Smarty-Pants question of the week: What do Norman Bateman, Frank Collins and Frank Howehave in common? No need to wait until next week to learn the answer. It is revealed in the articleto follow.

When Byron Reed died, he was the richest man in Omaha. He gave his collection of books andcoins to the City of Omaha. That was the end of one story and the beginning of another.

Byron Reed was born in Darien, New York, on March 12, 1829. His father was Alexander Reed(1792-1869) and mother was Betsay Crosby Reed (1797-1864). When he was thirteen, thefamily joined a group to settle in Darien, Wisconsin, named after Darien, New York.

Reed had only an eighth-grade education but taught himself Morse Code. He worked as atelegraph operator in Warren, Ohio.

Reed moved to Omaha in 1855, the year the city was founded in what had been Indian territory.He soon ventured into Kansas as a correspondent for the New York Tribune. A pro-slavery lynchmob hastened his return to Omaha.

He produced the original survey of the city. He opened the first real estate office in NebraskaTerritory in March of 1856. The Byron Reed Company was sold by the family but remains in theproperty management business in 2023.

Reed served as City Clerk from 1860 to 1867; as deputy County Clerk 1861 to 1863; and CountyClerk 1863 to 1865. He served on the Omaha City council in 1871 and as president in 1872.

Byron married Mary Melissa Perkins (1845-1943) on April 29, 1862. If my calculations arecorrect, he was 33 years, 1 month and 17 days old. She was 16 years, 9 months and 26 days old.In a 1935 interview she recalled, She outlived him by more than 50 years.One child died in infancy. A son and daughter survived.

In 1875, Reed built a home at the corner of Twenty-Fifth and Dodge Streets in Omaha. In 1917,Father Edward Flanagan rented the boarding house there as his site for the Father FlanaganHome for Boys. Withing two years, they outgrew the property for what would become BoysTown.

Reed surveyed and laid out residential subdivisions and became wealthy through his investmentsin real estate. He acquired property around what would be the Prospect Hill Cemetery anddonated it to the city.

Reed was appointed by President Harrison to serve on the Assay Commission in 1890.

Omaha's richest man became ill and died at home in Omaha on June 6, 1891. He is buried inProspect Hill Cemetery on land he donated to the city. Also buried there is his wife Mary MelissaPerkins Reed ((1845-1943), his son Abraham Lincoln Reed (1865-1952) and daughter-in-lawThede Adeline Capron Balch Reed (1873-1946).

Byron's father, Alexander, was a collector of coins and books. Byron extended the collection toinclude examples of almost all United states coins issued through his death in 1891. He alsocollected rare books, manuscripts and autographs.

Reed's will provided funds to build a city library, art gallery and museum at 1823 Harney Streetand donated his collections to be preserved at that library. The history of the collection is ascomplicated and interesting as the life of Reed.

The exhibit was within a museum on the second floor of the new library building. It was initiallya popular attraction for visitors. It soon became a popular attraction for thieves.

The exhibit opened to the public on April 30, 1895. In December of 1895, burglars came througha window and broke a panel in the door before being scared off by alarms.In 1898 a man secreted himself in the building overnight. He failed to gain entry to the collectionroom and killed himself with a pistol shot in the morning before he was discovered.

In one case the alarm worked properly but the telephone company delayed in reporting to thepolice and the police delayed their response to the scene. That burglar was not apprehended.

In 1900 an attempt was made to rob the collection. The attempt failed when Frank Howe sawedthrough a padlock, set off an alarm and was quickly arrested.

In 1907 a thief overpowered a night watchman in a struggle and made off with 103 recent coinsworth $146.66.

In February of 1908, burglars broke into the adjacent Boyles College building and attempted tospan the ten-foot gap between the two buildings with a ladder. The ladder was too short and theplot abandoned.

In 1909 Norman Bateman was convicted of attempting to rob the collection and sentenced totwenty days in custody. He was in possession of a wood rasp used to pry open a case. He claimedthat there was an innocent explanation and he used the rasp to comb his hair.

On January 2, 1930, an ambitious burglar possibly named Frank Collins broke through abasement window, pried open an iron screen, broke through an iron grating and drilled holesthrough a wooden door. He set off an alarm when he reached through to unlock the door. Underhis real name of S. H. Fisher, he was sentenced to two years in prison.

In 1955, the American Numismatic Association held their annual convention in Omaha with theencouragement of Omaha resident and president of the ANA, Dr. J. Hewitt Judd. No burglaryattempts were noted during the convention.

In 1963, a man ran from the building with police in pursuit, He left a set of burglar tools behind.

In August of 1963, three men tied up three employees and a police officer on the third floor.They were thwarted by a steel door and left behind burglary tools when scared off by an alarm.

In March of 1965 it was reported that the American Numismatic Association would build theirheadquarters next to the Joslyn Museum in Omaha. One proposal was to loan the Reed collectionto the ANA. It is my understanding that the ANA headquarters was built somewhere else.

In May of 1965, thieves cut a hole in the wall of the Byron Reed room at the library. They weresurprised by the building engineer and fled. Had they stuck around, they would have discoveredthat the collection had been removed from the library and placed in a bank vault.

While Reed had donated land for the library and donated his collection to the library, he left noendowment to cover costs of security. The collection was underutilized and poorly managed.Items disappeared and others were switched for lower quality examples. City officials saw thesecurity costs as a drain on their resources while a sale would be a great boost to their resources.

Melvin Stark was numismatic curator for the Boys Town museum. He was a volunteer at thelibrary producing an inventory of the Reed collection.

In 1972 the city council attempted to sell the collection to raise money for a new library. MelvinStark alerted the numismatic community and fought the sale. In 1985 the city transferred thecollection to the Durham Museum. In 1996 the city sold off parts of the collection through anauction by Spink. The sale realized $5.8 million with three million going to the Durham Museumand the rest to the city.

In 1978, a successful break-in was made at the U. S. National Bank vault where the Reedcollection was stored. ANA President Grover Criswell was in town and wanted his picture takenwith the mayor and some of the Reed coins. The vault door required two combinations, one heldby the Byron Reed Historical Association and the other under the care of City Councilrepresentative Richard Takechi. When called on to open the safe, he could not remember thenumber. A locksmith was called and the safe was drilled open.

Takechi said that for security reasons, it should not be known that he had one of thecombinations. When asked what happened, he said, Of course, this was reported in the local paper.

In 1986 the city council approved an agreement to loan the Byron Reed Collection to the OmahaHistory Museum.

The surviving collection was put on display at the Durham Western Heritage Museum in the artdeco Union Station at 801 South 10th Street. Dr. Larry Lee mounted the exhibit while he wascurator there. The exhibit was opened in 1999.

I attended the National Token Collectors Show in Omaha over Labor Day weekend in 2007. Onthe morning before the show opened, I toured the exhibit at the Durham Western HeritageMuseum.

Less than a year later, on April 6, 2008, the name was changed to the Durham Museum. Whilethe ANA Museum tells the story of coinage to the general public, I found the Durham Museummore interesting. It includes an exhibit of numismatic literature and extensive exhibits of greatcoins and tokens. I highly recommend it.