The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1891-08-22
0MAHA'S fIRSr CITIZENS.
They Were Irish-Americans Who
First Settled There, and
They Die Much.
JOHN AND EDWARD CREIGHTON

Creighton College Tells the Visitor What
They Did For That
Busy City.
A correspondent of the Boston Pilot
gives the following interesting account
of some leading Irish Americans Of
| Omaha:
Rarely has it been my good fortune to
see 80 fair prospect as that which /
witnessed in iourneying through Ne
braska. The whole eastern part Of the
State seemed like vast garden, luxur-
iantly fruitful. and smiling with the
glad promise of golden harvest. The
state has an area equal to that of Great
Britain. Its population at present is
less than that OF the single city of Chi.
cago and only one-ffth that of London;
yet It's soil is capable nf supporting a
population greater than that OF the
whole of New England. The most
sheltered valleys Of Lombardy, or the
most fruitful wales Of India, do not pos
sess more prolific and luxuriant soil.
There is no limit to its productiven esq,
save fickleness of the seasons and the
unkindness Of the heavens. Owing to
the lack of rain in the western part,
much of the land has remained as fruit
less as Siberian wastes, and at times
droughts make sad havoc of a longed-
for harvest. But in spite Of these dis
advantages, Nebraska must justly rank
as one of the prime garden States Of
the Union.
''Twenty. five years ago." said a West
err pioneer. as we rode along the valley
OF Platte, now teeming With magnifi-
cent crops, IL herded cattle along these
plains, In the whole of Nebraska
there were not 800 farm houses, and
outside the few mushroom towns along
the Mississippi it was hardly safe for a.
white man to dwell. These plains,
baked by a parchlng heat in summer,
and swept by fierce stoams in the win.
ter. looked almost too desoIate for the
red man to live in, a single genera
tion has changed all this, and the des~
ert is transformed into a smiling and
lovely land. Tens OF thousands OF hap
by homes are scattered over the plains,
and the wild whoop of the Indian has
given place to the merry laughter of
happy children, or the light carols of
youth and maiden. Civilization has
conquered and reclaimed the desert"
There never was nobler race of con-
querors than the pioneers Of this
mighty Western empire. Their long
continued toll and sweat fertiliZed and
made fruitful region more vast and
extensive than ever owned the sway Of
an Alexander or a Napoleon. Theirs
was ]ifs of labor and privatioD, and
not they, but their children and the
world at large reaped the fruits thereof.
The capitalist and the monOpolies too
often put tax upon their industry, and
compelled them to fight against those
who should have been their allies. To
me, the men who braved and Cvercame
the thousand obstacles that beset the
march of civilization IN this Western
Ian, are truer heroes than were the
men of Napoleon's Old Guard, who
never fipched or feared from Auster-
litz to Waterloo, and never knew de-
feat till on that fatal day
The outside world cannot possibly re-
alize the transformation that has taken
place beyond the Mississippi in one SID
gle generation. Look back at this city
of Omaha then, and gaze upon her now.
Thirty years ago village of few hun
dred frontiersmen, to-day she sits like
a queen city throned upon her many
hills, and smiling in the pride of her
wondrous prosperity at the swift rush
ing waters of the Mississippi. The log
cabins have given place to magnificent
business blocks and palatial residences.
The few hundred frontiersmen Of that
time grew to be 10000 in 1870. to 10000
in 1880, and to $50, 900 in 1891.
Omaha h assumed all the trappings
of great metropolis. 1t is the best
paved and best lighted city in the
United States. 1t boasts sixty five
miles OF electric street railway and 20
miles Of horse and cable lines.
Its banking institutions, like the
First National Bank of Omaha. which
is trading with capital and surplus of
q million and haa fOnr million nn DO
posit, are comparable to any in the
country. Its newspapers are sumptous-
ly lodged, like the Bee, which occupies
q magnificent building that cost $780,
coo. Its schools. colleges. churches and
public institutions are the pride Of it's
citizens and the admiration of strang
ers. But it is the lovely homes and ex-
quisite villas that line its streets and
avenues. and crown its many hills, that