Solitary Place Made Glad - H. T. Davis

WHEN FOUNDED--INDIAN TRADITION OF THE NAME--AMUSING AND THRILLING INCIDENTS--GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN--MOVING IN AN OX-WAGON--INDIANS--FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH--RIDE ON HORSEBACK TWO HUNDRED MILES TO CONFERENCE--FALLS CITY IN 1860--JOHN BROWN--THE CONFERENCE DIVIDED.

maha was founded in 1854. The first dwelling-house in the city was erected by Mr. A. D. Jones, who, in the spring of 1854, received the appointment of postmaster, and immediately erected a cabin of logs, which he completed in the latter part of May, only a few days before Congress passed the bill creating the Territory of Nebraska. On this rude cabin a sign was placed, consisting of a wide shingle with the words, written with a lead-pencil, "Post-office, by A. D. Jones." The style of this quaint sign attracted as much attention as the information it communicated. This was the beginning of the present marvelous city of Omaha, a city whose fame is world-wide.
For some time Mr. Jones carried the mail in his hat. The first letter ever received in Omaha

by mail was from Mr. Heun to Mr. Jones relating to an independent mail-route between Council Bluffs and Omaha. This letter was dated Washington, May 6, 1854. During my pastorate in the city in 1859-60, Mr. Jones and his family were regular attendants at our Church, his wife being a member.
     The name Omaha was derived from an Indian tradition. The tradition is, that ages ago two tribes met on the Missouri River and engaged in a bloody battle in which all on one side were killed but one, who was thrown into the river. Rising suddenly above the surface he exclaimed, "Omaha!" meaning that he was on top of the water, and not under it as his enemies supposed, and those who heard it took that word as the name of their tribe. "Omaha," "On top." A significant name, not only of the renowned Indian tribe, but the city as well.
     Mr. Jones, who was a surveyor, was employed by the Council Bluffs and Nebraska Steam-ferry Company to survey the site, and he spent the greater part of the month of June and a part of July in this work. The city was laid out in 322 blocks, each 264 feet square. This was the original city of Omaha, as first founded, and the founders had but little, if any, idea at all that an addition to the original plat would ever be needed.
     In the Omaha Illustrated we are told that

OMAHA.

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Omaha had a newspaper very early in her history. This paper was called the Arrow. There were only twelve issues of the Arrow, covering the period from July 28 to November 10, 1854. In the first issue of the Arrow, which was the first newspaper ever published in Nebraska, the editor wrote a fanciful sketch containing a prediction of Omaha's future. It was entitled " A Night in Our Sanctum." It was such a remarkable prediction, and has been so literally fulfilled, that I give a large portion of it to the reader. Here it is:
"Last night we slept in our sanctum--the starry-decked heaven for a ceiling, and mother earth for a flooring . . . . To dream-land we went. The busy hum of business from factories and the varied branches of mechanism from Omaha reached our ears. The incessant rattle of innumerable drays over the paved streets, the steady tramp of ten thousand of an animated, enterprising population, the hoarse orders fast issued from the crowd of steamers upon the levee loading with the rich products of the State of Nebraska, and unloading the fruits, spices, and products of other climes and soils, greeted our ears. Far away toward the setting sun came telegraph dispatches of improvements, progress, and moral advancement upon the Pacific Coast. Cars, full-freighted with teas, silks, etc., were arriving from

thence, and passing across the stationary channel of the Missouri River with lightning speed, hurrying on to the Atlantic sea-board. The third express train on the Council Bluffs and Galveston Railroad came thundering close by us with a shrill whistle that brought us to our feet, knife in hand, looking into the darkness beyond at the flying trains. They had vanished.. The hum of business, in and around the city, had also vanished, and the same rude camp-fires were before us. We slept again, and daylight stole upon us, refreshed and ready for another day's labor."
That dream, written thirty-six years ago, and which was considered at the time visionary in the extreme; and which no one ever expected to see fulfilled, has been more than realized. Had that dream been told us when we first visited Omaha in 1858, we should have said, "It is the dream of a madman."
The city grew rapidly from the time it was laid out, flourishing on all lines until the panic of 1857 struck the country. Then Omaha came to a dead halt, and no advance whatever was made for several years. In 1860 a slight change for the better was manifested. In 1862 Congress passed the act authorizing the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad from the Missouri River to San Francisco, and in 1863 President Lincoln designated its eastern terminal "at a point on the

