Omaha Illustrated

OMAHA ILLUSTRATED.

Omaha's manufactures must necessarily be considered a factor of its importance, though the city's manufacturing interests may be justly said to be yet in their infancy. There are about 100 manufacturing concerns now established here, though previous to 1882 they did not number a score. At present about 6,000 skilled workmen are employed, the monthly pay-rolls footing up about $450,000. Of these the most important concerns are the railroad shops, employing 1,500 men, the Grant Smelting Works (the largest in the world), employing 500 men, Carter White Lead Works, Willow Springs Distillery, Garneau Cracker Co., Paxton and Vierling Iron Works, Woodman Linseed Oil Works, foundries, nail works, carriage works and brick yards -- the latter employing 1,500 men, and still being unable to supply the demand

WILLOW SPRINGS DISTILLERY.

for building brick, although an abundance of suitable clay exists. It may be, said upon this subject of manufactures that no city in the United States offers greater advantages as a point for manufactories than Omaha does. It is located in the heart of a large and populous region which is made tributary by an extensive and comprehensive system of railways centering in it. With the great coal fields of Iowa adjacent, and competing lines bringing cheap fuel to the city, the question of cheap motive power is solved, and that is a prime consideration with the manufacturer. Coal for manufacturing purposes is at present being delivered in Omaha in car lots at $1.50 per ton. And as for a market, Omaha has the commanding position over that entire portion of the great and growing West and Northwest, which includes Nebraska, western Iowa, southern Dakota, northern Kansas, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho.
There has been another marked feature of Omaha's growth and development -- the increase in value of its realty and the large investments of capital which have been made therein

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OMAHA ILLUSTRATED.

The causes thereof can readily be found, of course, in the natural growth of the city, and the enhancements produced by the vast public improvements. Previous to 1882, from which the Omaha of to-day is commonly dated, the transactions in Omaha real estate did not foot up $1,000,000 a year. In 1883, the first year after Omaha began its public improvements, the total of real estate transactions footed up $3,763,964. In 1885 the total reached $6,157,040.

[Carl A. Fried was born in Beckaby, Sweden, July 1, 1844, coming to America at the age of nineteen. He located at Andover, Illinois, but shortly after joined the government engineer corps under Gen. Wright, then in service in the army of the Tennessee. At the close of the war he returned to Illinois and found employment as salesman. On April 1, 1866 he married Mary, the daughter of Otto Lobeck, a prominent merchant in Geneseo, central Illinois. Three years later Mr. Fried, encouraged by the glowing reports
from the West, came to Nebraska and entered a homestead near Oakland. The life of a farmer was, however, not to Mr. Fried's taste, so in 1872 he went to Fremont and engaged as a clerk in the hardware store of H. J. Lee. In August 1873, he opened a hardware store as C. A. Fried & Co., Fremont; but a couple of years later he and Mr. Lee joined fortunes and the firm became H. J. Lee & Co, wholesale and retail hardware business at Fremont. In 1880 the business bad grown to such proportions and the development of Omaha and Nebraska had been so great that the firm of Lee & Fried sought here the better location which Omaha afforded. March 1, 1880, they opened on Douglas street the establishment which has since grown to be one of the largest in the West. In September of that year the	THE LATE CARL A. FRIED.	firm became Lee, Fried & Co., and thus it became identified with Omaha. Mr. Fried was one of Omaha's best citizens and his untimely death at Glenwood Springs, Colo., August 16, 1887, whither he had gone in search of health, was deeply deplored by the business community. He was an untiring, energetic man of great business ability, courteous to all, and a man of high motives. As a leading member of the Omaha Board of Trade he was foremost in enterprises for furthering the community's advancement and the spread of information concerning its resources and advantages as a city. He had faith in Omaha and was untiring in his devotion to the city. The immense establishment which largely grew to its proportions under his care was proof of the correctness of his judgment that Omaha was
properly the wholesale and jobbing Center of the upper Missouri valley. His loss to the city was therefore deeply felt, the esteem in which he was held being generally expressed. Mrs. Fried and their family of seven children survive him.]

The year 1886 showed even a more marked increase, the total reaching $15,080,685, and 1887 makes an enormous showing, the total approximating $35,000,000. This great increase in real estate transactions had, of course, something of the speculative in it, but nothing beyond the legitimate. Values were increased, but not inflated. In instances, extremely desirable business property in the heart of the city attained a value of $2,000 per front foot, but the average business lot in the business area has not attained a value above from $1,200 to $1,500. The best criterion to be cited is that the highest figures yet put upon Omaha realty still prevail, and are yet lower in proportion than prices on similar property in Kansas City, St. Paul, Denver or other western cities of Omaha's class.
The outlying realty -- that fitted for residence purposes -- is not proportionately less valuable than property in the business portion. judicious investments of capital in street transit lines have made almost every portion of the twenty-five square miles area of the city readily accessible. There are at present twenty-seven miles of horse railway in opera-

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OMAHA ILLUSTRATED.

tion, six miles of cable railway and twenty miles of motor line in course of construction. Besides these, the Belt Line railroad circles the city and has stations at various points, and

the Union Pacific and Burlington roads have hourly trains to South Omaha. There are other lines projected to further provide citizens with means of rapid transit from their homes to the central portion of the city, all designed upon a comprehensive plan contemplating Omaha as a city of half a million souls before the close of the century. The investments already made in street transit lines are placed at $3,000,000, which amount will be increased next year by another million, if projects now in contemplation arc carried out. Quite as important a feature of	MENDELSSON & LAWRIE ARCHITECTS. Y. M. C. A. BUILDING.
urban life is brought to attention. in the city water works, for which ground was first

[In 1875 Mr. A. L. Strang opened a small house on a side street, between Farnam and Harney, for the purpose of dealing in steam and water supplies. The business prospered, and so increased in six years as to require more room and increased facilities, and he erected on the corner of Tenth and Farnam streets one of the finest business blocks in the city, four stories, with basement.
THE A. L. STRANG BLOCK.		In February, 1884, his still increasing business made incorporation necessary, and the A. L. Strang Company was formed, with a capital stock paid in of $155,000, the stockholders in which are Messrs. A. L. Strang, J. H. McConnell, D. C. Templeton, D. O. Mills, S. L. Dillie, Charles Martin and others, A. L. Strang being president, J. H. McConnell, secretary, and D. C. Templeton, treasurer. The greater part of the business of this Company is contract work, such as railway supplies, steam and water supplies, city water works, hydraulic elevators and milling machinery, and extends beyond Omaha to other cities and towns in the West, the Lincoln Water Works being one of the specimens of the work of this company. The company represents and deals in all the best mechanism and mechanical appliances in use, is the special Western agent of the Huxton Steam Heater, the Hamilton-Corliss Engine, manufactured at Hamilton, Ohio; the Porter Engines, manufactured at Syracuse, New York, and sole agent of the celebrated Knowles Pumps. Besides the large local force necessary in the conduct of its business, the company has often a force of 200 men employed on various outside con-

tracts. As a representative of the business and enterprise of Omaha and the capacity of the city to meet in this direction all the reasonable demands of the West, the A. L. Strang Company is worthy of the fullest confidence, and reflects great credit upon Omaha as the trans-Missouri center for mechanical work and supplies on a large scale, which formerly Eastern cities furnished.]

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