RALSTON

A short history of Ralston

In the 1700s and 1800s, the Omaha and Oto-Missouria-Ioway were the primary Native American tribes along the Missouri River in what today is the State of Nebraska. Although there were no known Indigenous settlements within the boundaries of today's Ralston, the area was used as hunting grounds for regional tribes. After extensive political, economic, and social pressure, the Omahas signed the 1854 Treaty of Washington in which they ceded their lands in what is today eastern Nebraska to the US Government. The Omahas were then relocated to a reservation in Thurston County, Nebraska.

George and Hariette Miller are considered the founders of Ralston. George was a physician, politician, and founders of the Herald newspaper - the forerunner to the Omaha World Herald. In 1867, Dr. Miller purchased an initial 280 acres of land, purchasing another 350 acres over the next 2 decades. The Millers constructed a luxury, 17-room castle equipped with a hot water system located on what now is 75th and Oakwood Streets. The mansion was built out of stone shipped from Wisconsin that was originally was intended for a monastery. Dr. Miller, an Englishman dreamed of owning a country estate, thus acquired 40,000 walnut, catalpa, and oak trees from the Nebraska Territorial Secretary of Agriculture, Julius Sterling Morton, the Founder of Arbor Day. He then fenced in a portion of his ground and stocked it with deer and naming the estate Deerfield.

In 1882, he deeded the land to the land to School District #54 for $1.00 with its first school built in 1888, a one-room schoolhouse located on what now is Main Street and Park Drive. Ralston's first public school teacher was Mr. Moss Bates. In 1888, Dr. Miller surveyed sections of his land to be platted into lots and city streets, naming this area Seymour Park after his friend, an American politician, Horatio Seymour.

In 1892, an accidental 47-acre lake was created around what is now 73rd and P Streets when a group of businessmen, exploring for oil or minerals, hit water at 1,440 feet. Water rushed up at thousands of gallons per hour, and a dike was hastily built to control flooding. The lake was named Seymour Lake and Cudahy Icehouse was established. The Missouri-Pacific Railroad built a spur to connect the icehouse and the plant to transfer ice during the winter.

The Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad Company built a rail line through Ralston in 1869, making travel to Chicago by rail possible. The rail line reached Denver in 1882, forming the first rail line to connect Denver and Chicago. Today, BNSF Railway Company still operates the rail line.

In the early 1900s, Ralston was connected to Omaha and Papillion through a network of streetcars. This network allowed farms to ship local produce to town markets and provided a way for workers to travel to their jobs in the South Omaha stockyards and meatpacking plants. The railway and streetcars allowed industry to boom during this time. Along Burlington Street, factories including Ralston Granary, Howard Stove Company, Ralston Lumber Company, Rogers Motor Company, Brown Truck Company, Liberty Laboratories, and Locomotive Cars and Contractors Equipment were built. Although many of these buildings are gone, United Seeds moved to Ralston from Omaha in the 1940s, repurposing the Brown Truck Company building, and the Granary, which closed shop in the 1950s and was at risk of being torn down, was renovated into a business center and entertainment venue in 2023.

The area of the townsite was established on May 23, 1907, with the sale of 282.7 acres (114.4 ha; 1,144,000 m2) of land owned by Omaha newspaper editor George L. Miller to the Ralston Investment Company. A year later the town was platted by future Omaha mayor Roy N. Towl. A petition to incorporate the property as a village was submitted to the Douglas County Board of Commissions on June 22, 1912, which was adopted by the Board two days later on June 24.

The still nascent village experienced a devastating blow to its development on Easter, March 23, 1913, when a tornado tore through the downtown area, killing 10 residents and destroying a number of buildings and homes throughout downtown. The 1913 Easter Tornado was part of a March 1913 tornado outbreak sequence that ripped through the Southern and Midwestern regions of the United States. In the aftermath of the tornado, an individual by the name of Eugene Sigmund Schaefer, president of Rialto Realty Company, offered the City a deal in which the company would purchase 160 acres for $237,945, on which his company would make Ralston the film capital of the world. The City was to pay Schaefer in installments over two years. However, after the second installment of $50,000; Schaefer skipped town and disappeared, leaving the City to take up the quit claim deeds of 60 blocks of land sold to the Rialto Realty Company. Years later, Schaefer was caught and imprisoned in Philadelphia for swindling a woman out of $20,000 in jewelry, and having operated cons for decades under alias including Kruger, Whitman, and Lord Beaverbrook.

One December 7, 1934, after years of financial distress following events including the 1913 tornado, the Rialto Company fallout, and the Great Depression; the City faced a financial disaster. Its bonded indebtedness reached a point where taxes became so high, it was crippling property owners. Finally, following a fire that destroyed half a city block, under Mayor H.C. Tilford, Ralston declared bankruptcy under the Uniform Act of Establishment of Bankruptcy; it was one of the first cities in the United States to do so. On November 5, 1935, the City's bonds totaling $240,000 were publicly burned in celebration. Ralston rebuilt itself starting in 1936 by giving away 678 lots to individuals for the purposes of building homes to generate tax revenue. Seymour Lake became a regional tourist destination once Ralston Country Club was established in 1937 and its club house was enjoyed until its demolition in 1948.

In 1967, as Omaha was annexing towns and county land to its west, Ralston Mayor Wendell Kronberg negotiated a gentlemen's agreement with the City of Omaha where Ralston would be able to continue its existence without fear of annexation.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Ralston, Nebraska, revision 1378560412 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.