Biographical Details
Date of Birth: March 11, 1814
Birth Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Graduation Year(s): 1836
Degree(s) Earned: Bachelors
Date of Death: April 3, 1868
Death Location: Omaha, NE, USA
Jesse William Lowe
Life Experience
Jesse William Lowe was born in North Carolina in 1814 to a strict Quaker family. His family moved to Monroe County, Indiana, where he graduated from IU in 1836. He was a businessman before serving during the entire Mexican War from 1846 to 1848. He worked in the commissary of a Missouri volunteer regiment and rose to the rank of paymaster in the U.S. Army. In 1853, he moved first to Iowa before settling in the Nebraska Territory that same year. He became the first mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, in 1857.
Marriage and Family
Lowe married Sophia Hoppin in July 1856. They had four children together.
Interesting Anecdote
Lowe named the city of Omaha, Nebraska, after the Omaha Tribe, and assisted in the first survey of the city in 1854. He built the first bank building in Omaha in 1855. Contributing greatly to the business and capital prosperity of the city, the Jesse Lowe Conference Room on the third floor of the civic center is named in his honor.
References
- Wylie
- Findagrave.com
- Wikipedia