CONSIDERABLY over half a century ago a young man and his bride moved into Dewitt County, Texas, and settled down in the midst of the usual vicissitudes of the pioneer. The young man went into the stock-raising business and later became a large ranchman and storekeeper. In the meantime his wife presented him with a baby boy, who, is now better known as the Hon. James C. Dahlman, mayor of Omaha.

     He had two brothers and four sisters, of which children he was the oldest, and, perhaps, the most ambitious. The first things he learned were to ride a horse and herd cattle, which knowledge stood him in good stead later on. In odd moments he attended the Yorktown school, where he stood high in his class. As a youth he stayed a while about the family ranch and finally left home and drifted around Texas for a while. In 1878 he came to Nebraska.

     Mayor Dahlman is now 53 years old and is serving his second term in that office, which he has held with great credit to himself and the city. On the March day that he came across the Big Muddy into Omaha he was in company with a young man named Bennett Erwin, and the two were looking for Fort Sheridan. They went to Sidney on the Union Pacific and then traveled 200 miles by stage to the Red Cloud agency. When they reached Fort Sheridan they had one dollar apiece in the world.

     Dahlman soon got a job punching cattle on Newman's Ranch, near the fort, where he drew the usual pay of $30 a month. He stayed there several years and became foreman of a cattle gang, which position he held until he became brand inspector of the Wyoming Cattle Association. The headquarters were at Valentine, but were later moved to Chadron when the Northwestern Railroad extended its line to that place. Dahlman had to act as judge in controversies over stolen, mixed and questionable cattle, and the job called for the supreme nerve and elegant tact for which the mayor is still noted.

     It was in 1884 that Dahlman became a citizen of Chadron and he soon became prominent in affairs there, being elected councilman despite the fact that he was a democrat and the town very much republican.

     In 1886 the Dawes county citizens made him their sheriff by a majority of 55, despite the republican character of the territory, and his likeable character and ability with his shooting iron re-elected him twice, with steadily increasing majorities.

     During his service as sheriff in this rough district, Dahlman somewhat uncivilized and impetuous times then obtaining. Dahlman was never known to show the white feather, and garnered desperate criminals at the point of his gun with the same careless ease with which he now signs a warrant. Many are the tales they still tell at Chadron of his unflinching courage in all emergencies and the compelling power of his dark, convincing eyes. His record during this period is a continuous tale of heroism in the wild and wooly west, and these same qualities helped elect him mayor of Omaha twice, each time on the minority ticket.

     In the democratic party Mayor Dahlman stands high. He has been national committeeman from Nebraska almost steadily since 1896, and several times a member of the national executive committee. He was chairman of the state committee in 1896 and had charge of Mr. Bryan's train touring the east in 1900. In the spring of 1906, after a vigorous campaign, he overcame a heavy republican majority in Omaha and was elected Mayor, the first Democrat to hold that office for years. He was re-elected, still more easily, in the spring of 1909, and by a still greater majority.

     Before Mayor Dahlman was elected to that office he was in the live stock commission business in South Omaha, as assistant manager of the National Live Stock Commission Company. For several years he was president of the American Live Stock Commission Company of South Omaha.

     Mayor Dahlman was married in 1884 to Miss Abbott, at Union, Ia. Miss Abbott was a native of Maine and Dahlman met her at Pine Ridge agency, where she was visiting. He now has two daughter's, one married, and lives at 2901 Hickory street. He is twice a grandfather and a very happy man on that account at least.

     At present Mayor Dahlman is being boomed for a run for the office of governor of Nebraska.