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On-Line Library
1880-1930
foreword
THESE sketches of early conditions in the Prairie Capital were written at the instance of Mr. John E. Miller for the observance of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the beginning of his business career in Lincoln. Their purpose is not to offer a connected narrative nor to contribute to the already adequate data of local history. Their object is to suggest in outline some of the situations, conditions, events and institutions of the beginnings of the city and state; and especially to suggest that spirit of the youthful founders which has persisted with but slight impairment to the present tinme, a spirit which contributes so largely to the character and charm of the modern city.
Retrospect
IT HAS not been a
habit with Miller & Paine to indulge in "Anniversary" sales,
but after fifty years we have concluded that it is justifiable and
appropriate.
At once we will explain that this is not
actually the fiftieth anniversary of Miller & Paine but the
fiftieth anniversary of the business career in Lincoln of the
undersigned.
It was in the spring of 1879 that I came to
Lincoln at the suggestion of Captain J. W. Winger, by whom I had
been employed some years previously in a country store in
Pennsylvania. I entered his service as a salesman, and
incidentally, as bookkeeper, janitor and porter. At first Mr.
Winger and I did all of the work, but in a little while Sam Latta
(Dr. Samuel E. Latta, now of Stockton, California) was added to
our force and a little later Charley Rohman, who had just come
from Illinois, was engaged. The store was on P street between
Tenth and Eleventh streets. Its dimensions were about 22x6O feet
with a wareroom for sugar and salt in an adjoining building. Our
stock was confined to very staple groceries, dry goods, boots and
shoes. As our sales were largely to farmers, we took in
exchange
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Retrospect
all of the butter and eggs they offered. The butter now would
be graded medium to very poor, but it was as good as could be
produced with the facilities, or rather the lack of facilities,
available. At any rate, the people of the town accepted it as the
best they could get.
In the summer of 1880, as recently noted in The
State Journal column of "Fifty Years Age," Mr. Winger erected a
two-story brick building on the south side of O street just east
of Eleventh, expecting to move his business thre. About the time
the building was completed Mr. Henry Herpolsheimer offered to rent
this building at $125 per month and as that was quite as much as
Mr. Winger had expected to make in his business, he decided to let
him have it and close out the business on P street. I at once made
arrangements to enter the service of Mr. Herpolsheimer. However,
closing out an old stock proved a difficult job, and then Mr.
Winger proposed that we should continue the business as partners.
I had very little money and much of the merchandise had very
little value, but I thought it a great opportunity nevertheless.
About two years later we moved to a larger room (or rooms) in the
Griffith Building (in the corner of Tenth and P streets) where we
remained until the summer of 1885.
Those were the days of corduroys, Kentucky jeans
and cottonades for men, heavy grey flannel or quilted petticoats
for women and red medicated (?) flannels for men, women and
children. By that
Retrospect
time we were having considerable city (?) business, and hoop
skirts, and bustles were popular items.
Corn in those days not infrequently went below
20c a bushel. Freight rates from New York to Lincoln averaged less
than half of the rates in effect during the past fifteen years
with free tickets to and from Chicago thrown in.
Raymond Brothers, wholesale grocers, were at
that time located on the southeast corner of the intersecton of
Eleventh and P and the residence of John R. Clark, one of the
prominent bankers of the city, just back of them on P street. T.
P. Quick did business on the square directly across P street and
John Sheedy occupied the second floor of the Quick building. The
Burlington land office was on the corner just across P street from
Winger & Miller. The Atwood hotel was an the corner now
occupied by the Journal building. The Journal was then located on
the southwest corner of the intersection of Ninth and O streets.
Louis Meyer's store was on the east side of the square and David
May's clothing store, Turner's Drug store and Fred Schmidt's were
all located on the south side.
When I came to Lincoln John L. McConnell and J.
& D. Newman were the lending dry goods stores and both were
located on the south side of O street between Tenth and Eleventh
streets. Doyle and Cheater, located on the east side of Eleventh
between N and O atreets, were the sensational advertisers of that
period, but lasted only a little while.
Retrospect
Dry goods stores came at the rate of one to
three a year from that time on, but that of Mr. Herpolsheimer is
the only one that survived.
As I now recall, the only retail businesses in
Lincoln fifty years ago that have continued to this date in the
same family are Hardy's, Harley's, Hallet's and Herpolsheimer's.
The only wholesalers that cover the same period are Raymond
Brothers and Lau's.
In the summer of 1885 Winger & Miller sold
the store on P street to Meyers Nissley & Company and a few
months later Miller & Paine, under the name of J. E. Miller,
opened with a stock of dry goods and carpets in a three story
building just erected by Mrs. McConnell on the comer of Tenth and
N streets. Hardy's furniture store occupied the room on the corner
and we were next door. After about three years there, and then a
little longer time in the Latta (now Brownell) building on
Eleventh street., we moved to our present location, or rather to a
part of our present location. "Old timers" will remember that we
succeeded "Fatty" Holtman who had occupied the Paine building and
later the Fish Market on the Tucker corner. When we incorporated a
few years after coming to O street, it was for the purpose of more
directly interesting in the business some of our more important
employees. Among these were Mr. Grant Watkins, Mr. E. H. Steckley,
Miss Lucille Miller and Mr. George O. Smith.