western boundary of Iowa, opposite section ten, in township fifteen, north of range thirteen, east of the sixth principal meridian in the Territory of Nebraska."
     This decision gave to Omaha a new and wonderful impetus, and soon after Omaha became the metropolitan city of the West.
     Some amusing incidents occurred in the early history of the city. Omaha was the capital of the Territory. Mark W. Izard, afterwards appointed successor to Governor Burt, was United States marshal. It is recorded that "Izard was a stately character physically, though mentally rather weak, and felt a lively sense of the dignity with which the appointment clothed him. He had never known such an honor before, and it bore upon him heavily." When the time came for him to deliver his inaugural message, he arranged for a Negro to announce his approach to the legislative chamber in the following words: "Mr. Speaker, the governor is now approaching." The poor Negro forgot his text, and electrified the assembled wisdom with the sentence, "Mr. Speaker, de gubner has done come."
     In 1865, George Francis Train made large investments in Omaha property, and took a lively interest in building up the new city. He was a guest of the Herndon House. One day he sat at the table in the dining-room, opposite a broken

window, through which the wind was blowing at a lively rate. He complained of the annoyance, but no attention was paid to his complaints. Then he paid a darky ten cents a minute to stand between him and the draught until he had finished his dinner. He there vowed he would build another hotel, and that very afternoon purchased two lots and employed men to commence the foundation. Within sixty days he had the Cozzens House completed at a cost of $40,000. Mr. Train was an anomaly. George D. Prentice thus describes him: "A locomotive that has run off the track, turned upside down, with its cow-catcher buried in a stump, and the wheels making a thousand revolutions a minute; a kite in the air, which has lost its tail; a human novel without a hero; a man who climbs a tree for a bird's-nest out on a limb, and, in order to get it, saws the limb oft between himself and the tree; a ship without a rudder; a sermon without a text; handsome, vivacious, versatile, muscular, as neat as a cat, clean to the marrow, frugal in food, and regular only in habits; with the brains of twenty men in his head, all pulling in different ways; not bad as to heart, but a man who has shaken hands with reverence."
When the war broke out in 1861, Omaha responded to the call of Abraham Lincoln for troops. Three military companies were organized

and mustered into service. Upon the departure of the troops, a lady, full of patriotism, donned soldier's attire and took passage as one of the "boys." her sex was undiscovered during the trip to St. Joe; but when the boat left that city and went down the river, the adventure terminated suddenly; for she was discovered by her husband and sent back to Omaha, where, at a recent date, it is said she was still living.
     Some sad as well as amusing incidents occurred during the early history of the city.
     The community was infested with thieves and roughs of various kinds. Many of these pests of the human race, averse to labor, and determined to obtain a living in any way save by honest work, fled from Eastern States to the frontier, where they could have a better opportunity of committing their depredations. The citizens felt that the safety of themselves and their families depended on their visiting summary punishment upon criminals; and when guilt was proved beyond all doubt, they often took the law into their own hands. This course often becomes absolutely necessary for the safety of the people in new Territories and States. It was necessary in the early history of California, and since then it has been necessary in other new Territories as well.
     At a still earlier period, history tells us that in Ohio and Kentucky, and other. new States, the
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people often had to take the law into their own hands. It has often become necessary for the citizens to organize what is known as Vigilance Committees. These are not mobs. A mob is a very different thing from a Vigilance Committee. A mob is a riotous assembly, a disorderly crowd, composed generally of the vicious and lower classes of society; and the acts of a mob are committed under great excitement, and without any regard to law or justice. A Vigilance Committee is an orderly crowd, with an eye only upon the welfare of the-whole community, cool and deliberate in all its actions. A Vigilance Committee inflicts no punishment until guilt is proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. A mob often inflicts punishment upon the innocent. A mob is a dangerous element in society. A Vigilance Committee has often been the saving of the community.
A mob entered the jail in Omaha in 1859, took two men from the prison, and hanged them. The circumstances were as follows: Two men, named John Daily and Harvey Braden, were confined in the jail at Omaha for horse-stealing. On Saturday night, January 8, 1859, a party of men entered the jail. The sheriff was absent, and the keys were in charge of three women. From these the mob took the keys by force, entered the cell, took the prisoners to a point two miles north of Flor-

ence, and there hanged them. A jury was impaneled, and after an examination which lasted several days, returned a verdict in accordance with the facts, finding four men, whose names we withhold, guilty of aiding and abetting the murder. These four men were granted a change of venue, and were tried at Bellevue, and we were present and witnessed the trial. The evidence of their guilt was very strong. The impression of those who heard the testimony was that the prisoners were guilty. They were, however, acquitted. We learned afterwards that the affair ruined each of the four men both mentally and physically. Although they had previously been prosperous, after the trial they met with reverses from which they never recovered. The judgments of Almighty God follow the murderer, and from them it is vain for him to try to escape.
During the six years of territorial organization no murderer had met the punishment due his crime. Robbery and assassination triumphed over industry and virtue. The citizens became incensed at the slow and unjust process of the courts. A Vigilance Committee was organized, and at the hands of this committee many outlaws met their fate.
In March, 1861, two young men, Iler and Bovey by name, at the hour of midnight, entered

