he Omaha. Sunday Bee
HALF TOHE SECTIOII
Pages 1 to 10.
A Paper for the Horn
THE OMAHA DEC
Best A". West
VOL. XXXVI-NO. 27.
OMAIIA, SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 23, 10(H).
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
GEORGE L. MILLER WHO IS CALLED " FATHER OF OMAHA"
Career of the Man Who lias Devoted His Life to Building Up Omaha from Its Original Condition as a Frontier Post to Its Present Proud and Commanding Position as a Center of National Commerce
. G
-v.
TIIE father of Omaha.
Pre-eminently this title belong! to Dr. George L. Mil
ler. Omaha has been his life passion. Others may have
struggled for wealth, for professional success or for po
litical success or for political preferment. But he has
Ftruggled for Omaha. It Is the propaganda of which he has been
the faithful and persevering apostle for more than half a century.
. Educated to be a physician, he early gave up ministering to
human patients In an eastern city and followed destiny's finger
pointing to the west, where he found, as a patient more suited to
his genius, a tiny settlement upon the edge of the wilderness.
Omaha was a puny Infant when Dr. Miller came here In 1854. In
the ye.au following It had all the Illnesses common to Infant cities
and through them all the young physician brought It safely. Sev
eral times In the city's adolscence, desperate diseases assailed It,
threatening life Itself. But, with skill, courage, hope and Indom
itable perseverance Dr. Miller fought off each disease and drew
the city back from the gates of death.
George Laforrest Miller was born In Boonvllle, Oneida county,
N. Y., August 18. 1830. His parents were poor, but of that hardy
and thrifty class fitted to combat the rigorous climate and natural
disadvantages of the frontier. In that country of poor soils and
hard winters he grew up bearing his part In the slow fight or the
pettlers for a living. It was a hard life, but It gave him a consti
tution which was to prove useful In later years of busiest activity.
When 16 years of age he left the farm and went to Utlca to take a
position In a woolen mill. Tliere hard work and a "full dose of
homesickness" over separation from his parents and sisters soon
brought on a desperate illness. Dr. Hiram Hoyt, the physician who
nursed him" back to health, offered him a position In his office
where he would have an opportunity to read medicine. The young
man acccepted. Five years later he entered the College of Phy
sicians and Surgeons In New York City, from which Institution he
graduated la 1852, the third in his class.
Early Practice and Marriage
He practiced his profession In Syracuse for two years, where
he held the office of city physician and physician of the poor house.
It was shortly after the death of his mother and when his father,
ho had already ventured into the west, was lying ill in Keokuk,
la., that he decided to go west. He had been married in 1853 to
Miss Elizabeth Dickinson. He left his young bride with relatives
In Ann Arbor, Mich., and went by railroad to St. Louis, thence up
the river to Keokuk where he Joined his father, who had recovered
from his Illness. They went by stage, a journey of 320 miles, to
Council Bluffs. The trip In those days took five days and four
nights. There were less than a dozen people there at the time of
their arrival, October 19, 1854. The prospects were not bright
for a young physician seeking a practice. The forceful eloquence
of Governor Thomas B. Cuming had much to do with bringing Dr.
Miller to the settlement as a permanent resident. He went back
to Ann Arbor, brought his wife ip Omaha and took up his residence
n a little cotton wood cabin located near tne present junction oi
Twenty-fourth and Cuming streets. y
It is a matter of history that the first of his few patients on
the frontier was an Indian pappooee. Largely as a joke, the doctor
hud hung the beautifully gilt-lettered sign of his profession In front
of his cabin. A warrior of the Omaha tribe, which was then en
camped here on its way to the annual hunt, saw the sign and
asked another white settler what It meant. When he learned It
was the elgn of the white medicine man, he gave a whoop and, call
ing the doctor, hurried him off to the wigwam where the pappoose
lay sick with pneumonia. The babe, however, was in the last stages
of the disease and beyond medical aid.
