Omaha Illustrated

OMAHA ILLUSTRATED.

ornate five-story brick structures. In the vicinity are the Meyers & Raapke Block, the Herald Building, the Withnell Block and the Granite Block, each large four-story structures. The Murray Block, a six-story brick structure built for a hotel on the corner of Fourteenth and Harney, adjoins the five-story Paxton Hotel, on Fourteenth and Farnam streets. The Millard Hotel is also a five-story structure on the corner of Thirteenth and Douglas

[John L. McCague, who in a few years has made his mark in the business circles of Omaha, was born in the city of Cairo, Egypt, October 6, 1855. His parents, the Rev. Thomas McCague and wife, were from Ohio, and went to Egypt as the first missionaries to the Copts in that distant and historic land. They remained there for six years, Returning to America they became residents of Iowa, and made that State their home from 1861 to 1867. In the fall of 1866 the subject of this sketch, being then eleven years
old, came to Nebraska, his first place of residence in this State being Nebraska City. The family soon followed him. Although his parents had each been given a collegiate education, John L. McCague received only a common school training, very few of the Nebraska boys of the '60's and early '70's were sent away to college. In 1868 Mr. McCague entered upon his business career. His first employment was in the grocery store of L. V. Morse, who is yet one of Omaha's citizens. In the latter part of that year he entered the service of the old Transfer company, which transferred all passengers and freight across the Missouri up to the time of the completion of the Union Pacific. As far back as 1869 he gave evidence of his faith in the future of Omaha. In that year he invested his first savings in real estate. In 1875 he took a desk in the general freight office of the Union Pacific, under Mr. P. P. Shelby. In 1877 he was transferred to the office of J. W. Gannett, general auditor of the Union Pacific. Foreseeing the	JOHN L. M'CAGUE.	rapid growth of Omaha, Mr. McCague in 1880, resigned his railroad position and embarked in the real estate business in which he soon met with marked success. The growth of his business increased with that of the city, and needing assistance he associated with himself his brother, William L. McCague, in 1881. When the private banking company of Caldwell, Hamilton & Co. was reorganized as the United States National Bank, the firm of McCague Brothers decided to engage in the private banking business. They opened an office in the fall of 1883 at No. 107 South Fifteenth street, where they still remain. They are now the oldest private bankers in Omaha. The growth of their business has been very rapid, and is now very extensive. At first the business was transacted by the two brothers and Mr. Alex. G. Charlton, now one of the firm. At the present time a force of eighteen clerks is required. In December, 1886, Thomas H. McCague, another brother, was admitted as a partner in the firm. During his
experience in real estate, Mr. John L. McCague was frequently appointed as an appraiser for the condemnation of lands for railroad and other important purposes, as he was regarded as an excellent judge of values. He has an unquestioned reputation for honesty and enterprise. Although yet a young man, he ranks among Omaha's most prominent citizens and successful business men. He has grown up in Omaha from boyhood, and has won the esteem and respect of the community by his many years of hard and painstaking work and the straight-forward course which he has always pursued.]

streets. On the corner of Eleventh and Douglas, is located the Paddock Block, a large five-story brick, and one block east on Douglas is the Republican, a four-story brick. On the corner of Harney and Eleventh, is the fine five-story Millard Block, and on the opposite side of Harney, is a solid block of four-story brick buildings. One block south is the new Mercer and Woolworth Blocks, five-stories in height and extending from Eleventh to Twelfth streets. On the corner of Ninth and Jones, is the five- story Ames building, covering a quarter of a block of ground, and on Tenth and Jones is the big five- story Paxton & Gallagher wholesale grocery house. McCord, Brady & Co., have a large four-story block on Thirteenth and Leavenworth streets, and on Ninth and Leavenworth is the five-story McGavock Block. The Union Pacific general offices occupy the company's five-story block at Ninth and Farnam. The Burlington road has a four-story building for its general

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OMAHA ILLUSTRATED.

