USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 58
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LYNCHING A NEGRO
In the early part of October, 1891, a rumor was circulated about the city that a little girl in the northern part of Omaha had been assaulted and was so badly injured that her death was momentarily expected. A negro named George Smith was arrested for the crime and was lodged in jail to await trial. It seems that Smith had been arrested for a similar offense, committed in East Omaha, only a short time before, but had been discharged by a justice of the peace in Council Bluffs, before whom the preliminary examination was held. At that time the boundary line between the two states was not well defined and the justice held that the offense had been committed in the State of Nebraska.
On October 9, 1891, E. D. Neal was hanged for the murder of an old couple named Jones in February, 1890. The negro was in jail at the time of Neal's execution. Throughout the city there was a great deal of suppressed excitement over the hanging and, when one of the evening papers announced the death of the little girl who had been assaulted, this excitement was directed toward the negro, Smith. A number of the friends of the girl's family organized for the purpose of lynching Smith, and nearly every one felt that the attempt would be made that night-that is nearly every one except the city and county officials, who did not take much stock in the rumored organization of a mob and made no effort to conduct the negro to a place of greater security.
About 9 o'clock that evening the jail, which was located where the present courthouse stands, was surrounded by a crowd of some five thousand people.
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Sheriff John F. Boyd had gone to his home, but upon hearing that a mob was collecting at the jail hurried there and announced to the crowd that the law made it his duty to protect the prisoners committed to his care and that he should use every means in his power to do so. While he was speaking three or four determined men gradually crept closer to him without attracting any special notice. All at once these men seized the sheriff, hustled him into a hack and drove to the rear of the high school building, where he was kept until the affair was over. Governor James E. Boyd, Judge George W. Doane and others tried to quell the excitement, but the mob had come for Smith, and Smith they were going to have at all hazards. Every minute brought fresh accessions, both men and women, and it was afterward estimated that by 10:30 P. M. there were ten thousand persons on the streets surrounding the jail. The fire department was called out and instructed to turn the hose on the crowd, but as fast as the hose was unreeled it was cut into shreds.
While attention was directed to this effort to disperse the mob, the leaders gained an entrance to the jail by breaking the bars in one of the windows with a street car rail used as a battering ram. The deputies, seeing that the bars were giving way, placed Smith in a steel cell, which baffled the mob for nearly two hours, but at last they succeeded in breaking in the door and the negro was dragged forth. Although bent on a lynching, the mob leaders were careful to secure the right man, and a delay occurred until some one was found who could positively identify Smith as the man they wanted. Then a rope was fas- tened around his neck and he was hurried to the south side of Harney Street, where an effort was made to throw the rope over the arms of a telegraph pole. Failing in this, the prisoner was taken to the street railway, near the intersection of Sixteenth and Harney streets, and the rope was thrown over one of the wires which sustains the trolley wires. The negro was then drawn up almost to the wire and his body left hanging there. Several efforts were made by the police to rescue the prisoner, but they were prevented from reaching those who had him in tow by the density of the crowd. Next morning it was learned that the report of the little girl's death was unfounded. T. J. Mahoney, then district attorney, secured indictments against several of the active leaders of the mob, but all were discharged when their cases came to trial.
VISITS OF NOTABLE PERSONS
Omaha has been honored on several occasions by the presence of noted citizens or foreign noblemen. On January 12, 1872, Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, while on a journey from St. Louis to the plains for a buffalo hunt with General Sheridan, spent a few hours in the city. He was met at the railroad station by General Ord and General Palmer, with the members of their staffs and a committee of citizens. From the railway station the party went directly to the residence of ex-Governor Alvin Saunders ( where the city hall now stands), where dinner was served. The duke and his suite, accompanied by General Sheridan, who ,had come to Omaha to meet him, left for the West about 4 o'clock that afternoon.
During the winter of 1874-75, King Kalakaua, of the Hawaiian Islands made an extended tour of the United States. On January 21, 1875, when on
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has way back to his realm, he arrived in Omaha, accompanied by two of his countrymen, Col. W. M. Wherry, H. A. Paine, of Boston, Col. A. C. Dawes and Col. James N. Brown. These men, with some of Omaha's leading citizens, took dinner at the Grand Central Hotel, after which the King and his friends were taken on a sight seeing tour about the city. The party left early the following morning.
