The Queen of the Underworld: Anna Wilson
Anna Wilson, later known as Omaha’s “Queen of the Underworld,” was born in Georgia in 1835 to English immigrant parents, her father a Baptist pastor. Despite these humble beginnings, rumors suggest she had aristocratic origins. Before coming to Omaha, Anna met her lifelong partner, Dan Allen, in New Orleans. Dan was born in New York…
The Hermit of Pawnee Creek: Levi “Dynamite Pete” Everett
At one point, Levi Everett claimed to be “the last bona fide hermit living in a cave in the United States.” Born in 1862, Levi worked as a “dynamite monkey” in his youth and was said to be the only person crazy enough to ride a wagon full of nitroglycerin along the bumpy, rutted roads…
City Market Produce Dealers: Sam Monaco and Joe Vitale
Sam Monaco was born in Omaha in 1914. Returned to his parents native Carlentini, Sicily around 1920 when he was six years old. He came back to his hometown in Omaha in 1932 at the age of 18. He was peddling oranges on the streets when he decided to return to his hometown. By that…
The Potato and Onion Kings: George and Hymie Eisenberg
Born in 1895 Ben Eisenberg immigrated from Russia at the age of just 19. First settling in New York City, he married Elsie Silverman in 1919. By 1921 the couple made their home in Omaha where he learned how to peddle fruit from his father-in-law. After acquiring a horse and wagon, the shrewd businessman quickly…
The Model for the Black Angel Statue: Audrey Munson
The Black Angel statue is the translation of a recurring dream experienced by Ruth Anne Dodge. In her dream, an angel on a small boat appeared through the mist as Ruth stood on the rocky shore. The beautiful angel had one arm stretch out while the other held a vessel filled with water. The angel…
The Old Market’s Christmas Lady: Lucile Schaaf
It was during quarantine that Lucile Schaaf walked outside of her 300-acre estate just north of Florence and cut down a six foot tree, drug it across the yard and pulled it into her house. Her two year old daughter having just come down with scarlet fever meant that they couldn’t leave to get a…
South Omaha’s Baseball Coach: John Stella
Omaha’s Mr. Baseball, John Stella, grew up in the Italian enclave near the intersection of 22nd and Poppleton. By the time he was a young kid growing up in South Omaha, people still talked about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig playing an exhibition game at nearby Vinton Street Park in 1927. John did his best…
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