Jacob Erion had Red Hair! Who knew? Part III

Jacob B. Erion

Mary Leonard Erion

 My grandfather once told me he would like to know more about his grandfather.  However, it was during a time when I was having my own children and the days were filled with raising the next generation.  There was no time to look back.  But now there is.  My Granddad passed away in 1983 but I have always remembered his words to me and this blog is a result of that remembering.   I have sourced my information.  These are my own words except where indicated. 

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In addition to publishing The Globe, there was a reference to a journal being published by Jacob Erion in the 29 Apr 1891 edition of the (Omaha) Morning World-Herald: “The Weekly Eagle, by Erion & Hart, has made its second bow.  It is quite a neat journal and is meeting with good success.”  (That is the only reference I have seen to that particular publication. Bleu)  However, 1891 was also the year that the (Omaha) Morning World-Herald declared South Omaha “dead” as a newspaper town.  Perhaps that’s why it was fortunate that Lorenzo Crounse was elected Governor of the State of Nebraska. (Source: [Omaha] Morning World-Herald, 11 Mar 1891)

 Jacob was very involved in the Republican Party in South Omaha and Omaha.  He was chosen Secretary of the South Omaha Republicans on 23 Jul 1892.  The primaries were to be held that next Saturday, “the voting to be by the Australian system.”  (Source: [Omaha] Sunday World-Herald, 24 Jul 1892)  (Note:  “The Australian system” is what we know and take for granted today as the secret ballot.  It began in Australia in 1855. Australia also gave women the vote in 1892, almost 30 years before the USA.  In the United States, the Australian method of voting was first used in Massachusetts.  Before 1884, all the presidents of the United States were elected by the oral vote.  In 1892, the Commonwealth of Kentucky finally eliminated the oral vote and Grover Cleveland was the first President of the United States to be elected by the secret ballot also known as “the Australian system.” Bleu [Sources: http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/sys_gov.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_ballot]) 

In 1893, Jacob Benjamin Erion was appointed Deputy Labor Commissioner by Nebraska Governor Crounse shortly after his inauguration. (Source: [Omaha] Morning-World Herald, 26 Aug 1893)  By law, the Governor of Nebraska is Labor Commissioner and his appointee is therefore the Deputy Labor Commissioner.  Jacob earned $1,500 annually while holding this position.   (Source: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/preservation/gov/officers2.htm)   

In the August 26, 1893 article referenced in the previous paragraph, it also said that “Mr. Erion at one time conducted a little paper at South Omaha, and later acted as south Omaha correspondent for the Bee, a paper published in Omaha.  He has claimed that he owes his appointment to the recommendation of Mr. Rosewater.”  Said quotation is verified by the South Omaha Biographical Sketch circa 1895 written about Jacob B. Erion which stated, “This paper (Daily Stockman) he sold in 1888 and has since been connected with the Omaha Bee.”

Who was this Mr. Rosewater?  Edward Rosewater was born 28 Jan 1841 to a Jewish family in Bukovany, Bohemia.  He and his family came to the United States in 1854.  He was an Abolitionist, signing up for the Union Army during the Civil War.  As part of the United States Telegraph Corps, he served with General John C. Fremont throughout his West Virginia campaign.  (This could have been where Jacob Benjamin Erion met Edward Rosewater.  They both joined the Union Army in Ohio and they both were in West Virginia. Bleu)  Rosewater was also stationed at the White House telegraph office and it was he who sent out President Abraham Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation” on 1 Jan 1863. (Source: Bristow, D. (1999) “Hard-Hitting Journalism.”  A Dirty Wicked Town: Tales of 19th Century Omaha)   

Edward Rosewater came to Omaha in 1863.  At that time, Omaha was the terminus of the Pacific Telegraph Company.  He was the Western Union manager and an Associated Press agent, becoming the Omaha correspondent for several eastern newspapers.   He went to Cleveland, Ohio, long enough to marry Leah Colman on 13 Nov 1864, and then they both returned to Omaha. (The 1880 US Census shows that Edward and Leah had four children: Stella, Nellie, Victor, and Charlie.  By 1900, they have an additional child, Blanche, who was listed as a college student.  Son Victor is still living in the home and he is listed as a newspaper editor.  One daughter – either Stella or Nellie must have passed away in the intervening years, because there is a seven year old granddaughter, Nellie R. Eglanter living with them also. [Source: 1900 US Census] Bleu)

 In 1870, Rosewater was in the Nebraska Territorial Legislature.  In 1871 he founded the Omaha Bee, often called a source for yellow journalism.   When the Bee was founded, there were already two other newspapers in Omaha – the Herald and the Republican – and there was no love lost between all three newspapers.  Mr. Rosewater was regarded as a “thirty-year-old smart-aleck.” (Source: Bristow, D. (1999) “Hard-Hitting Journalism.”  A Dirty Wicked Town: Tales of 19th Century Omaha) Using the Omaha Bee as his voice, Rosewater supported the creation of the first school board for Omaha Public Schools.  Even though his ideas were progressive in some respects, he did oppose the vote for women. 

  

According to “Hard Hitting-Journalism,” a chapter in A Dirty Wicked Town: Tales of 19th Century Omaha by Bristow (1999), Rosewater “constantly pursued his own version of the news” and once became involved in a violent confrontation in which he was almost killed by a local worker after reporting on that man’s secret love affair.  (Source: Bristow, D. (1999) “Hard-Hitting Journalism.”  A Dirty Wicked Town: Tales of 19th Century Omaha)   Rosewater was also instrumental in the founding of the American Jewish Committee.    

These examples of Mr. Rosewater are presented so that one can get a sense of the personality and background of the man for whom Jacob B. Erion worked at one point and who also recommended Jacob to Governor Crounse for the position of Deputy Labor Commissioner of Nebraska.