A presidential party composed of President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Fred Grant and wife, W. W. Belknap, then secretary of war, and several army officers, arrived in Omaha on November 1, 1875. Gen. George Crook, comman- der of the Department of the Platte, Generals Perry, Ruggles, Thayer and Man- derson, Colonel Litchfield and A. S. Paddock met the president's party at Des Moines and acted as an escort to Omaha. At the railroad station was a recep- tion committee composed of Mayor C. S. Chase, Col. R. E. Wilbur, Senator Hitchcock, J. E. Boyd, J. C. Cowin, E. A. Allen and S. H. H. Clark. An artillery salute was fired and the train entered the station and the Twenty-third Regiment band rendered an appropriate selection. The visitors, escort and reception committee were driven in carriages to the high school building, where all the school children of the city were assembled, to whom the President made a short speech. A reception was then held in the Federal Building and late in the afternoon the party continued on the journey westward.
Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, with three of his royal advisers, came to Omaha on April 26, 1876, while the emperor was making a tour of the United States. L. M. Bennett, local superintendent of the Pullman Palace Car Com- pany at Omaha, had been advised by that company to look out for the comfort of the visitors. Several places of interest were visited under the guidance of Mr. Bennett, among them the smelting works, in which the South Americans took great interest.
On November 1, 1879, Gen. U. S. Grant and his wife again visited the city as they were returning home from their journey around the world. A large number of citizens, civic and military societies, etc., met the ex-President and his wife at the station. The procession moved north on Tenth Street to Harney, east on Harney to Ninth, north to Farnam, west on Farnam to Fifteenth, north on Fifteenth to Dodge, west on Dodge to the high school building, where addresses of welcome were made by Governor Albinus Nance and Mayor C. S. Chase. In the evening there was a banquet at the Withnell Hotel. The next day was Sunday and, after attending church services at the First Methodist Church, General and Mrs. Grant became the guests of General Crook at Fort Omaha for the remain- der of their stay. They proceeded eastward on Monday morning.
President Rutherford B. Hayes, Mrs. Hayes, Secretary of War Ramsey, Gen. WV. T. Sherman, General McCook, the President's two sons and others made a tour through the West in the fall of 1880, arriving at Omaha on the 3d of September. The party was met at Council Bluffs by a committee composed of Mayor C. S. Chase, Col. Horace Ludington, Maj. John B. Furay, Gen. John King, Senator Alvin Saunders, Gen. Charles F. Manderson, Congressman E. K. Valeu- tine and John C. Cowin. Several hours were spent in sight seeing and at I P. M. the distinguished visitors continued westward over the Union Pacific.
The Marquis of Lorne and his wife, the Princess Louise, passed a few hours in Omaha on September 8, 1882. Gen. O. O. Howard, then commanding the
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Department of the Platte, John C. Cowin, Thomas L. Kimball and others met them at the transfer depot. The Marquis accompanied the committee to Fort Omaha and other points of interest, but his wife remained in their private car at the station. In the afternoon they went on toward the west.
A few minutes before 10 o'clock on the morning of October 12, 1887, Grover Cleveland, then President of the United States, and his wife, accom- panied by Daniel S. Lamont, Colonel Bissell and Postmaster General Vilas arrived at Omaha over the Chicago & Northwestern Railway. They were met at Council Bluffs by a reception committee composed of James M. Woolworth, Dr. George L. Miller, Charles F. Manderson, George W. Holdrege, John A. McShane, George B. Dandy, James E. Boyd, Charles H. Brown, Max Meyer and Joseph H. Mil- lard. When the train arrived at the Union Station on this side of the river A. S. Paddock, John M. Thayer and William F. Bechel, acting mayor, joined the party, which took carriages and drove through the principal streets of the city. A detachment of soldiers from Fort Omaha acted as escort, the buildings along the line of march were decorated with flags and bunting, several bands fur- nished music, and at the intersection of Sixteenth and Farnam streets a triumphal arch had been erected. The President declined to deliver any address beyond a few brief remarks, because his stay in Omaha was too brief for any extended speech-making. The party left the city shortly after noon for Kansas.