the house of Mr. George Taylor, living ten miles west of the city. Mr. Taylor was absent. His wife was alone. The desperadoes demanded of Mrs. Taylor her money. And as it was death or the money, and loving life more than her money, she turned over to them all she had, and they left with one thousand dollars in cash. A few days afterwards the two men were. arrested. Mrs. Taylor was sent for, and identified them. They were lodged in the county jail. The most intense excitement prevailed among the citizens. A committee was appointed to inquire into the guilt or innocence f the prisoners. The committee held a long interview with them, and they finally made a full confession of their guilt. The committee reported accordingly, and recommended that the life of Iler be spared. During the next two days further confessions were made.
On Saturday morning, March 9, 1861, Bovey was found hanged at the door of his cell, his body dead and cold. The news reached us just after breakfast. I immediately left the parsonage, and walked slowly to the jail. A stream of men and women, too, were going to and from the tragic scene. Gloom was on every face, and tears in many eyes. The conversation was in low and whispered tones. I entered the prison, and saw the body of the unfortunate man lying on a board. The blood had settled about the thick-

ness of an inch, and. left a black circle around the neck where the rope had been fastened. Such a necklace I had never seen before. The sight was frightful, and I turned instinctively away from the ghastly scene. Death under such circumstances is appalling beyond all description. For days the whole community was shrouded in gloom. The body was left for several hours where all could see it--a warning to all criminals.
The first sermon ever preached in the region of Omaha was in 1851. This was three years before the city was founded. In 1851, William Simpson was sent to Council Bluffs Mission from the Iowa Conference. He learned that there were a few settlers on the west side of the Missouri River. In harmony with the spirit of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and with the instinct so characteristic of every true Methodist minister, he crossed the river, called the handful of immigrants together, and at the base of the abrupt hills where the city of Omaha now stands, he gave to these pioneers the bread of life. This was supposed to be the first Methodist sermon ever preached on Nebraska soil.
The first sermon preached in Omaha after the city was founded, was by the Rev. Peter Cooper. In the Arrow, published in August, 1854, the announcement was made that Rev. Peter Cooper would preach on Sunday, August

13th, at the residence of Mr. William P. Snowden. Mr. Cooper was an Englishman, and came to the village of Omaha when it contained less than one hundred inhabitants. He opened a stone-quarry on the bank of the Missouri River, just below the present bridge of the Union Pacific Railroad. He was a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church. When it was discovered that he sometimes preached, he was invited to address the people of the village, and accordingly delivered the first sermon ever preached in Omaha. The congregation numbered about fifteen, there being present, among others, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Davis, Mr. A. J. Poppleton, and Mr. A. D. Jones.
In the spring of 1855, Rev. Isaac F. Collins was sent as a missionary to Omaha, and organized a class of six members. On the 12th of September, Rev. William H. Goode held the first quarterly meeting ever held in the city. The following persons were present and partook of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper on that first sacramental occasion: Mr. and Mrs. Amsbury, the parents of Rev. W. A. Amsbury, now presiding elder in the West Nebraska Conference; Mr. and Mrs. Collins, Mrs. Crowell, Mrs. George A. McCoy, and Mrs. Harris. It is related of Mrs. Harris that she reached Omaha from Iowa City, traveling on foot until she gave out and

could walk no further, then riding the rest of the way upon a cow, the only beast of burden which she possessed. These were the days of small things, but they were not despised. That. little handful of devoted Christians have become "a thousand times so many as they were."
     In December, 1856, the first Methodist Episcopal Church was dedicated, the Rev. Moses F. Shinn officiating. Rev. J. M. Chivington succeeded Isaac Collins as pastor at Omaha; Rev. J. W. Taylor succeeded J. M. Chivington, Rev. William M. Smith succeeded J. W. Taylor and I followed Brother Smith.
     The fourth session of the Kansas and Nebraska Conference met in Omaha April 14, 1859. The minutes of the first day's proceedings contain the following record: "The transfers of Hugh D. Fisher, a traveling elder, from the Pittsburg Conference, and H. T. Davis, a traveling deacon from the Northwest Indiana Conference were announced, and they were introduced to the Conference."
     We received a royal welcome from this hardy band of pioneer Methodist preachers, and at once felt at home among them. At this Conference I was ordained elder by the venerable Bishop Scott, and was appointed to Omaha City Station. We had supplied Bellevue the nine months preceding the Conference, and had, under God, made many warm friends. They confidently expected our

return. When we returned from the Conference and the people learned that we had been appointed to Omaha, they manifested the deepest sorrow and the bitterest regrets. We were very glad they were sorry. It was a real comfort to us. We would not for the world, hardly, have had them feel otherwise. No minister wants the people to feel glad when he is gone.
     Believing that a farm would not be a bad thing for a preacher to have when old and no longer able to preach, we availed ourselves of the privilege of the pre-emption law, took a claim, built a small house, moved in, and lived there the time prescribed by law; then "proved up," and I received a title to our land from the Government.
     From our claim, eight miles west of Bellevue, we moved to our new appointment. We could not go by railroad or steamboat. We were beyond the reach of these. The whistle of the locomotive had never been heard in Nebraska and only those living along the Missouri River had the benefit of steam navigation.
     To obtain a carriage in which to ride was out of the question. We tried to hire a span of horses and wagon in which to move, but in vain. So we had to do the next best thing, take what we could get--an ox-team. In the wagon we loaded our goods, and about the twenty-fifth day of

