075
THE BEE: OMAHA, 5UNDAT. JUNE 19,1921.
In 1872 First
Train From
East Arrived
U. P. Bridge Completed March
14 and Omaha Supplied
With Full Service to At
Iantic Seaboard.
The coming of the railroads was
the one great event in the early his
tory of Omaha. When the first is
sue of The Omaha Bee appeared on
June 21, 1871, Omaha's railroad fa
cilities were exceedingly meager
compared with its splendid railro-td
service of the present.
At that time there wasn't a single
railroad from the east running into
Omaha, In fact, there wasn't a sin
gle bridge over the Missouri river
from its headwaters in the moun
tains of faraway Montana to
Point-of-Rocks, where the great
stream merges with the Mississippi
river. There were several railroads
in those days which terminated at
Council Bluffs, but none of these
crossed into Nebraska.
On Real Railroad.
When the first iesue of The Bee
appeared there were three railroads
with tracks into Omaha Union Pa
cific, Omaha & Northwestern and
Omaha & Southwestern. Thv
Omaha & Northwestern became the
Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis &
Omaha, while the Omaha & South
' western was later absorbed by the
Burlington.
In those days Omaha's one real
railroad was the Union Pacific, the
first transcontinental railroad, tin
first line to reach from the Missouri
i iver to the Pacific ocean. The Bes
was almost one year old before a
single train reached this city from
the east.
Into Council Bluffs, in those days
there were three lines running from
Chicago the Northwestern, Rock
Island and Burlington.
Arrives in Bluffs.
The Northwestern, was the first
road to reach Council Bluffs. Sun
day, January 17, 1867, was a great
riay in both Omaha and Council
Bluffs. On that date the fif'st train
from the east arrived at the Missouri
river. The train did not cross tin
stream, there being no bridge. It
stopped on the eastern side of the
river, just where the Northwestern
station in Council Bins is today lo"
cated.
For more than two years the
Northwestern was the only line from
the east into Council Bluffs. Prac
tically all traffic, both freight and
passenger, between Omaha and the
cast, was carried by that line.
Via St. Joseph. j
Then came the old Kansas City,
St Joseph & Council Bluffs rail
road, from St Joseph. The latter
line reached Council Bluffs Decdm
ber 20, 1867. The southern end of
the road was at St. Joseph and it
was not for a number of years that
the Kansas City end of that line was
constructed. In those days all traf
fic destined over the Burlington lines
went down to at. josepn on tne at.
Joseph & Council 'Bluffs railroad
and thence eastward on the Hannibal
& St. Joseph line, one of the Bur
lington properties. From Hannibal
this traffic went into Chicago over
the main line of the Chicago, Bur
lington & Quincy railroad.
For years , the best connections
from Nebraska to (eastern points was
down via St. Joseph, although there
were several lines of railroad direct
from Council Bluffs to Chicago. The
old Hannibal & St. Joseph line used
to run a Pullman sleeper out of St.
Toseph which went through to New
fork without change going east
ward from Hannibal over , some -little
line which has long since been ab
sorbed into one of the big systems.
This line missed Chicago entirely.
But for more than 30 years there has
been no sleeping car line from the
7 Immigrants Pour In. ,
The year 1869 was peculiarly a
"railroad year" for Omaha and for
Nebraska. Immigrants were pour
ing into the state. The close of the
civil war left hundreds of thousands
of former soldiers who wanted to
come "west" and obtain land. The
homestead laws were new and Ne
braska had millions of acres of the
best land in the world waiting for
settlers.
In that year, 1869. just two years
tetore .the umana liee was rounuea
by Edward Rosewater, railroads
were building all through Nebraska
with Omaha as the hub.
First, there was the completion of
the Union Pacific the most stu
pendous railroad undertaking the
world had seen- up to that date and,
considering the difficulties encoua
tered and overcome, an undertaking
that has not vet been surpassed. On
May 10. 1869. the golden spike was
driven at Promontory Point, Utah,
4tin llnith hiH ta. HitAff rail man fit
the Pacific ocean, even if it did not
have a continuous line as far as the
city station in Council Bluffs."
Second Line Completed.
." Next, a second Council Bluffs-Chi
cago line was completed. This was
the old Mississippi & Missouri rail
road, which became the main line of
the Chicago, Rock Is land & Pacific
The Rock Island was the second line
from the Missouri river at Omaha
through to Chicago.
The third railroad completed that
year, or rather started, out of Omaha,
was the Omaha & Northwestern up
towards Sioux City.
Omaha's fourth road in a year was
the Omaha & Southwestern, ab-
m.-UA hi tUm Rnrlincytrm anil civinor
the latter a roadway into this city.
