LEAVITT BURNHAM was born in Essex, Essex county, Massachusetts, September 8, 1844. His educational advantages were confined to the common district schools of New England, and terminated at the age of 15, when he learned the carpenter trade and worked at it till he was 21. He first came to Omaha in 1867, and again in 1869, since which last named date he has resided here continuously. During 1867 and 1869 he was engaged in surveying on the plains for the United States Government. In 1870 he entered the office of the late Watson B. Smith, Clerk of the U. S. Circuit Court, under whom, and later under the Hon. A. J. Poppleton, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1872. He continued to practice his profession until March, 1878, when he was appointed Land Commissioner for the Union Pacific Railway company, which office he filled until June, 1886. For several years Mr. Burnham has served as a member of the Board of Regents of the State University of Nebraska, and in May, 1887, was elected to the City Council under the new charter, to serve until January 1890.

     JOHN F. BOYD was born in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, September 10, 1846, and received his education in the common schools, of his native town. In 1865 he came to Omaha and engaged in the cattle business as a dealer. Continuing this up to 1879, he undertook the construction in that year of the Stock Yards in Council Bluffs, and when completed he was appointed superintendent, which position he still holds. In 1884 he was employed to construct the Union Stock Yards at South Omaha for the same company, and when finished he was also made superintendent there. Practically, therefore, the immense stock business of these two points has for years passed through the hands of Mr. Boyd, as the active manager of these two yards. In May, 1887, he accepted his first public office, being then elected as one of the Councilmen-at-Large under the new charter, to serve until January, 1890.

     ISAAC S. HASCALL was born in Erie county, New York, in 1831; studied law in Buffalo and also in the office of Hon. L. Morris at Mayville, Chautauqua county, N. Y., and was admitted to practice in all the courts of the State at a general term of the supreme court held in Buffalo in 1853. In 1854 he traveled through many of the southern states and then went to Kansas, passing the winter of 1854-5 at Ft. Riley. In the spring of 1855 he visited Nebraska and in the fall of that year returned to the State and was engaged in township platting of government lands in Nemaha and Otoe counties. Returning to Kansas he began the practice of law at Atchison, in partnership with Junius T. Hereford, continuing there four years, during which time he was elected to the constitutional convention of Kansas and served therein. On leaving Atchison he went to Colorado, Oregon, and into the mining regions of the territories, finally locating at Idaho City, Idaho, where he remained until the fall of 1864, when he went to California and thence by the Isthmus of Panama to New York. Mr. Hascall spent the following winter in further travel through different States, and in March, 1865, reached Omaha, where he has since continuously resided. During his residence in Nebraska Mr. Hascall has been prominent in official life. He has been a member of a State constitutional convention of Nebraska, twice State Senator, Probate Judge, and is now serving his third term as a member of the City Council, where he is active in promoting all public improvements.

     THOMAS J. LOWRY was born in Wales, November 12, 1847, and came to this country with his parents in December of the same year, landing at New Orleans. In the following May his parents removed to Muscatine, Iowa, where he continued to live receiving education in the common schools. In 1862,when fifteen years of age, he joined the Thirty-Fifth Iowa Volunteers and went south to Memphis. where a great many of the men were prostrated with sickness, young Lowry among the number. His father went down and took him home, and this ended his military experience. In April, 1865, he came to Omaha and entered the service of the Union Pacific Railway Company and so continued for twenty years until 1885, being employed in various capacities on trains and at stations, the last six years being in charge of the baggage station at Council Bluffs. In 1885 he resigned and engaged in the grocery business, which he sold out the next year. In April, 1886, he was elected to the city council for two years and has since given much of his time to city affairs.