Service to the Territory
Being a naturally bright man, well educated and having busi
ness ability and up-to-date ideas, Dr. Miller was a valuable ac
lulsltlon to the settlement, and took a leading plate at once. He
vas choeen clerk of the territorial council when It met in January,
1855, in the first capltol building, which then stood on Ninth and
Douglas streets. On many a night after he had finished the duties
of his position, he'walked across the trackless prairie to his little
cabin at Twenty-fourth and Cuming streets, a candle placed by his
wife In the little 7x9 window being his only guide. It was during
these early days that he served for a few weeks as surgeon in the
army commanded by General Harney. Three steamers came up
the river one day carrying troops to Fort Pierre. The officer In
charge of the expedition landed and sought out Dr. Miller. He told
him that an epidemic of cholera was raging among his soldiers and
that te had failed to pick up the surgeon who was supposed to ac
company the expedition. Dr. Millar refused to go away and leave
his wife. The officer offered to provide for taking Mrs. Miller along
and finally Dr. Miller agreed. His services on the boats were a
godsend to the soldiers.
He was elected to the legislature in 1855 from Douglas county,
which then included Sarpy county. He took a leading part In the
struggle to retain the capltol in Omaha, where Governor Cuming
had located it. Active and powerful interests were at work to
move it elsewhere and these interests nearly succeeded. This was
the first of a series of battles in which Dr. Miller took a leading
part and in which Omaha was snatched by the closest margin like
a brand from the burning. The young man was elected to the ter
ritorial council, or upper house of the legislature the following
year and served four years, two of thorn as president of the body.
In Financial Straits
The panlo of 1867 overtook him and several eastern men while
they were erecting the Herndon House, the first pretentious brick
building in Omaha. It Is now the Union Pacific headquarters
building. This financial crisis left Omaha almost depopulated. It
seemed that the settlement struggling Tor life must perish. Dr.
Miller went with his family to St Joseph for a breathing spell. The
fires of the great coming conflict between the north and south,
which had been smouldering for several years, were beginning to
show the angry glow of real flame. The great -struggle which
was to drench the country in fraternal blood was about to break.
Missouri was at the time debatable ground. Colonel W. H. R. Cun-
dlff, editor of the St. Joseph Gazette, was known to be a strong
southern sympathizer. He found it necessary to make a trip south
and asked Dr. Miller to write for his paper during his absence. He
was a Douglas man, favoring conservative procedure rather than
the radical action advocated by Lincoln, and wrote along this line.
. His editorials were distasteful, therefore, both to northern and
southern radicals.
1 Returning to Omaha early In 1880, he helped to recruit the
First Nebraska regiment and later was made post trader at Fort
Kearney, where he resided until 1864. In that year he was the
democratic nominee for congress, but was defeated after a strenu
ous campaign. In which he was compelled to go about making
speeches under the protection of arms.v The rankling recollection
of this campaign against the South Platte mobs, together with the
editorial experience which he had gained in St. Joseph, led him to
launch the Omaha Herald in 1866, of which paper he was the able
editor for twenty-three years.
Begins His Ileal Work
From this time the young nun redoubled his efforts in behalf
of his adopted home. The great and decisive events of the building
of the Union Pacific railroad were about to take place. Destiny
seemed again to have thrown htm Into the vortex of affairs and the
eveuts which resulted in the establishment of Omaha as the east
ex terminus of the great Union Pacific railroad have an interest
GEORGE L. MILLER, M. D.
as absorbing as that of the most fascinating novel. The construction
of the Union Pacific marked an epoch in the history of the nation.
It has been pronounced "the greatest national enterprise In ths
history of any modern age or nation."
. Fight for Omaha
In the fight to make Omaha the eastern terminus of this road
Dr. Miller bore & leading part among those who fought Omaha's
battles. It was largely his foresight, prescience, good judgment
and tenacity that brought fraal victory to Omaha In spite of the op
position of the entire state of Iowa and many points in Nebraska.
He early established friendly relations with the railroad and in
all the years following he maintained this friendship. As far as
natural advantages were concerned, Omaha was badly handicapped.
The bluffs to the west offered the greatest barrier to building into
the Platte valley. The formation of the banks of the river were
not favorable to the construction of a bridge. Either Florence or
Bellevue would have been a much more natural site for the eastern
terminus of the great road.
