and others, who took a mortgage upon the property as security. With the assistance of this loan the building was completed and opened for the recep- tion of guests in October. 1873, under the management of George Thrall. He continued in charge as lessee until the spring of 1878, when he surrendered his lease to go into other business. On 'April 18, 1878, the property was sold under foreclosure proceedings, no interest having beeff paid .. on the loan since March 2, 1872. Augustus Kountze purchased the hotel. for. $120,000, the total indebtedness of the hotel company at that time amounting to $190,000. The financial difficul- ties may have had some influence upon Mr. Thrall in the surrender of his lease.
Kitchen Brothers-Charles W., James B. and Richard-then leased the hotel and immediately began making improvements upon the building, one of which was the installation of an elevator. A large sum was also expended for new furniture, the intention being to reopen the hotel on October 1, 1878, upon a grander scale than ever before. But about half past six o'clock on the evening of September 24th fire was discovered in the elevator shaft. An alarm was sounded and the fire department hurried to the scene, but the building was entirely consumed, together with a portion of the new furniture. A story soon afterward became current that one of the men working upon the hotel was eating supper in a restaurant when some one rushed in and announced that the Grand Central Hotel was burning ; that this man jumped up from the table and hurried out, exclaiming : "Great Scott! and I left a candle burning in the elevator shaft!" The man who is said to have made this statement could not be located. but the story was sufficient to cause a general belief that the candle in the elevator shaft was the origin of the fire. Lewis Wilson, John A. Lee, Alonzo Randall, William McNamara and Henry Lockfield, five members of the fire department, were on the third floor with a hose, when the floors all gave way and they were precipitated into the basement with the mass of blazing debris. The loss of these
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five brave firemen cast a greater gloom upon the city than the loss of the mag- nificent hotel building.
The Kitchen Brothers secured the Withnell Building, on the southeast corner of Fifteenth and Harney streets, formerly occupied as the headquarters of the military department of the Platte, and fitted it up as a hotel until they could complete the Paxton Hotel, upon the former site of the Grand Central. The Paxton was opened in the fall of 1882. A fire occurred in this hotel on the night of April 12, 1891, in which Michael Carter, captain of Hose Company No. 2, was killed and pipemen Thomas Downs, Peter McGuire and Martin Mulvihill were badly bruised, the four men being caught by a falling brick wall while they were ascending a long ladder. The damage to the building was about twenty-five thousand dollars.
The Millard Hotel, on the northeast corner of Thirteenth and Douglas streets, and the Murray, on the northwest corner of Fourteenth and Harney, were both built over a quarter of a century ago. The former was ereeted in 1882 by a company composed of J. E. Markel, Thomas Swobe, Ezra and Joseph H. Millard, Samuel Shears and George Giacomini. It is five stories in height and cost $200,000. For a number of years it was one of the city's leading houses of entertainment, but with the building of more modern hotels it has lost much of its former reputation. The Murray was built by Thomas Murray in 1888, at a cost of $140,000.
REMOVING THE STATE ARCHIVES
Lincoln was made the capital of the state by the act of June 14, 1807, but the state officials remained at Omaha until suitable quarters could be provided at the new seat of government. One morning in December, 1868, six wagons, each drawn by four horses, left Lincoln for Omaha to transport the state archives to the new capital. After a hard day's drive, they reached Ashland, then a straggling little village, in the northwest corner of Cass County. Late though it was, the teamsters pushed on up the Platte River several miles to a ferry. In the crossing the ice proved rather troublesome, as well as the ferryman, but eventually they reached the eastern side and bivouacked for the night around a straw stack. Early the next morning they were again on the move and a little while after noon reached the old Douglas House, on the corner of Thirteenth and Harney streets, in Omaha.
At that time Omaha was in the midst of a boom, due in a great measure to the expected completion of the trans-continental railway in the near future. From the Missouri River to Capitol Hill the streets were filled with men dressed in frontier garb and carrying packs, loitering Indians, active businesss men just arrived, gamblers, and in fact all the different characters one might expect to find in a frontier town. Saloons, dance houses and gambling dens were to be scen on every hand. All Union Pacific trains westward bound were guarded by Pawnee seouts to protect them against the Sioux Indians in Western Nebraska.
The Lincoln party hunted up John A. Gillespie, the auditor of state, presented . their credentials, and the preparations for the removal were commenced without delay. Stoves, furniture, boxes of books, volumes of records, the state library ( packed in shoe boxes of convenient size ) and sundry other articles were loaded
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into the wagons, ready for an early start the following morning. When the procession reached Farnam Street it was met by United State Marshal Casper E. Yost, who added to one of the loads a barrel of cider labeled "T. P. Kennard." (Mr. Kennard was at that time the secretary of state.) Upon leaving Omaha the overland train encountered a warm rain, which made the roads muddy and difficult, so that Bellevue was not reached until dusk. The next night was spent at Kimball's Ferry, about three miles above the village of La Platte. The Kim- ball brothers, having "an eye to the main chance," purposely broke the pulley on the ferry, in order to hold up the party for fees. At the ferry the Lincoln men were joined by Tom Keeler, a desperado who was afterward killed by Daniel Parmelee at Elkhorn. On this occasion, however, Keeler was on the side of law and order and volunteered to see that the party was conveyed across the river the next morning. Fearing to arouse the wrath of the notorious Keeler, the Kim- balls fixed the pulley and the first detachment started across the river. When the boat was in midstream it was struck by a large cake of ice, which drove it upon a sandbar, where it grounded. The teams were driven off the boat into about two feet of water and after some hard pulling reached the shore. The boat, being relieved of its cargo, floated again and the rest of the party crossed without mishap.
