Omaha daily bee., 1903-04-05
BUCHANAN LEAVESNEBRASGA
After Helping to Convert Big Wilderness
Into Beauti nj Garden.
MORE r4ANrwENTY YEARS OF WORK HERE
How the Veteran Passenger Agent
Participated In work OF
Sending the Nebraska From
tier westward.

Major James r. Buchanan. general pas
senger agent for the Fremont, Elkhorn &
Missouri valley railroad from 1880 until
the time Of its absorption by the North
western, a little over a month ago. will
leave Sunday night for Waukesha. Wis,
where he and his wife viii make their flu
ture home. Mr.. Buchanan has some real
estate In Waukesha and is building a home
on a portion OF Il. The state Is his wife's
own and many Of the old friends OF the
family live there. so hat they anticipate
much Joy in their new home.
When the major took charge OF the pas
senger branch OF the Fremont. Elkhorn &
Missouri Valley railroad. twenty-five years
ago, the headquarters were at Missouri
Valley and the line extended only to Ne
ligh. Beyond and to the westward was a
barren and unsettled country without rail-
roads or roads. These who pushed west
ward did SO blindly and in prairie schoon-
ers. Along the track already laid there
were thousands Of acres of unbroken soil
waiting only for the farmer to turn It into
a garden that would raise food for the
east.
All OF this land, 20, 900, 900 acres, was
government land and practically free to
settlers. The land was good and fertile
and had great possibilities. The major
saw this and realized that it was the
chance for the poor man and the adven-
%turous, for the pioneer and his children.
Raised Cry of Free Land.
He raised the cry of free land for the
people and 1t spread and was heard in the
east and the sound carried further on to
Europe and a new people came out OF the
seats OF civilization and culture and cast
their lot with the virgin soil and the
trackless wastes. Towns sprang up where
farms had been and farms rose as II by
magic where only tracts of level prairie had
met the eye before,
The road pushed on westward and the
major raised his voice again and multi
tudes came at his call. A new people and
a new empire was founded In northern
Nebraska. The people were of a dozen
nationalities and combined the good and
the bad of their kind, the adventurous and
the depraved, men whose pasts were un-
revealed and men who stood on their own
merits.
And still the road pushed westward and
there vas ever a frontier to which this
man. a veteran of the railroad world, sent
new people, giving to them new homes and
new hopes for the children. The life was
hard and crude, but 1t made a people that
were strong in their own power and they
built a garden out Of a wilderness.
Again the road pushed forward and
reached the Black Hills. Again the major
reached out and gathered in people for
this new mining camp of the world. The
$4,000 people grew in fifteen years TO TO-
900 and the gold Of the hills was given
over to man.
Aud Omaha is to lose this man who
helped to make this long strip Of country
what it Is. He has built an empire 500
miles in length and 100 miles in width
simply by furnishing the people who were
to make 1t possible and this within twenty
years. Through his efforts the land has
been made to pay tribute and give to the
east and to Europe their meat and their
bread. And, now old in the service, a
change has come and the change has
brought a finish to his work. Younger
men have been called to succeed him and
he leaves the land that he has helped to
make and goes to the east to live out the
rest Of his span Of years in the land that
was his parents.
There is a rumor hat his work Is not
yet over and that the Southwestern Pas
senger Bureau, which has died out. is to be
revived and that ne is to be called to st.
Louis to AXE up a new work that is diff
ferent than his old and still travels along
the same lines somewhat.