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Omaha is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 10 miles (15 km) north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city, Omaha's 2020 census population was 486,051. It is the second-largest city in the Great Plains states, the second-largest city along the Missouri River, and the seventh-largest city in the Midwest.
The history of Omaha, Nebraska, began before the settlement of the city, with speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa staking land across the Missouri River illegally as early as the 1840s. When it was legal to claim land in Indian Country, William D. Brown was operating the Lone Tree Ferry to bring settlers from Council Bluffs to Omaha. A treaty with the Omaha Tribe allowed the creation of the Nebraska Territory, and Omaha City was founded on July 4, 1854. With early settlement came claim jumpers and squatters, and the formation of a vigilante law group called the Omaha Claim Club, which was one of many claim clubs across the Midwest. During this period many of the city's founding fathers received lots in Scriptown, which was made possible by the actions of the Omaha Claim Club. The club's violent actions led to the U.S. Supreme Court trial, Baker v. Morton, which led to the end of the organization.
The Omaha Claim Club, also called the Omaha Township Claim Association and the Omaha Land Company, was organized in 1854 for the purpose of "encouraging the building of a city" and protecting members' claims in the area platted for Omaha City in the Nebraska Territory. At its peak the club included "one or two hundred men", including several important pioneers in Omaha history. The Club included notable figures important to the early development of Omaha. It was disbanded after a ruling against their violent methods by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1860 in Baker v. Morton.
Moses Franklin Shinn was a pioneer Methodist Episcopal Church minister in Omaha, Nebraska. Aside from founding Omaha's first cemetery, called Prospect Hill, he was also renowned for renouncing his Methodist affiliation in Keokuk, Iowa in order to remain a member of the Freemasons. The incident was probably the only of its kind ever to occur in the history of the Masons. Late in his life, Shinn was reportedly "one of the wealthiest citizens of Omaha".
The Lone Tree Ferry, later known as the Council Bluffs and Nebraska Ferry Company, was the crossing of the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska, US, that was established in 1850 by William D. Brown. Brown was the first pioneer to see the potential for a city on the site, and the landing became a popular gathering site for the first settlers of the Nebraska Territory. Named after a solitary tree on the Nebraska bank of the river, the Lone Tree Ferry became central to the founding and development of the City of Omaha.
William D. Brown was the first pioneer to envision building a city where Omaha, Nebraska sits today. Many historians attribute Brown to be the founder of Omaha, although this has been disputed since the late nineteenth century. Alfred D. Jones, the first postmaster of Omaha, laid strong claims to the title himself, suggesting that he told Brown about the potential for a town. Brown was also a member of the Second Territorial Legislature for the Nebraska Territory.
Germans in Omaha immigrated to the city in Nebraska from its earliest days of founding in 1854, in the years after the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. They continued to immigrate to Omaha in large numbers later in the 19th century, when many came from Bavaria and southern Germany, and into the early 20th century. Germans created and maintained a high cultural, social and political profile locally and nationally through the 1930s. In 1890, Germans comprised 23% of Omaha's population. By 1910, 57.4% of Omaha's total population of more than 124,000 identified as being of German descent.
The Old Settlers' Association was founded in 1866 by a group of men in Omaha, Nebraska. Membership in the organization was exclusive to settlers who were in the city before 1858. Omaha was founded in 1854. Omaha's Old Settlers' Association was responsible for recording much of the early history of the city.
Alfred D. Jones was a late 19th-century lawyer, surveyor and politician in the Midwestern United States. In 1846 he platted Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and in 1854 he platted Omaha, Nebraska. He became the first settler in Omaha, as well as the first postmaster, a member of the first Omaha City Council and the first Omaha School Board, and was among the first legislators of the Nebraska Territory.
