History
In 1856, a group of settlers from Kanesville, Iowa crossed the Missouri River to picnic in the newly named Nebraska Territory. One of the visitors, Thomas Davis, helped found Omaha when he donated $600 in gold dust for an official charter. He eventually served on First National Bank's Board of Directors. Two immigrant brothers from Ohio, Herman and Augustus opened Kountze Brothers Bank in 1857. Omaha's first bank opened its doors and started trading primarily in gold dust and buffalo hides. Kountze Brothers Bank received national charter #209 in 1863. Today, theirs is the oldest national bank west of the Missouri River. In 1863, they also began doing business as First National Bank of Omaha and brought in additional investors, including Edward Creighton, who served as president.
In 1883, Herman Kountze speculated on land in North Omaha, eventually developing an affluent Omaha suburb called Kountze Place in the former town of Saratoga. The panic of 1893 sparks the worst depression of the 19th century. In 1895, twelve businessmen from Omaha, including Herman Kountze, started the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben. Their mission, "to build a more prosperous Heartland, where communities can flourish and every child can succeed," carries on to this day. In 1898, Herman Kountze donated the use of 60 acres (240,000 m2) of his Kountze Place development for the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, one of the crowning events in Omaha's history. Featuring a lagoon filled with Venetian gondolas, it attracted 2.6 million visitors at a time when Omaha's population was roughly 100,000.
Read more about this topic: First National Bank Of Omaha
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?”
—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“It’s a very delicate surgical operation—to cut out the heart without killing the patient. The history of our country, however, is a very tough old patient, and we’ll do the best we can.”
—Dudley Nichols, U.S. screenwriter. Jean Renoir. Sorel (Philip Merivale)