452 OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK, 



protect the whites of Douglas County, In 1864, a 

 large band of Indians appeared on the Elkhorn and 

 so frightened the settlers that they poured into Omaha 

 before daylight. Business was suspended, a meeting 

 called in the Court House at two o'clock p. M., and 

 before sunset every able-bodied man was armed. This 

 promptness and efficiency so impressed the Indians 

 that no outbreak took place. 



In the late Civil War, Omaha responded nobly to 

 the call of the General Government. The First Kegi- 

 ment of Nebraska Volunteers, the First Battalion, the 

 Second Regiment Nebraska Volunteers, the First Ne- 

 braska Veteran Cavalry, and four companies of Cur- 

 tis' Horse, came almost entirely from Omaha. 



The first telegraph line reached Omaha in 1860. 



The first breaking of ground for the Union Pacific 

 Rail Road took place in Omaha, December 3, 1863. 



The first train from the East reached Omaha by 

 the Chicago and Northwestern route, January 17, 

 1867. 



So Omaha grew and prospered. It took about 

 twenty -seven years to bring it out of original wildness 

 to the state of excellency in which I found it as I 

 passed through on my horseback journey. Yet it 

 seems but yesterday since no human dwelling occupied 

 the place now covered by our young city. Here 

 the Indian council-fires burned ; on the bluffs, with 

 no more civilized weapon than his bow and arrow, 

 he hunted deer, buffalo, elk, bear and wolf. Here 

 his war whoop rang out clear and unmolested. Here 

 brave, free, unfearing, he dwelt, 



" Monarch of all he surveyed." 



And now he is completely effaced from this region. 



