1857 $5 City of Omaha Scrip. #2903

Description

Nebraska State Historical Society

March 8, 1961

Your letter to the Omaha Chamber of Commerce has been referred to us for reply.
Enclosed is a report on the banks at DeSoto.

The City of Omaha note which you have is probably a part of an issue of scrip by the City of Omaha made in 1857. The money was used briefly to build the second territorial capitol of Nebraska. One, three , and five dollar denominations were printed. They were signed by Jesse Lowe, mayor, and H. C. Anderson, recorder. The five dollar scrip had the picture of a sailor looking through a telescope in the upper left corner and the head of an antlered stag in the lower right corner.

(Arthur Wakely, Omaha: The Gate City and Douglas County, Nebraska, Chicago, 1917, pp. 111-112.)

Jesse Lowe was active in the founding and develop­ment of Omaha, along with his brother, Dr. Enos Lowe. He was a lawyer and was elected mayor in the first city election of Omaha, held in March 1857.

(J. Sterling Morton and Albert Watkins, Illustrated History of Nebraska, Vol. 1, Lincoln, 1907, p. 321.)

Sincerely yours,
Donald F. Danker
Archivist