     PATRICK FORD is a self-made man. He has come up from the ranks and is a product of the masses. Ten years ago he came to Omaha without a dollar, and was obliged to take the wages of the common laborer to keep the wolf from the door. Now he is one of its best known citizens, enjoys a handsome fortune, has held several important public offices which he has filled with ability, and can afford to smile at the reverses of fortune met with in earily life. Mr. Ford is a native of Sligo county, Ireland, where he was born May 12, 1837. His youth was spent in his native country, and at arriving of age he followed the example of so many of his Countrymen, and emigrated to this country, landing at Castle Garden, March 12, 1859. Three days afterwards he was engaged to labor in the Hocking Valley mines in Ohio. Mr. Ford lived in Pittsburg until 1864, earning his living working in tunnels and mines. He then moved to Maryland, where he made and lost his first start in life. He lived there until 1877, and by fortunate speculations with his savings amassed a fair competency which he lost during the great labor strike of that year. In the fall he removed with his family to Omaha, and commenced life again as a section hand, working for $1.30 per day. He was appointed on the police force, and served two years, at the end of which time he was made Street Commissioner, which latter office he held for two years. Mr. Ford was then chosen to represent the Third Ward in the City Council, and is now serving his second term. In 1885 he was the democratic nominee for Sheriff. Mr. Ford has a great personal following in his ward, and in the city, with whom he is very popular. He is one of the strongest men in the Council and wields a large influence in the affairs of the city. He is happily married, and has a bright family of three children, two boys and one girl.

     CHARLES CHENEY, the member from the Fifth Ward, is one of the younger men in the Council. He is a Green Mountain boy, and was born in Northfield, Vermont, December 12, 1850. His father was a machinist, and during most of his life was employed in railway shops and on construction. When Charles was still a baby in arms the family moved to Indiana, where they lived six years, and thence when still further west, to Galesburg, Ill., where the elder Cheney held the position of Division master mechanic of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad until the time of his death, which occurred ten years later. During his youth young Cheney attended the public schools and took a course at Lombard College, acquiring a useful education. He was a natural mechanic and selected for his sphere in life that trade in which his father had earned an honest living. He accordingly became a machinist and worked at the trade until 1870, when, his father having died in the meantime, the young man struck out for himself and came West, locating in Omaha. He secured a position with the Union Pacific railroad in the company's shops. He has been continuously in the company's employ for the eighteen years he has been in Omaha. He is a faithful employee and is held in high esteem in the mechanical department by his superiors, and is popular with his fellow-workmen and his subordinates. He has the reputation of being one of the most skillful machinists in the employ of the Union Pacific. Mr. Cheney was elected to the City Council last spring as a Republican, carrying the ward by the largest majority of any man on the ticket. He is not a politician, but the citizens of the Fifth Ward believed that he would watch the interests of the tax payers and deal with city affairs as an honest man. He has done so. There has been no flummery nor demagoguery about his course in the Council. He is opposed at all times to public and private jobs, and although he makes but little display, his work and votes are effective in support of the right measures at all times, Mr. Cheney is happily married and lives a quiet domestic life at his home, 518 North Fourteenth street. His wife was Miss Maggie Fleming, daughter of Mitchell Fleming, whom he married in this city in 1874. They have two children, both girls.

     F. W. MANVILLE was born in Genesee county, New York, April 26, 1833. When four years old his parents, as members of a colony formed at Genesee, New York, emigrated to Illinois and named their prairie settlement Genesee, after the old eastern home. From its earliest settlement Genesee, Illinois, has always been noted for its interest in schools. The founders of the town did not wait even to build a log school house, but set up a skeleton structure formed of upright crotched poles, across which others were laid and covered with the canvas covers of their wagons, and Mr. Manville remembers distinctly attending school in that primitive structure until one more substantial could be built. Mr. Manville learned the trade of plasterer, and was engaged in that business when the South rebelled. Promptly, in 1861, he enlisted in the Ninth Illinois Cavalry and served until the close of the war, when he returned to his home and resumed his old business. In 1868 he came to Omaha, and has here continued ever since the same calling, as master and contractor. He has ever since coming to Omaha been a resident of the Sixth Ward, of which for five years he was Assessor, and from which he was elected to the Council for two years in April, 1886. He is a man of very positive convictions, but of liberal views, and what he considers for the best interests of his constituents and the city, he does not hesitate to firmly and faithfully support.

