OMAHA: "THE GATE CITY OF THE WEST"
LARGEST CITY IN NEBRASKA--GATE TO THE WEST--GROWTH OF
INDUSTRIES--SPLENDID INSTITUTIONS--A PROSPEROUS CITY--REMARKABLE
ACTIVITY.
Omaha, "the Gate City," largest in Nebraska, is a typical plains town,
proud of its industry and its climb on the census list. It stands eighty
feet above the Missouri on the west bank of that river opposite Council
Bluffs, Iowa. For twenty-four square miles stretch its many churches,
educational institutions and large manufacturing plants, with the
pleasant residential section lying above.
On the site of the present city Lewis and Clark in 1804 held council
with the Indians. There were a trading station and stockade at the place
in 1825 presided over by pioneer J. B. Royce. The first permanent
settlement was made there in 1854. A tribe of Dakota Indians that lived
in the region gave the city its name.
When the Union Pacific Railroad was stretching steel hands westward in
1864 Omaha was the most northerly outfitting point for overland wagon
trains to the far West. At that time it took its name of "Gate City"
and then its sudden growth began. In 1910 the population was 124,000.
GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES
Because of its location it soon began to draw industries. Packing is one
of its leading industries today. So extensive is this business that
Omaha ranks third among cities of the United States in packing. Silver
smelting, distilling and brewing are some of the other pursuits that
keep its citizens busy.
SPLENDID INSTITUTIONS
Among the more important buildings are the Federal Building, Court
House, a city hall, two high schools, one of which is among the finest
in the country, a convention hall, the Auditorium and the Public
Library. Omaha is the see of Roman Catholic and Protestant Episcopal
bishoprics. Among the educational institutions are a state school for
the deaf; the medical department and orthopedic branch of the University
of Nebraska; a Presbyterian Theological Seminary; and Creighton
University under Jesuit control. The principal newspapers are the _Omaha
Bee_, _World-Herald_ and the _News_. The _Omaha Bee_ was established in
1871 by Edward Rosewater, who made it one of the most influential
Republican journals in the West. The _World-Herald_, founded in 1865 by
George L. Miller, was edited by William Jennings Bryan from 1894 to
1896.
Omaha is the headquarters of the United States military department of
the Missouri, and there are military posts at Fort Omaha, immediately
north, and Fort Crook, ten miles south of the city.
REMARKABLE ACTIVITY
Prairie freighting and Missouri river navigation, were of importance
before the construction of the Union Pacific railway, and the activity
of the city in securing the freighting interest gave her an initial
start over the other cities of the state. Council Bluffs was the legal,
but Omaha the practical, eastern terminus of that great undertaking,
work on which began at Omaha in December, 1863. The city was already
connected as early as 1863 by telegraph with Chicago, St. Louis, and
since 1861 with San Francisco. Lines of the present great Rock Island,
Burlington and Northwestern railway systems all entered the city in the
years 1867-1868. Meat-packing began as early as 1871, but its first
great advance followed the removal of the Union stock-yards south of the
city in 1884. South Omaha was rapidly built up around them. A
Trans-Mississippi Exposition illustrating the progress and resources of
the states west of the Mississippi was held at Omaha in 1898. It
represented an investment of $2,000,000, and in spite of financial
depression and wartime, ninety per cent of their subscriptions were
returned in dividends to the stockholders.
The original town site occupied an elongated and elevated river terrace,
now given over wholly to business; behind this are hills and bluffs over
which the residential districts have extended.