Nebraska History posts materials online for your personal use. Please remember that the contents of Nebraska History are copyrighted by the Nebraska State Historical Society (except for materials credited to other institutions). The NSHS retains its copyrights even to materials it posts on the web. For permission to re-use materials or for photo ordering information, please see: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/magazine/permission.htm Nebraska State Historical Society members receive four issues of Nebraska History and four issues of Nebraska History News annually. For membership information, see: http://nebraskahistory.org/admin/members/index.htm Article Title: Who’s In Charge? A Framework for Examining Community Leadership in Omaha over the Past Century Full Citation: Garneth O Peterson, “Who’s in Charge? A Framework for Examining Community Leadership in Omaha over the Past Century,” Nebraska History 72 (1991): 99-110. URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NHOmahaLeadership.pdf Date: 4/30/2014 Article Summary: This article examines who Omaha’s leaders have been and what roles they played in the community. Divided into four periods, there are the Ground Floor Men, the Organization Men and the Political Machine, the Interregnum [the “interval”], and the Rise of the Corporate Leaders. Cataloging Information: Names: A J Hanscom, A J Poppleton, Byron Reed, John I Redick, Herman Kountze, Edward Creighton, John Creighton, William A Paxton, Gurdon W Wattles, Edward Rosewater, Ezra Millard, Joseph Millard, Frank B Johnson, Tom Dennison, Roy Towl, Dan Butler, Henry Doorly, Charles W Leeman, A V Sorensen, Paul Williams, Michael Boyle Keywords: Omaha National Bank; First National Bank; Creighton University; Union Pacific Railroad; Trans- Mississippi and International Exposition of 1898; Grain Exchange; Omaha’s National Corn Expositions [1908 and 1910]; Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway; Omaha Business Men’s Association; Ninth Street Warehouse Canyon; Martin Bomber Plant; Offutt Field; Life magazine; Midwest Electric Supply; Central Park Mall; Northwestern Bell; ConAgra; Enron [Internorth]; McManis and Associates Photographs / Images: Central Park Mall [courtesy of Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce]; Andrew J Poppleton; John A Creighton; J A Millard; William A Paxton; Union Pacific headquarters, Omaha, from Daily Graphic April 8, 1881; Omaha stockyards area; Mayor Dan Butler from Bostwick-Frohardt Collection, owned by KMTV; Henry Doorly and A V Sorensen [courtesy of Omaha World Herald]; Omaha Douglas County Civic Center [courtesy of Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce] WHO'S IN CHARGE? A FRAMEWORK FOR EXAMINING COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP IN OMAHA OVER THE PAST CENTURY By Garneth O. Peterson Garneth Peterson, now a resident of St. officials to biographies of mayors to relating in some way to the questions of Paul, Minnesota, has been an Omaha city questions of what leadership is and leadership in Omaha, these studies planner and has also written and taught which groups held it, research has been reported the various types of men who Omaha history. She is apastpresident ofthe Historical Society ofDouglas County. carried out to identify the various led Omaha over a century. This article facets ofthe ratherintangible quality of attempts to examine who Omaha's "leadership." leaders have been and what roles they Studies of community leadership Scholars and journalists have played in the community. It aims to have been a mainstay of publications in explored the question of leadership in provide a preliminary framework for history, political science, and urban Omaha through all of these types of examining community leadership in studies scholarship for decades. From studies, although not all authors the city, as a way of organizing our quantitative analyses of elected focused explicitly on that question. By thoughts about Omaha's growth and Central Park Mall. Courtesy of Greater Omaha Chamber of Com­ merce. Nebraska History - Summer 1991 development throughout its history. became First National. Herman In recognizing the elusive nature of Kountze purchased land throughout "leadership," this study does not the city as well and probably had more attempt to enforce a definition of the subdivisions named for him than did word. Leadership could be identified any other man in the city's history.3 through sources such as local election Edward and John Creighton came to statistics, chamber of commerce board Omaha in 1856. Edward built the first lists, or a whole collection of other telegraph line to the West coast by quantitative indicators. This paper, 1862, while John Creighton was an however, relies on the subjective rule of early freighter, hauling supplies to who has the powerto "getthings done." Montana miners and Union Pacific Although on some occasions elected Railroad construction crews. The officials have approached that level of Creightons made their fortunes on control, more often