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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 1912)
H TIIE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE Creighton University's Steady Growth an tSTNE of Omaha's best assets is Creighton university, whose pMS Btudents spend with Omaha efmawi merchants a half-mil lion dollars each year. Start ing in a very humble way thirty-four years ago, this in stitution has grown to splendid proportions, with nearly a thousand students in attend ance, and alumni numbering nearly 2,000 scattered all over the country. Thanks to the generosity of the Creighton family, the university has an endowment of several million dollars, and its equipment is thoroughly nodern in every respect. Each year witnesses notable additions to the facili ties for up-to-date teaching, and Creighton now takes high rank among the educational in stitutions of the country. There are various standards by which Institutions may be measured, one of the most gen erally appreciated being that of dollars and cents. The aver age citizen may not be able to Judge of a university's stand ing educationally, but he can easily grasp the idea that Institution which helps to swell the local bank clearings is worth while. Perhaps lie does not often reflect upon this phase of the matter, but once it is brought to his mind he will not Boon forget it. The university's combined enroll ment Is now 967 students, whose ag gregate annual expenditures in Omaha fir board and lodging, clothes, laundry, amusements, books and etatonery, incidentals and rail road fare is about $500,000. As the bulk of this money goes through the Omaha banks this accounts, in part, for the fact that Omaha ranks higher in bank clearings than in population among the cities of the country. It may be interesting to consider in detail what Crelghton's contribu tion to Omaha's financial welfare means. The single item of shoes amounts to $10,000 per year; suits and overcoats, $50,000; confections and tobacco, $10,000; laundry, $15, 000; hats, caps and haberdashery, $10,000; baggage transfer, $1,500; books, stationery, instruments and apparatus, $40,000; drugs, Jew elry, sporting goods, engraving, printing, catering, taxicabs, etc., $25,000; board and lodg ing, $200,000; amusements and Incidentals, $25,000; rail road fare, $25,000. When to these amounts Is added the tuition of the four profesional colleges, all of which Is immediately disbursed in Omaha to the faculty and to Omaha merchants for equip ment and supplies, the total will aggregate approximately a half-million dollars, not in cluding the larpe expenditures made every year by the univer sity for the construction of new buildings and the purchase of additional permanent equipment One of Omaha's Most Valuable Assets Lx .111) " ?fj? 'II ' l 'jxr.i?: "ir VrV .".- v , 'A a ( . i t .... - i J. How much, In addition to these various amounts, is spent each year in Omaha by friends - If. .:V-,W- College of Arts and Sciences ' 1 i Colleges of Law and Dentistry i "" " r I r 3 ? ti i iimni . ?" ...-'' -,rt-- - - ' Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy and relatives of the Btudents cannot be accurately estimated, but the total will doubtless run between $15,000 and $25,000, and it should not be forgotten that the university's graduates, who number about 2,000, are. in large part, located within a radius of 300 miles of Omaha, and naturally they spend considerable sums of money here for supplies and equipment, to say nothing of the business which they brin? to the city along professional as well as distinctly commer cial lines. Perhaps it is not generally known that this great univer sity owes its origin in large part to a woman, Mrs. Mary Lucretia Creighton, who, upon the death of her husband, Ed ward, made provision in her will for carrying out his oft expressed wish to found a free college for young men. He died suddenly on November 5, 1874, and as he left no will, his immense fortune passed to his widow, upon whom, there fore, there was no legal obligation to use the money in any particular manner. However, she was very devoted to her husband and she gladly seized upon the op portunity to perpetuate her affection for him by leaving $100,000 to found the college. How unpretentious were its beginnings may be gathered from the fact that when its doors opened on September 2, 1878, the highest class was the "Sixth Reader Class." But the men in charge la bored with enthusiasm and intelli gence, and from this insignificant be ginning there has grown an institu tion of university rank, with com plete preparatory, undergraduate, graduate and professional courses. This remarkable growth would never have occurred without the generous co-operation of a man whom Omaha will never forget the late Count John A. Creighton who showered his wealth upon the strug gling school and lived to see it emerge from its experimental days into a sturdy institution destined to endure. During his lifetime he con structed the Observatory, extensive additions to the original building, a separate library, auditorium, dormi tory, heating plant and perma nent homes for Colleges of Med icine, Law, Dentistry and Phar macy. On February 7, 1907, he died, mourned by all who knew him, secure in the grate ful memory of those he had be friended. It is a 'ar cry fro-i tLe gram mar school of 1878 to the uni versity of 1912, and unless one has kept in close touch with the institution he would scarcely realize the change which has occurred. Instead of one building which then housed the faculty and provided ample quarters for the students, there are now nine large structures devoted to the work of the in stitution; the staff of profes sors has increased from 6 to 130, and the student enroll ment from 120 to 972.