JOHN MCCORMICK.

JOHN MCCORMICK died at Omaha, June 2d, 1884; he was born on the 12th of September, 1822, at Johnstown, Westmoreland county, Penn. At an early age he was taken with his family to Cadiz, Ohio, and in 1856 removed to this city, engaging in the land and banking business. During the panic of '57 his business was injured, and in '59 he became the head of the grocery house which for a long time bore his name. He remained in business till 1869, when he engaged in grain, with which he had been identified up to his death. He built the first elevator in the city, and in other ways was counted among the leading citizens of the town.

For many years Mr. McCormick was to a great extent at the head and front of affairs in the then young city of Omaha. Public-spirited, liberal, and progressive, he stood high in the councils of those who fought the battles of our early existence. He was a great believer in Omaha and its future, and by his example in making permanent investments did much to secure that stability which has been the secret of our success. As a business man he was safe and reliable; as a friend always staunch and true, and in his family relations most devoted and kind. His removal from the scenes of his hardest commercial labor leaves a void that will be difficult to fill, as there are but few men who could exert the same influence and shape affairs so successfully as Mr. McCormick. The funeral will take place at 2 o'clock Wednesday (to-morrow) afternoon, from the family residence, corner of Dodge and Eighteenth streets. Following are a few points in the life of the deceased, which will be read with mournful interest:

John McCormick was born at Jamestown, Westmoreland county, Pa., September 12th, 1822, his father soon afterward moving with his family to Cadiz, Harrison county, Ohio. Mr. McCormick received his business training in a general country store, and about 1845 embarked in the same line of business on his own account. This he carried on prosperously until about 1856, when he moved to Omaha, and engaged in banking and real estate operations with Wm. Hogg, style of firm John McCormick & Co. In March, 1859, in company with Mr. J. H. Lacey, still a resident of this city, he started the

first exclusively wholesale grocery house, the firm being Lacey & McCormick. They did a large and lucrative business, and shortly afterward the partnership was extended, two of Mr. McCormick's brothers taking equal interests in the concern, and the style being changed to John McCormick & Co. Mr. McCormick was married twice, his first wife being a Miss Miller, by whom he had a daughter, Miss Woodie McCormick. The second wife was Miss Elizabeth Miser, a sister of Mrs. J. H. Lacey, two sons, Charles and John, being the fruit of the union.

In the business and social circles of Omaha the deceased was always a prominent character. When, in 1859, the present town site of Omaha was bought from the general government, John McCormick was selected as the man to hold it in trust, and the entire property was deeded to him. At the proper time he transferred the title to D. D. Belden, then mayor, and from this source all our real estate titles start.

Mr. McCormick was also quite prominent in the political affairs of the early days. He represented this district in the senate during the close of the territorial time, and was a member of the first city councils. He was largely of a speculative turn of mind, and took heavy ventures in government contracts for supplies and transportation, and also in city real estate, all of which resulted profitably. Omaha's first grain elevator, which stood near the spot now occupied by the B. & M. freight depot, was built by John McCormick. At the time of his death he was an active partner in the elevator company at the transfer, and the owner of valuable real estate on Farnam and other streets in the heart of the city, besides several tracts of land outside the city limits.

S. S. CALDWELL.

SMITH SAMUEL CALDWELL died at Omaha,

1884.

He was the son of a farmer in Marion, Wayne county, New York, where he was born in 1834. He was a graduate of Union College, and came to Omaha in 1859. He was a lawyer by profession, and undertook its practice here, but soon afterwards engaged in the banking business, which he successfully pursued with a high reputation as a financier for nearly a quarter of a century. He was at first in the

firm of Barrons, Millard & Co.; then in the firm of Millard, Caldwell & Co.; then in that of Caldwell, Hamilton & Co.; and latterly in the U. S. National Bank, of which he was vice-president and the largest stockholder when he died.

Mr. Caldwell was a broad-headed man, self-reliant and resolute, of high public spirit, and capable of large undertakings. The monuments of his enterprises will stand long after all that was mortal of him shall have returned to its kindred dust. The Caldwell block fitly bears his name, because, at the time it was built, without his energetic efforts it would not have been built at all. The Omaha & Southwestern railway, of which he was president, was, to a great extent, his own creation in a financial point of view. It was the parent of railways connecting Omaha with the south-western interior of the state. Mr. Caldwell was one of the leading spirits and chief organizer of the Grand Central hotel enterprise, which was regarded as a great undertaking at the time it was erected. For many years he wielded a powerful influence upon Omaha affairs, and with his positive views and energy of purpose, whatever he undertook he was pretty certain to accomplish. He was a man of fine mind, strong character, commanding personal dignity, and refined and cultivated tastes. Under a somewhat forbidding, and somewhat curt manner, he carried a warm and gentle heart, whose sympathies were never in such full play as when he was in his own home surrounded by those whom he so dearly loved.