Transportation in Omaha, Nebraska, includes most major modes, such as pedestrian, bicycle, automobile, bus, train and airplane. While early transportation consisted of ferries, stagecoaches, steamboats, street railroads, and railroads, the city's transportation systems have evolved to include the Interstate Highway System, parklike boulevards and a variety of bicycle and pedestrian trails. The historic head of several important emigrant trails and the First Transcontinental Railroad, its center as a national transportation hub earned Omaha the nickname "Gate City of the West" as early as the 1860s.
Jesse Lowe was the first mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, serving for one year from March 5, 1857 to March 2, 1858. An important real estate agent in the early city, Lowe is credited with naming the city after the Omaha Tribe.
The Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company, known as O&CB, was incorporated in 1886 in order to connect Omaha, Nebraska with Council Bluffs, Iowa over the Missouri River. With a sanctioned monopoly over streetcar service in the two cities, the O&CB was among the earliest major electric street railway systems in the nation, and was one of the last streetcar operators in the U.S., making its last run in 1955.
Credit Foncier of America was a late 19th-century financing and real estate company in Omaha, Nebraska. The company existed primarily to promote the townsites along the Union Pacific Railroad, and was incorporated by a special act of the Nebraska Legislature in 1866. Credit Foncier was said to be "intimately connected with all the early towns along the Union Pacific."
Andrew Jackson Hanscom was a pioneer Omaha, Nebraska lawyer, politician and real estate broker.
The Irish in Omaha, Nebraska have constituted a major ethnic group throughout the history of the city, and continue to serve as important religious and political leaders. They compose a large percentage of the local population.
Enos Lowe was a pioneer doctor and businessman who was among the original founders of Omaha, Nebraska and served as president of the Second Iowa Constitutional Convention.
The First Nebraska Territorial Legislature first met in Omaha, Nebraska, on January 15, 1855. The Council Bluffs and Nebraska Ferry Company provided the first meeting place, which was a building "constructed for public purposes". Standing out from the estimated twenty shacks in the young town, it was the first brick building in Omaha, which was founded the year before when the Nebraska Territory was created. Responsible for several important decisions that laid an important foundation for the future statehood for Nebraska, the Nebraska Territorial Legislature made controversial decisions and provided leadership for the territory.
The Swedes in Omaha, Nebraska are a long-standing ethnic group in the city with important economic, social, and political ties.
Significant events in the history of Omaha, Nebraska, include social, political, cultural, and economic activities.
St. Deroin is a ghost town in Nemaha County, Nebraska, United States, originally located below the river bluffs on the Missouri River. Formally chartered in 1854, the town had a popular ferry crossing over the Missouri River for more than three decades. The river changed course, ending the ferry. After a railroad spur bypassed the town, it drew off more commerce. The community rebuilt its school on the river bluff when it was threatened by flooding; this area was also used for the cemetery. The town was completely abandoned by 1920, as flooding had destroyed much of the townsite. The site is at the northern edge of Indian Cave State Park.
References
- ↑ "New City Shapes Up on a Muddy Plateau; 'Claims Club' Is Ruler", Omaha's First Century. Retrieved 6/17/08.
- ↑ "The first incidents" Archived 2008-06-16 at the Wayback Machine , The Early History of Omaha. p 38.
- ↑ "First Settler in Omaha", The New York Times . January 19, 1903. Retrieved 6/17/08.
- ↑ Federal Writers Project. (1939) Nebraska. Nebraska State Historical Society. p 240.
- ↑ "Rachel Snowden Corral". Retrieved 6/17/08.
- ↑ "Omaha Illustrated". Retrieved 6/17/08.
- ↑ Larsen, Cotrell, Dalstrom and Dalstrom. (2007) Upstream Metropolis: An Urban Biography of Omaha and Council Bluffs. University of Nebraska Press. p 72.
- ↑ "First Settler in Omaha", The New York Times . January 19, 1903. Retrieved 6/17/08.
- ↑ "New City Shapes Up on a Muddy Plateau; 'Claims Club' Is Ruler", Omaha's First Century. Retrieved 6/17/08.
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