1889 HISTORY OF LINCOLN NEBRASKA

CHAPTER XXVI

LINCOLN AS A BUSINESS CENTER -- THE GROWTH OF HER BUSINESS INTERESTS FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS -- MENTION OF SOME OF THE MEN WHO HAVE BUILT UP THE CITY

(357) From the wild prairie hamlet of 1867, possessing less than fifty people, Lincoln has grown to a city of over 50,000 people in just twenty-two years. From an insignificant settlement in a wilderness, without trade or developed resource, there has been built up here a property worth not less than $50,000,000, the State Capitol building, the State Penitentiary, the Asylum for the Insane, the State University, the Wesleyan University, the Christian University, which will open this fall, and city school property valued at $500,000. Out of the prairie sod has grown the educational center of the Northwest, the political center of the State, and the most remarkable radial railway center west of the Missouri river, comprising four great systems, twelve diverging lines, reaching 1,000 towns, whose trade represents 154,000 square miles of territory.

Here now are operated seventy factories, eighty wholesale houses, eleven banks. The city possesses thirty-eight churches, twenty-six schools, thirteen temperance societies, five public libraries, twenty-six newspapers and periodicals, and nearly two hundred moral, social, fraternal, charitable, and similar organizations. The State Fair has been located at Lincoln for five years. The city possesses strong companies for supplying illumination by gas, the arc, and also incandescent electric light. It has eight miles of paved streets, twenty miles of sanitary sewers, ten miles of storm-water sewers, and an ample system of water-work. It possesses five street car companies, one of which has a capital of $1,000,000, and they are now operating thirty-one miles of track. Among its great enterprises are the stock-yards and two large packing-houses, three immense paving-brick works, seven building-brick works, a large woolen mill, a paper mill, a cracker factory, two planing mills and wood-working factories, a large tannery, three foundries, and extensive stone-cutting works. Lincoln is a (358) division station on every railroad system entering here, and it seems probable that the great Rock Island railroad system will be added to her railway advantages in the near future.

The city is supplied with the Western Union and Pacific Mutual Telegraph companies, who employ forty operators, and have through wires to all cities. Its telephone service includes over 600 local instruments and direct connection with sixty towns in Nebraska and sixty-six in Iowa. Its express service comprises the combined facilities of

four great companies, with arrangements to bill direct over 70,000 miles of road without transfer, with a constantly and rapidly increasing business. It also possesses an organized message service under the name of Lincoln District Telegraph Company. This was organized on May 21, 1887, and possesses a very strong support in its board of stockholders, who are: G. W. Holdrege, J. D. Macfarland, C. E. Yates, J. McConniff, C. Thompson, E. E. Brown, John R. Clark, R. H. Oakley, George W. Bonnell, J. J. Dickey, L. H. Korty, (359) and Charles G. Burton. Mr. Burton is Secretary and Manager. This company's office is at the southwest corner of O and Tenth streets. It furnishes messengers and hacks at all hours, day and night; delivers trunks, and distributes advertising matter and invitations, and provides night watchmen.

The internal improvements made in the city in 1888 reached the grand aggregate of $3,287,418, including the erection of 1,000 residences at a cost of over a million dollars. The jobbing business advanced over twenty-five per cent during the past year. Over 600 traveling men now reside here. The growth of the city for 1889 is more solid and extensive than ever before, many costly brick blocks, residences, and other improvements, being in process of construction, including a county court-house to cost $200,000, a new city well and pumping station, and two new houses for fire companies, with additional costly fire apparatus.

But while the city has grown so rapidly, it has been the result, mainly, of the efforts of those men who from the early days evinced their faith in the city and in its future development by their acts, and who, through months and years of depression, disappointment, and discouragement, never lost their nerve, but kept the future always in view, and spoke words of encouragement to those who were hesitating whether to make Lincoln their home. These men -- most of them, at least have been amply rewarded for their faith, and mention of a few of them will not be out of place in a work dealing with the founding and growth of the city.

Hon. Isaac M. Raymond, senior member of the firm of Raymond Brothers & Co., wholesale grocers, is one of the most able and successful business men of Lincoln, and one whose work is closely identified with the city's progress for eighteen years.

His father was the Rev. H. A. Raymond, pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church at Niskayuna, N. Y., and was a graduate of both Yale College and Rutger's Theological Seminary, New Jersey. He continued as pastor of the church at Niskayuna for sixteen years, where he was very highly esteemed, both personally and as an able minister, declining, in the meantime, frequent calls to city churches at a higher salary. Here seven of his nine children were born.

The mother of I. M. Raymond was born in Passaic county, New (360) Jersey. She was a woman of positive views and earnest character, and sought to impress the value of correct principles upon her children.