At the same time the Burlington
was doing its best to get a direct
' road from the east to Omaha, in
Order that it might secure a portion
of the traffic which was developing
between the Pacific and Atlantic
coasts. All through the year 1869
Burlington engineers had pushed
construction work to the limit, with
the intention of putting the Bur
. lington & Missouri River railroad in
Iowa into Council Bluffs before the
end of the year. But the snows and
the blizrards ' came early that year
and it was not until January 3, 1870,
that a Burlington train reached
Council Bluffs over its own tracks.
Bluffs Big Rail Point.
So. when publication of The Oma
ha Bee was begun in 1871, Council
Bluffs was ht big railroad point or
iLt middle stretcher of the Missouri
"Circulation Department"
Of Bee in '71 Rode a Horse
Charles H. Pickens, Now Pres
ident of Paxton-Gallagher
Co., Was Depart-nient.
first
The
Charles II. Pickens was the
"circulation department" of
Omaha Bee.
Alone, but for his trusty horse,
the present president of the Taxton
Gallagher wholesale company, dis
tributed the first 1,000 copies of ld
ward Rose water's Bee on the "aft
ernoon of June 19, 1871.
I was only a shaver m knee pants
then," Mr. Pickens relates. "I think
it was my horse that won me the
job because it was impossible to
get over my route in any other way.
rickens said he received either a
or $6 per week for this early job..
Given Away at First.
"My route was in the vicinity of
the old Union Pacific shops. I
would ride down there with my bun
dle of papers and raise a big hulla
baloo until some one would open
the door. Then I would ride my
horse right into the shops and de
liver my papers in person to each
subscriber."
The paper, a four-sheet affair, was
given away for the first few editions,
then a rate of IS cents a week was
the fee.
Forms for the first edition of The
Bee were made uo in a room of the
old Cedar Rapids house on Twelfth
street, between Dodge and Doug
las, Pickens recalls.
A neero bv the name -of Richmond
carried the forms across to the old
Redfield printing company, half a
block away.
The late fcdward Kosewater wrote
all the articles, was reporter, city
and managing editor, and business
and advertising manager at the same
time.
Shortly after the start of the paper
an "assistant" to Mr. Pickens in the
"circulation department" was added,
but Mr. Pickens cannot recall his
name.
The old Rosewater bouse then
stood on the site of the present Bee
or Peters Trust building. Next door
to it was the home of W. A. Paxton,
founder of the Paxton-Gallagher
company with which Mr. Pickens is
now associated.
1
h v y i
if $BF
A Photo of charus Pichins
tswen tN ere
"Mr. Rosewater never forgot my
early services for The Bee and in
later life, whenever any committee
wished to wait upon the editor of the
paper, they always put me on the
committee because they knew he
would never refuse to see me," said
Pickens.
Mr. Pickens also campaigned for
Edward Rosewater when lie later
tried for the United States senator
ship. George Francis Train, promoter,
was active in Omaha life about that
time, Pickens states.
' No Railroads From East.
"He built the Cousins house, on the
site of the Carpenter Paper com
pany, about that time, because the
Herndon house management failed
to repair a broken pane in the win
dow of his room."
Ninth street was then the principal
thoroughfare of Omaha, none of
which was paved. Neither was there
any railroad into Omaha from the
east. Pioneers, like Mr. Pickens
himself, came up the river from St.
Joseph by boat and some of them
crossed from Council Bluffs by
ferry.
river. Umaha travelers were torced
to go to the Bluffs to take their
trains, provided they were bound for
Chicago and the east. . lhere were
the three lines through to Chicago
and the road to St. Joseph and Kan
sas City. t
Properly speaking, Umaha s rail
roads, in those days, were restricted
to the Union Pacific, the Omaha &
Northwestern to Sioux City, and
the Omaha & Southwestern, down
towards Plattsmouth.
But in 1872, March 14, the Union
Pacific bridge over the Missouri was
completed and henceforth Omaha
was supplied with full service to the
east. But for years all trains were
stopped at the "Transfer" and the
passengers brought into Omaha on
the "Irish Mail," a stub train from
the Transfer to the Omaha city
depot.
Fourth Through Line.
The Chicago, Milwaukee and St.
Paul railroad reached Omaha on
September 1, 1882, giving this city a
fourth through line to Chicago.
The fifth Omaha-Chicago road was
the Illinois Central which brought
its first train into this city on De
cember 18, 1899. , '
The sixth iron road to link the
Missouri, at Omaha and the Great
Lakes at Chicago, was the Chicago
Great Western railroad. This line
was completed to Omaha on Novem
ber 1, 1903. Its construction was
due to an agreement between the
big Somh Omaha packers and the
management of the Great Western
by which the latter road was to re
ceive a certain percentage ot the
fresh meat shipments out of Omaha,
Sioux City, St. Joseph and Kansas
City, in return for reducing rates
and forcing the other Omaha-Chica
go lines to cut prices. Great West
ern never completed its line into
Sioux City. ,
' In the meantime the Omaha & St.