Not long after leaving the Platte River a severe snow strom came on, obscur- ing the road and enforcing a delay. Late in the evening the party arrived at the house of a settler, where the Town of Greenwood is now situated and were invited to remain there over night-an invitation that was gladly accepted. After an early breakfast the next morning the teams were harnessed and the journey was resumed. Before nightfall the six wagons arrived at Lincoln and the state property was placed in the new capitol. With the railroad facilities between Omaha and Lincoln now, such a removal could be effected in a few hours, but in 1868 it took a wagon train the greater part of a week to make the transfer. Verily, the world moves.
BORING FOR COAL
Among the early settlers of Omaha there were quite a number who held to the belief that coal in paying quantities could be found in Douglas County. In the fall of 1871 Thomas Wardell, an experienced miner proposed to the city council to prospect for coal within the city limits, in consideration of what he termed a "reasonable bonus." In October of that year a resolution was offered in the council calling a special election to vote on the proposition to issue $7,000 worth of bonds to pay the bonus. An amendment increasing the amount of the bond issue to $10,000 was adopted, the sum realized from the sale of the bonds to be expended in prospecting for coal within a reasonable distance of the city. Upon reconsideration the amount was reduced to $4,000 and, before a special election was called, the council rescinded the order, at the same time adopting a resolution that "if private individuals desire to bore for coal, in or about Omaha, at their own expense, they are at liberty to do so."
About this time the Omaha Board of Trade invited Professor Hayden of the United States Geological Survey to visit Omaha and give his opinion regarding the probability of finding coal near the city. In an address before the Board of Vol. 1-28
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Trade, he gave an exhaustive review of the coal deposits throughout the West and expressed the view that if coal beds existed in Eastern Nebraska they were at such a great depth that they could not be developed at a profit.
Notwithstanding this opinion, expressed by a scientist who had made a special study of the subject, there were still many who believed that coal could be found. In 1887 a few public spirited citizens of Omaha determined to put their theory to a practical test. A considerable fund was raised to bore for coal near the Willow Springs Distillery ; a well driller was employed, the best machinery possible was obtained and the work was carried on for a few months with great enthusiasm, but the project was ultimately abandoned. Had the prospectors been so for- tunate as to strike a good coal deposit, Omaha would no doubt now be one of the great manufacturing centers of the country.
The hope of obtaining cheaper fuel still lingered in the minds of the Omaha people, and when natural gas was discovered in various parts of the country attention was turned in that direction. In the early 'gos a company was formed to prospect for gas. It was thought that the valley of the Little Papillion offered the best prospect and a well was drilled to the depth of 1,400 feet, but it turned out to be a "dry hole." Since then the reductions in freight rates on coal have had the effect of lowering the price and the agitation for developing local mines or gas wells has ceased.
CANADA BILL
There seems to be something in the atmosphere of a new, frontier town that attracts the lawless element of society. Gamblers, card sharks, confidence men, women of the underworld, and even desperadoes of far worse character, flock to a new settlement as flies to a dish of molasses. Omaha had her share of this class of persons during the first quarter of a century of her existence. In the summer of 1872 a man, who afterward became known as "Canada Bill," drifted into the city. Where he came from no one knows, and his real name has been forgotten, if, indeed, it was ever known. He has been described as "the most notorious, smoothest-talking man that ever set foot upon Nebraska soil-either by steamboat or steam train; largely in evidence in Omaha and along the line of the Union Pacific in the early '7os; a card shark of which the world probably never produced an equal."
When Canada Bill made his first appearance in Omaha he stopped at the old Canfield House and immediately began looking about for victims. At that time the town was "wide open," gambling was in full blast, so no one objected when Bill sat down to one of the tables in the hotel office and began tossing three cards about in a careless manner. Several by-standers soon gathered around the table and Bill started the proceedings by asking: "Is there anybody here who can pick out the picture card?" A man standing near picked up a card and turned it over. It proved to be the "picture card" all right, and the sharper looked somewhat chagrined. Again he shuffled the cards and again a by-stander picked out the card without difficulty. Showing his chagrin still more, Canada again shuffled the cards and then looking up into the faces of the crowd said non- chalantly : "I'll bet you can't pick out the picture card again." A man who had just come in from the West and seemed to have plenty of money accepted the
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challenge. "How much?" he inquired. 'It's up to you, stranger," replied Bill. ' Bet you a thousand," said the mountaineer. "You done said something." answered Bill, "produce your money."
The money was soon staked and the stranger placed his finger upon what he was sure was the jack of spades, but when turned over the card turned out to be the seven spot of hearts. That was Canada Bill's first day in Omaha, but for two or three years after that he made periodical visits and never went away empty-handed. Although he was recognized as "king of the three card monte men," he never failed to find some one who was willing to risk his money on Bill's game. And his victims did not all come from the unsophisticated. Sometimes professional gamblers were so certain that they could "copper the card" that they bet heavily, but the result was invariably the same. It has been estimated that the amount of money taken in by Canada Bill was at least half a million dollars. But with Bill it was a case of "easy come, easy go." He died a pauper some years ago and was buried by friends at Hazleton, Pa. There have been other card sharks in Omaha at various times, but none of them was the equal of Canada Bill.
LABOR TROUBLES
Prior to 1877 there were several strikes of printers engaged upon some of the Omaha newspapers, but none of them was fraught with serious consequences. The year 1877 will long be remembered as the year of the great railroad strike that affected all parts of the nation. The country was just then recovering from the effects of the industrial depression. that had started with the failure of Jay Cooke & Company in 1873, and the railroad men were asking an advance in wages, that they might share in the returning prosperity.
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