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TAYLOR ST.
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Taylor
Street may have been named for E. B. Taylor, who purchased
the Omaha Republican newspaper in 1861. Some claim it was
named for President Zachary Taylor. |
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TEMPLETON DR.
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W.G. Templeton helped found the Citizens Bank in 1886 and was a
member of the Board of Directors of the Midlands State Bank. |
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TURKEY LN.
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Turkey
Lane was a short street in South Omaha running from 21st to 22nd
Street. The name is derived from “the belief that the people living
on this street were lovers of turkeys, and that these proud birds in
the Thanksgiving season strutted up and down the street without
molestation.” There is now a Turkey Road in West Omaha. |
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UNDERWOOD AVE.
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W. A. Underwood was President of the Omaha
Waterworks Company when it opened a modern pumping station in
Florence. He was one of several prominent Omahans involved with the
Nebraska Central Railroad Company and the building of a railroad
bridge across the Missouri River. |
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VINTON ST.
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The
naming of this street continues to baffle historians. The winding
street was apparently an Indian trail at one time. Vinton Street
first appeared in the Omaha City Directory in 1878 and was laid out
as it is today. |
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WAKELY ST.
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Eleazer
Wakely was an associate territorial justice of the Nebraska
Territory and later a district judge. In an 1884 case, he ruled that
the mayor had been illegally ousted by the city council. He served
in a Nebraska constitutional convention, dealt with tax and
corporate law, and worked as an attorney for the Union Pacific
Railroad. Humor and repartee were characteristic of his courtroom
and writings. |
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WEBSTER ST.
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John Lee Webster, an eminent attorney and public figure, arrived
in Omaha in 1869 to practice his profession and soon engaged in
politics. He served as a state legislator, chaired the 1875
constitutional convention, was city attorney in 1877 and led the
Nebraska Republican Party delegation to two presidential
conventions. His most memorable case, with Andrew Poppleton at his
side, earned a prominent place in American constitutional law.
Justice Dundy ruled in favor of Webster’s and Poppleton’s client,
the incarcerated Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca tribe, in deciding
that the “Indian is a person within the meaning of the laws of the
United States,” and has the right to sue for a writ of habeas corpus
in a federal court. However, he lost in later case seeking voting
rights for Indians. |
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WILLIAM ST.
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William Street, in the
southeastern part of the city, was named by pioneer S. E. Rogers for
his father, William R. Rogers, who came to Omaha in 1854 and
died soon after his arrival. |
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WOOLWORTH AVE.
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James Woolworth
arrived in Omaha in 1856 to enter a career that marked him as a
major contributor to Nebraska jurisprudence. He was the first city
of Omaha attorney and rose to prominence in the city’s religious,
political, business, and legal worlds. He was a member of the claims
club, the territorial legislature, the 1871 constitutional
convention, the Board of Trustees of Brownell Hall. He helped
develop South Omaha‘s stockyards. Frequently he argued before the
U.S. Supreme Court, usually on cases involving railroads. An author,
he wrote The History of Omaha, published in 1857, and owned
rare editions in his private library. His large art collection
included small paintings by Corot, Rousseau, and Renoir. |
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MALCOLM X
AVE.
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A section of North 34th
Avenue was named for slain civil rights figure Malcolm X in
2003. The street between Bedford and Evans is adjacent to the
birthsite of Malcolm Little, who was born there in 1925. Threats
from night riders forced his family to move out of state. Little,
who fell into a life of drugs and prison, educated himself and
became a leader of the Black Muslims. Though he once felt whites
were inherently racist, he later softened his views. He was
assassinated in New York City in 1965. |
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YATES ST.
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Henry W. Yates came to Omaha as a wholesale
grocer. Two years later he joined the Kountze brothers to begin his
banking career, rising to president of the First National Bank. A
variety of business interests occupied him: real estate, railroad,
bridge, stockyards development, and white lead smelting. He joined
the Omaha Library Association to establish a circulating library in
Omaha, and participated in the founding of Brownell Hall, an
Episcopal School for young women in 1863. |
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Several streets, highways and expressways are named after U.S.
presidents, including: Adams, Cleveland, Ford, Garfield, Grant,
Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Kennedy, Lincoln, Madison, Monroe,
Pierce, Polk, Taylor, and Washington.
Others are named for trees (Pine, Oak, Walnut, Maple, etc), some for
locations or neighborhoods (Deer Park, River View, Country Club,
etc.). Still others are named for states of the union (Kansas
Avenue, Nebraska Avenue, Iowa Street, Ohio Street, Wyoming Street);
Indian tribes (Otoe Street, Omaha Trace, Ponca Road and the generic
Indian Street); oceans (Pacific); and non-specific waterways (Bay
Meadows Road, Bay Wood Drive, Dock Street, Lake Forest Drive,
Lakeshore Drive, Lakeside Drive, Lakeview Street, River Drive,
Riverfront Drive). State Street borrowed its name from the famous
Chicago thoroughfare. |
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Bibliography:
Bauman, Louise, and Charles Martin and S. Jane
Simpson. Omaha’s Historical Prospect Hill Cemetery. Omaha:
Prospect Hill Cemetery Historical Development Foundation, 1990.
Brick, H. Ben. The Streets of Omaha: Their Origins and Changes.
Omaha: Omaha Public Library, 1997.
Savage James W., and John T. Bell. History of the City of Omaha.
New York and Chicago: Munsell & Company, 1894.
Sorenson, Alfred. The Story of Omaha from the Earliest days to
the Present. 3rd ed. Omaha: National Printing
Company, 1923.
Wakeley, Arthur C., Omaha: The Gate City, and Douglas County
Nebraska. Chicago: The J. S. Clark Publishing Co., 1917.
Newspaper clipping files of the Douglas County
Historical Society, Library Archives Center. |
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