Henry M. Stanley, the noted African explorer, with his wife, paid a visit to Omaha on December 24, 1890. Nearly a quarter of a century before, he had been a resident of Omaha, as the western correspondent of the New York Herald. Mayor R. C. Cushing, Governor John M. Thayer, Maj. T. S. Clarkson, Dr. George L. Miller, Edward Rosewater, Gilbert M. Hitchcock, Thomas Swobe and one or two others met the Stanleys at the railroad station and saw that they were prop- erly entertained during their brief stay in the city.
President Benjamin Harrison, with some of his cabinet officers, Mrs. Harrison and several other ladies, arrived in Omaha at 11:40 A. M. on May 13, 1891, and were the guests of the city for some six hours. The visitors were immediately ushered into carriages and a procession was formed which moved up Tenth Street to Farnam, thence west on Farnam to Seventeenth, where a speakers' stand had been erected. An address of welcome by Mayor Cushing was responded to by the President. Short talks were made by John Wanamaker, postmaster-general in Harrison's cabinet, and Jeremiah Rusk, secretary of the department of agri- culture. A reception was then held in the rotunda of the Bee Building, after which the party was driven to points of interest about the city. President Har- rison gave a short address to the students of the high school and another at Creighton University. After the drive the women of the party held a reception at the residence of ex-Governor Alvin Saunders, on Sherman Avenue, and at 6 P. M. the presidential train left the city for the East.
President William McKinley, with several members of his cabinet and other distinguished persons, visited Omaha on October 12, 1898. A full account of the ceremonies on this occasion, together with the text of the President's speech delivered at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, will be found in Chapter XX.
On Saturday, April 25, 1903, Mayor Frank E. Moores issued a proclamation announcing that Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, would visit
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Omaha the following Monday, and requesting the citizens to decorate their houses and places of business along the streets traversed by the presidential party, etc. President Roosevelt and his private secretary arrived at 5:12 P. M., Mon- day, April 27, 1903, and was escorted by a committee of citizens from the railway station to the Omaha Club. In the first carriage were Mr. Roosevelt and his secretary, Senator Joseph H. Millard and Thomas A. Fry, president of the Ak- Sar-Ben. At the Omaha Club a banquet was served, which lasted until 8 o'clock, when the President was escorted to the Coliseum, where he delivered an address to a large audience. He left at 5 o'clock the next morning.
At 6:45 A. M. September 2, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Omaha a second time. He was met at the train by a committee composed of Victor Rose- water, Luther Drake, John L. Kennedy, F. A. Smith, G. W. Wattles, Gould Dietz, C. II. Pickens, B. F. Thomas, C. M. Wilhelm and Frank A. Furay. After a breakfast at the Omaha Club the ex-President was taken for a ride through the city, visiting various points of interest. In the afternoon he spoke at the Auditorium and in the evening he was taken to the Ak-Sar-Ben "Den" and initiated into that organization. On this occasion other notables present were Governor A. C. Shallenberger, Senators E. J. Burkett and Norris Brown, Senator Dolliver of Iowa, and James R. Garfield.
As the candidate of the progressive party, Theodore Roosevelt again came to Omaha on September 20, 1912. He arrived at 6:10 P. M., accompanied by Cecil Lyon, of Texas, and Congressman (afterward Senator) G. W. Norris, of Nebraska. A committee, consisting of W. J. Broatch, C. C. Wright and Charles Goss, met Mr. Roosevelt at the train and from the station drove directly to the Auditorium, where the ex-President delivered one of his characteristic political speeches. At the conclusion of his address he was taken back to the railroad station and was soon on his way to Kansas City.
On October 3, 1908, William H. Taft, the republican candidate for Presi- cent of the United States, spoke at Lincoln in the afternoon and came from that city to Omaha. He was met by a reception committee composed of a large num- ber of Omaha's representative business and professional men. Having dined " on the train, Mr. Taft was escorted by the committee to South Omaha, where he spoke "on the issues of the day." This visit was made on Thursday of Ak-Sar- Ben week and as the candidate moved along the streets he was greeted with cheers from the crowds that lined the sidewalks. While he was speaking at South Omaha, Senator Dolliver, of Iowa, addressed the large audience at the Auditorium. At the conclusion of his address, Mr. Taft appeared on the stage, which was the signal for a hearty round of applause. Early the next morning the candidate left for Kansas.
