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Omaha's Airport Covered by Flood
OMAHA, April 13 (AP)—Army engineers today abandoned hope of saving Omaha's $4,000,000 airport and Carter Lake, Iowa, from complete inundation by Missouri river flood waters as the angry stream poured through two broken dikes into the ten-square-mile stricken area on the northeastern outskirts of Omaha.
At Hamburg, Iowa, fifty miles south, two hundred families living in the southern portion of the community, which is eleven feet below the normal river level, began leaving their homes after dikes at McPaul and Percival, above-Hamburg, gave way. Residents of McPaul also were ordered to leave their homes. Col. Lewis Pick, United States army division engineer, said there was no chance of stopping the Omaha dike break and that further efforts to save the airport Carter Lake area would not be made.
The river reached its crest at 2:00 a. m. at 22 45 feet, remaining at that level until 7:00 a.m. It then started receding slowly at the rate of about one-tenth of a foot
an hour.
From four to six feet of water was expected to cover the airport within the next forty-eight hours. Two-thirds of the field stood in several feet of water this morning,
said Airport Manager William R. Milner.
From two directions through widening gaps in the broken dikes, the swollen river spilled into the airport and Carter Lake.
Red Cross and other rescue workers worked late last night to evacuate the last of
pproximately one thousand families living in the ten square mile stricken area which is on the northwestern out- skirts 0f Omaha. Other scores of families had been removed earlier from north and east Omaha as the crest moved downstream.
Reno Evening Gazette - Reno, Nevada, Tuesday, April 13, 1943
Held
For Rustins Death Charles
E. Davis Bound Over
At Omaha
Alleged
Slayer of Physician Was Released on Bond of $10,000
Omaha. Neb.—Following
a five days legal battle before Police Judge Crawford Charles Edward Davis was
Tuesday afternoon bound over to the district court to answer the charge of
murder in the first degree for the killing of Dr. Frederick
Rustin on the
morning of September 2. Bail was fixed at $10,000 which was promptly furnished
by two brothers of the defendant and the accused man was per in charge of a
guard who has been retained by the Davis family. Mrs. Abbie Rice, who has
been detained in the matron's department at the police station since the
shooting.
It is stated, will be released on a nominal bond for her appearance
in the district court as a witness. It is stated also that her father will
take her back to Des Moines where she will remain until the trial is
over.
Dr. J. P. Lord and Mrs. Rice were both called in rebuttal Tuesday
morning. The testimony was brief, being for the purpose of refuting
statements by the police that Lord had not told the officers of meeting a man
answering Davis' description the night of the shooting and explanatory of
why Mrs. Rice did not ride in the same seat on a street car with
Rustin.
Alma, Wabaunsee County, Kansas October 9, 1908 Page
2
Transcribed
and Contributed by:
Barbara Ziegenmeyer
Couple Meet Death At Rail Crossing
Omaha - Double private funeral services were held here today for Mr. and Mrs. Harry S.
McDonald, of Omaha, killed in an automobile-train accident last Saturday.
Ralph Nickerson, Sarpy county coroner, said last night no inquest would be held. Nickerson
said he and Sheriff Harry Mundell, of Sarpy county, together with relatives of the McDonalds,
made a thorough investigation of the accident, which occurred at a grade crossing near Chalco,
Neb.
He said they found no evidence to warrant calling a coroner's jury.
From the Beatrice Daily Sun, dated December 24, 1935
Transcribed
and contributed by:
Denese Hansen
Brophy Discovered By Newspaper Editor Who Saw Picture
Left Suicide Note and Disappeared
Omaha, Neb.
Richard Gale Brophy, business manager for the Byrd Antarctic expedition,
who resigned suddenly in New Zealand last spring and later disappeared
from New York, leaving a suicide note, has been found alive, working on
the, copy desk of the Omaha Bee-News. The Bee-News said in a copyrighted
story today that Brophy's identity was learned from a photograph
showing him with Commander Richard Byrd. Brophy, who had been working
here as "C. Manning Mitchell," admitted his identity and left at once
for New York, saying he intended to straighten out his affairs there.
Brophy disappeared from New York last August leaving a note to his wife
which said he was going to Coney Island, "and walk into the waves until
they cover me and then I will be no more.”
New York police after an investigation said they doubted that Brophy had
killed himself. Nothing was heard of him until the news editor of the
Bee-News made the discovery yesterday that Brophy and "Mitchell" were
the same man. "I only wanted to rest," Brophy explained. "My nerves were
shattered. I was tired, distraught, unable to find relief from the
pressure that seemed to hem me in. "I have found rest in Omaha, but I am
going back to New York and straighten out my tangled affairs. I must
begin where I left off that day at Coney Island."
Brophy said he "bummed" his way to Omaha. He started work for the
Bee-News Sept. 25. It was the news that Commander Byrd had flown over
the south pole and returned successfully to his base that resulted in
"Mitchell's" identification as Brophy. The news editor, seeking pictures
of the explorer came upon one showing him and Brophy. The resemblance
between Brophy and "Mitchell" was so apparent that the editor confronted
"Mitchell" with the picture and "Mitchell" admitted his identity.
