The Omaha Sunday Bee.
HALF-TONE
taoxb on to rova.
FOR ALL THE NEW5 THE
OMAHA BEE
btST IN THE WE3T
VOL. AAXlX XQ. 51. OMAHA, SUNDAY MOBXIXfl. into
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T T A T TV T A TV T T a r- -r rTTZZ-
nrtKKi ivi a in is ut.AU, BU T HIS WORK GOES (
Completion of Munificent New Headquarter, Building in Omaha Will Mark an Important Epoch in Union Pacific History
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I- W. : k 'LV16 Ute E- Harr,m". .at on a camp
1, "Un;bth,ng ,n front o' 8 tent in the outskirU of San
tlr S uUng the 0n ,08lng bttle of his remarkable ca-w-!
. Mt year r 80 wlU br,n bout ret railroad
t hJ Jinn?,' ' , 6 UDln PaClflC' f0r ,nstance' 19 about T
in- v. , 1" rt,n n "W h"lrter. building in Omaha,
J US thCr proJec for bttrment are under way "
for th.' n"?." Ulk,nS 10 a neW8PP mn who had called
ror the daily health bulletin.
the rrV-M 5CnCral rU,e' characteel the working days of
anewlr 1h d.n y by h'" ,ndom,tabl will, which rallied
T fl0dB f We8t Tex88 "unrtine-and b if to
tolr J U"!!n.' h" Phy'1Cal ct,nJ'on. then the all-prevailing
StSi "' aWay aDd Mr- Harrlman W88 6trangPely ready
muuiuiai expansion. .
Mr. Harriman is dead-but the Union prinn h.M. the Pacific by steel bands, but it remained for Orenvllle M. Dodge,
rives. a-out the Union Pacific building idea sur- as chief engineer, and other men of bis type,?to actually blaze the
At Fifteenth and Dodge streets Om.h. , . traU' runnln untlet all of the while of Indian bullets, for be
under way, d a m.gniJce't Tweitorv IZ 1? "W " remembcred hostile warrior, resented the Invasion of tho
full consonance with ?J. Conc o5 tL ,b ? Vk "T bU,Idef"' and eVCry mU f m Un,on Pac,flc ,rom Central Nebra8k
outcome. importance of the road-will be the final west to Utah was built within range of Indian rifles. Wherefore,
Just to what extent thi. hiMi., t. . v the men who 8tftked the route, threw up the grade, placed the ties
Ute Mr HaTriman and Ju.t how ?ar itVt rrorr'r0' th' " Uld ral'8 n th ,,ne 0f danger a" tb -blle"
Mr. Mohler and o hers succeed t In -f J"dge LVett' much 80 88 though they had been on th field of battle.
Pacific f.mll questfon in'rwh. fhl Vu ? PWer' " Un,0n enoral Dodge' the h" 1,ved to Bee hi, pioneer project
Be thaTis VTVnmt "T? ' US greatneB8- "e 18 a gran1 old man of tbe W "
gresslve Oraaha rests supremely content. . , TT , ,
To the ordinary man of afTalrs the concur, inn r , . . " PaC,ftC authorlty w,'l hard a guess these days
twelve-story building is nuntoZiu.Z !h" W buMia WlU be ready for oupatlon, but
ter minds who guide Union .7? Jt ZTZ mVSSJZL?" " '8
2"u"r pS.sum; v.-. tx s22 dy rr , r rhen at uS the fiD,8hing -ke haa -
merely the signal for increased 'effort Tblrl Z T L U"y 8 BttId' be a mre rnate raUway headquarters building anywhere
difficulty in bidttaVoTSS bultne JS S' ?T ,a the Un,tel SUteB- Twelve "torie' u8rd " will go, with a front-
done. There mly h.ve X some d.fflcu ty 17177? tT Dodge ,tWet aDd 146 feet n Flfteentb 8treet-
It Is only a coincidence, yet aptly fitting that the Union pm nlnl''"'1"1, 7"! bf ' quarter "wed oa"., with marble entrance
buildin should be located on DoSIe .trw t foM? b rfn tl LlTlu ft h".!"' Ctr,Cal appHance8 wll b f"ed. 'In short,
name of Dodge-Genera! Grenvtlle Dode i "J " ' " P''P0Bed that n0th,ng 8ha11 b omitted whh makes for all that
with building the .'rfC" ire1 " M'' th ?