Retrospect
For many years it has been our determined
policy to give the people of Nebraska just as good a store as they
would support, and we are now ready to leave it to others to say
whether or not we have succeeded.
From time to time there will appear in
connection with our regular advertisements, short articles by a
well-known gentleman who has spent all of his life in Nebraska.
These articles will give a picture of the Lincoln of long ago that
we are confident will he of interest not only to "old timers" but
to those as well who are familiar with the Lincoln of today.
[11]
The Prairie Capital
1880 1930
The First Long Pants
SEPTEMBER 1, 1880, the Prairie Capital called itself at last a City. It had been, indeed, from the very first officially a "city" and narrowly had escaped being named "Capital City." In the minds of its fiercely loyal citizens it long had been a "city". But at last on this day there was no room for doubt about it. Neither official designation nor local partiality need be invoked to declare its truly urban status. The census had been taken. The figures had been published. Lincoln, the Prairie Capital had a population of 13,003 souls. Like a
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T H E P R A I R I E C A P
I T A L
boy with his first long pants, the town strutted just a
little.
Thirteen thousand and three--it was an eyeful
and a mouthful. Where they had been found was known only to the
supervisor of the count and that wise guy was too discreet to
tell. An impartial observer (there was none, but just suppose)
might have doubted whether all of the 13,003 had souls. But
however reached and however classified the figures were official.
The town was satisfied. The enumerator had done a good job. One
nose counter had waited in the small hours of the morning until
the stork had added one more soul to the town's total. That man
overlooked no bets. His rival for popular approval was the
colleague, who, hearing of on accident likely to result fatally to
its victim, dropped everything to rush out and enroll one more
soul before it was subtracted from the town's total. A citizen
whose family had lately been enlarged by the addition of twins,
generally was thought to have deserved well of the public. The
town was content. After twelve years of bitter struggle it was at
last a city.
T H E P R A I R I E C A P
I T A L
Shorts and Tuxedos
THE Prairie Capital of
fifty years ago called itself a city. By the standards of that
time the claim was valid. By those of 1930 it would appear to lack
some of the essentials of a city. What is lacked was at times
conspictuous, as if a reveler should appear in shorts and a
tuxedo.
In the neighborhood of tenth and O streets a
grouping of store buildings marked the heart of the city. Few were
more than two stories. Many of them were of one story and some of
these tried to mask their lowly stature by the false front of two
stories, so characteristic of the towns of the region. Wooden
sidewalks in the business district did not in many cases extend
far beyond it. Streets, far too wide, were unpaved. In winter and
spring they were deep in mud. In summer they were equally deep
in
T H E P R A I R I E C A P
I T A L
dust. They were unpoliced. They were unlighted. The First
National Bank maintained at times a light on the corner at Tenth
and O, and was much commended by the paper for its enterprise.
To the north the single building of the
University bounded the city. To the south and east the Capitol
closed the view. For the most part the town lay between and around
these two. A long way out on D street and 17th the Chapins lived.
Still further out at 26th and J, Guy Brown had his two roomed
cottage. The houses of the city were mostly wood. They were all
small and all unfenced. They were so widely spaced that traffic
was not confined to the road, but went conveniently across lots.
The family horse and the family cow were institutions. Not
infrequently there was a pig. Every alley had its manure pile. The
city's first garbage plant known as the "slop wagon" made
infrequent rounds. Every back lot furnished proof that there were
no sanitary sewers. Near by was the well. Sometimes the doctors
were overworked.
Houses had no central heating. Dwellings,
stores, University and State House were heated by stoves. For the
most part they were lighted by oil lamps though some of them had
gas. There was no domestic plumbing. The family wash tub did
double duty. On Saturday night it washed the family. On Monday
morning it washed the family clothes. Pretense was impossible in
view of the unabashed dis-
T H E P R A I R I E C A P
I T A L
closures of the wash line. Everything was there but the family
skeleton.
Down town a certain number of liquor saloons
were public institutions. Only slightly more retired from public
notice were certain allied establishments. Their location and
their nature wre known to everybody. Everybody also knew where the
gambling houses were. Nearly everyone had a dislike for the
presence of these features of city life. But what could you do
about it? Every city had them. Somehow your town wasn't a city
unless it, too, had them.
If the Prairie Capital in the elation of knowing
that it possessed 13,003 souls strutted a little like a boy with
his first long pants, it is also to be said that like that same
boy it was a little careless about washing behind the ears.
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