Augustus Kountze

[2] In 1862, US President Abraham Lincoln appointed him to the original Board of Directors of the Union Pacific Railroad.

After marrying Margaret Zerbe of Pennsylvania, the couple relocated in Osnaburg, in Stark County, Ohio.

Augustus left his parents' home in 1854, moving to Muscatine, Iowa, and then westward to Omaha in 1855, where he began trading in real estate.

[4] In 1858, he wrote to his Lutheran pastor in Canton, Ohio, and requested that Nebraska be named a mission field of the church.

Eventually Kountze held a great deal of real estate across the Midwest and Western United States.

Fellow Omaha pioneer Edward Creighton became president of the bank, remaining in that position until his death in 1874.

This enabled Kountze to market the 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) of virgin timber on land which he owned in nearby counties.