.tatesmen dreamed glowing day dream, of Unking the Atlantic and When , the course of event, the time come. for Union Pacific
removal from the old to new, it will mark
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VmEN HE, LAjSr
VISITED OMAH
An Epoch of 1910
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an epoch, for around the present Union
Pacific building the old Herndon house
there clusters a wealth of early-day
L historical lore.
"All out for the Herndon house," Pio
neer Jehus proudly cried of course they
were proud, for wasn't the Herndon
house the most prominent hostelry in
Omaha? And in those days, when
Omaha was a mere fringe of primitive
architecture bedecking the river front,
wasn't it an honor, as cabman honor is
measured, to drive the Herndon house
omnibus?
If trick walls could talk, what a won-
derrul recital of early-day Omaha life
would pour forth. While not .the first
hotel in Omaha, the Herndon house was
the first one of a pretentious nature, and,
naturally enough, it at once became the
center of affairs, both social and commer
cial. What the Jefferson today is to St.
Louis, what the Albany is to Denver,
what the Robldoux is to St. Joseph, what
the Baltimore is to Kansas City, what t'ae
Auditorium 1. to Chicago, what the West
is to Minneapolis, what the Ryan is to St.
Paul, what the Claypool is to Indian
apolis, what the Loyal, the Rome, the
Henshaw and other, are to Omaha of this
era, the Horndon was to that Omaha of
yesteryears the Omaha with the making
of -which the Union Pacific had so much
to do.
Dr. George L. Miller, Omaha pioneer,
wa. a prominent factor in bringing the
Herndon house Into existence. It wa.
looked upon a. .ort of a cornerstone of
the coming city, and in Its day many men
destined to national prominence crossed
its threshold and signed their name, upon
it. register.
J. Sterling Morton and family boarded
at the Herndon one winter and the story
&itJ CEJJ.PA&SElgGE-B. AGENT
A "V Tttvt
FREIGHT TRAFFIC JXGR. f
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saw the doctor administering medicine and his childish mind con
ceived the idea that he, too. would like to Te a doctor. Finding a
bottle of medicine that someone Had cast aside, the lad doped hi.
brother with a dose that almost proved fatal.
The "Train Incident." which Is a tabloid way of designating the
atory of ho George Francis Train became enraged at the manage
mant of the Herndon house aha built a new not! fnr .nit. ,.
told and retold until it is indelibly imnressed a. Y , , irom "" tlme appearance today .carcely lndi-
history. indelibly Impressed a. a matter of local cate. that it wa. once the original Herndon house, owing to the fact
NEW UNION PACIFIC BUILDING, A3 IT WILL APPEAR WHEN COMPLETED.
The building will be occupied as follows: First floor n.r.i . . ....
partments; second, rice president and general manager general VuDtlt 1" , 18 0rien 101(1 of how Jo Morton, then a
'Pftierln iS" 9aU VT'l eU,B VPJr chd. . came near taking the life
IrM tt: J ' .ud.Lt9rV. !'Xth' frel,ht ud,lo-; wventh. auditor; elVhtT oasVenr.; of hU rothr, Paul. Dr. Miller was the
ZH 1 ''' tenth ch,ef-eng,M" and o ventn .nAmt holTX hotel phy.ician. He paid .peclal T.tten!
uun to me morion children
Joy Morton
Future generals, future governors, future United States senators
and future cabinet officers, not to mention congressmen and lesser
wuungea tne Hernaon house in its palmy days, for Omaha was
then, as now. the principal gateway to the west, and the trek of man
has ever been westward.
