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1S91.
THOMAS P. DOTLB.
1891.
SKETCH
Edward Rosewater, founder of The Be and tot
thlrty-fiT yer iu editor, wai born in Bukowan, a Til
lage about fifty milea south from the historical city of
Trig, In Bohemia, on January 28, 1841, His elemen
tary education was acquired in the common schools of
a nearby town of Plsek, where Bohemian or Czech is
the prevailing language. He also received instruction iu
German from private tutors. At the age of eleven he
was sent to an academy at Prague in which the
branches taught are on about the same plane as
those In American high schools.
On Christmas day, 1854, he landed with his par
ents In the city of New York and thence immediately
moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Owing to the limited
means of his parents and the fact that he was the
oldest of a family of nine children he was at once
compelled to earn his own livelihood. Having no
knowledge of the English language he had great dif
ficulty in finding something to do. The first per
manent employment he was able to secure was in a
wholesale tinware and stove store, where his muscles
were developed in polishing stoves and in assisting
journeymen tinners in manual work. By 18S6 he had
acquired sufficient knowledge of English to secure
a position as clerk in a retail grocery store at a sal
ary of $7 a month and board. At the end of another
year he found a clerical position in a small dry goods
tore at a salary of SiuO a year and board. At the
end of the first year be severed his connection with
mercantile business and took a three months' course
In a commercial college from which he graduated as
an alleged accountant and bookkeeper. Thla was in
the fall of 1857, a year of great financial depression
and the first and only position he secured as book
keeper In a wholesale willow ware and basket estab
lishment terminated abruptly by the failure of the
concern.
Unwilling to resume the drudgery of a clerk and
unable to secure a position as bookkeeper he
left Cleveland in company with a young man who had
been engaged as clerk In an employment' office and
located in Sandusky, O., where his first venture on his
own resources was made under the title of "Roue
water ft Warren, Intelligence Office." The partner
ship survived Just three months. It had intelligence
enough but failed to secure employment either for
Its patrons er Itself. Warren, the Junior partner of
the Rrm, was a telegraph operator, but had tempor
arily discarded bis profession.
Becomes a Telegraph Operator.
It was mutually agreed that the two partners
would seek their fortune in the south and although
they had less than $5 in cash, besides free transpor
tation when they landed In Cincinnati in October,
1858, they, .were not In the least disconcerted or
despondent. Within 24 hours after landing at Cin
cinnati, Warren secured a temporary position as op
erator in the Ohio & Mississippi railroad depot, and
Rosewater at once began his apprenticeship as a
telegrapher.
At the end of three months he Imagined he had
fully mastered the profession and accepted a position
at Vlncennes, Ind., but he was chagrined when he
found that he must continue to practice before he
could hope to hold down a situation. Returning to
Cleveland In January, 1859, he completed his prelim
inary education as a telegrapher and was finally as
signed to Oberlin, O., at a salary of 1 25 a month.
In June, 1859, he accepted a position as operator at
Murfreesboro, Tenn., 82 miles south of Nashville.
Later he was transferred to Stevenson, Ala., at the
Junction of the Nashville ft Chattanooga and Mem
phis ft Charleston railroads. Here he remained until
Alabama bad seceded. In March, 1861, he accepted
a position In the commercial office of the Southwest
ern Telegraph Co., at Nashville, where he remained
until after the capture of Fort Donelson and the oc
cupancy of the city by the Union army.
Returning to Cleveland, where his parents still
resided, be decided to enter the United States military
telegraph corps and was mustered into the service at
Wheeling, W. Va., In April, 1862,' and assigned
to accompany Gen. John C. Fremont In the West Vir
ginia campaign. On the first ot July, '62, he was
ordered to report at Washington, where he was as
signed to the navy yard, then under command of
Commodore Dahlgren. When Gen. Pope was about
to enter Into his famous "On to Richmond" oampaign,
Rosewater made application to th iWfcr department
;.y;;..
CLTDB JL BAUMGARDNSR.