To make matters worse, many citizens manifested a short
sighted hostility to the road. T. C. Durant, the great master mind
that overcame the obstacles and accomplished the first practical
work of construction, was denounced as a boodler and corruptlonlst
And this was done at a time when his financial resources were ac
tually nothing and while he was struggling desperately to build
the "first forty miles," the completion of which would entitle him
to a government subsidy for the rest of the road. During those
days, Dr. Miller, with several other leading citizens, remained his
friend, upholding him in every possible way. The straw that broke
the camel's back of Durant's patience was a demand made by a
man of $30,000 for a piece of land which wasn't worth $30. Durant
came to Dr. Miller one day, and flourished in his face an order from
President Andrew Johnson changing the eastern terminus of the
road from Omaha to Bellevue. There is much unwritten history
at this point, but the vital fact remains that Durant did not take
advantage of the order.
Struggle for the Bridge
When, Silas F. Seymour, consulting engineer of the road, came
on a visit to Omaha accompanied by his son, George,- Dr. Miller
gained the friendship of both of them, taking a particular liking
to the young man. When the two were about to return east, he
took the boy into his private office and made him promise to notify
him by telegraph when the board of directors of the road should
offlcally locate the bridge over the Missouri river. The general
opinion was that this would be built at "Train crossing," its present
location, which had been designated by George Francis Train, but
the directors had not said anything definite on this point. A few
weeks later Dr. Miller was sitting in his office one day when a tele
gram was handed to him. It read:
"Bridge located at Child's mill yesterday by board of directors.
, "GEORGE F. SEYMOUR."
A few words in which lay the' fate of Omaha. Child's mill was
several miles south of the town. Upon the location of that bridge
depended the question of whether Omaha. was to be a farm or a
metropolitan city. Probably no message was ever sent that meant
as much(to Omaha. Dr. Miller closed his desk, put on his hat and
went to the office of Ezra Millard In the Omaha National bank.
He invited Mr. Millard to go with him to the office of Augustus
Kountze id the First National bank. When they were behind the
closed doors of Mr. Kountte'a private office he handed the message
1 to Mr. Kountze and asked him to read it aloud, which he did.
It was a time for action and events moved rapidly so rapidly
that sixty of Omaha's leading citizens met that evening and the fol
lowing day a committee of eiht men was oi its way to1 New York
upon what seemed like a lost hope. The Instructions of the commit
tee, however, were to secure the relocation of the bridge at any
cost
Six weeks of hard work by the Omaha delegation in New York
brought no result. Other and powerful Interests were at work,
too, and the Omaha men got hardly a hearing from the board of
directors of the Union Pacific. The work of Omaha was the more
difficult because from the engineering standpoint, Child's mill was
by all odds the best location for the bridge. That was a Bteel-bound
argument that could not be overcome.
At Durant's Home
One day Herman Kountze entered Dr. Miller's office In Omaha
and handed him a telegram. It read:
"Send Dr. MMer to New York next train.
"AUGUSTUS KOUNTZE."
A few evenings later Dr. Miller was in the elegant home of the
great Durant, the railroad builder, now a millionaire. Omaha's
star seemed to be in the ascendant, for this one man with whom
Dr. Miller's influence would count, had Just returned from Europe.
When he came down and lounged easily and carelessly in his silk'
dressing gown upon a chair. Dr. Miller began his plea. He was
forceful and eloquent and terribly in earnest. But Durant only
shook his head. The bridge was located where It could be built
to best advantage and the great man intimated that further talk was
useless. Then the forceful young man who had come half way
across the continent to see him, arose and crossed the room to where
the millionaire was lounging luxuriously and carelessly. The young
man's voice rang with earnestness as he recalled to the mind of
Durant the days when he had been deposed from the vice presidency
of the Union Pacific, when no man was his friend and when MUler
had stood up for him against his enemies and with such effect that
he was restored to the office from which he had been deposed. The
great man was silent under this and when Dr. Miller bad finished
he thought awhile. Then he said: '
"You see Dillon tonight and tell him to meet me at 10 o'clock
tomorrow morning."
