aka: The Magic City - Porkopolis - South"O" Douglas County, Nebraska aka: The Magic City - Porkopolis - South"O" Douglas County, Nebraska
SOME SOUTH OMAHA BIOGRAPHIES
Among the early settlers of South Omaha is J. C. Carroll, who was born at Ardee, County Louth, Ireland and came to Milwaukee with his father at an early age. He spent his youth in Wisconsin and Iowa and in 1880 visited Ireland for a year. Later he spent some years in the Rocky Mountains where he bought buffalo robes and firs. In August, 1885, he reached South Omaha and started the second store in the town. A few months later he opened the first general merchandize store in the young city. At the end of three years, he went out of commercial business and invested largely in real estate. Mr. Carroll was married August 17, 1886 to Mrs. Josephine Egan (nee Josephine Godola), widow of Michael J. Egan, and daughter of John Godola, who came to Omaha in 1857 and was a pioneer merchant in that city.
John A. Flynn came from Ireland in 1874 and settled in Omaha in 1882. He married Hanna Begley who was born at 35th and F Streets in 1864. John Flynn & Company were clothiers and men's outfitters opening in South Omaha in 1890.
Jacob Jaskalek is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He came to Omaha in 1880 and worked at the cigar trade until he opened a small factory and retail store in South Omaha on December 15, 1887, where he made cigars alone. By 1894, his business had grown to thirteen employees and turned out four hundred and seventy-five cigars annually.
J. H. Bulla was weighmaster at the stockyards and a member of the board of education, a place to which he was elected in April 1891, receiving the largest vote of any of the four candidates running. In April 1892, he was elected councilman-at-large receiving the largest vote out of a total of twelve candidates in the field. Mr. Bulla was born at Albany, Gentry County, Missouri, and located in South Omaha in October 1887.
The Oberne Rendering Works was owned by George and George N. Oberne, pioneer packers, establishing the business at the beginning of the stock yards in South Omaha. The principal business of this establishment was rendering rough tallow and slaughtering on commission. W. H. Looker has been connected with the firm as manager since 1890. He is a native of Pennsylvania and has been in Nebraska since 1879.
Sir Thomas J. Lipton, Scottish tea merchant, sportsman and bon vivant, had a brief and graphic stay in South Omaha. Lord Lipton was lured by free rent into a new plant near the stock yards in 1886. His purpose was the slaughter and preparation of light hogs greatly desired by Britons. That year corn was 15 cents a bushel and farmer-feeders, at that low rate, preferred to feed and fatten their animals. Lord Lipton got few light hogs and in disgust sold out to Armour-Cudahy the next year. He described in his memoirs a meeting at the Stock Yards Exchange and said of the cloak room: Pistols were lying about all over the place. It reminded me of an arsenal.
Most of the above are a sampling of the South Omaha biographies from: History of the City of Omaha Nebraska and South Omaha, by James W. Savage, John T. Bell and Consul W. Butterfield; Munsel & Company, New York and Chicago, 1894.