PEN AND SUNLIGHT
SKETCHES OF OMAHA AND ENVIRONS
HANDSOMELY ILLUSTRATED. 1892.
PUBLISHED BY PHOENIX PUBLISHING COMPANY
Washington Block, CHICAGO, ILL.
ARTHUR H. BRIGGS. The most popular and fashionable hatter in Omaha is Mr. Arthur H. Briggs, whose attractive store is at the northeast corner of Fourteenth and Farnam streets. Mr. Briggs has been engaged in the hat business and occupied his present location since 1887. He is recognized as a leader in the business and numbers among his patrons many of the best citizens. He is always the first to introduce the new styles as soon as they are brought out in London, New York and Chicago and has built up a splendid custom. The store is 20x25 feet in area and contains a fine line of elegant silk hats in the new blocks in perfect accord with the prevailing modern fashionable ideas, also stiff hats in blacks, pearls, browns, grays, wool and cloth felt hats, caps of every description, and when in season the newest styles in straw goods. He also has a fine assortment of gloves of every kind, including fur gauntlets. Mr. Briggs is agent for John B. Stetson's celebrated soft and stiff hats and can supply the finest and best of everything at the very lowest prices. He is from the East, coming to Omaha in 1869, and has always taken an active interest in local affairs, and last fall was elected a state senator. Progressive, energetic and enterprising Senator Briggs is an upright business man and influential citizen.
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McCOY & CO. Among the enterprising and successful printing and engraving firms of this busy city, is that of McCoy & Co , who, although but a few years established in business, have secured a leading position in the foremost ranks of the trade. The premises occupied at 106 South Fourteenth street comprise a commodious floor 25x50 feet in area, which is equipped with several presses, and all the latest improved appliances and those adjuncts necessary for the purposes of the typographer's art. The firm possesses every facility for executing all branches of job and commercial printing in the most artistic manner, at the lowest prices consistent with equitable dealings. A specialty is made of engraving and printing wedding and visiting cards, and in every department the work turned out is for beauty of design, originality, superiority of workmanship and promptness, unexcelled by the products of all competitors. All orders receive prompt attention, and a large and substantial patronage, drawn from mercantile houses, societies and social organizations, has been already secured, and the future career of this reliable concern gives the most encouraging evidence of a long and prosperous one. Mr. H. McCoy, who is a native of Vinton, Iowa, was formerly in the employ of the Rees Printing Company of this city and had many years' experience previous to embarking in the present enterprise, and in all his dealings will be found liberal, punctual and up right. The telephone call of the house is 884.
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MRS. J BENSON. One of the most thorough business women in Omaha, who merits the success she has attained is Mrs. J. Benson, whose fancy dry goods and notion store is at 210 and 212 South Fifteenth street. Mrs. Benson first established her self in business in St. Joseph, Mich., away back in 1869. She remained there until 1872, when she removed to Freeport, Mich. She was not satisfied there, however, and conceiving Omaha to be a bigger and better field for her business she removed to this city in 1887. She has not been disappointed in her venture and at the end of each year she finds that she has transacted more business than she did the previous one. Mrs. Benson now employs constantly thirteen salesladies and help. She occupies a double store and basement which is 50x60 feet in size. The interior arrangement of the store at once attracts the eye of those who enter there. She uses the cash railway system. Her stock is very large and complete and consists of a full line of fancy dry goods, ladies' underwear, corsets, hosiery, laces, umbrellas, gloves, etc. A specialty is made of ladies' and children's furnishing goods and infants' outfits, art needle work and fancy dry goods. Her trade which is very large is not entirely local but extends to the various towns in the immediate vicinity of the city. Mrs. Benson was born in Plymouth, Mich., and is still on the sunny side of life. She carries the only exclusive stock of ladies' and children's furnishings, fancy dry goods and art needle work in Omaha. It is the finest line West of New York City.
