[Ex-Senator Alvin Saunders was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, July 12, 1817. In 1829 his parents removed to Illinois, near Springfield, where, as in Kentucky, he worked upon a farm, and had only the meagre education which a new and sparsely settled country could give. In 1836, desiring to begin life for himself, his parents reluctantly consented to his going West, and he went to the Territory of Wisconsin, halting at the little settlement of Mount Pleasant, now in the State of Iowa. Here he worked for a time again on a farm, then got a place in a country store, and by attending a night school, and diligent study at all spare moments, he supplied much of the deficiency in his early education, and was later taken into a business partnership with an elder brother. He was appointed the first Postmaster of Mount Pleasant by President Van Buren in 1837, although raised a Whig, because no one else would have the office. In 1846 he was removed by Polk, which led to his candidacy for and election to the Constitutional Convention in that year, and thus he assisted in framing the Constitution under which Iowa became a State. In 1854 he was elected, and in 1858 re-elected, to the Iowa State Senate. He was a delegate to the first Iowa State Republican Convention, and also to the Chicago Convention which nominated Lincoln, for whom he voted, and in whose election he aided much during the campaign. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed Mr. Saunders Governor of the Territory of Nebraska, and in 1865, on the day of the

evening on which he was assassinated, signed the Governor's commission for another term. In 1867, when Nebraska was admitted to the Union as a State, Governor Saunders retired from public life, and engaged extensively in banking and other business. In 1868 he was a delegate to the Chicago National Convention, when Grant and Colfax were nominated. In 1875 he met with severe financial reverses, which led to his return to public life by his election to the United States Senate in January, 1877. Since the expiration of his term, in 1883, the Senator has been assiduously laboring to restore his broken fortunes, and with marked success. At the time of his failure he could have relieved himself of a great debt through the Bankrupt Law, but he refused to do so, declaring that in time he would pay in full; and his

purpose has nearly been accomplished, to the great gratification of his many admirers and sympathetic friends. As Governor of the Territory, Mr. Saunders had a double duty to perform; he had to raise troops for service against the South, and others to suppress the Indian depredations on the western border. For these purposes the Territory had neither money nor credit, and yet by his energy and executive ability he succeeded in sending into the field over three thousand men for service against the South, beside a large number sent to the frontier. Senator Saunders, since coming to Nebraska, has been actively interested in and a promoter of everything calculated to benefit the State and its chief city- Omaha. He labored zealously to secure the proper location of the Union Pacific Railroad, and when a strong effort

was made by Eastern railroads, Council Bluffs and the State of Iowa, to locate the Bridge several miles south of Omaha, the Senator, as Chairman of a Bridge Committee of citizens, gave his time, private means and influence unstintedly to defeat it, and he succeeded. He took a lively interest in the building of the Omaha & Southwestern Railroad, of which he was at one time Vice-President. He largely promoted our present fine school system throughout the State, and as President of the Board of Regents of the High School, secured the erection of our splendid High School Building, The City Gas Works, the Street Railways and other enterprises for the city's benefit and the people's comfort and convenience, have found in him a willing and efficient helper. He was also an original promoter and stockholder in the Omaha Smelting Works, which have proved to be one of the most successful business enterprises in the city. As a Senator of the United States, Mr. Saunders was not so conspicuous in debate as in the Committee Room, and there, it is conceded, is where a strong and business-like man is most felt. He secured to Nebraska six hundred thousand acres of land, by the rectification of the northern boundary line of the State, adjoining Dakota, an achievement only equaled in our history by Thomas H. Benton's success in attaching the Platte Purchase to Missouri. He secured the establishment of a Labor School for Indians on the Pawnee Reservation, and while Governor of the Territory secured the passage of the Grazing Law, an act of inestimable benefit to Nebraska farmers, since it compelled the fencing in or control of grazing herds, rather than fencing them out. There is probably no citizen of Nebraska, past or present, to whom the State and the city of Omaha owe so much as to Alvin Saunders, and to the credit of the people, both of city and State, it can be said that the obligation is fully recognized, their respect for and confidence in him being unqualified.]

Pleasant, Henry county, Iowa. Upon reaching Council Bluffs, he saw that there was money to be made in carrying on a ferry across the Missouri river, to accommodate the California Mormon emigration. Convinced that there more sure profit in such an enterprise than there in the uncertainty of gold-hunting in a far-off region, he abandoned his California trip, and established the Lone Tree Ferry-so called from a solitary tree at which his boat landed on the Nebraska side of the

river. He operated his ferry under a charter obtained from the commissioners of Pottawatamie county, Iowa. The undertaking, as he had anticipated, proved very profitable to Mr. Brown during the period from 1850 to 1854. At the same time he engaged in the hotel business in Council Bluffs, being for some time a half partner in the Bluff City House.
     The beautiful and commanding position of the future site of Omaha, particularly the plateau with the

hills in the background, impressed Mr. Brown with the belief that it would be a fine location for a town, which some day might develop into a large and prosperous city. The tide of travel was westward, and this point was the head of navigation at that time. He had frequently been over the ground and had made careful observations. Other residents of Council Bluffs had also visited the spot, and coincided with Mr. Brown's views as to its being a splendid site for a town. He suggested to some of his friends an enterprise of this character, and finally Dr. Enos Lowe, Jesse Lowe, Jesse Williams and Joseph H. D. Street,