Louis, which afterwards became the
Wabash line, was completed into
Omaha and gave this city a connec
tion to the southeast via the Wabash
system.
The coming of the Port Arthur
route in the late 90s caused a flurry,
in the Omaha railroad world. Still
man was constructing his line from
Kansas City to the Gulf of Mexico
at Port Arthur and Omaha awaken
ed one day to discover that it was
the northern terminus of the pro
perty, the rort Arthur line having
secured control of the Omaha & St.
Louis. But before through train
service from Omaha to the Gulf
could be inaugurated, the Port Ar
thur was thrown into the hands of a
receiver, the system dismembered,
the Omaha & St Louis handed over
to tho Wabash, and Omaha is still
without a through line to tide-water.
And that's the way the railroads
came to Omaha.
Packing Planls
Employ 13,000
Products Toja1. 68 Per Cent of
Omaha VManufacturing
Output.
Thirteen thousand persons are
employed in a single industry in
Omaha, that centering about the
Union stock yards on the South Side.
The value of packing house products
shipped from here last year was
$296,500,000, this being 68 per cent
of Omaha's total manufacturing out
put. Eight million dollars' worth of
soap made here helped to 'swell the
total. .
One of the world's greatest live
stock markets. Omaha received and
shipped 151.311 carloads of live
stock last year, and sent forth 45,-
280 cars of packing house products.
Receipts of cattle were l,602,99
head, of which 921,235 were slaught
ered and 474,379 shipped back to
feed lots for fattening. The value
of these cattle was $200,400,000.
Hogs shipped here for sale brought
$94,800,000 and numbered 2,708,482
head. Of these, 1.998,505 head were
made into meat at the packing houses
here. Others were purchased for
export trade and for shipment to
packing houses in Wichita, Chicago
and other centers. The stock hog
trade, by which farmers will come to
the Omaha market to buy pigs and
thin hogs to take back to the farm
for fattening, is being encouraged
by the establishment in the yards
of a modern plant for immunizing
such hogs against disease. Before
going to the country these are given
a serum treatment and thoroughly
disinfected.
This is the greatest feeder sheep
market in the world. In 1920 it re
ceived 2,890,748 head of sheep, valued
at $28,950,000. About half of these
were turned into meat and the rest
shipped back to feed lots.
The stock yards occupies a space
of 200 acres, with 4,500 pens for
yarding stock, all paved with brick
and concrete.
Philip's Store Five
Years Old This Week
r
Philip Greenberg.
Philip's Department Store, South
Side, is to celebrate the fifth anni-
vcrsay of its purchase by Philip
Greenberg the coming week.
Mr. Oreenberg bought the store in
June, 1916. It was then hardly
more than a racket store. It had
two employes. Within a year he
added men's and women's clcthing,
shoes, hats, caps and groceries, mak
ing a department store out of the
old racket store. The store is now
the leading store of the South Side,
with over 30 employes and a busi
ness running into thousands of dol
lars every month.
In 1917 55 cents out of every dol
lar expended for operation and taxes
by the railroads in this country
went for wages of employes. In
1919 this had increased to 59 cents,
while salaries of general executives
decreased from 1.15 cents to 78 cents
out of every dollar.
Missionary Objects to
Picture on Passport
Chicago. June 18. The State de
partment is to decide one of the most
unique objections to passport regu
lations ever raised here.
Carl W. Johtlson, a missionary, re
fused to have his photograph placed
on passports he desired to Norway
and Sweden because, he said, "it was
against God's will." Johnson invoked
the Bible to uphold his stand.
He quoted Exodus iv, 20, "Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven
Image, or any likeness of anything
that is in heaven above, or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is in the
water under the earth."
"I am going abroad on missionary
work, but I refuse to have 'my pic
ture taken because it is in conflict
with the Holy Book," he said.
The State department will decide
whether the government's rules or
the Holy Book shall govern John
son s passport.
, I II U U J J M N H M t IH I1 1 H H 1 1 H I J I H1 H t H
McCoy & Finlayson Co.
Open Shop Printers Since 1907
i
General Job Printing
With a 1921 Standard of Service
Some of Our Customers Have
Been With Us for Thirty Years
1212 Dodge St.
Phone JAckson 0204
? -
al
STORAGE and HAULING
GENERAL TRANSFER
Omaha, South Omaha, Council Blufft,
Bemon and Florence k
We specialize on all kinds
of carload shipments.