I. M. Raymond was born at Niskayuna, Schenectady county, New York, on the 3d of May, 1842. He received a common-school education, and then spent one term in the Jonesville Academy, Saratoga county, New York, and a term at the Chittenango Polytechnic Institute, and at this date closed his seventeenth year. He then taught

two terms of country school in Scoharie county, devoting about a year to this employment. He then removed to Waterloo, Iowa, where he worked on a farm for six months, and then obtained a clerkship in the grocery store of his elder brothers, at Waterloo. He worked hard from 1861 to 1865 in this position, and then went to Waverly, Iowa, and took the management of a grocery store there, owned by his brothers. While in Waverly he held his first political office, being a member of the city council. He managed the store at Waverly until November, 1871, and then removed to Lincoln, (361) Nebraska, and established the wholesale grocery house of Raymond Bros. & Co., of which he has ever since been the able manager, and which has been remarkably successful.

In 1886 he was elected a member of the House of the Twentieth Session of the Nebraska Legislature, and was the author of the Primary Election Law, now in operation, a very important and satisfactory treasure, as it is in accordance with the very fundamental principles of republican government, allowing all the people to nominate candidates, instead of a few schemers.

ln 1887 it became a very practical question whether the jobbing trade of Lincoln, or any interior point in Nebraska, could long survive the fatal effects of the discriminations in freights, founded upon the Missouri river, where rates were adjusted at the expense of Nebraska, without regard to the length of haul. This condition of freight charges threatened to put a stop to the commercial growth of Lincoln, and to require Nebraska generally to pay a ruinous tribute to the Missouri river railway combination that would continue to sap the prosperity of the State, as it had done for many years.

Mr. Raymond began to agitate the necessity of the people of Lincoln rising and making a most determined resistance to these oppressive discriminations, and finally wrote a strong letter, explaining to the people in clear and forcible terms how dangerous it would be to longer continue to suffer the unfair freight tariffs to retard and even threaten the life of the city's commerce. This letter was published in the daily papers of Lincoln, and led up to the reorganization of what had become a totally dormant Board of Trade, and later to the organization of a Freight Bureau in connection with the Board of Trade, designed to study the problem of railway freight charges, and devise such plans as would afford substantial relief.

In this great contest Mr. Raymond was the main inspiration and directing force, and so skillfully, wisely, and courageously, was the cause pressed that the roads finally decided that it would be wise policy for them to yield, and place Lincoln in the same freight-tariff footing as the Missouri river towns. This was the first positive fracture made in the great Missouri river pool, one, of the most powerful combinations of capital that ever existed on this continent. The value to the public of the equitable economic principles of the concessions secured by the Lincoln Board of Trade, not only for Nebraska but the entire (362) West, cannot well be over-estimated. And the splendid results following that contest may he attributed to I. M. Raymond more than to any other man; in fact, without his aid it is doubtful if success would have crowned the contest.

As a result of the great service he had rendered the public, he was nominated for the State Senate in 1888 almost without opposition, and elected by a large majority. He proved a very useful member of the legislature, his eminent business ability being recognized in his appointment to the chairmanship of the Committee on Finance, Ways, and Means, in the Senate, the most important committee in the gift of that body. He introduced and secured the passage of of Raymond's Banking Bill, a measure which thoroughly, and judiciously placed necessary restrictions upon bankers of the State, in the interest of a higher public credit, and for a better defense of depositors. This was one of the most important and valuable measures enacted by the twenty-first session of the Legislature.

Mr. Raymond is a business man of a high order of ability. He has managed the large wholesale grocery business of Raymond Bros. & Co. with eminent success, and that house is one of the most prosperous in the State. In 1882 Mr. Raymond assisted to organize the Exchange National Bank of Hastings, of which he was made president and still continues to hold that position. During the spring of 1889 he became one of the incorporators of the American Exchange National Bank, of Lincoln, of which he was also made President, and to the affairs of which he gives a considerable share of his personal attention. He is also one of the directors of the Lincoln Stock Yards, and a member of the Lincoln Packing and Provision Company. In fact, he is an enterprising and valuable citizen of the city and State, always ready to contribute to the success of really important and deserving public enterprises.

Among the business men of Lincoln there are none more thoroughly representative of the growth and possibilities of the great West than A. E. Hargreaves, the head of the extensive wholesale house of Hargreaves Bros. He is a thoroughly representative Lincoln man as well, having begun his business career in Lincoln when the city was in its infancy, and kept pace with its advancement, growing from a poorly-paid clerk to the head of a firm doing a million dollars' worth (363) of business annually, while Lincoln has developed from a hamlet to a magnificent city of more than fifty thousand people.

