shouts, sparks, and explosions as broken gas lines and severed electrical wires ignited fires that danced in the particulated evening air. The bells of horse-drawn fire trucks followed as they raced through the debris-laden streets. Fortunately, a heavy rain began that lasted for almost an hour, making the firemen's jobs easier.
The path of devastation, two to six blocks wide, was so narrow and intermittent that people wondered if it had been inscribed by God. Some believers said that he had sent the deadliest tornado in American history on Easter Sunday to punish Omaha for the drinking, gambling, and prostitution that were legendary in this western city. Others pointed out that among the 135 killed in the city were innocent children as well as aging sinners.6 Plenty of God-fearing people had inhabited the more than two thousand homes destroyed by the whirlwind. The victims had simply succumbed to bad luck.
MAKING YOUR OWN LUCK
Will Ahmanson's family believed that luck could be shaped by hard work. Will's Swedish father, John, had converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as a young man and had been jailed in Norway in 1852 for preaching the Mormon faith.7 He helped organize a group of Scandinavians, including his Norwegian wife, Grete Fieldstad, to come to America in 1856. They joined the Fourth Handcart Company, and John was chosen to lead the 162 Scandinavian members to Utah.8
Following a series of setbacks en route and a miserable winter in Utah, John grew dissatisfied with the Mormon hierarchy. The following year, he and Grete and their first child left the church and joined a wagon train returning east. When John tried to retrieve his belongings stashed at the Mormon outpost of Devil's Gate, however, church leaders wouldn't return them to him. Frustrated, John and his family continued on to Omaha, where they settled in 1859. John became a hardware merchant and then a grocer. He also sued Brigham Young and the Mormon Church.
John was rewarded for his temerity and persistence. The jury ordered Young to pay him $1,297.50. Young tried to force a new trial but ultimately agreed to pay Ahmanson $1,000.9 With this payment, John moved his family to Chicago so he could study medicine. After completing his studies, he remained in the Windy City for nearly a decade.10 In 1879, he returned to Omaha and began practicing as a homeopath.11
Of John and Grete Ahmanson's three children, Will was the youngest.12 Born in 1872, three years after the completion of the transcontinental railroad and four years before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, he grew up with Omaha as it developed from a wide-open frontier town into an agricultural shipping center and one of the Midwest's major cities.13 When he left high school at the age of fifteen, one friend advised him to become a preacher; another suggested he go into insurance. He chose insurance.14
A handsome and elegant man, Will had a strong, square face with a cleft chin. Keeping with the style of the times, he parted his hair loosely in the center. His soft eyes communicated patience and understanding. He wore a starched white collar, a silk necktie, and expensive suits. Undoubtedly, his good looks helped to charm Florence Mae Hayden, a slight, strong-willed woman. Born in Pennsylvania, she had grown up in the Sandhills of western Nebraska.15 Her Scotch-Irish family had been in the United States since the Revolutionary War. She married Will in 1897 and gave birth to Hayden a year later. A daughter died as an infant.16 Several years passed and then Howard was born on July 1, 1906.17 After Howard, Florence had no more children.
FATHER AS MENTOR
Will Ahmanson loved both of his sons, but he showered pride and attention on Howard, whom he called a genius. “Father and Bud were extremely close,” Hayden once said, betraying more wonder than jealousy. “They couldn't seem to get to see enough of each other.”18 While Howard was still in elementary school, Will took the boy aside every evening after dinner. “While he smoked a cigar he'd talk over with me the events of the day—business affairs and finances—as if I had the maturity and judgment of a man of 50.”19 When Will played cards or shot pool with his friends downtown, Howard tagged along and listened to the talk of business and politics.20 Meanwhile, Florence set high expectations.21 She was smart and competitive, with a strong sense of right and wrong.
Howard received an enormous amount of attention from both his parents. In the second grade, his report card carried A's in every subject except deportment. Rather than let this single instance of imperfection slide, his parents took him to the University of Omaha to be part of a special study. The staff told the Ahmansons that Howard didn't have enough to do. Will and Florence decided Howard needed lessons in German and piano.22
On another occasion, when Howard came home from elementary school his father asked if his grades were the best in the class. Howard confessed they were not. A girl in his class was number one; he was number two. His father responded, “Hmm, how in the world did that happen?” This was typical of the way Will approached the issue of setting standards, said Howard. “He never criticized me. He led me by sheer devotion.”23
Will also believed in giving his son extraordinary responsibilities. When Howard was twelve or thirteen years old, Will opened a brokerage account for Howard, bankrolled it, and told his stockbroker to let the young man decide his own trades. Howard bought Bethlehem Steel while his father bought U.S. Steel. “When my stock went up twice as much as his, he was the happiest man in Nebraska,” Howard remembered.24 Father and son also collaborated on research and sometimes invested in the same company.25
An automobile enthusiast in the earliest days of the Model T, Will let his fourteen-year-old son drive. Howard fixed the license plate to a hinge and ran a wire to the driver's seat so that if he saw a policeman he could raise the plate so it was horizontal to the ground and harder to read.26 “I shouldn't even have been allowed to drive for another two years,” Howard recalled years later, “but nothing was too good for me.”27
Howard skipped a grade and entered high school in 1919 at the age of thirteen. He entertained his friends by playing the banjo, the piano, and the organ, but he showed no interest in the school's music groups.28 A popular junior, he became increasingly distracted by girls. When his grades fell, his teachers sent home warnings. “We called them flunk notices,” Howard remembered. One day, his mother confronted him with the notices and tucked them under Will's plate at supper with the rest of the mail. Howard waited for his father to say something. When he was done eating, Howard excused himself, saying he had a date. Will followed him out the door.
Unable to stand the suspense, Howard asked, “Did you read your mail?”
“You mean those flunk notices?” his father asked.
“Yes.”
Will guided him to the car. As Howard slid into the driver's seat, Will closed the door and spoke through the open window. “You're going to make it, aren't you?”
“Oh sure,” Howard responded.
“Well—Good night,” his father answered.
According to Howard, “that was all that was ever said about it.” It seemed to be enough. Howard brought his grades up. “After all,” he said later, “what would you do with a father like that? You had to do what he expected you to do.”29
Under Florence's influence, Howard became a member of the Presbyterian Church.30 He was active in the YMCA, passing his Bible study course with high marks.31 But religion never became an important part of his life. Fifty years later, when he had a son of his own, he told a reporter that he was taking his son to a different church every weekend “to find one that fit,” as if religion were simply one more accessory to the good life.