.FIREPROOF WAREHOUSE FOR
STORAGE OF HOUSEHOLD GOODS
REASONABLE RATES
Ford Transfer & Storage Co.
817 Douglas Street
Omaha, Neb.
Phone AT lantic 2536
924 S. Main Street
Council Bluffi, la.
Phone J A ckton 1233
Head of Seceding
Chiros Scorns
'Standpatters'
"No Chiropractor Who Is So
Afraid of Competition He'll
Prosecute Beginners Will
Join Us," He Says. , .
Members of the Nebraska branch
of the Universal Chiropractors' asso
ciation, the "seceders" organization
formed as the result of the split in
the chiropractors' meet in Omaha
last week, are only mildly itnerested
in the appointment of a chiropractor
to the state examining board, ac
cording to Dr. Lee VV. Edwards,
president of the "seceders" organ
ization. The "standpatters" endorsed three
names to the governor, ignoring Dr.
J. P. Lamb, present incumbent,
whose work has been endorsed by
the U. C A. branch. The other two
endorsed by the "regulars" arc
women: Dr. Bessie Lewis of Wayne
and Dr. S. L. Ashworth of Lincoln.
Law Attacked.
The "seceeders" refused to con
tribute to a fund to prosecute new
chiropractic graduates who are prac
ticing without a license pending a
supreme court decision on the con
stitutionality of the chiropractic law.
The law is being attacked on the
grounds that the requirement that
candidates take tlnce .terms of nine
months each before appearing before
the state board for examination is
unreasonable in view of the fact that
many of those wlio are supporting
the law obtained the licenses after a
12-months' course before the new
law became effective.
Dr. Edwards said that only three
persons took the examination con
ducted by Secretary Amies' depart
ment last week, and that there are 63
counties in Nebraska utterly without
chiropractic service. Hundreds of
graduates of standard schools are
needed to give chiropractic service to
the state, he said.
"A chiropractor who is so afraid
of competition that he will spend
money to prosecute the new gradu
ates who are getting a start can
never become a member pf the Ne
braska branch of the Universal
Chiropractors' association," Dr. Ed
wards stated.
Life Prolonged By Work,
But Dawdlers Die Early
London, June 18. The "pace that
kills" is the crawl, according to Lord
Leverhulme, England's foremost
business man, in a lecture on "Safety
First."
"The dwadler shortens his own life
and kills the life of his country. The
more we work the moje we conserve
our own lives and the life of our
country."
Former German Submarine
Will Be Target for Planes
Portsmouth, N. H., June 18. Thl
U-lll, a former German submarine,
for the past year tied up at the navy
yard here, is to be used as a target
for naval aviators in maneuvers off
the Delaware capes, it has been an
nounced here. A thorough study of
the construction of the craft, believed
one of the best German makes, was
made by naval officials and median
ict during its stay here.
18 Y
mmiiiiiimiu
" I
t 1 1 I;
ears or LeaaersniD
For 18 years, since its foundation, the Continental
Motor Plant has led in the making of gasoline
motors for automobiles, trucks and tractors.
The. comprehensive, nation-wide parts service has
been consistently, improved, and today every owner
of a Continental Motored car or truck is within a
few hours of a complete parts replacement station.
Our establishment serves the Middle West.
Parte n Annt
jij . '' m m a th jk. h j -r tr m . w r
L. L. Scheibel, Mgr.
2574 Harney ' DO uglas 7464
Ice
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and,
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We carry a large stock of machines, fittings and supplies always on hand. Call and
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York-Allan Ice Machine Company
1213 Jackson
Omaha
Girder
' Yom HOLLAND
Deferred Payinemits
Un
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inrnace
Now!
epftemfeer 1 4
a
The time to install your furnace is now. Don't wait until fall or winter, when everybody will be putting in rush orders for a heating plant.
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is delivered and begin to pay the balance in installments September first.
Frankly, the reason we make this offer now is because we realize that in the fall it will be impossible f or our Holland branch experts to install enough
plants to satisfy the demand at that time. ,
U Learn why the Holland Plan saves you money,
jj Note the original design and exclusive improvements that make
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HOLLAND FURNACE CO
CUT THIS OUT AND MAIL OR
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Largest Installers o f Furnaces in the World
Gentlemen!
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2208 Cuming St., Omaha, Neb.
Phone Douglas 4726
EDWIN BRYAN, Mgr.
2208 Cuming Street
(Council Bluffs, 370 W. Broadway)
Kindly send me without obligation the booklet ,
.;k.j .1 I
described above,
Name
HOLLAND Furnaces Make Warm Friends
Address. .
City.
i