Mr. Hargreaves was born in the world's metropolis, London, in 1853. His father, Abraham Hargreaves, was a contractor, and his mother's maiden name was EIizabeth Ilingworth.

As he entered commercial life when only eleven years old, his education was confined to the instruction received at an early age in the common schools. But his business education was thorough, and when he left England, in 1872, to seek his fortune in the new world, he knew more about the details of business than many men of twice his age. At this time Nebraska was being extensively advertised in England by the Land Commissioners of the B. & M. railroad, and with others Mr. Hargreaves sailed from England direct for Lincoln.

The journey was an uneventful one, and on August 12, 1872, Mr. Hargreaves found himself at Pacific Junction. That his business career in Nebraska was begun at the bottom of the ladder is evidenced by his statement that at Pacific Junction he found himself in that condition which is designated in the Western vernacular by the expressive word, "strapped," and he was compelled to negotiate a loan of five dollars before he was able to continue his journey to Lincoln. Upon his arrival at Lincoln he was greatly discouraged. The. town was a mere hamlet; there was little business of any hind, and remunerative employment was an unknown boon. If he had had the means at this time he would have returned to England. Not having the means, however, with which to get away, he made the most of the circumstances, and secured a job at the fair grounds as a sort of general roustabout.

After working in various capacities on a salary for several years, Mr. Hargreaves decided to go into business for himself, and in 1875 opened up a peanut stand on the south side of O street, between Eleventh and Twelfth streets. He was still anxious to go back to England at that time, but a kind fortune, disguised in the habiliments of poverty, prevented. Careful and industrious, he found his business increasing from year to year. In 1876 he moved into the next block west, when he added books and stationery to his business.

The fruit and confectionery business was evidently the one for which he had a peculiar adaptation, and the one which furnished the widest field. This grew so rapidly that in 1879 he decided to go into the (364) wholesale trade, and selling out his book and stationery business to Clason & Fletcher, erected a two-story building at 1028 P street, and established a wholesale fruit and confectionery house. As the development of the country tributary to Lincoln brought the demand, fancy groceries were added to the trade, and the firm rapidly became one of the best known in the State.

The business increased so rapidly that the firm found it imperative upon them to find more commodious quarters and better facilities for doing business. Accordingly in 1886 they bought the large three

story-and-basement building at, the corner of Eighth and O streets. The abundant room and ample track facilities here gave opportunity for extending the business indefinitely. A straight line of staple and fancy groceries was put in, and a jobbing business in these goods was built up scarcely second to any in the city. The fruit department was continued under the management of Mr. W. B. Hargreaves, Mr. Hargreaves's younger brother, who was given an interest in the business in 1882. The house is still one of the largest fruit jobbing houses in the State. In 1888 a department for the exclusive (365) handling of tea and cigars was established, and the tea department is undoubtedly the largest west of Chicago. The business of the firm in 1889 will amount to $1,000,000.

In 1878, Mr. Hargreaves was married to Miss Jennie Blair, of this city, and now has a family of three children. Always at the front in matters of public enterprise, liberal in the treatment of his employés, prompt, and courteous in all his business relations, it is safe to say that Mr. Hargreaves's present popularity and prosperity are but the beginning of what his business career will develop in the future.

Joseph J. Imhoff is one of the most prominent and successful business men of Lincoln, a representative of our best citizenship. He was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, on May 8, 1835. His father was Mr. Joseph Imhoff, and his mother Mrs. Catherine Heffley-Imhoff; who were born and spent their lives in that section of the Keystone State. They were descended from German parentage, and inherited the sturdy, industrious, and upright characteristics of their race. Joseph Imhoff was engaged in managing a hotel in Somerset, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, for thirty-eight years, and also in farming, in both of which pursuits he was successful. His son, Joseph J. lmhoff, was the sixth of eight children, and spent his childhood and youthful years among the hills of his native country, acquiring a common-school education, until the age of fourteen, when he began his mercantile experience as a clerk in a store of general merchandise. After devoting three years to this work, he turned his attention to mechanical pursuits, learned the carpenter's trade, and followed it for five years.

Then he decided to go westward, and removed to Urbana, Illinois, where he continual to follow for two years more the vocation of carpenter and builder. He then decided to seek a new and growing country, and located in Omaha, in 1856. Soon afterward he settled in Dakota county, and engaged in the business of carpenter and builder for a couple of years, building thirty-seven houses during that time. He then took up his residence in Nebraska City, where he engaged again in the mercantile business. While here the movement for the location of the State Capital at Lincoln was developed, and Mr. Imhoff became one of the original syndicate of fifteen who came (366) from Nebraska City; and stayed the uncertain fortunes of the venture by assisting to bid off the lots at the appraised value, when the first sale was made on the 17th to the 22d of September, 1867. Had it not been for the courage of these men, it is very doubtful whether the capital would have been located at Lincoln. Ex-Governor Reed, now of Utah, was one of the syndicate at the sale, and remarked that "the people must be d-----d fools to invest their money in the wild prairie lots; for himself he would not give $500 for the whole town site." Mr. Reed relented, however, and invested $750 in three lots before leaving town.