Woodrow Wilson paid his first visit to Omaha on October 5. 1912, when he was the democratic candidate for the presidency. He arrived at 9:10 A. M. on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and was escorted directly to the City Hall. He was then taken to the meeting of the Nebraska Women's League, which was in session at the Paxton Hotel, where he made a brief speech, after which he was driven to the stock yards, Creighton University and other points of interest about the city. Luncheon was served at the Commercial Club and at 2 P. M. Mr. Wilson addressed a meeting at the Auditorium. At 4:10 P. M. he left the city for Lincoln.
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Just four years later (October 5, 1916), Mr. Wilson, then President of the United States, visited Omaha again. This time he was accompanied by Mrs. Wilson, his private secretary and Dr. Cary Grayson. He arrived at 11 :40 A. M. over the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and was met at the union station by a large concourse of people. After luncheon at the Commercial Club, the President and Mrs. Wilson rode at the head of the historic parade given by the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben, commemorative of Nebraska's fifty years of state- hood. Upon reaching the reviewing stand in front of the courthouse on Farnam Street, the President and his wife left their automobile and took places upon the stand to review the procession of floats representing various epochs, from prehis- toric ages down to Nebraska's admission into the Union in 1867. On the stand with the President were Governor J. H. Morehead, Congressman C. O. Lobeck, John L. Webster, Senator Gilbert M. Hitchcock, Gurdon W. Wattles and Victor Rosewater.
When the parade had passed the President and his wife reentered their automobile and started for the Hotel Fonteneile. Their progress was slow, owing to the great crowds on the streets, and all the way from the reviewing stand to the hotel Mr. Wilson stood, hat in hand, bowing to the cheering thousands. Hardly had the party reached the hotel when President Wilson expressed a desire to visit the National Swine Show, then in progress at the stock yards. Accompanied by Mrs. Wilson, Doctor Grayson, some of the secret service men who traveled with him, and five automobiles filled with Omaha citizens, the journey to the stock yards was made in record time. At the entrance to the Stock Exchange G. M. Cantill, treasurer of the National Swine Growers' Association, pinned blue show badges to the lapels of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson's coats. The party then walked through the exhibition barns, pausing occasionally to inspect some unusu- ally large or aristocratic pig, one of which, exhibited by the Genoa Indian school, weighed 840 pounds and wore several blue ribbons indicating a prize winner.
After the visit to the swine show the party returned to the Hotel Fontenelle, where a banquet was served to more than two hundred guests. Those who sat at the table with the President were Mr. and Mrs. Everett Buckingham, Mrs. Wilson, Dr. Cary Grayson, Senator Gilbert M. Hitchcock, Mrs. Hitchcock, Mr. and Mrs. John L. Webster, Gurdon W. Wattles, Gould Dietz, Governor John H. Morehead and wife, and Joseph P. Tumulty, the President's private secretary. The service of the dinner consumed an hour and a half and at its close Mr. Wilson was escorted to the Auditorium, where he addressed an audience that tested the capacity of the great building, while thousands lingered about the outside trying to catch a sentence here and there through the open windows. From the Auditorium the presidential party went directly to the union station. and a little later was on the way east.
THIE GREAT FLOOD OF 1881
About the first of April, 1881, a great ice gorge in the Missouri River near Yankton, S. D., which had been acting as a dam, gave way and the imprisoned waters came rushing down the valley. The flood reached Omaha on April 6, 1881, and the banks of the river were soon overflowed. Along the bank, in front of the Union Pacific shops and the smelting works, the United States
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Government had recently put in several hundred yards of riprap to protect the bank from the encroachments of the river. This gave way and in a little while the grounds of the smelting works and those of the Union Pacific were sub- merged. Coal yards and lumber yards in the vicinity were also under water in a short time and the proprietors of the latter saved their lumber from floating away only by keeping a large force of men at work day and night. Steamboats came up on the Union Pacific grounds and took on coal from the railroad com- pany's supply. All the lowlands between Omaha and Council Bluffs were cov- ered with water late on the 7th, when the flood reached its highest stage, a depth of 231/2 feet above low water mark being recorded at Omaha, two feet more than ever before known. At that time the "Big Muddy" in front of the city was five miles wide and the surface was covered with cakes of ice, driftwood of all kinds and the debris of houses and barns that had been washed away farther up the river.