Unexplained Resignation
Brophy was second in command of the Byrd expedition at the time of his
sudden and unexplained resignation. He was in charge of the Byrd supply
ship, Eleanor Boiling. The ship turned back after getting 900 miles out,
the ice formation preventing its further movement ahead. He returned to
Dunedin, New Zealand and resigned.
At Dunedin, Brophy was arrested as a public nuisance and a court gave
him his choice between entering a sanitarium or returning to the United
States. He took the latter alternative but on arrival in New York he
voluntarily submitted to a mental test at Belleville. He was declared
sane, but ordered to take a rest. On the advice of Commander Byrd's New
York representatives, Brophy spent six weeks in Canada and then returned
to New York, the suicide hoax and disappearance following shortly
afterward.
Beatrice Daily Sun, (Beatrice, Gage Co., Nebraska) dated December 2, 1929
Transcribed and Contributed by: Denise Hansen
Worse
Than Wisconsin - A Nebraska
Railroad Camp Beat the
Northern Dives
Omaha, Neb., July 17 - June 28 Sara Clarke, the sixteen year old
daughter of J. C. Smith of this city, was decoyed away from her home by a
Mrs. Kate June, a woman of questionable repute.
A week or so ago
Detective Blanfuss obtained a clew, and followed it up succeeded in
arresting the girl in a camp of railroad grading hands ten miles west at
Grand Island. She and Mrs. June had been living a life of reckless
dissipation and depravity there for a period of a month. The girl was
attired in male clothes, and when the officer went to arrest her a burly
Frenchman stepped up and said he could not take her, that she was his
wife.
The girl gladly accompanied the detective, and the story she told
at her home of her life in the railroad camp is revolting and rivals
the depravity of the Wisconsin logging camps.
Detective Blanfuss left
yesterday with a warrant in his possession for the arrest of Kate June
and it is the intention to prosecute her to the fullest extent of the
law.
The Daily Northwestern,
Oshkosh, Wisc., Tuesday,
July 17, 1888, column
4
Transcribed
and contributed by:
Diana Morse
Postman’s Error Reunites Relatives
Brother and Sister, Separated for Years, Had Lived Within
Two Doors of Each Other Over Twelve Months
Omaha,
August 8 – Altho they had lived two doors from each other for more than a year,
it took an error by the postman to bring together a brother and sister separated
for twenty four years.
The postman left a letter addressed to Harry Baker, a
municipal employee, at the home of Mrs. D. N. Alexander.
Mrs. Alexander, who had traced dozens of Bakers in many
cities during the past twenty years in her search for her family, investigated
and found her brother.
The Baker family, comprising nine children of which Mrs.
Alexander was the oldest and Harry the youngest, became separated when their
mother died at Minden, Nebraska, in 1899.
Mrs. Alexander went to Oklahoma to live with her grandmother.
The father later went to Wyoming, taking most of the family with
him. He is now a wealthy cattle man.
After several years Mrs. Alexander lost trace of the
family. She began a search years ago but
until today it was fruitless.
Other members of the Baker family are scattered thru Nebraska, Wyoming
and other western states.
Mrs. Alexander and her brother are planning a family reunion
for the near future.
The Lincoln
State Journal – Thursday,
August 9, 1923
Screamed with
Terror
Selban’s Supposed Murders View His Body But Refuse to Talk
Omaha,Neb., July 6.
– The four men and one woman who are held in connection with the Selban murder
were forced to vie the body to-day in the hope of making them talk. Thus far they have refused to talk, and
their silence has confused the police.
The persons were escorted
into the rear room at the morgue, where Selban’s body lay. The cloth was suddenly removed from the
body of the dead man, and without a moment’s warning they were brought face to
face with their victim.
John Bukove was in the
lead. He is the man who is supposed
to have been the principal in the crime.
As Selban’s discolored
features appeared before him Bukove broke down and screamed with terror. He put both hands over his face to shut
out the awful sight, and sobbed in the most pitiable manner. Drobnic andMilan were equally
affected, but they did not break down.
Mrs. Milan broke down and wept bitterly for an hour. She went into hysterics and almost
unconsciousness.
As soon as Bukove’s terror
had subsided he was led to the head of the cooling board and asked if he knew
whose face it was that lay before him.
He said: “No, no, no,” and refused to make any other answer.
Source: The Morning Times,
July 7, 1895,pg 1
Transcribed by Nancy Overlander
Omaha’s First White Settler 
Omaha, April 23
Thursday was the seventy-fifth birthday of “Uncle Bill”
Snowden, Omaha’s first white settler.
With his wife he crossed the Missouri river from Council Bluffs July 11,
1854, and took up his residence on this side.
Major William P. Snowden has lived in Omaha continuously since that
time. He is hale, hearty and happy on
his seventy-fifth birthday; but he is not spending it in idleness. He is a constable in the court of County
Judge Vinsonhaler and is serving papers and doing all the duties incident to
his position.
Source: Custer County Republican, Broken Bow, NE, April 26,
1900 edition
Transcribed by: Melody Beery
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