In 1872, Mr. Imhoff removed to Lincoln, and for a year was occupied with handling general merchandise, and in a general trading and real estate business, which was lively at that time. In September, 1873, he bought the "Douglas House," and changed the name to "The Commercial Hotel," which he conducted with great success for thirteen years. He made it the leading hotel in Lincoln, the political head-quarters of Nebraska, and the best-known hostelry in the State. He enlarged it from a small affair, until it acquired its present proportions of 108x150 feet, and three stories high. He then sold it for $80,000.

Mr. Imhoff has been a promoter, organizer, and manager, of many of the most important enterprises of the city, and has been one of its most liberal benefactors. He is always cheerful in contributing largely to any really meritorious project for the public welfare. He has ever been willing to assist in founding and building up enterprises of importance to Lincoln. He was one of the organizers of the Union Savings Bank, and is yet a principal stockholder and director. He was mainly instrumental in the establishment of the Union Stock Yards, was at one time Vice President of the company, and is still a stockholder. He was a moving spirit in the organization of the Lincoln Driving Park Association, and was its first President. He finally bought the park, expended $7,500 in improving it, and then sold it for $75,000. He was one of the incorporators of the Lincoln Street Railway Company, the first line in the city, and continued President of the company until its sale to the city corporation. When the Rapid Transit Street Railway Company was organized, Mr. Imhoff also became a leading contributor to its capital, and was made President of the company. He assisted to help form the Lincoln

(368) Electric Light Company, whose capital is $100,000, and has continued its executive officer from the first. These facts will give some idea of the energy and activity of Mr. lmhoff's business life.

Among the benevolent objects for the city's good, in which he has been a principal helper, may be mentioned the erection of the city churches, especially St. Paul Church, of which he is a prominent member, as is Mrs. Imhoff, the Wesleyan University, and the new Young Men's Christian Association building. His good acts are legion, of which these are among the largest, and best known. It may be doubted whether any man has done more for the commercial, financial, charitable, and social good of Lincoln than Mr. Joseph J. Imhoff.

On November 5, 1862, Mr. J. J. Imhoff was married to Miss Mary E. Rector, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sanford S. Rector, of Nebraska City. Mrs. Imhoff was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, and her parents still reside in Nebraska City. She is one of the most active and useful workers in the Christian enterprises of the city, and their beautiful home at the southeast corner of J and Twelfth streets is one of the most elegant, and at the same time most hospitable, in the city. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Imhoff are four, namely: Mr. Charles H. Imhoff, Cashier of the Union Savings Bank; Mr. Joseph H. Imhoff; Superintendent of the Lincoln Electric Light Company, and Misses Ono May and Hattie J. Imhoff, residing at home.

Mr. Louie Meyer is one of Lincoln's most energetic, successful, and able business men and financiers. From a small beginning, sixteen years ago, he has worked his way steadily upward, in the face of obstacles and discouragements, until he is now at the head of the extensive wholesale and retail business in general merchandising, which he conducts at numbers 108 and 110 North Tenth street, east of Government Square, under the firm name of L. Meyer & Co. Mr. Meyer is one of the typical men of success in the city, and has kept pace with its growth from village days to its arrival at a city greatness.

Mr. Meyer was born August 12, 1853, near Carlsbad, Austria. His father, Dr. David Meyer, was then a physician of prominence in that locality, and since has acquired celebrity owing to his fifty-five years of practice, and to the fact of his being the oldest member of (369) his profession residing in the empire of Austria. His mother, Mary Becker-Meyer, was a lady of refinement and pleasing social disposition, highly esteemed by the people of her acquaintance. Mr. Meyer is the fifth of the eight children of Dr. and Mrs. Mary Meyer.

Louie Meyer attended the schools of his native country from the age of five years to that of fourteen, and was industrious and ready in acquiring learning. After having received a good, practical education, he entered a store in the town of Carlsbad, and spent a year as a clerk, learning the business. Then, feeling that there were greater opportunities in the United States than in his native land, for a young man of courage and energy he resolved to come to America. Therefore, he sailed for the shores of his adopted land in the summer of 1870. He landed at New York and proceeded to Des Moines, Iowa, where he spent four or five months with relatives.

