HGB Ep. 426 - Fort Omaha

Moment in Oddity - Skeleton Walled Up at Fort Independence

There is a legend connected to Fort Independence in Boston that Edgar Allan Poe may have used for inspiration. It seems that in 1905, some workmen were doing repairs at Fort Independence on Castle Island in Boston Harbor in the former dungeon area. When they knocked down a brick wall, they discovered a skeleton chained to the wall, wearing tatters of what looked like a military uniform. This apparently was a man known as Lt. Gutavus Drane. In 1817, a young lieutenant named Robert Massie arrived at the fort. He got along with everyone except this Lt. Drane. One day, the two men were playing cards and after Lt. Massie laid down a winning hand, Lt. Drane jumped up and slapped him across the face, accusing him of cheating. He demanded satisfaction and suggested a sword duel. Lt. Massie was no match for experienced Lt. Drane, but he wanted to save face and agreed. He was quickly run through and buried outside the walls of the fort. Massie's fellow officers decided to seek revenge and they grabbed Lt. Drane and walled him up alive down in an unused area of the fort. Military officials assumed Lt. Drane had gone AWOL. Ten years later, an 18-year-old Private Perry, Poe's fake name, was sent to Fort Independence where he found Massie's grave and asked about it. He was told the story and it inspired The Cask of Amontillado. Finding a skeleton walled up in a dungeon and learning it inspired a famous piece of literature, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Five Letters Between John and Abigail Adams

In the month of March, on the 7th, in 1777, John and Abigail Adams exchanged five letters. Abigail was home on the couple's farm in Braintree, Massachusetts and John was a member of the Continental Congress that had gathered in Philadelphia. The Adams' relationship was on display in these letters, which revealed they had a mutual adoration of each other and that they enjoyed speaking of intellectual topics. The letters also revealed that John wasn't a fan of Philly or Quakers. He wrote, "This City [Philly] is a dull Place, in Comparason [sic] of what it was. More than one half the Inhabitants have removed to the Country, as it was their Wisdom to do—the Remainder are chiefly Quakers as dull as Beetles. From these neither good is to be expected nor Evil to be apprehended. They are a kind of neutral Tribe, or the Race of the insipids." Abigail's letters bemoaned the lack of patriotic fervor in New Englanders and she wrote that she looked forward to more letters from her beloved husband to his devoted Portia, which was his pet name for her. In total, the Adamses wrote 1,160 letters to each other. And on that same date in 1969, Ann and Dave Student married each other. Fifty-two years strong.

Fort Omaha (Suggested by: David Young)

Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska has a campus filled with historic buildings because this was once Fort Omaha. This fort's main purpose was to serve troops logistically during the Indian War era and is connected to the landmark Standing Bear v. Crook Case in 1879 in which Native Americans were legally determined as persons under the law. This location also was a place that conducted experiments with dirigibles at the Balloon School. There are multiple ghost stories from Fort Omaha as well. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Fort Omaha.

Clearly, relations between the United States government and Native American tribes has never been good. The West became an area of more confrontation between indigenous tribes and the military after the Civil War. One of these skirmishes took place between the Lakota tribe of the Sioux and the U.S. Army and the result was that the U.S. government signed a treaty that the army would abandon posts along the Bozeman Trail. This was an overland route that connected southern Montana to the Orgeon Trail in eastern Wyoming. General William Tecumseh Sherman decided that there was a need for something to replace those abandoned posts in the West to help supply the military and stop any uprisings with Native American tribes. Omaha was a newer city, but steadily growing as the Union Pacific Railroad reached the Rockies. The city really wanted to be the spot that a military installation would be built and North Omaha was chosen. Augustus Kountze, Emerson Seymour and Charles Wells owned plots of land in the area and this was bought by 79 local investors who then leased the land to the government for the fort. The fort covered nearly 83 acres. 

The Sherman Barracks was established in 1868 by Captain William Sinclair. He was the one who decided on the name, but General Sherman said he didn't want his name on a small installation. So in 1869, the name was changed to Omaha Barracks. In 1878, the Omaha Barracks would become Fort Omaha. Originally, the barracks were made on the cheap with just wood frame structures. Six hundred and fifty men from Battery C of the 3rd U.S. Artillery from Fort Kearney, Nebraska lived in the barracks and marched on the 30 acre parade ground. Other than the barracks, there was also a post headquarters, bakery, guardhouse, storehouses, and sutlers store. In 1870, the War Department authorized 14 permanent posts under Fort Omaha. The main job of the fort was to serve as the departmental headquarters for the Department of the Platte, which included present day Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and portions of Montana and southern Idaho. The headquarters would remain here from 1878 to 1881. This was a supply post and troops were sent out on coordinated campaigns against Native American tribes in the area that included the Ute, Northern Cheyenne, Sioux and Nez Perce. 

