Gage County, Nebraska - Chapter 16: Founders of Beatrice, 1918

Chapter 16: Founders of Beatrice

It was no ordinary body of men who in April, 1857, while passengers on the old river boat "Hannibal," resolved to cut loose from civilization and seek fortune and happiness in that region of our country which was even then designated in the school geographies as the "Great American Desert." Although there were many other river boats beside the "Hannibal" plying between St. Louis and the Upper Missouri, .we nowhere else have any account of the formation from their passenger lists of any organization similar to the Nebraska Association.

It took courage of no mean order and optimism of large proportions to hold men of learning and ability, such as for the most part composed the membership of the Beatrice Townsite Company, to what must have appeared to a reflecting mind a forlorn hope. As far as we are acquainted with their history, we must accord to them the qualities of the true pioneer, who, scorning the hard, uninviting surroundings of the moment, sees, in the changing years, mighty commonwealths develop from primeval conditions. On the date of the actual founding of Beatrice, July 27, 1857, there were not to exceed, besides themselves, twenty-five white men in Gage county as originally created. There had never been a bushel of wheat, a bushel of corn, a potato, or any sort of product raised from the soil of the county by the hand of man outside of the Otoe and Missouri Indian reservation. The first furrows had been drawn through the virgin soil in the spring of that year, by John Pethoud. There was not a government mail route or carrier, not a single stage line, not a broken road traveled by white men in the county ; excepting Gideon Bennett's Indian trading post, a mile and a quarter southwest of the present town of Liberty, there was not a single place within the boundaries of Gage county where a man could buy a knife or any other article of common use, or a meal, or a garment.

A number of those who subscribed to the articles of association, or who were afterward added to the membership by the board of directors, never came to Beatrice or attempted to profit by their connection with the company, and under the eighth section of the articles of association they forfeited their membership. They were Edward Stewart, Jesse Spielman, E. M. Drake, Jacob Zolinger, William E. Buffington, Richard Northup, Norman Colson, J. P. Cadman, Alex. McCleary, Phineas W. Hitchcock, George W. Robb, John Henn, Jacob Talman, John B. Kellogg, A. Nelson, W. C. Barr, and George W. Dripps. The subsequent history of most of these persons is unknown to this historian. John B. Kellogg finally settled at Tabor, Fremont county, Iowa. Phineas W. Hitchcock, who seems never to have acted with the old townsite company after the "Hannibal" tied up to the Missouri river bank at Omaha, was represented at the meeting of the association July 27, 1857, on the townsite of Beatrice, by John

McConihe, who held his proxy. He was a young lawyer who found in the growing city of Omaha a most attractive field for the exercise of his talents and calling. He early obtained prominence as a politician, and in 1860 he was a delegate to the national Republican convention, at Chicago, which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President- of the United States. Afterward he was United States marshal of Nebraska territory and territorial delegate to. congress. In 1871, he was chosen as a Republican senator from the state of Nebraska, and served six years in that exalted position. He died of appendicitis, at Omaha, in 1881, in the forty-ninth year of his age. For several years he was proprietor of the Omaha Republican, the mouthpiece of the Republican party in Nebraska, and one of the leading newspapers in this state. His son, Gilbert M. Hitchcock, is now serving his second term in the United States senate from Nebraska. Whether J. P. Cadman, who was one of the original townsite company and dropped out at Omaha or Nebraska City, was the John Cadman who, in 1859, settled in the neighborhood of Yankee Hill, in old Clay county, wjio was a prominent member of the territorial legislature in 1864, and who, after the partition of Clay county, became a prominent citizen of Lancaster county, is unknown to this writer. The first president of the Nebraska Association, John Fitch Kinney, at the time of its formation was a man of mature years, and not only the most experienced in human affairs, but probably, also the most variously endowed of all members of that organization.

Born in 'New Haven, Oswego county, New York, April 7, 1816, Judge Kinney was a trifle past forty-one years of age on the 22d day of 1857; when he was chosen as the president of the Nebraska Association. He obtained his elementary education in the public schools of western New York, and at the age of fifteen entered a private school in New Haven, where he remained six months, after which he entered a private school at Hannibal, New York.

After a year spent there, he enrolled himself as a student in the Rensselaer Academy at Oswego, a famous institution of learning in its day, where he remained two years. Forty years afterward he attended a reunion of its old teachers and pupils on the classic grounds of his alma mater. This proved to be a notable gathering of several hundred persons, including lawyers, judges, doctors, authors, ministers, lawmakers, and teachers, the occasion being the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the academy. At this meeting Judge Kinney was chosen president of the alumni association.

In 1835 Judge Kinney began the study of the law, as a student in the office of Judge Orville Robinson, in the city of Mexico, state of New York. After eighteen months' application to his studies, in September, 1837, he removed to Marysville, Ohio, where he formed the acquaintance of Augustus Hall, a rising young lawyer of that city, with whom he studied law for a year; he was then admitted to the bar in Ohio. On January 29, 1839, he married his preceptor's sister. Miss Hannah D. Hall.

In 1842, another brother-in-law, Orville Hall, left Ohio and settled in the territory of Iowa, and in 1854 he was appointed by Franklin Pierce, President of the United States, to the office of chief justice of the supreme court of the territory of Nebraska. He died at Bellevue, in January, 1861, leaving two daughters and a son. The latter was the late Richard S. Hall, who for many years was a prominent lawyer of the Omaha bar and was at one time a partner in the practice of law of the late John M. Thurston, a former United States senator from Nebraska.