Having heard of the fair prospects of Lincoln, he came to what was then a very youthful and struggling capital, in January, 1871, and engaged with the merchants, Rich & Oppenheimer, as a clerk. He performed his duties faithfully for four years and became a skillful salesman, thoroughly educated in his line of business.

Feeling that he understood the lay of the land, and having some capital, he decided to engage in business on his own account, and therefore opened a grocery store in 1874, when about twenty-one years old. He pushed his business during the succeeding three years, and his trade was growing steadily and surely; but the flames devoured his stock and store in March, 1877.

His characteristic energy and resolution was here manifested in a signal degree. Though seriously crippled in his finances by the misfortune he had just passed through, he did not hesitate a moment, but immediately began to rebuild his business and his fortune, and has never ceased to push his affairs from that date to the present time with all the vim of his young manhood. The rewards of his patience, perseverance, and skill, are now manifest in the extensive and growing business of L. Meyer & Co., and the esteem of his fellow citizens is also fully and unreservedly shown in various ways. He added dry goods in 1880 and now does an extensive jobbing as well as retail business.

For two years Mr. Meyer served as treasurer of the Board of Trade of Lincoln, a very difficult position to fill successfully, and it is safe to say that he would have been elected again had he not declined to (370) serve. His management of the affairs of this office was able, and his energy in working for the public welfare was not excelled, if equaled, by any other man in the city.

In fact, Mr. Meyer is recognized as one of the most able financiers and safe business men of this city, and ranks among Lincoln's foremost citizens in any important public enterprise. This is manifested in various ways, one of which is his active connection with the work of the Board of Trade, already referred to. Another was his election to the City Council, in April, 1888, from his ward, the Fifth. Mayor Graham has placed Mr. Meyer at the head of the Finance Committee of the City Council, probably the mast difficult place to fill in the city government, owing to the constant requirements for new expenditures and enlarged credits, growing out of the rapid development of this young and expanding metropolis. Mr. Meyer has proven equal to the severe tests of his ability, and his recommendations always receive respectful attention and consideration. Mr. Meyer was married to Miss Anna Gunarson, of this city, a lady of many high qualities of mind and heart, on October 1, 1879. Three children cheer their home, including one son, Max Meyer, and two daughters, Pauline and Leah Meyer They are among the most bright and excellent young people of the city.

Mr. Meyer and Mrs. Meyer rank among the leading people of Lincoln's social circles, and justly have the respect of the entire city.

In January, 1887, Hon. H. T. Clarke, who was then and had for years been one of the most prominent and enterprising business men of Omaha one of the branches of business in which he was engaged being wholesale drugs, concluded that Lincoln offered better advantages for the wholesale trade, and consequently changed his place of business in that line to this city.

For the accommodation of this business Mr. Clarke erected, at the corner of Eighth and P streets, a magnificent four-story brick and stone building, 100 by 150 feet, in which a heavy stock of drugs was placed, and business commenced. The firm of H. T. Clarke Drug Company is composed of the following gentlemen: Hon. H. T. Clarke, John C. Clarke, W. E. Clarke, W. C. Mills, and Charles J. Daubach, all gentlemen of business experience and ability. Ever since the opening of this house its business leas been steadily growing,

(372) until now it amounts to more than a half million per year. It is one of the institutions of which Lincoln is proud.

Among the early business men should be mentioned Pflug Bros., Martin and Jacob, who were merchants here in 1868 and for several years later. They were active workers for the good of the city.

The work of Elder J. M. Young, W. T. Donovan, Milton Langdon, Seth P. Galey, and John Cadman, has been referred to elsewhere.

No man deserves more credit for good work in building up the moral and social interests of the city than Elder Henry T. Davis, now pastor of Trinity M. E. church, and who has been in the ministry in this county longer than any other man now here. His brother, Mr. A. M. Davis, now conducting a wholesale and retail carpet house at 1112 O street, has for many years aided to push the interests of the city forward. Mrs. A. M. Davis has also been and still is a leader in the cause of charity and humanity.

Messrs. Austin and Oliver N. Humphrey, of the Humphrey Bros. Hardware Company, have been leading builders up of the city for twenty years. Dr. H. G. Gilbert established a drug and hardware store at 101 North Ninth street late in 1867, under the firm name of Hawley, Gilbert & Co. In the spring of 1869 Humphrey Bros.. bought the hardware interest of Mr. Hawley, and in the fall of that year bought out Dr. Gilbert, since which time it has been Humphrey Bros., and the Humphrey Hardware Company, the latter company having been incorporated in 1881, when C. J. Heffley became a member. The elegant four-story brick block at 101 and 103 North Ninth street, and their large wholesale and retail implement and hardware trade, attests their success. They are ever ready to aid public enterprises, Mr. Austin Humphrey being a prominent officer in the State Agricultural Society and a member of the city Board of Public Works. Mrs. O. N. Humphrey is a prominent worker in the charities and social progress of the city.