The first brick structure was built in 1879 for General George Crook. He was the Commander of the Department of the Platte from 1875 to 1882. He initially lived off post, but in 1878 the army started requiring department commanders and officers to live on the post. The two-story house was built in the Italianate architectural style. It was crowned with a hipped roof and the east facade had a long porch. General Crook and his wife moved in and they entertained dignitaries regularly. General Ulysses S. Grant and his wife visited and so did President Rutherford B. Hayes. The house served as a home for commanders until 1905 when it became an officer's club and mess hall. In 1930, it became a home once again until the fort closed in 1973. This is the oldest private residence still standing in Omaha and was placed on the Register of Historic Places in 1969. In the 1980s, the house was refurbished by the Douglas County Historical Society and opened as a museum. They also restored the Victorian Heirloom Garden where there are 110 varieties of heirloom flowers, trees and shrubs that are native to Nebraska. Some date back to the 1880s when they were brought via wagon trains. The museum is full of Victorian antiques.

General Crook's Headquarters was also built in 1879. This was a two-story building made from brick. He only used it for a couple of years before moving the headquarters to downtown Omaha to be near the Union Pacific terminal. The building was transformed into a hospital until the post was abandoned in 1896. There was another hospital on the fort that was declared uninhabitable in 1879 by the post surgeon because conditions were very poor with only wood burning stoves for warmth and no bathrooms. So the transformed headquarters served that purpose until a new hospital was built in 1906 by the Army Signal Corps. Later, the hospital served as a recruiting center during both world wars.

General Crook was part of an important case known as Standing Bear v. Crook. Chief Standing Bear (Ma-chú-nu-zhe) was the leader of a band of about 82 Ponca people who lived near the Niobrara River. This was land being eyed by white settlers, so there was a real push to get the Ponca to move. In 1876, there was more than just trying to convince the tribe to move. The government told them they were being moved to Indian Territory, which was Oklahoma. The Ponca saw the new land and refused to take it, so they went back home. So then, the government issued an order on 12 April 1877 to force their removal. Federal troops were called in to enforce the removal orders. The journey back to the Indian Territory was grueling and nine people died along the way. After arriving, another 160 Ponca died and this number included Standing Bear's only son, Bear Shield. His son told his father that he wanted to be buried in the ancestral homeland. 

When the government heard that the Ponca had returned, General George Crook was ordered to arrest them, but General Crook liked the tribe. He did bring the Ponca to Fort Omaha, but then he contacted newspaperman Thomas Tibbles who was the assistant editor of the Omaha Daily Herald. He told Tibbles why Standing Bear returned and that he wanted to rally support for the man. Tibbles went to work making speeches at local churches and he gained sympathy for Standing Bear. Then Tibbles hired  John L. Webster and A.J. Poppleton to represent Standing Bear and the Poncas at a trial. The attorneys asked Judge Elmer Dundy to grant a writ of habeas corpus. This was the first time such a motion had been filed on behalf of a Native American and Judge Dundy agreed. The trial opened in Omaha on April 30, 1879, and lasted two days. The U.S. government argued, “that [Standing Bear] was neither a citizen, nor a person, so he could not sue the government.” Standing Bear gave impassioned testimony and General Crook spoke on his behalf. Standing Bear’s lawyers argued that under the Fourteenth Amendment, Standing Bear and his fellow Ponca were both citizens and people and entitled to the same constitutional rights as other citizens of the United States and Judge Dundy agreed writing, "That an Indian is a PERSON within the meaning of the laws of the United States."  Scholars have compared the case as having a similar civil rights impact as the Dred Scott decision and the Brown v. Board of Education.

Standing Bear was able to bury his son after the trial near the Niobrara River. After years of governmental acts, Standing Bear was granted a parcel of land in the old Ponca territory. He lived on the parcel with his family and raised livestock and farmed. He died in 1908 and a memorial was built in his honor on the Parade Grounds. A statue was placed in the National Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol featuring Standing Bear in September of 2019. It features his quote, "My hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain. If you pierce your hand, you also feel pain."