Socially, the Herndon house held full sway. Even In those prim
itive days of pioneering, when painted Indians were still lurking in
the outskirts and when Council Bluffs still vied with Omaha for west
ern gateway supremacy, there was a social side to life In Omaha
and many a night the belles and beaux of the coming metropolis"
Whirled Inthe giddy maze, back and forth over the freshly scrubbed
ball room floor of the Herndon.
Cut the historic association- of the soon-to-be vacated building I.
by no means confined to the period during which it wa. used as a
hotel In fact. Its tenure as hotel property was comparatively brief
for other and more commodious '
hotels further "uptown" came with
advancing civilization, and after a
shining career of a few years along
came the Union Pacific railroad au
thoritles with a proposition to take
the property for a headquarter,
building, which was done.
As a railroad building the old
Place has been dignified by the pres-ence-of
some of the master minds of
the railroad world. The feet of
Jay Gould, once the railroad king
of the world, have mounted the
tep. of the erstwhile Herndon
house many times, for in the earlier
history of Omaha visit, from Mr.
Gould were by no means infrequent,
and George Gould, son and succes
or of the then great man. ha. a. a
boy played about the hall, of the
old Herndon.
What will become of the hlatorlc
old place when Union Pacific headquarter, are moved awayf
That is an unanswered question, and it remains to be seen what
use the railroad authorities will make of it. Despite the fact that
the city in its onward march ha. grown away from it, the value of
the ground upon which it stands Increase, year by year, and th
bullding itself is in a good state of preservation in fact, it ha. been
Union Pacific History
Poh rO"?l "ground-breaking" Incident to Union
eotructlon took place In Omaha December 3.
If3- c The, '"t spade of dirt wa. brown by the late
Alvln Baunder., war governor of Nebraska
tit. a?.at tra,n weDt out of Omaha a distance of
Sf fourmileB November H. J865. It wa. composed
SiK'ml WBB ' di8tin-
GefKin0" PaC,flC ,M bre th name-
toryThift.rh.adM.TSedlfithe n!: r p;-
i'ihV.7 a L"1" "a wa! epoch
W...1...T1 T.u "l"r'- reunion or the two
as signalized bv tha trtvin nr . ... .
jhe "rt Union Pacific station building in Omaha
stood under the hll) near the foot of Dodge street
geJt in Oma'hT Unlon Pac,flc
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vuai u na. Deen Duilt over and materially rhiinii i
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the railroad and It is supposed that some sort of use will be found
for it by the company.
Railroad building is a prosaic occupation for the most part, but
even so. there is In Uniou Pacific history much of romance and
poetry. An element of the romantic tinges the story of how Indians
, along the route fled awe stricken as the first train took it. we.twar
flight. The shrill whistle of the locomotive wa. to their supersti
tious minds like the shriek of a lost soul, and the puffing, steaming,
snorting iron moneter was a thing of terror to them.
Abraham Lincoln was early to. roresee the possibilities of a road
to the west, and even while other national characters were inclined
to look askance at the proposition, branding it as a chimerical im
possible dream. In 1858 Lincoln visited Council Bluffs and discussed
the situation with General Dodge, who was already engaged In mak
ing preliminary surveys. At that time the president-to-be evinced
' ket" interest and later, after he
was cnosen as chief executive, ha
summoned General Dodge to the
White House for a further confer
ence. No story of Union Pacific history
is complete without mention of Dr.
Thomas C. Durant. Dr. Durant
was elected vice president in the
first organization of the Union Pa
cific and, although not chief execu
tive of the road, he I. generally ac
credited with liavlng had much to
do with completion of the project,
for it is related that he wa. of a
singularly aggressive temperament.
He wa. deeply imbued with the "do
It now" Idea. His career with the
Union Pacific was strictly that of a
builder. He devoted hi. energy,
his money and his knowledge to
auccessful termination of the eoa-
in
line.
(Continued on Pag Four.)