     WILLIAM I. KIERSTEAD was born at Ann Arbor, Michigan, February 17, 1857, his father, Daniel Kierstead, being one of the pioneers of Wastenaw county, having lived in Ann Arbor and vicinity nearly fifty years, where he still resides. William began life as a newsboy on the Michigan Central railroad, which occupation he followed for a number of years on the Chicago and Northwestern, Union Pacific, the Central Pacific and other roads, and few persons are more familiar with the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific than he. For the past seven years he has held a responsible position with the firm of Dewey & Stone, who are among the largest wholesale and retail furniture dealers in America. Mr. Kierstead is an enthusiast on the future of Omaha, and firmly believes he will live to see it a city of half a million people. He has an elegant home at 3201 Farnam street, in which vicinity he owns some valuable property. He was elected to the Council last May, from the Ninth Ward, for a term of two years, receiving the very flattering vote of two to one over his opponent. He was made chairman of the Finance Committee, and his record so far in the Council has fully justified the confidence of his constituents. His career is a good example of what energy and perseverance will accomplish in this western country; beginning at the very bottom, he has worked his way up to wealth, and the respect and confidence of the people.

     MICHAEL LEE was born in the county of Limerick, Ireland, Sept. 16, 1849. In boyhood he learned the trade of shoemaking. In 1869 he emigrated to the United States, landing at New York, where he lived a year, then went south to Mobile, Ala., where he lived two years and in 1873 came to Omaha. He worked at his trade for some time after coming to this country, but on coming to Omaha he engaged with the Grand Central Hotel, which occupied the present site of the Paxton Hotel until burned, and remained there five years. Then for a short time he went to the Withnell and Millard hotels, after which he engaged in the grocery business for two years, then for some time in the real estate business, the firm being Lee, Nichol & Co., and now with Mr. Nichol is the proprietor of an extensive boarding stable on the west side of the city. From his first coming to Omaha Mr. Lee has had the good sense to save a part of his earnings, however small, and the shrewdness to invest his savings in city property, and the result has justified his course, for he is now in very comfortable circumstances financially. In the Spring of 1885 he was elected to the City Council for two years, and in 1887 was re-elected for another term. Mr. Lee takes a prominent part in the meetings of the Council, and without making any pretentions to oratory is a good speaker and expresses himself always clearly and forcibly.

RESIDENCE OF LEAVITT BURNHAM.

ALBERT M. KITCHEN was born in Dresden, Canada, January 21, 1862, and came to Omaha in 1879. For four years he was employed as a clerk in a notion store, after which he went into the retail oil business, the establishment being now known as the Omaha Oil and Paint Company, of which Mr. Kitchen is president. He is also president of the Lincoln Paint and Color Company, a manafacturing (sic) company with a capital of $75,000, and $60,000 paid in. He is also president of the Gate City Land Company, having a capital of $100,000 and $50,000 paid in. This is a loan and investment company dealing largely in lands in Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa. Mr. Kitchen was elected to the Council under the new charter in May, 1887, to serve until January, 1890. For so young a man he has shown great business ability and enterprise, and it can reasonably be expected that he will prove a useful member of the city government and one who will fully justify the confidence which his constituents have reposed in him.

     F. J. KASPAR was born in Bohemia, September 13, 1857. In 1869, when twelve years old, he came alone to the United States, going to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he worked upon a farm four years for his board and the opportunity to attend school. At the end of that time he came to Omaha and engaged in the Bee office press room. In 1879 he went on the police force and continued there three years, the last year and a half being sergeant. On resigning from the police force he engaged in the liquor business, in which he continued until the spring of 1887, when he engaged in the newspaper business as one of the editors and publishers of a Bohemian weekly journal, the "Narodni Listy," which, with his partner, J. A. Hospodsky, he yet continues. In the spring of 1886, he was elected to the City Council for two years. Mr. Kaspar is an active, enterprising man, and has various other interests beside his paper, among them being the manufacture of brick. He takes great interest in everything calculated to advance the material welfare of Omaha, and has proved himself an intelligent and faithful member of the city government.

     CHARLES L. VAN CAMP was born in Canada, December 7, 1847, and came to Omaha with his parents in 1855, since which time this city has been his home. He was educated in our public schools, and when old enough to engage in business he became a dealer in sand, and contractor, in the latter capacity doing a large amount of work for the Union Pacific railway company in this city and county and giving employment to a large number of men. Later he became largely interested in real estate investments and now wholly devotes himself to these and to improving his property by the erection of dwellings, having withdrawn from all other business. His residence has always been just beyond the city limits until the new charter of 1887 authorized the extension of the boundaries, which included his home, and he was then nominated and elected as one of the new Councilmen-at-Large, to serve until January, 1890. Mr. Van Camp has been a witness of Omaha's growth from a little muddy village to a great, beautiful and prosperous city, and in many ways an active agent in the work of development.