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W. R. BENNETT COMPANY. The great leading emporium of wholesale and retail trade for Omaha and her vast tributary territory in the lines of groceries, crockery, glassware, house furnishing goods, furniture, etc., is that of theW. R. Bennett Company, which occupies the magnificent modern four-story premises extending from 1508 to 1514 Capital avenue. The busi ness was established in 1878 by Mr. W. R. Bennett, who early developed a flourishing trade. In 1888 the important interests involved were duly capitalized under the appro priate title of theW. R. Bennett Company, with a paid up capital of 9100,000, Mr. Bennett holding the bulk of same and discharging the duties of president, secretary and treasurer in the ablest manner. Mr. A. McMillan became manager and is especially qualified by reason of skill and experience. The store, now 66x84 feet in dimensions and four stories and basement high, is entirely inadequate for the volume of trade and the Company is about building an additional edifice on the adjoining lot, to be a one-story and basement brick, and which will give the establishment total dimensions of 132x104, thus rendering it by far the largest retail store in Omaha, affording employment to up wards of one hundred hands. Building operations are be ing iapidly prosecuted and the summer of 1892 will witness the completion of this vast mercantile establishment. The store is divided into numerous departments, and a thorough system of organization is enforced throughout. Here is an entire and complete stock of staple and fancy groceries, the purest, freshest and lowest priced in town; beyond is a comprehensive stock of drugs and sundries; china, queens- ware and glassware are carried here in a profusion nowhere else duplicated; so with all kinds of house-furnish ing goods, and boots and shoes, trunks and bags, toys, novelties, hardware, tools, cutlery, notions, etc., rugs, cur tains, shades, etc., fill a large department, while the stock of cabinet furniture is complete and quoted at lowest prices. There are also large storage warerooms for all kinds of goods on the upper floors. This is the popular headquarters for all the above descriptions of goods and the establishment is crowded with customers all day long. The greatest credit reflects upon Mr. Bennett, whose abil ity, energy and integrity have won such a great success. He is an old resident of Omaha, commencing business here in a small way, steadily enlarging same, bringing in new lines of goods as the demand arose and always making quality the first consideration. He has important whole sale connections and also does a heavy mail order trade. This is a model store. It has the electric light, while the cash railway system has been introduced. In addition Mr. Bennett owns and conducts a harness and horse goods store on North Fifteenth street, where is kept the fullest and most desirable line in town of harness (all grades), saddlery, bridles, horse clothing, turf and stable goods. Mr McMillan, the popular and able manager of this great concern, was born in Glengarry, Canada, and has been a resident here for twelve years. He has risen to his pres ent post by reason of hard work and honest dealings. Mr. Bennett, the president of the Company, is one of the most respected and public spirited of Omaha's citizens, and by his efforts has developed here an emporium second to none in the United States as regards its character, mag nitude and annual volume of sales.
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WOLFE ELECTRICAL COMPANY. The business of the Wolfe Electrical Company at 1614 Capital Avenue was established fifteen years ago by Mr. L. W. Wolfe & Co., who continued it until about two years ago, when the present style was adopted. The premises occupied are 22x75 feet in dimensions. Fifteen experienced men are employed in the installation of all kinds of electrical supplies, including isolated and city plants, electrical dynamos, motors, engines, batteries, annunciators, alarm bells, speaking tubes, electrical specialties, etc. This concern has done the work in many of the leading public buildings and finest residences of Omaha, and has a high reputation for superior work. The trade, of the company is with all sections of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Oregon and through to the coast, and even to far-off India and Siam. The firm just shipped a large lot of goods to the government of Siam to be used in building. The members of this firm are gentlemen of wide experience and high standing. Mr. Wolfe is a native of New Jersey, and has resided in Omaha twenty-three years.
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THE WESTERN NEWSPAPER UNION. The Western Newspaper Union, established at Des Moines, Iowa, in 1870, has grown to be the most extensive ready-print publishing concern in this country, having at this time large houses at Omaha, Chicago, Des Moines, Kansas City, Detroit, Denver, Dallas, St. Louis, Lincoln, Winfield, (Kansas) and New York City. At each of these places except New York (where the eastern advertising house is located), ready-prints are produced and shipped to every section of the country, nearly seventeen hundred publishers being supplied, some with daily but for the most part with weekly service. A capital of $750,000 is employed in con ducting the business of these various houses. In the same establishments, 800 men and women find steady and remunerative employment Seventy presses of the most improved pattern are brought into requisition, besides stereotyping apparatus, engines, boilers and other expensive machinery. The circulation of the seventeen hundred papers already referred to will average 650, giving a total of over 1,000,000 each week for the aggregated service, and to produce which requires the entire product of two of the largest paper mills in the country. Vast as is this business and wide as the area of territory over which it ex tends, the type-setting, printing, wrapping, shipping, etc., proceeds with a promptness and regularity that indicates the admirable system which years of experience have wrought for this old and reliable publishing company. The officers of the company are: Geo. A. Joslyn, Omaha, president and general manager; W. H. Remington, New York, vice-president; W. H. Welch, Chicago, secretary; H. C. Akin, Omaha, treasurer; A. E. Bunker, Omaha, Auditor. The Omaha establishment, of which H. C. Akin is manager as well as treasurer of the company, is headquarters for the extensive business that the Western Newspaper Union has in hand. It is, too, the leading house in the amount of business transacted, printing a greater number of papers than any of the other nine establishments mentioned. Though the fourth to be established in the wide area covered by the work of this company, its growth has been so great as to necessitate the making of it headquarters for the vast business to be compassed. The business of the Western Newspaper Union, as will be inferred from what has already been stated, is that of supplying weekly newspapers (and daily, too, for that matter) with ready-prints; in other words, furnishing partially printed sheets with almost any character of matter desired, and thus by this means greatly reducing to publishers the cost of maintaining their publications, while at the same time providing for the reader a much more acceptable paper than could be expected or hoped for if attempt was made to do all the work in the home office. It is, in short, a system of co-operation, by which the compiling of news, selection of miscellany, etc., is done at a central office by men of experience and ability, who have facilities for getting the best and getting it with a promptness that could not be hoped for by the individual publisher. In addition to its business of furnishing ready-prints, the Western Newspaper Union is a large dealer in job stock or paper supplies, and is the owner of the International Press Association which turns out the lightest and best type-high stereotype plate ever invented. The business in this department has increased wonderfully and bids fair to drive all other plates out of use. Mr. Geo. A. Joslyn, president and general manager of the Western Newspaper Union, has been with the company almost from its inception, and is thoroughly informed in regard to every part of the work. To his efforts is due in large measure the great success attending the business of the company. He directs as to how matters shall be conducted in all the various houses, and so efficient appears to be his management that the great business goes forward with the precision of clock work and with an increasing tendency that constantly calls for added expenditure and enlarged facilities. Omaha has many establishments that have rapidly come to the front with small beginnings, and among them the Western Newspaper Union, with its large and increasing business, stands conspicuously forth.