Friendship had won a victory where wealth and power had
failed. In the morning Durant met Dillon and the board of directors.
He was the great master mind and he dictated their action like a
giant. He insisted that Omaha pay only the actual difference in
cost of construction between the sites of Omaha and Child's mill.
And the bridge was relocated at Omaha. . It was a grand victory
and Governor Saunders flashed to Omaha his celebrated message,
"Sound the loud timbrel."
Fight Not Yet Over
The contract was made immediately. Realizing the services of
Durant, the committee authorized Dr. Miller to tender him $50,000
In Douglas county bonds, a gift which Durant courteously declined.
Another critical point had been passed with victory for Omaha,
but tho city's supremacy was not yet .established. Council Bluffs
was the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific road. Whether It or
Omaha should bs the real terminus was now the great question, a
question which hung in the balance for a long time. Eventually a
committee was appointed to go to Boston and kettle the matter with
President Oliver Ames. No decisive results being secured, Augustus
Kountze and Dr. Miller visited Boston later, fully Instructed regard
ing the demands of Omaha in the matter. Dr. Miller frankly assured
the head of the great road that they wanted either their demands
or a fight
On the night of the second day after their arrival In Boston
the two Omaha men sat down In their hotel and Dr. Miller wrote
out the demands of the city from the road. As a result of this It
was arranged to mest the Union Pacific directors In Now York. This
meeting took place three days later, Governor Saunders and Ezra
Millard joining Mr. Kountze and Dr. Miller in New York. The
contract was drawn up and agreed to by the railroad, as a result ot
which the great passenger station, headquarters and Bhops of th
road are now in Omaha.
His Aid to Farmers
Such was the part which Dr. Miller played in the great evonU
which made Omaha. He was always active in agricultural develop
ment and the development of the mineral wealth of the western
country. He believed In the state ns an agricultural state at a
time when many thought that It could never have any stand in that
line. The country north of the Platte was generally considered
a sandy wnste. Dr. Miller preached the gospel of tree planting when
many believed that only cottonwoods and maples would grow in this
soli and he practiced what he preached by planting thousands in
his beautiful place, "Seymour park," which aro flourishing today.
Through his columns he exploited the fact that the western hills
offered ideal grazing places and that fine wool could bo raised In
the mountains at altitudes up to tho snow line. The first lignite
coal discovered in the mountains was brought by the geologist.
Dr. F. V. Hayden, Into Dr. Miller's office and dumped before his
wondering eyes on the floor.
Dr. Miller's stand for sound money during the "rag money
craze of 1876 was Illustrative of his far-sightedness. At that time
the war bonds Issued by the government were already redeemable
and many people clamored to have them paid In greenbacks. The
bonds amounted to more than a billion of dollars, and those in
favor of greenback payment reasoned that such action would make
money plentiful and bring prosperity. Dr. Miller's pronounced op
position to the plan found voice in editorials and his efforts were
crowned with success, the state convention of the democratic party
declaring in favor of sound currency and the national democratic
convention of the following year placing a similar plank in its
platform.
In National Politics v
In politics as in other things Dr. Miller's activities were of
national scope. Aside from his work both as an editor and a
politician In state affairs, he took a leading part In national affairs
and numbered among his friends many of the leading men of the
day. Had Samuel J. Tllden been elected president, Dr Miller would
have had a place in his cabinet. When Cleveland was elected to
the presidency, Tflden and other Influential men urged the appoint
ment of Dr. Miller as postmaster general. He was a member of the
national democratic committee for many years. In 1880 he volun
tarily declined a position on that committee to give place to his close
personal friend, the late J. Sterling Morton. Dr. Miller sold the
Herald In 1887 to Hon. John A. Mc.Shane. But he was not to be
satisfied with a life of ease and inactivity and took charge of the
business of the New York Life lusurance company in Nebraska,
in which position he continued for several years.
He served five years as president of the Board of Park Com
missioners, and in that position had much to do with the acquisition
of Omaha's system of parks and boulevards. President Cleveland
appointed him in 1893 to the position of surveyor of the port of
Omaha, and he continued in this place for four and a half year.
