The first boat of the season was the event of the year. Down the inhabitants ran to meet it, without regard to age, sex or race; down they trooped, laughing, shouting, rejoicing that communication with the great world was once more open. Many a "cotillon" was danced on the deck of that first boat, while the unloading was being vigorously carried on below.
There was little crime in the new city. In the three formative years only one murder is known to have been committed, and no criminal was legally executed until 1863.
There was never much Indian trouble in this vicinity. However, Omaha several times raised troops to 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 Regiment of Nebraska Volunteers, the First Battalion, the Second Regiment Nebraska Volunteers, the First Nebraska Veteran Cavalry, and four companies of Curtis' 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."