Bohanan Brothers, M. G. and F. H., have been active builders of the city from pioneer days, having been leading business men since 1868. They have conducted their meat market at 937 O street since that date, and their livery barn at 221 South Tenth street for many years. Their brick block, on the southwest corner of Tenth and N, is one of the largest in the city. It was built in 1887, and forms only a part of their possessions.

(373) T. P. Kennard and John Gillespie helped found the city, and have ever been active in building it up, Mr. Kennard now being a director in the city Board of Trade.

Few men have done more to build the city than J. J. Butler, who erected the first brick block in Lincoln, and who has built more blocks than any other man in the place, with one or two exceptions. He now owns two brick blocks, and has commenced the erection of a third. He is a prominent member of the Irish National League, having been president of the Lincoln Branch.

Fred Funke, builder of the Funke Opera House, James Ledwith, proprietor of the Ledwith Block at P and Eleventh, and J. L. McConnell, have contributed to the material prosperity of the city.

W. H. B. Stout is one of the largest building contractors of the State, and has handled very extensive business interests during the past seventeen years. He was elected a member of the State Legislature in 1868, from Blair, took the contract to build the State Penitentiary in 1870, in connection with J. M. Jamison, and removed to Lincoln in 1871. In 1877 he became the lessee of the State Penitentiary for six years. He built the Burlington passenger depot, the county jail, and the present State Capitol, completing the latter on the first of the present year. He has been interested in other large building contracts, and is now engaged in making paving brick and laying the same on the streets of Lincoln, Stout & Buckstaff having contracts for several districts. Probably no man has done more for Lincoln than W. H. B. Stout.

Gran. Ensign is a pioneer business man, having been in the livery and transfer business here since 1869, and been very successful. His interests have grown from a small shed back of the Atwood House on Ninth street, to the large brick structure at 215 to 221 South Eleventh.

Raymond Bros. & Co., wholesale grocers, established in Lincoln n 1872, and have been among our leading business men ever since. The firm consists of I. M. and A. S. Raymond, and G. H. Clark. they have done more to push Lincoln trade into new territory, and protect Lincoln's interests against railroad discriminations, than any other firm. They are now leading capitalists of the city, and prominent in pushing its interests. Their large house at O and Eighth, does an immense jobbing trade.

(374) In this connection should be mentioned Plummer, Perry &. Co. wholesale grocers, at 109 -113 North Ninth street. This firm is composed of Eli Plummer, R. A. Perry, and John Fitzgerald, and is very popular and successful. The gentlemen composing this firm are among the most liberal and enterprising in Lincoln, always ready to contribute aid to the success of the city. Mr. Plummer is a leading member of the Board of Trade.

H. P. Lau & Co., wholesale grocers, in the Clarke Block, on the corner of Eighth and P streets, do a growing wholesale jobbing trade, and deserve an honorable place in the list of our large business houses. Mr. Lau is a leading capitalist of our city.

No jobbing house has been more successful, all things considered, than the wholesale grocery of Hargreaves Bros., on the southwest corner of O and Eighth streets. The firm is composed of A. E. and W. B. Hargreaves, and their business was begun in 1874, with a capital of $28. Now they have a large brick block there, and do an extensive business. They are among the most enterprising of our citizens in protecting the welfare of the city.

J. A. Buckstaff, Secretary and Treasurer of the Badger Lumber Company, is one of the foremost business men of Lincoln. He conducts a large lumber trade, is engaged in manufacturing paving brick, and is connected with extensive paving contracts. He is ever liberal and enterprising in aiding to build the city.

L. W. Billingsley is a pioneer attorney of the city, has built up a large practice, and is now senior member of the law firm of Billingsley & Woodward. His elegant brick block at 210 South Eleventh street is one of the fine structures of the city. He has been prominently connected with the business and growth of the city for twenty years, having served in the City Council repeatedly.

C. E. Montgomery, whose business block adjoins the Billingsley block, at the corner of Eleventh and N streets, is one of our most enterprising citizens. Examples of his help in building up Lincoln are seen in his block just referred to, Odell's restaurant next east, and the elegant livery stable erected at a cost of $16,000 on M street, south side, between Eleventh and Twelfth.

T. H. Hyde, of the Lincoln News Company, is a pioneer in the city, and no one loves to lend encouragement to the city's growth better than he.

(375) Messrs. C. H. Gere and H. D. Hathaway, of the State Journal, have been closely identified with nearly every important step in the city's development, almost from its location, and deserve great credit for their work in giving Lincoln one of the best newspapers west of Chicago.