offices, one block west. The Strang Building, the Rosewater Block, the Byers Block and the Arlington Block are other four-story structures worthy of mention. In course of erection are notably the seven-story Bee Block, at Seventeenth and Farnam streets, the Young

RESIDENCE OF G. W. HOLDREDGE.		Men's Christian Association Block, at Douglas and Sixteenth streets, and the Knights of Pythias Castle Hall. A conservative estimate places the amount of capital invested in business blocks, four-stories or over, at $9,000,000. Other prominent buildings in Omaha are the Court House, the City Hall (in course of con-
struction), the High School, the Federal Building and the Exposition Building. It can well be said that in the number and character of its buildings, and the width and excellence of streets,
Omaha is more metropolitan in aspect than any other Western city. While it will be shown in that portion of this work which deals more particularly with South Omaha that the most extensive interest of the city is the meat manufacturing interest, a legitimate outgrowth of the fact that hogs and cattle are leading products of the city's tributary territory, the further fact must not be lost sight of that Omaha is becoming a great grain market -- and this without a grain exchange, or any special effort yet made to centralize the grain trade here. Nebraska and Iowa are essentially agricul-	RESIDENCE OF C. ORCUTT.
tural states, and naturally their chief city whence comes the articles consumed, should be a center for their farm products. The annual grain trade of the city amounts to about 12,000,000 bushels of all kinds of cereals, of which something over 1,000,000 bushels are

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OMAHA ILLUSTRATED.

consumed by local distilleries, breweries and mills. The Omaha firms engaged in handling grain have elevator capacity of about 16,000,000 bushels, an amount grossly inadequate, when it is understood that the annual grain production of Nebraska alone exceeds 300,000,000 bushels. With such resources at its back, it is very evident that Omaha can become a great grain market. Indeed, its grain trade has already developed to the full measure of its storage capacity, and capital is now considering the erection of one or more large elevators to meet the demand. Due credit has been given to the vim, sagacity and enterprise which have built up the prosperous, handsome city here described, but as yet the chief factor in building the city has only been touched upon its railroads. Whatever may be the merits, or otherwise, of the railroad question, it cannot be gainsaid that railroads are the most important adjunct of a city devoted to commerce and manufactures. Omaha is liberally supplied in this respect. It is at present the terminal

CONTINENTAL CLOTHING HOUSE, OMAHA BRANCH.

[The above cut represents the newly erected building of the Continental Clothing House of Omaha, Freeland, Loomis & Co., proprietors, and on the opposite page is a cut of the famous Boston house of the same name and of which the Omaha establishment is a branch. The business of the Continental Clothing House has been established in Boston for more than thirty years, where it has grown from a small beginning to be the largest of its kind in the New England States anywhere. The manufactury is located in the Boston house, where there are employed between five and six hundred hands, regularly, in the manufacturing of the stock for the Omaha and other branch stores of the establishment. The proprietors of the establishment have fixed upon Omaha as the most important point for the western distributing branch of their business, and will eventually transfer a large portion of their manufacturing to this city, where, in the near future, it is proposed to enter into competition with the large western wholesale markets of Chicago and St. Louis in supplying the demand of the great West and Northwest, which must look to Omaha for its supplies of every description. Recognizing in the varied character of Omaha's business life the surest pledge of its future prosperity, and also considering its position as a great commercial center, with the railroads radiating from it in every direction, and the great territory tributary to it, it is the purpose of the Continental Clothing House to cultivate and develop, as far as possible, its business interests in this city, which must grow to be second to none of the great cities in the West. With unequaled facilities as direct importers from all the markets of the world of fine woolens and merchandise in our line, and as among the largest clothing manufacturers in the United States it is our purpose to offer every advantage to the people of Nebraska and all the country tributary to Omaha that can be obtained in any of the markets of the United States. The Continental Clothing House is to become an Omaha institution, devoted to Omaha and Western interests, and with the purpose in view of developing the business in our line to the highest point of perfection possible.]

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