1M
FRED
-
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OF EDWARD ROSEWATER -
Self-Made Career of the Founder of The Bee
Grateful Words from
Tfcxittb Btatts Senate.
(7 fry-
Insists!- s-tJ j-
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to accompany Pope and was assigned with Oen. Pope's
staff to duty in the field. He accompanied' the army
of Virginia on Its march to the Rapldan and its re
treat across the Rappahanock, and during the three
days' battle near Bull Run, August 29th, 80th and 81st
transmitted all Gen. Pope's dispatches from the battle
field. On the first of September, 1862, he was re
called to Washington and assigned to duty in the War
department. The members of the telegraph corps in
the War department were men picked from the most
skilled and trusty operators in the service, this office
being the receptacle ot all dispatches directed to
President Lincoln, Secretsry Stanton and the general
f the army. '
Locates In Omaha In 1863.
In September, 1868, at the instance' of Edward
Crelghton, who had the year previous built the Pa
cific Telegraph, Rosewater resigned his position in
the army telegraph corps and entered the serivce of
the Pacific Telegraph Company at Omaha. In the
spring of 1864 he was appointed manager of the
Omaha office and continued In that capacity until
January, 1870. A few months later be accepted the
position of manager of the Atlantic and Pacific and
Great Western telegraph lines.
While acting as local manager of the Pacific Tele
graph company he was also agent ot the Associated
Press and telegraphio correspondent of leading Chi
RAPPLET,
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1
IXJUIS WORM,
18TT8.
Hanna
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cago, New York, Cincinnati and St. Louis papers. In
cidentally with this work he established a tele
graphic correspondence bureau, which gathered im
portant news from the Rocky Mountain region as
far west as Montana and Idaho.
In the spring of 1870 he, in conjunction with
others, founded the Omaha Daily Tribune. When the
paper made its first advent on July 26, 1870, Its
editor in chief, a scholarly Massachusetts Journalist,
had failed to put in an appearance and his place was
supplied during the first week by Mr. Rosewater, al
though ostensibly the editorials had emanated from
the pen of the gifted New Englander.
This was Mr. Rosewater's first direct venture in
Journalism. The Tribune, although an excellent paper,"
was from the Btart a losing undertaking. Owing to
differences as regards its management, Mr. Rose
water resigned his directorship in September, 1870,
and fortunately for himself he had not severed his
connection with the telegraph company, but had
merely dipped into newspaper work as an amateur
with no expectation ot following it as a profession.
A few months later, November, 1870, he was
elected a member of the most stormy and protracted
legislature that has ever been held In Nebraska. In
that body he took a leading and active part in the
impeachment of the governor, David Butler, and in
the investigations into the corrupt management of
state Institutions. Among measures with which he
was prominently connected was the endorsement of
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J06EPH R- CAMPBEUU
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QEORQE RAPPLET.
1S90.
W. B. R1PLET.
1S9.
Charity that Counts ,
Omgh&Neb
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the postal-telegraph system, the regulation of the
practice of medicine, the location ot the State Deaf
and Dumb Institute at Omaha and the creation of the
Board of Education for that city. The latter meas
ure met with strenuous, opposition from, the Omaha
daily press.
Reason f of Starting The Bee.
The act creating the Board of Education required
its submlBslon to and ratification by the citizens of
Omaha. Desiring to counteract the adverse public
opinion created by the press, Mr. Rosewater started,
on June 19, 1871, a small sheet in the shape ot a
theater program under the heading of The' Omaha
Dally Bee." These sheets were given free distri
bution for several weeks. They contained the latest
telegraphic and local news in brief and editorial com
ments on city and state politics. The Board of Edu
cation law was sustained by the people by an over
whelming majority. Encouraged by this evidence ot
popular favor the paper after four weeks' free distri
bution was enlarged and started on its career as an
afternoon dally with local carrier subscriptions. From
the outset the paper met with most phenomenal suc
cess. ' Within less than five years It outstripped tho
old established dallies in circulation and influence,
notwthstandlng the most determined and powerful
opposition both from the ruling politicians e( its own
time and corporate Influences inimical to Its vigorous
anti-monopoly policy. Under his energetic manage
ment it grew and flourished In spite of murderous
J. V. WEAVER,
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MeMkaasMHei. , H&ai. iawtalsslsMst
D WIGHT WILLIAMS,
MO.
