Background
Edward Rosewater was born in the village of Bukowan, Bohemia. His parents, Herman and Rosalia (Kohn) Rosenwasser, were of German Jewish descent, but were Bohemian rather than German in sentiment.
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Edward Rosewater was born in the village of Bukowan, Bohemia. His parents, Herman and Rosalia (Kohn) Rosenwasser, were of German Jewish descent, but were Bohemian rather than German in sentiment.
Edward went to school in Prague until he was thirteen, learned German of a tutor.
In 1854 Edward came with his parents and their eight other children to the United States. The Rosenwassers settled in Cleveland, changed their name to Rosewater, and were speedily absorbed into the main currents of American life. The boy Edward found work, first as a store clerk, later as a book-keeper, and after 1858 as a telegrapher.
When the Civil War broke out he was stationed in the South, where he remained until 1862. He then entered the United States military telegraph corps, and served with Fremont in West Virginia, with Pope during his disastrous Virginia campaign of 1862, and with the War Department at Washington.
In 1863, he yielded to the persuasions of Edward Creighton and accepted a position with the Pacific Telegraph Company at Omaha, Nebr. Through his connection with this company, and later with other western telegraph lines, Rosewater learned much about the sources of news. He established a news bureau to contribute items from the Rocky Mountain area, and became an agent of the Associated Press. With this background, his transition to the newspaper world was easy. After a brief connection with the Omaha Daily Tribune, he made his real debut into newspaper work with the establishment of the Omaha Daily Bee in 1871.
That year, as a member of the Nebraska legislature, he had advocated the creation of a school board for the city of Omaha. Such a measure passed the legislature, but had to be submitted to the voters of the city for their approval. To ensure ratification of the project at the polls, Rosewater established the Bee, a sort of tabloid newspaper "not much larger than a full-page theater program, " as a medium for his arguments. The Bee was at first distributed without cost, but its spicy editorials and its well-chosen telegraphic news won such hearty support that when the campaign for a better school system was won the Bee lived on. Enlarged to the usual newspaper size and offered to subscribers as an afternoon daily, it outstripped its local competitors and soon became one of the outstanding newspapers in the United States.
Rosewater was always among the first to adopt the latest improved methods of publication, he maintained unabated his keen sense of news values, and he fought valiantly through his editorials for the rights of the common man. Had the Bee been less vigorous in its denunciation of railway abuses, probably Rosewater would have won in 1901 the seat in the United States Senate that he coveted. Rosewater was a loyal citizen of Omaha and contributed in many ways to the material advancement of that city. The Bee building, an eight-story fire-proof structure erected in 1887-88, was long regarded as one of the architectural triumphs of the West. The Trans-Mississippi Exposition, held at Omaha in 1898, was originally projected by Rosewater, and he, more than any other man, was responsible for its conspicuous success. Shortly before his death he handed over to his two sons, Victor and Charles, the active management of the Bee. He died suddenly, in August 1906, without having shown previously any signs of failing health.
Rosewater was the founder of the newspaper "Omaha Bee". With his control this periodical endorsed progressive ideas such as creation of a school board for the Omaha Public Schools and direct election of senators. Rosewater was credited with creating the first Omaha Board of Education. He was also involved in founding the American Jewish Committee.
Rosewater was married on November 13, 1864, to Leah, daughter of Loeb and Ella Colman, of Cleveland, Ohio, by whom he had five children.
