Omaha

Omaha is on the St. Louis Southwestern Railway and U.S. Highway 67 ten miles north of Daingerfield in north central Morris County. When the town was first laid out by Thompson Morris in 1880 it was called Morristown, but the post office department called it Gavett. In 1886 residents decided to change the name, and seven early settlers each put the name of his Alabama hometown in a hat. Omaha, the name selected, had been put forward by Hugh Ellis. Because of its central location and the railroad connection, the town grew quickly. By 1890 Omaha had three churches, a school, a weekly newspaper, and a population of 450. Throughout the twentieth century Omaha was the site of a vegetable-plant shipping operation that shipped millions of seedlings throughout the United States. The town was incorporated in 1914. In 1980 it had a population of 960 and twenty-three rated businesses. In 1988 Randolph E. (Randy) Moore, a native of Omaha who played in the Texas League and the National League in the 1920s and 1930s, was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame in Arlington. In 1990 the population of Omaha was 833. By 2000 the population had reached 999.