Amasa Cobb assisted to found the First National Rank, and has always been yin useful citizen. He is now a member of the State Supreme Court.

John R. Clark, President of the First National Bank, and Secretary of the State Journal Company, is an useful and enterprising citizen, who has extended a helping hand to nearly all important public enterprises for the benefit of the city.

T. M. Marquett has practiced law in Lancaster and Lincoln for twenty-six years, though for the first few years a resident of Plattsmouth. He has always been a man of broad views in matters of public interest, and has worthily earned a leading position in the city as one of its best, wisest, and most useful citizens, an able lawyer and orator, and a man of great public experience.

John H. Ames, is one of the pioneers, an able lawyer, and a man who has been conspicuous in pushing the city.

N. S. Harwood is a prominent financier, capitalist, and attorney of the city, and a leading citizen.

R. H. Oakley, now President of the Board of Trade, has proven a very strong man in that position, and through his energy, tact, and wisdom, the board is in the best business condition it ever has been in, and its work for the prosperity of the city has been most commendable.

T. W. Lowrey is a very extensive grain dealer, a capitalist, and an enterprising citizen, always ready to help in pushing the city's welfare. He is a prominent member of the Board of Trade.

H. J. Walsh has been identified with the city's business interests from an early day. He built the Academy of Music block, at the southwest corner of O and Eleventh streets, in company with Israel Putnam, in 1873 and 1882. He is prominently connected with the Lincoln Gas Company, and has been, almost from its organization, a leading stockholder. He has been a member of the City Council, and has served on the Board of Trustees of the Asylum for the Blind. He was one of the trustees of the city of Lincoln when the corporation was organized, in 1869.

(376) J. Z. Briscoe is one of the most liberal citizens of Lincoln, and one of the most useful men in both business and general progress. The successful founding of the Christian College owes much to his liberality, courage, wisdom, and industry. He gave the institution $25,000. He has been a member of the City Council, and is always a generous and useful worker for the city's interest, both material and moral.

Frank L. Sheldon has helped greatly in building the city, having been a founder of the street railway service. He erected during 1887-8 the elegant block on the southwest corner of N and Eleventh, the block adjoining the Windsor Hotel on the south, and his elegant residence at Fourteenth and R streets. He ranks among our most enterprising business men.

W. W. Wilson has from the beginning been a faithful worker for the good of the capital city. He, with W. H. B. Stout and T. F. Barnes, built the City Block, on the northwest corner of N and Eleventh streets.

T. F. Barnes, builder of the Windsor Hotel, is a man of nerve, such as it takes to found a city. His energy is witnessed in the brick walls of more than one block.

John R. Webster's enterprise is to some degree witnessed in the Webster Block, north of Temple Hall, on South Eleventh. He has been an industrious builder of the city for many years.

J. H. McMurtry has had few if any superiors as an energetic, courageous citizen in developing the progress of Lincoln, where he has lived for seventeen years. He has ever been ready with means, counsel, and labor, to advertise the city's merits, push home enterprise, and has not feared to cast his fortunes with the city. He erected the brick block where the county offices and court rooms now are, on the west side of South Eleventh, near M. His faith in and work for Lincoln has been rewarded in the development of extensive property interests within and without the limits of the place.

C. C. and L. C. Burr have erected a splendid monument to their industry and business courage in the magnificent Burr Block, at the northeast corner of O and Twelfth streets. Architecturally this is, perhaps, the handsomest building in Nebraska, being six stories in height exclusive of the basement, of rustic-stone finish, and beautifully designed in every detail.

S. B. Pound was one of the very earliest merchants on the site of (377) this city, and he became one of its earliest attorneys, and until recently was a very popular District Judge. He has ever been a respected and excellent citizen since the foundation of the city.

J. R. and L. C. Richards are among the city's leading capitalists, arid their prominence as builders of the city is marked by the elegant block which bears their name at the northeast corner of O and Eleventh streets.

A. D. Kitchen is a prominent contributor to the city's growth, being now engaged in building two or three fine brick blocks on O street, between Fifteenth and Sixteenth. He has lent a helping hand in developing Lincoln in many other respects.

J. C. McBride has been a courageous and energetic citizen in the city's interests for years, having been liberal with means and ready with other assistance and encouragement. He has been postmaster of the city, twice a member of the Legislature, and prominently identified with the work of the Board of Trade. He has a fine brick block at the northeast corner of P and Twelfth streets.

Dr. Latta is now completing an elegant block of red sand-stone at 129 South Eleventh. When done it will be one of the finest in the city. It is in room four of this block that this history of Lincoln written.

John Zehrung has been an active citizen, his brick block at 1213 and 1219 O street being an evidence of his substantial work as a builder of the city.