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JOS. P. FRENZER. One of the most attractive among the many handsome stores in this city is that of Mr. Joseph P. Frenzer the jeweler at Fifteenth and Dodge streets, opposite the Post Office. Mr Frenzer is a young man, was born in this city, and has had a valuable experience extending over thirteen years as a jeweler and watchmaker, nine of which he was with A. B. Hubermann. About two years ago, he embarked in business on his own account. The store is tastefully fitted up with plate glass show cases, electric lights, etc. Mr. Frenzer has displayed remarkable good taste in the se lection of his stock of goods, and exhibits some of the most beautiful jewelry to be seen in the city; also fine gold and silver watches, sparkling diamonds, solitaire and in clusters, solid silver, plated ware, clocks, optical goods, etc. A specialty is made of fine watch, clock and jewelry repair ing also diamond setting, engraving and manufacturing jewelry, badges, charms, etc., to order. Mr. Frenzer fully warrants his goods to be exactly as represented, and is well prepared to offer the very best bargains to buyers.
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MILTON ROGERS & SONS. Omaha can justly be congratulated upon the possession of one of the finest and largest wholesale and retail stove, furnace, range, mantel, grate and tile establishments in the state, namely, that of Messrs. Milton Rogers & Sons, whose offices and salesrooms are located on the corner of Fourteenth and Farnam streets. Mr. Milton Rogers, the enterprising founder of the business, was born in 1822 in Harford County, Md. , and was brought up on a farm in Columbiana County, Ohio. When eighteen years old he went to New Lisbon, Ohio, and learned the tin and coppersmiths' trade. After that he lived West in Indiana, Missouri and Iowa. In 1850, Mr. Rogers commenced business in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in 1855 established a branch house in Omaha He first bought a lot, 66x132 in area on the north side of Farnam street, between Ninth and Tenth streets for $150, and sold forty-four feet of it for the same price. In 1862, he bought the corner of his present site, 22x132 feet in area for $1,150, and built a one-story frame store building 22x60 feet in dimensions. In 1867, Mr. Rogers joined with the proprietors of the adjoining property and erected a three-story brick block extending to Thirteenth street. He first occupied his new store in January, 1868, and eventually purchased the store adjoining, built and occupied by Dr. J. K. Ish, and added it to his old establishment. The premises thus now occupied comprise a spacious three-story brick building with basement, the dimensions of which are 44x132 feet. The entire establishment is fully equipped with every convenience for the accommodation and display of the well selected, extensive and valuable stock carried by the firm, who keep a superior assortment of the most popular stoves, ranges, furnaces, mantels, grates, tiles, house furnishing goods, cutlery, etc. Only first-class goods are handled, and the wholesale trade of the house" now extends throughout Nebraska, Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and all parts of the West. In 1880, Mr. Rogers admitted his son, Thomas J., and in 1884, another son, Warren M Rogers into partnership, the firm being known by the title of Milton Rogers & Sons. The senior member of the firm was one of the original promoters of the city water works and vice-president of the same from 1880 to 1886 He is one of the original stock holders of the South Omaha Stock Yards, and one of the original parties to the South Omaha Land Syndicate, in which he is still largely interested. Mr Rogers has always refused, though pressed hard, nominations for public office, and is widely known and highly esteemed by the community for his energy and sterling integrity. Mr. T. J Rogers is a native of Council Bluffs, while Mr. W. M. Rogers was born in Omaha. They are honorable and progressive young businessmen, whose future prospects are of the most favorable character. The firm of Messrs. Milton Rogers & Sons, which employs over forty men in the various departments of the business, has built up an immense trade, and stands among the foremost commercial concerns in Omaha. This house has the contract for the tiling of the floors of the handsome new City Hall Building as follows: The first floor in genuine English Mosaic tile, and the second, third and fifth floors in the regular English tile, the whole costing about $*5.000 This will afford not only residents of but visitors to our city an opportunity of inspecting the superior character of the work executed by this successful firm.