In 1880, the troops would finally get indoor hot and cold water bathing facilities. There was one for officers and three for enlisted men. The Ordnance Magazine was built in 1883 and this was used for the storage of ammunition and weapons. The building was fairly small and topped with a tin-roofed. The soldiers were trained to be excellent marksmen. The types of weapons used were Remington, Winchester and Springfield rifles and nickel-plated Colt revolvers. Ten companies of the 2nd Infantry would be at Fort Omaha until 1896 and then they moved to Fort Crook near Bellevue. The Army Signal Corps made this their home in 1905 and they stayed until 1913. Fort Omaha's Officers Row was built in 1906. These homes were very basic and built on a budget with classic lines featuring several architectural styles like Georgian, Federal and Greek Revival. There were many social events for the officers like band concerts, charity balls and gatherings at fraternal lodges. 

Fort Omaha entered a period of balloon and aviation history in 1909 with the Observation Balloon Corps. A storage building for a dirigible was built. The first experiment they conducted involved inflating a dirigible with hydrogen gas and sending Pilot Captain Charles Chandler and his passenger Lieutenant J. Ware off to Iowa. They made it and landed safely before the balloon was lost to a fire from a static discharge. The Corps was moved to another location, but returned in 1916 and a Balloon School was set up. Balloon training was very demanding. Balloonists were going to use the balloons for spying and observation and they had a code they sent via a telephone line from the balloon's basket to an extensive switchboard system. Sixteen thousand men trained in this field at Fort Omaha during World War I. The Caquot was the best dirigible they had and this was shaped like a sausage with fins. The Balloon Corps stayed at Fort Omaha for four years.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the fort was continuously occupied. After 1935, the fort was used as a residence post for officers on duty at 7th Corps area headquarters. During World War II, it served as a support installation for the 7th Service Command. The Army decided the fort was surplus property in 1947 and they gave it to the Navy who used it for a Reserve Training Center. In 1973, the Defense Department decided they no longer wanted the property, so they deeded it to the Metropolitan Community College in August 1975. Army Reserve units still train there and the college is not allowed to change the exterior of the buildings or the Parade Grounds. The Metropolitan Community College was created in 1974 after the Nebraska legislature consolidated eight technical community college areas into six. The Omaha Nebraska Technical Community College Area was merged with the Eastern Nebraska Technical Community College Area and given the name Metropolitan Technical Community College Area. In 1992, the Legislature voted to change the name to Metropolitan Community College Area, shortened to MCC.

MCC is one of the fastest growing post-secondary institutions in Nebraska and three buildings were added to the campus: The Construction Education Center, The Center for Advanced and Emerging Technologies and The Career and Academic Skills Center. In 2021, they opened the Automotive Training Center. The college has grown to become the second largest post-secondary institute in Nebraska. There are several campuses all over Nebraska. Students have a variety of offerings for major fields of studies. And they have an opportunity to mingle with ghosts because the former Fort Omaha is said to be haunted. The school hosts haunted history tours. In 2022, they have one in April and one in May.

Turmoil feeds negative energies and Omaha played host to a very bad scene in 1919. Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Wuest, commander of Fort Omaha at the time, had to send a company of troops to help the local police when a riot erupted. The summer of 1919 was a dangerous time in America with riots rocking major cities across the country. It was nicknamed Red Summer. There were 25 large ones. The one in Omaha started when Agnes Loebeck, a white woman, reported that she had been assaulted by a black man. A packinghouse worker named Will Brown was apprehended by the police and brought to the Loebeck to be identified. Agnes claimed he was the assailant. Before the police could leave, a mob started forming outside the house. Reinforcements helped get Brown to the Douglas County Courthouse. Three days later, on September 28, 1919, a mob of around 10,000 people gathered outside the courthouse. When night fell, the looting began and people started firing on the courthouse. Two men were killed by flying bullets. The mob then set the courthouse on fire. Will Brown told the Sheriff who was trying to protect him, "I am innocent, I never did it, my God I am innocent."