Remarkable
assaults upon the editor and bushwhacking warfare;
upon the paper.
From its inception -until bis death, Mr. Rosewater
remained the chief editor and owner ot The Be
which for years has occupied a front rank among th
great newspapers of America. Having firmly estab
ll9hed his paper Mr. Rosewater conceived the Idea ot
erecting a monumental newspaper building and this
project was carried out by the erection ot The Bee
building, which was begun in 1887 and completed la
1889. This structure is perfectly fireproof and ad
the time it was built covered a larger area of ground;
than any other newspaper building erected oa either
aide of the Atlantic.
The later years of his life were given much morel
to public affairs and made him a figure of national
prominence as a political adviser of presidents and
party leaders, and as a champion of the people la
many popular movements. As a member ot the re,
publican national committee he bad active charge oil
the presidential campaign In Nebraska In 1892, and.
be was a delegate-at-large to the Philadelphia con
ventlon in 1900, in which he was also secretary ot
the committee on resolutions that framed the plat
form. He was on the advisory committee of tho
national party organization In 1896, in 1900 and la
1904. He went to the forefront to combat the 16 to
1 free silver fallacy in the campaign of 1896, publicly)
debating the subject with "Coin" Harvey aad witK
William J. Brjan.
OfHrlal and Other Honors.
Edward Rosewater was a member of tho United
States Mlat commission by appointment of President
Cleveland In 1896, and in 1897 was named a delegate'
tor the United States and : vice president ot tho
World's Postal congress that mot at Washington. He
was the original promoter and one of the Board o
Managers of the Trans-Mlsslsslppl exposition, held la
Omaha In 1898. He participated in the two national
conferences on trusts,' In the reciprocity convention )i .
In the National Sound Money League, in the Interna-
tional Arbitration congress, in the Lake Mohonk eon
ference, in National Civic federation meetings and la
many other similar progressive gatherlnga In none
of them did he occupy a back seat. One of his most
strenuous undertakings was that, which be person
ally Instituted and prosecuted, with all his vlgorto
force a more equitable assessment of railroad prop
erty In Nebraska for taxation, which, while only par
tially successful at first, found Its capstone In the
new revenue law designed to bring railway taxes to tho
same basis as taxes on other property.
Mr. Rosewater was a candidate for United B tastes
senator before the legislature of 1901, leading on
many ballots, but withdrawing at the close in order
to break the protracted deadlock and save Nebraska
from being left unrepresented In the senate. Even
in this campaign, although it was not required ot
him, he Insisted on submitting his name to a prefer
entlal vote of the people at the election pursuant to his
long advocacy of the election of United States sena
tors by direct popular vote. j
life Closes With Sudden Call.
In 1906 he was again appointed to represent tho
United States as its delegate to the World's Postal
congress meeting, this time at Rome, and while
absent abroad was projected as a candidate for tho
nomination for United States senator on the republic
can ticket. Returning to this country, he again ap
pealed to the popular vote, demanding that all dele,
gates to the convention be put under Inst ructions bfl
the rank and tile of the party and had these lnstruo
tion been carried out he would have been nominated..
Although defeated by treachery he accepted the situa
tion philosophically, promptly pledging support to
his successful competitor in a speech before the con
ventlon, and admonishing his bearers to complete tho
ticket with men of integrity for whom no apology)
would be needed. '.
It turned out, however, that he had but a short
time more to live. On Augusct 30, 1906, Edward
Rosewater delivered an address to an Old Soldiers
reunion at Waterloo, returning home In the early eve
ning, and having died suddenly ot heart failure the
same night, was found the next morning, sitting on a
bench in a court room in The Bee building, where
he had evidently stopped to rest. Mr. Rosewater
had been married in 1864 to Miss Leah Coleman, ot
Cleveland, Ohio, and had five children, of whom all
survive excepting one daughter.
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