While the flood was at its height, Nicholas Keenan, Thaddeus Wren and Michael Cunningham, who were at a barn on the Union Pacific grounds, secured a skiff and started for dry land. They made satisfactory progress until they came to a stream about fifty feet in width that was pouring through the break in the riprap. In attempting to cross this stream the skiff was caught by the swift current and, in spite of all their efforts, was carried out into the river. Keenan and Cunningham jumped from the skiff and tried to swim to shore, but were drowned. Mr. Wren clung to the boat and was rescued. These two lives were the only ones lost, but the damage to property was considerable.
After the flood the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the proprietors of the smelter expended large sums of money in raising the grounds upon which their buildings are located. The Government also appropriated a large amount for the protection of the river bank in that locality. Subsequent increases in the value of the bottom lands on the west side of the river have resulted in a general raising of the grade for a distance of more than two miles north of the smelting works, so that a similar disaster is not likely to occur. Since that date old resi- dents have compared every rise in the waters of the Missouri with the "Great Flood of 1881."
THE TORNADO OF 1913
As the great plains lying between the Missouri River and the Rocky Moun- tains offer a free sweep to the winds, that region has repeatedly been the scene of destructive storms. Omaha had been visited by a number of these atmospheric disturbances prior to the spring of 1913, but the damage wrought by all of them combined would not equal that of the great tornado that struck the city on Easter Sunday, March 23, 1913. About 6 o'clock in the afternoon of that day a black cloud swooped down upon the city in the vicinity of Fifty-third and Francis streets without warning. From that point the tornado moved northeast through the residence section, Bemis Park and on to Levi Carter Park, where it crossed over into Iowa. In its wake was left a path one-fourth of a mile wide and seven miles long strewn with the debris of ruined homes. So sudden was the descent of the tornado that loungers in the hotel lobbies down town were not aware of the disaster that had befallen the city for an hour or more after it was all over.
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SCENE AT TWENTY-FOURTH AND LAKE AFTER CYCLONE OF MARCH 23. 1913
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The greatest damage was done in the neighborhood of Twenty-fourth and Lake streets. A motion picture theater there was filled with people and the rumor spread that all had been killed. As fast as the news was carried to other parts of the city, people rushed to the scene of the disaster and were relieved to learn that the patrons of show had all escaped, though fifty or sixty persons were killed in that section of the city. Fire broke out in the ruins and the entire police and fire departments were called out. A number of the Council Bluffs firemen hurried across the river upon learning that Omaha was threatened with a general conflagration. Little could be done, however, after the firemen arrived. The hydrants on the street corners were buried under a mass of debris and the wreckage filled the streets so that it was impossible to get the engines and hose wagons near the flames. About 8 o'clock a heavy rain began to fall, which aided the fire department in extinguishing the flames, but it added greatly to the discomfort of the people who had been rendered homeless by the storm.
Some of the finest residences in the vicinity of Bemis Park and on West Farnam Street were leveled to the ground and others were badly damaged. Among them was the George A. Joslyn "Castle," which with its conservatory and gardens represented an investment of thousands of dollars and was one of the show places of Omaha. Five public school buildings, eleven churches, one hospital, three convents and the children's home that lay in the path of the storm were either completely destroyed or seriously damaged.
Relief came promptly from all quarters. Maj. C. F. Hartmann, commandant at Fort Omaha, did not wait for orders, but as soon as he heard of the catastrophe ordered 200 regular soldiers to the storm stricken district. The presence of these disciplined men about Twenty-fourth and Lake streets prevented a panic and enabled the rescue work to proceed in a systematic manner. The troops were soon followed by 100 policemen (the entire city force), 150 firemen and 60 physi- cians. Hundreds of people got no sleep that night, but worked all night searching the ruins for dead bodies and carrying the injured to places of safety. Numerous instances of heroism afterward came to light. At the Webster ex- change of the Nebraska Telephone Company 176 girls stuck to their places at the switch board while the bodies of the dead and wounded were carried into the building. One of these girls, Miss Grace Chipman, stuck to her post until 3 P. M. Monday and quit only when Superintendent Carter peremptorily ordered her to leave her station and get some rest. Miss Anna Barnes, a trained nurse, passed the whole night in making coffee and carrying it through the wreckage of demolished buildings and fallen trees to give to the injured. One unknown hero was the man who, when he saw something was wrong in certain portions of the city, cut off the electric current in the stricken district. Just how much was saved in life and property by his timely action will never be known, though his identity was never disclosed.
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