O. P. Mason and C. O. Whedon are a firm of attorneys about as widely known as any in Nebraska. Judge Mason was on the supreme bench in 1866, and was a distinguished Secretary of the State, Board of Transportation, previous to the present year, for two years. C. O. Whedon was a member of the House of the State Legislature during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth sessions, and has held various public positions in the city. Both men have been active and influential citizens throughout much of the city's history.

A genuinely earnest builder of the financial, moral, and intellectual features of the city's prosperity is C. C. Munson. He is a worker with purse, hand, and heart, for the general good. He is building up a large wholesale lumber and lime trade, is helping to erect the Christian University, is a director in the German National Bank, and an active worker in the Board of Trade.

(378) Prominent, earnest, and valuable, workers for the city's development, in the present Board of Trade, are: Joseph Boehmer, C. J. Ernst, Mason Gregg, M. L. Trester, A. H. Weir, C. T. Brown, C. A. Atkinson, and C. W. Mosher.

C. H. Hutchins has erected two fine brick blocks in the past two years, one on Ninth near N, and the other on O near Fifteenth.

Dr. W. G. Houtz has proven himself a valuable and enterprising citizen and builder of the city.

W. R. Kelley, John Doolittle, Hon. F. P. Roggen, A. Hurlbut, H. H. Dean, John Burks, J. H. Harley, and John J. Gillilan, have all shown enterprise and energy, and have done good service as city builders.

J. E. Utt, who, as the very able Secretary of the Board of Trade during 1887-8 was mainly instrumental in securing equitable freight tariffs for Lincoln from Pacific Coast points, rendered the city and State a great and lasting service. He is now interested in the paper mill located in the southwest part of the city.

John Morrison, who was the earliest tailor in the city, except Christian F. Damrow, having been here since 1869, is still doing a good business at 121 North Eleventh. He is one of the popular pioneers.

Few men have had more genuine success than H. H. Schaberg. Beginning as a blacksmith, with his industry and persistent attention to business, in a little shop on the southeast corner of Eleventh and P streets, in 1869, he has hammered his way up to the possession of the brick block on that corner, the presidency of the German National Bank, and a place among the large capitalists of the city. His success shows what men can do in Lincoln who work and use their opportunities.

John B. Wright has been a citizen of Lincoln for fourteen years, having originally come from Rochester, New York, where he was born in 1847. He is one of the largest dealers in grain in this city or State, being interested in forty-two different elevators in Nebraska and Kansas. He makes a specialty of handling flax seed. He has enlarged and improved his big elevator at M and Eighth streets this season, preparatory to opening the immense hall business he will have to manage. He has ever been an active citizen of Lincoln. He was elected Mayor of the city both in 1880 and 1881, and was a member of the House of the State Legislature of the Nineteenth session in (379) 1883. He is now a leading member of the Board of Trade, and did good work in placing the board upon the excellent working basis on which it now stands.

H. W. Hardy, now editor of the New Republic, has been twice Mayor of the city, but is most distinguished as the Lincoln William Lloyd Garrison, fighting in favor of temperance, morals, and the improvement of the social welfare of men. He is an uncompromising warrior for the principles of purity and progress, and is the best known character in Nebraska in that work, except alone the late John B. Finch.

Elder P. W. Howe, Chaplain of the State penitentiary and City Missionary, is the executive officer of the City Relief and aid Society, an organization designed to help and protect the weak, needy, and helpless, especially women and children. He is doing a noble work, having followed this line of benevolent service for nine years in New York city, and nearly as many in Lincoln.

Albert Watkins, for nearly four years past, has been postmaster of Lincoln, and a public-spirited citizen. General Victor Vifquain, having founded the Daily State Democrat in 1879, Mr. Watkins bought it in 1882 and continued its editor until appointed postmaster, in November, 1885, though Mr. Vifquain bought an interest in 1884. The paper passed into the hands of J. D. Calhoun in August of 1886, who conducted it successfully for two years.

Palmer Way was probably the first tinner of Lincoln, and one of the first hardware men. He has been a business man of the city for twenty-two years.

R. C. Outcalt, cashier of the Capital National Bank, is the oldest banker of Lincoln, Nelson C. Brock excepted. He first entered the bank of Sweet & Brock, in 1870, and has been continuously connected with the banking business in the city ever since. He is one of the best posted financiers of Lincoln.

Hundreds of other men night be named, whose influence and wealth have, for varying periods of years been used toward making Lincoln what she is to-day; but enough have been given to show that Lincoln's growth has been, in part at least, the result of the faith in her future held by her citizens. Future years will undoubtedly show a continuation of the wonderful progress made by the city in the past twenty-two years. Such, at least, are the signs of the times.

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