"From whence no traveller returns."
The third house was called "Big 6." Its owner opened "A general assortment of merchandise suitable for time and place," and "Big 6" soon became a place of note.
House No. 4 was opened by a house warming, which was attended even by settlers from the adjacent State of Illinois.
In the same year, that of 1854, the so-called Old State House was built by the Ferry Company to accommodate the first territorial legislature. It was not an architectural beauty, and consequently, in 1857, it gave place to a large, brick Capitol.
SPORT ON THE PLAINS.
In this, to Omaha, memorable year of 1854, the first doctor, the first lawyer and the first minister settled in her boundaries, also the first steam mill began running.
January 15, 1855, the large frame Douglas House was opened by a grand ball. It did an immense business for many years, and became notedly the headquarters for politicians and speculators.
The first territorial legislature convened January 16, 1855, and remained in session until March seventeenth of the same year. Where that legislature should meet became a question of vital importance to a number of Nebraska towns. The matter was hotly contested but the metropolis won the prize, acting Governor Cummings designating Omaha as the favored spot.
Traffic by steamboat did much to develop the "Gate City." Sometimes boats arrived seven or eight times a week, bringing new inhabitants, timber, machinery, provisions, furniture, and piling their cargo—human or inanimate—out upon the since washed away levees, to be taken care of as best the embryo city could.