than not that power transportation and communication in in Omaha has resided with the business the opening West, but funneled most of and corporate magnates. their wealth back into Omaha through The four categories of leaders sug­ their business activities and into gested below also parallel developmen­ Creighton University, churches, and tal periods of Omaha's growth, and are hospitals in the city. Edward Creighton perhaps more reflective of the times died young in 1874, but John lived into which shaped the context in which they the twentieth century. As a benevolent led than examples of leadership types. presence in Omaha, John oversaw the The city's leaders changed as the city family business interests and invest­ grew from its frontier roots to a ments and helped fund such major transportation and manufacturing enterprises as the Union Stockyards economy. They changed again as Company.4 Omaha evolved into the post-World Andrew J. Poppleton. (NSHS-P853) Although a contemporary of the War II financial and service center that Kountzes and Creightons, William A. has completely altered the city's image Paxtonwas a leaderofa different sortin of itself in the last quarter century. control in establishing the territorial early Omaha. A wild and rough frontier capital in Omaha. Pioneer realtor type, he started as a freighter hauling The Ground Floor Men - Nineteenth Byron Reed made his wealth in real supplies to the miners in Colorado. century expansion and the develop­ estate speculation, as did attorney Paxton secured a Union Pacific ment of new towns in the West pro­ John I. Redick and numerous other Railroad grading contract, and invest­ vided a fertile field for enterprising early businessmen who purchased ed the considerable earnings in the men who looked for opportunities to property soon after arrival and simply commodity that became the basis ofhis grow and prosper. These were the men waited for the city to expand and fortune - cattle. Anticipating the who came to the frontier to speculate in envelop their holdings.2 growth of the cattle and meatpacking land development or to provide the Despite the contributions made by industry, Paxton became the first presi­ commodities the new cities needed to these early activists whose names have dent of the Union Stockyards Com­ grow and expand. In Omaha, they survived in street, park, and town pany, which built South Omaha into a arrived soon after Nebraska Territory names, there was another group of meatpacking center.5 was opened in 1854 or in the big growth early arrivals who operated on a gran­ The "ground floor men" provided year of 1856. These men "got in on the der scale. These leaders included Omaha's early leadership, investing in ground floor," made their investments families such as the Kountzes, business enterprises and carving a city and fought to insure that their new set­ Millards, and the Creightons, who had from a speculative town site. Some, like tlement and financial security would personal wealth or business connec­ the Creightons, made their fortunes flourish.' tions that gave them power beyond from the transportation and com­ Most of Omaha's ground floor men local politics. Ezra and Joseph Millard munication networks ofthe West, while were of Yankee stock and came to the organized the bank that became others, like the Kountzes and Millards, city with some education and training. Omaha National Bank. The four developed theirwealth from the growth Early arrivals such as A. J. Hanscom Kountze brothers, who had made a for­ of Omaha as a center serving this new and A. J. Poppleton were trained as tune carrying freight for the federal hinterland. Of all of the community attorneys and exercised some initial government, established the bank that leaders, Paxton was most the rugged 100 Leadership in Omaha individualist who followed the typical Bank. But his civic interests continued pioneer or Horatio Alger mold of"mak­ as he helped organize the Grain ing good" on the frontier.6 Exchange, served as president of One other side of Omaha in its early Omaha's National Corn Expositions in years should also be addressed. Much 1908 and 1910, and later acted as of Omaha's early growth was tied to the Federal Food Administrator of Ne­ Union Pacific Railroad, which provided braska during World War 1.9 a basis for the city's later development While Wattles's community booster as a wholesaling and processing center activities typified the new civic leader, and was a central factor for the creation his role as president of the Omaha and of the Union Stockyards. Except for Council Bluffs Street Railway pro­ Paxton, this same group of early vided another somewhatless appealing leaders had fought to secure not only aspect of leaders of his day. As presi­ the railroad but the railroad bridge as dent of the company in 1909, Wattles well. Omaha's leaders played a subser­ acted to crush the efforts of streetcar vientrole to the Eastern capitalists, but workers who went on strike for union as long as the railroad (and later the recognition and a pay raise.