Firefighters arrived and tried to extinguish the flames, but the mob pushed them back. The mayor came out to reason with the people and he was knocked out. When he came to, he found himself with a noose around his neck with the other end flung up over a lamp post. He passed out again and woke up in the hospital where he had been in a coma for several days. The mob managed to get inside the courthouse and dragged Brown outside. What happened to him is too horrifying for us to share on this podcast. It's a sad testament to the inhumanity of humans. What we will share is what actor Henry Ford said of the scene. As a 14-year-old boy, he watched what happened from the second floor of his father's printing plant that was across the street from the courthouse. He said, "It was the most horrendous sight I’d ever seen . . . We locked the plant, went downstairs, and drove home in silence. My hands were wet and there were tears in my eyes. All I could think of was that young black man dangling at the end of a rope." The Army from Fort Omaha was able to restore order and they patrolled the black community to make sure no more lynchings took place. No one was ever charged for what happened to Brown.

The Douglas County Courthouse still stands today. It was built in 1912 in the French Renaissance Revival architectural style. The fire nearly destroyed the building. Brown was lynched across the street at 18th and Harney Street. The Metropolitan Utilities District and the Omaha Housing Authority are located there today. We tried hard, but couldn't find any hauntings related to these locations. But there are other ghosts connected to Fort Omaha.

Another Douglas County fixture was the Poor Farm. A 60-year-old man named Peter Gronwold lived there in 1890. He scraped by making a living as a servant to Lieutenant Wilson who lived in officer’s quarters at the Fort. He was working there one day when he broke and had what was described as a psychotic episode. Gronwold started flinging plates at a wall and he broke out a window. Lt. Wilson tried to subdue him and Gronwold died from what was thought to be a heart attack. His spirit is said to have haunted the location for 20 years after that. We're not sure why it stopped after that or if his spirit might still remain, but has become quiet.

Apparently, psychics were invited out to Fort Omaha to perform seances as a form of entertainment. People would come out to the fort to watch drills and such and this was an added extra. A local newspaper reported in 1918 that the troops who figured the psychics were charlatans, were given something to think about. A particular psychic was able to conjure a ghost on command. The troops, of course, believed he was faking the whole thing. That was until the ghost continued to make appearances night after night for the rest of the week. We're not sure if this was a spirit connected to the fort or something the psychic pulled from somewhere else. No description was given of the ghost, but there are reports of people seeing the apparition of a young soldier walking around who either disappears or is semi-transparent. A nicely dressed middle-aged man has been seen by students and he disappears, which is what indicates he was a ghost. A Native American warrior has also been seen. And there are stories of a young girl.

The young soldier ghost could be connected to another incident at the fort. In 1981, there was an explosion at the World War I Balloon School on the south side of the parade grounds. A gas storage tank exploded, killing two soldiers immediately and sending another to the hospital. He later died during surgery. All three of these men are said to roam the campus in the afterlife. And speaking of the hospital, a soldier who was in the hospital in 1945 became violent one day and murdered one of the nurses while doctors and other nurses looked on. Her spirit has been seen gazing out the windows of the former hospital.

One of the original officer's houses is also haunted. When it was being renovated in the 1970s, workers would hear knocking on the walls. They assumed some other workers were playing tricks or just working on the opposite sides of the walls. When they would go to look, they would find that no one was on the other side of the wall. Tools would also mysteriously disappear and then show up later in different rooms, sometimes days later. 

We have one more ghost story to share. This isn't at the former Fort Omaha, but six minutes to the east at Carter Lake. The lake was a popular getaway for city people and the Rod and Gun Club was set up to facilitate their use of the lake. The Omaha Rod and Gun Club was founded in 1905 by Dr. Despecher and there were 175 charter members. There were bungalows built along with a clubhouse. H.C. Oakley and his wife Mabel owned a cabin there. One day, Mabel's sleeve caught fire from the stove and she ran out of the house into the arms of her husband and died. The cabin burned to the ground. A restayrant was eventually built on the site of the former cabin. The chef slept at the restaurant and he started having experiences with a ghost. He was sleeping one night when he was awakened by the sound of a match striking. He saw a woman surrounded by fire and carrying a lighted match in her hand. She appeared night after night, always glowing with an unearthly blaze of light. His dog occasionally ran in and would bark and then run back out. Finally, one night the burning woman held the match out to him and he pushed it away. He was stunned when he was not burned and he felt no pain. He insisted on having his room moved and she didn't bother him anymore. The Rod and Gun Club closed down in the 1940s. 

Omaha was a wild town in the west and a perfect spot for a military base. Fort Omaha served a good purpose and serves an even higher calling now as a place of education. Is the former Fort Omaha and now the current Metropolitan Community College haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
Adam F.C. Fletcher has a great blog on the history and some of the ghost stories of North Omaha at https://northomahahistory.com