Source Information

Ancestry.com. Fort Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., Directory, 1888-1896 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
Original data: Davis, John, ed.. Omaha City Directory. Omaha, NE, USA: J. M. Wolfe and Co., 1888-1896.

About Fort Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., Directory, 1888-1896

Then located three miles north of Omaha, Nebraska and now within the city limits, Fort Omaha served as home to as many as ten companies of the Second Infantry, Department of the Platte, for much of the late 1800s. This database, based on the Omaha City directories between 1888 and 1896, provides the names of over 1800 soldiers and civilians who lived at the fort. Information provided includes the names of each individual, rank or occupation, and years residing at the post as well as the company in which each soldier served. This collection provides a guide to obtaining military records and as a piece of the "lost 1890 census" puzzle. Since there was also an "Indian" company housed at the fort between 1892 and 1894, the database can also be a source of some Native American records.

A military post, located on the right bank of the Missouri River north of Omaha, was established in December, 1868, by Captain William Sinclair, 3rd U. S. Artillery. The post was originally called Camp Sherman, in honor of William Tecumseh Sherman, before changing its name to Omaha Barracks a year later. On December 30, 1878, the post was designated Fort Omaha. During this same time period, the U. S. Army's Department of the Platte was organized and the fort served from 1878 until 1881 as the Department's headquarters when it moved back to the city. The post, however, remained home to upwards of ten companies of the 2nd Infantry until 1896 when the garrison was relocated to Fort Crook near Bellevue, Nebraska. Fort Crook is now the site of Offutt Air Force Base.

Fort Omaha was re-opened in 1905 as a school for non-commissioned officers of the signal corps with a balloon plant established there in 1909. The grounds were used as an observation balloon school during World War I and later as the site of a navy recruiting station. Today, the well preserved brick buildings and grounds form one of the campuses of the Metropolitan Community College system and as headquarters for the Douglas County Historical Society.