Mr. Caldwell was married to Miss Henrietta M. Bush, of Tioga, Pennsylvania, in April, 1863, a lady who, as woman, wife, and mother, has occupied the highest position in our Omaha social life for twenty

years.

HON. JOHN TAFFE.

HON. JOHN TAFFE died at North Platte, Nebraska, March 14, 1884, aged 57 years. He was a native of Indianapolis, Indiana, where he was born Jan. 30, 1827. He received an academic education, and after a diligent study of the law was admitted to the bar in the city of his birth.

In the year 1856 he moved to this state and located in Dacotah county, where he resided until his election to congress. In 1858-9 he

served in the lower branch of the territorial legislature, and in 1860 was elected to the council and made president at the organization of that body. He married the daughter of Col. John Ritchie, of Omaha.

In 1862 he was commissioned as major of the Second Nebraska Cavalry, and served for a period of about fifteen months. Shortly after this he ran for congress, and though twice defeated by Mr. Daily, was elected to the fortieth and forty-first and re-elected to the fortysecond congress, by an overwhelming majority of nearly 5,000, the vote standing in his favor 12,375 and for his opponent 7,967.

In his congressional course Mr. Taffe was a faithful worker in the interest of the state of his adoption, energy and zeal being the predominating features of his work in the halls of congress as well as at home. His work was successful without ostentation, and thorough with all the elements of a practical nature.

In the forty-second congress he served as chairman of the house committee on territories, while, at the same time, holding important positions on two other committees.

After leaving congress he became editor of The Republican, and filled the chair with considerable ability and success. He was a plain, practical, and earnest writer, and, on political issues, throughout the state, in those days, was considered almost infallible. An excellent proof of this is found in the fact that in a certain presidential election he not only forecast the vote of our own state to a nicety but also that of many of the states of the union.

After his retirement from The Republican he returned to the practice of his profession, taking some interest in mining operations.

He was honest and honorable in all his dealings, and loyalty to friends was the ruling characteristic of his head and heart.

ELDER J. M. YOUNG.

ELDER J. M. YOUNG was really the founder of the city of Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska. He was born in Genesee county, New York, near Batavia, on the old Holland purchase, on November 25, 1806. In 1829 he married Alice Watson, at that time eighteen years of age, and who now survives him at the age of seventy-four. The following year he moved to Ohio and from Ohio he went to Page county, Iowa,

in 1859. In 1860 he came to Nebraska and settled at Nebraska City. In 1863, near the end of the year, he came to Salt Creek and selected as a site for a town, and what he predicted would be the capital of Nebraska, the present site of Lincoln.

The following persons located here at the same time: Thomas Hudson, Edwin Warns, Dr. McKesson, T. S. Schamp, Uncle Jonathan Ball, Luke Lavender, Jacob Dawson, and John Giles. It was the original intention to make the settlement a church colony, but the idea was never realized as projected.

On eighty acres owned by him Elder Young laid out the town of Lancaster, which was made the county seat. He gave the lots in the city away, half to the county and school district and half to Lancaster seminary, a school which he hoped to see established here for the promulgation of his faith. He built from the proceeds of the sale of some lots a building which was called the seminary, and which was occupied by the district school and church. It was burned in 1867 and was never rebuilt.

ence.

A church was organized here, and Mr. Schamp was its first pastor. Elder Young was then president of the Iowa and Nebraska conferThe next year after the capital was located the stone church was built. Elder Young's dream was to build up a strong church in the capital city. He worked assiduously for this object, and put into the work some seven or eight thousand dollars of his private means. When the church went down, and he saw that his labor in so far had been in vain-that his dream could not be realized-he was almost broken-hearted, and this was the chief cause of his departure from Lincoln, which took place in 1882, when he went to London, Nemaha county, the scene of his closing days, in the year 1884.

Elder Young began his labors as a minister soon after he moved to Ohio in 1829. He was president of the Ohio annual conference for several years, and was president of the Nebraska and Iowa conference for about twenty years. He was a man of rare vigor and zeal for the cause to which he gave his life.

Besides his wife the deceased leaves four sons to mourn his loss. John M. Young, of Lincoln; James O. Young, of London, Nemaha county; Levi Young, of this county, near Raymond, and Geo. W. Young, of Taos City, New Mexico.

The Elder had all the preparations for the funeral made under his