April the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Omaha, and his wife, might have been seen riding behind a yoke of oxen up Farnham Street and down Seventeenth to the parsonage.
     At that day Omaha was five years old, and had a population of about two thousand souls.
     The Indians were then very numerous in Nebraska. They frequently passed through the city, and hardly a day went by but what we met some of them. Often the window would suddenly darken, and Mrs. Davis would look up and see from one to a half dozen "red-skins" staring at her through the window. At first the sight would startle her, but she soon became accustomed to it, and when they came would cry out to them, "Pucachee! Pucachee!"-" Begone! Begone!" Sometimes they would leave at once; at other times they would hang around for a time, waiting for a present. They were great beggars, and often when they came would not leave until something in the way of food or clothing was given them.
     At that time we had a small brick church, right in the center of Omaha. On this church there was a debt of $500. The panic of 1857 had left the city flat, financially. The creditors wanted their money. To raise it from the people of Omaha was an impossibility. The Quarterly Conference requested the pastor to go East and try

and raise the amount needed. I went back to my old Conference in Indiana, and in a few weeks returned with money enough to liquidate the debt. The official Board was happy, and the whole Church rejoiced. The Conference year closed under favorable auspices. The society, though small, was in a healthy condition, and was entirely free from debt.
     The Kansas and Nebraska Conference met that year--March 16, l860--in Leavenworth, Kansas. There were no railroads, and travel on the Missouri River at that season of the year was very uncertain. So we took it the old-fashioned way, and went on horseback. The distance we had to travel in order to reach the seat of the Conference was about two hundred miles. We were one week going and one week returning, and at the Conference a week, being absent just three weeks.
     On our way down we stopped over night at Falls City, near the Kansas line. This city was then two years old, and had about a dozen houses. We were kindly entertained during the night at the residence of Brother and Sister Miller. Afterwards, while traveling the Nebraska City District, I was often hospitably entertained by this kind family.
     During the Kansas troubles Falls City was one of the stations of the "underground railway"

of old John Brown. The mettle of which the old hero was made was shown in an incident which took place on one of his last trips from Kansas with his "dusky train." Having. reached. this station with his refugees, he was overtaken by a band of South Carolina Rangers, who proposed to carry their chattels back "to the galling serfdom of the sunny South." But the proud Southerners had mistaken the strength of their foe. Brown, with his men, quietly surrounded them, and compelled them by superior force to surrender; then stepping to the front, he gave them a scathing rebuke for the profanity they had heaped upon the "colored folks." He ordered the rangers to kneel down. They obeyed, and repeated after him the Lord's Prayer. Then, taking from them their horses and arms, he sent them back on foot from whence they came, while he and his freed slaves proceeded on their way rejoicing.
At the Leavenworth Conference a resolution was passed requesting the General Conference, which met the following May, to divide the Conference. That request was acceded to, and the Conference was divided in May, 1860. The Kansas Conference included the Territory of Kansas, and the Nebraska Conference the Territory of Nebraska.
On the 19th of March, after a harmonious sitting, the Kansas and-Nebraska Conference closed

its fifth session. And as that beautiful and touching hymn of Charles Wesley rolled up from a crowded audience, the hearts of all present were filled with solemnity and deep emotion

"And let our bodies part-
To different climes repair."

     That hymn was made doubly impressive from the fact that we believed the General Conference would accede to our wishes and divide the Conference, and that in all probability we would never be permitted to meet many of our brethren again until we hailed them in the skies. With anxiety we waited to hear the appointments read.
     I quote the following from a letter I wrote to the Western Christian Advocate at the close of this Conference:
     "Having received our appointments, we took each other by the hand, gave the parting goodbye, and hurried away to our respective fields of labor. In looking over the history of the Kansas and Nebraska Conference we can but exclaim, 'What hath God wrought!' The little handful who, five years ago, raised the standard of the cross in these Territories, has swelled to a mighty army. And to-day is heard the clarion voice of the faithful itinerant, rousing the soldiers of Christ to arms, and calling for volunteers for Jesus, in almost every settlement of these Territories, and throughout the valleys and peaks of the Rocky


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