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THE SMITH PREMIER TYPEWRITER CO. IMPROVEMENT THE ORDER OF THE AGE. This era of progress has given birth to many mechanical inventions of the greatest imaginable usefulness, none of which, however, exceed the wonderful typewriting machines of which so many kinds are now made, including the good, bad and indifferent. As this is pre-eminently a practical age, merchants, financiers and literary workers have not the time or inclination to waste money and labor on articles of inferiority, but always seek the best. This leads us to present in this review an account of the merits of the Smith Premier Typewriter, now conceded to be the best machine in mechanical construction, responsive action, light running, elastic, durable and perfect. The motto adopted by the makers of this splendid piece of machanism is "Improvement the Order of the Age," and working constantly toward this maxim they have made their machine the most perfect of any. It has the best arrangement of keys affording ease in manipulation and rapidity of action. The cylinder is so arranged that it may be drawn forward and the work inspected, or the true relation of a dropped letter found in a moment The cylinders are change able, so that a hard one may be used for heavy manifold ing by the change of a few seconds. The ink ribbon is manipulated by a duplex action that uses every particle of the surface from side to side as it feeds. The keys lock when the end of the line is reached. A type cleaning attachment enables the operator to clean the type in ten seconds without soiling the hands, and there are in ad dition to these peculiar advantages all the advantages claimed by other machines, so that this is indeed the "Premier" of writing machinery. On March 26, the War Department of the United States, after an examination by experts of different typewriters ordered the Smith Premier Typewriter Company to supply one hundred and fifty of their machines. This is the largest order ever given for typewriters anywhere. In a recent typewriting contest at Syracuse, N. Y. , one hundred and eighty-two words were written in a minute on the Smith Premier Typewriter, or ten words more than ever written on any other machine in the same time The Omaha headquarters for this machine has been established eighteen months. The manager, Mr. E. H. Mayhew, being one of the leading shorthand teachers in the West, has met with great success, which is increasing each month. He is a native of La Porte, Ind , and formerly conducted a shorthand school at Detroit, Mich. The territory covered by the agents of this branch consists of Nebraska and Western Iowa, and is proving a very fruitful field for this agency. The headquarters are located at Farnam street, Omaha, where a full supply of machines, paper, ribbons, oilers, carbon paper, reporters books, check perforaters, etc., is carried and an immense trade is handled.
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OMAHA TENT AND AWNING COMPANY. This business was founded in the most humble way, in 1866 by Mr. A. H. Rawitzer, the present manager and proprietor. He has developed a business from these small beginnings to one of great importance that is recognized as the representative in its line over all others in Omaha. It is located at 1113 Farnam street, where a splendid three- story brick building is occupied. These premises are 25x120 feet in dimensions. A full supply of tents, awnings, tarpaulins, oil clothing, wagon umbrellas, wagon seat shades, machine covers, horse covers, hammocks, flags, etc., of standard sizes is carried in stock, while special de signs are made to order. All kinds of canvas goods are manufactured and satisfaction is fully guaranteed. The factory is supplied with all the necessary appliances for manufacturing purposes and from eighteen to twenty experienced hands are constantly employed. The trade covers all sections of Nebraska, Iowa and the West. Mr. Rawitzer is a native of this city and is well known as one of our most progressive business men.
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ARCTIC ICE COMPANY. In the provision of the purest ice for consumers use, the most effective service is given by the Arctic Ice Company, whose storehouses are located on the corner of Fifth and Jones streets, and whose office is at 220 South Twelfth street, in the Nebraska National Bank Building The company was incorporated in 1887, under the laws of Nebraska, with a capital of $30,000. The ice is obtained from Cut Off Lake, and is unsurpassed for its purity and absolute freedom from organic matter. The capacity of the houses is 20,000 tons, extensive shipments being made to Southern points, while a large city trade is transacted, from twenty-five to fifty hands being employed. Mr. David Talbot, the president, is a native of Cambria, Me., and has resided in Omaha during the past four years. He is an able and energitic business man, and is well known and respected in the mercantile circles of the city. Mr. Henry J. Cole, the secretary and treasurer, is also from Maine, and formerly conducted a general store in Camden in that state.