Dr. Miller rendered important services to the city and BtaU
by his activities during the exposition. He was chairman of a
committee composed of J. Sterling Morton, John C. Wharton and
himself, appointed to visit the east In the interest of the Transmis
slsslppi exposition, and he was president of the Greater America
exposition.
Mrs. Miller died November 2, 1899,' and on March 17, 1903, h
was married at Arbor Lodge, the home of J. Sterling Morton la
Nebraska City, to Miss Frances M. Briggs.
Judged by J. Sterling Morton
To say that no single man has had more to do with the de
velopment of Omaha than Dr. George L. Miller Is an extremely
conservative statement He has spent his life In one grand effort to
boost and to boom the city. This be did for no selfish end. Ha
never had much property. He might have made several fortunes,
but he did not care for wealth. He fought for the city because he
was a citizen and because it had been said that the city would perish.
This Is characteristic of the man. He has been described as a man
who will "fight to kill." And such he is. When his paper was strug
gling along and people predicted that every day must be ita last,
he fought on with it, "because people were determined to see it
fail." J. Sterling Morton's estimate of the work of Dr. Miller
in building up Omaha is contained in an address which he made
before the State Historical society several years ago, as follows:
At no time did his faith or his persistent industry flag.
It Is my candid opinion that there is no instance in all the
history of the northwest where the thought and pen of a single
individual has done so much to build up any community as did the
pen and thought of Dr. Miller for Omaha and Douglas county. It
the present inhabitants of Omaha, numbering some 100,000,
should each of them write an article setting forth the advantages,
agricultural, commercial and manufacturing, in the state of Ne
braska on each day of the week for six months to come, thf-y would
not have achieved as much manuscript and as much effectively
good work in behalf of their homes as Dr. Miller performed In
twenty-three years during which he so diligently labored for th
building up of that community. No other man, either by the power
of money, or by the power of brawn, or by the strength of brain,'
did as much to make Omaha city as this one man accomplished.
In drawing a character Bketch of Dr. Miller the two points which
stand out like peaks above the rest are his sanguinlty and hit
tenacity. These are two points of Bupreme Importance to an em
pire builder such as Dr. Miller has been. When others threw up
their hands In despair during the early days of the city, Dr. Miller
was always ready with optimistic words. He boiled over with the
buoyant enthusiasm and exuberant faith which animated his every
nerve, fiber and brain tissue. The tenacity, the bull dog grip of th
man when he had set his mind on something proved a quality which,
saved Omaha In several critical Instances as already stated. He is
a man, retiring and reserved except when his interest Is aroused
or he acquires a liking for a man. And he never acquires a liking for
a man who is unworthy, for he is a remarkable judge of character
Well Sized Up
A writer who had known Dr. Miller for years wrote the fol
lowing terse and expressive sketch ot him a few years ago:
He Is at once the kindest-hearted, tenderest-feellng and deepest
devoted friend any man could wish If he takes a liking to that
man. He Is strictly temperate in moral habits, conscientiously
honest and carefully precise in aristocratic formality. As a citizen,
he la generous, enterprising and highly respected. As a writer he is
lunar caustic at one time and Mrs. Wlnslow's Soothing Syrup at
another. As an editor he Is full of vim, vivacity and newspaper
enterprise. For soft solder he is Immense; for twisting tho king's
English and original westeruiBn.s he has no equal, arid for bitter,
biting, short invectives he Is incomparable. And, on the other hand,
for kind words and good sentiments to a friend in need, he is un
approachable. At the age of 76 years. Dr. Miller can point with a very par
donable pride to his record. He has seen the accomplishment of that
for which he fought, and he declares it Is the most satisfying sight
which can come to the eyes of a man in his latter years. He is stlU
the same hale, hearty, forceful man, and in his heart is the sami
love for Omaha, In his miud the same sanguinlty for Its future.
He Is still tbe faithful apostle of the propaganda which he has so
diligently and effectively spread for many yeurs.
"The pessimist never built anything or accomplished any
good," says Dr. Miller. "He is a puller down and society has no
use for him. The young m;iu of today who lives in Omaha fifty,
ytars from now will see a nictropolln of half a union people."
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