In 1840 Judge Kinney began the practice of his profession at Mount Vernon, Ohio, where his success was immediate. But the lure of the great west descended upon him and in 1844 he too migrated to the territory of Iowa, where he entered at once upon an active professional and political career. The mere enumeration of the professional, civic, and political honors that fell to him would be lengthy and impressive. He was an hen- ored member of the national Democratic party, was one of its most trusted advisers, and was frequently its candidate for important offices. Before he had attained to the age of thirty-three years he had been twice secretary of the legislative council of Iowa, prosecuting attorney of his judicial district and justice of the supreme court. His opinions as a judge are found in Volumes I, II, III and IV of Green's Iowa Supreme Court Reresidence amongst the few pioneers that had gathered at that spot since May, 1854. Here for thirty-three years, and until the spring of 1890, he made his home. He engaged in the practice of the law, with other occupations, during the greater portion of his life, and during the formative period of Nebraska's history he was not only active in his profession, but he was also one of the most useful and valued citizens of the entire state. He ports. In 1853 the President of the United States appointed him chief justice of the supreme court of Utah, a position which, though attended with much danger, was ably and conscientiously filled by him for two years. In the spring of 1856 he returned to Iowa, and in April, 1857, as we have already seen, he and his family were passengers on the old river boat "Hannibal," bound for the great new territory of Nebraska.

Judge Kinney's destination was Nebraska City, and on the arrival of the "Hannibal" at that little hamlet, nestled amongst the Missouri river bluffs, in the latter part of April, 1857, they went ashore and took up their was a warm personal friend of the late J. Sterling Morton, and in the early days these two men bore the heat and burden of the Democratic politics in Nebraska. In 1890, he removed with his wife and a portion of his family to San Diego, California, where in 1895, Mrs. Kinney passed away, at the age of seventy-nine years. August 17, 1902, she was followed to the grave by her distinguished husband, ripe with years and clothed with honors worthily achieved and modestly worn. Judge Kinney to the last moment of his life remained a steady friend of the little city of Beatrice. He retained his interest in the townsite till it had passed the experimental stage and was a frequent visitor here until he removed to California. The existence of our lovely city is much indebted to his prevision, ripe judgment, and persistent energy.

The first secretary of the townsite association, John McConihe, was a member of an old New York family. He was born in the city of Troy, Rensselaer county. New York, September 4, 1834. When sixteen years of age he entered Union College at Schenectady, New York, from which famous institution he graduated in 1853. He studied law with his father at Troy for a few months, and then entered the Albany Law School, from which he graduated in 1855, and immediately opened an office in his native city. He had already established a practice and had been elected a member of the school board of Troy when he became imbued with a desire to try his fortunes in the "Far West." Bidding farewell to his ancestral home and making his way to St. Louis, we find him on board the old Missouri river boat "Hannibal", in April,

1857, bound for the new territory of Nebraska. He attended the preliminary meeting of the Nebraska Association, and was chosen its secretary. He participated actively in the meeting and was a member of the committee appointed to prepare the articles of association. After the organization was perfected he was chosen as a member of its board of directors and the minutes both of the organization itself and of the official board are in the scholarly handwriting of John McConihe from April 27, to July 28, 1857, these being signed by him as secretary.

Before coming to Beatrice from Omaha with the other members of the association, he had arranged to enter upon the practice of the law there. Although Omaha was at that, time little more than a western village, perched on the bank of the Missouri river, it was the capital of the new territory and a most promising location for a young lawyer. After July 28, 1857, his name rib lon^fer appears in the records of the proceedings of the Nebraska Association or of its board of directors, but he complied with all the requirements of the organization, received his distributive share of the town lots of Beatrice, and it was only in recent years that, his interests in the city were finally disposed of by his relatives.

Having assisted in placing- the infant town, upoift its feet, he returned to Omaha and entered upon the practice of his profession. Hewas a man of many activities. In 1858 he-, formed a copartnership with some one of the numerous freighters or freighting concerns, then to be found at every Missouri river town. in eastern Nebraska, and he seems to have participated in the business until the breaking out of the Civil war, in 1861. Politically he was a Democrat, and in 1858 he was appointed private secretary to Governor Richardson jl he afterward held the same position under Governor Black until the end of the latter's term. In 1860 he was an unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Omaha, and within thesame year he was appointed adjutant general of the territory, subsequently leading an expedition against the Pawnee Indians.

raised a company for the First Nebraska Regiment, and as its captain he participated with the regiment in its Missouri campaign. He was detailed to attend to certain military matters connected with the Department of Missouri at Washington. While there in the discharge of his duty, he became ill, in February, 1862, and immediately left for his home in Troy, where he was critically ill with typhoid fever for several weeks. On recovering his health, he rejoined his regiment, the day before the great battle of Shiloh, and participated with it in that terrible conflict. He was severely wounded in the left arm and while at home slowly recovering from his injury, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Regiment of New York Volunteers. In October, 1862, he went with his regiment to Washington. He later saw service in Florida, North Carolina, Bermuda Hundred, and other places. On the resignation of Colonel Buell he was made colonel of his regiment and later became a brigadier general. While leading his brigade in a desperate charge against the "Bloody Angle" at the battle of Cold Harbor, this gallant young officer was shot through the heart. With an involuntary exclamation, he died instantly. His last orders, given in the heat of battle a moment before his death, were "Cease firing. Fix bayonets. Charge. Dress up on the colors. Do not leave the colors."

Thus perished the gallant, handsome, scholarly John McConihe, a man greatly admired by all who knew him, greatly loved by his friends and kindred and deeply mourned by his native city. His remains lie under the monument in the McConihe family burial plot which overlooks the lordly Hudson from a height near the busy city of Troy. During the brief period in which he participated in the founding of Beatrice, he exhibited a genial, friendly nature that won the kindly regard of every member of the association. The great Civil war deprived Nebraska of one its ablest and most promising citizens when John McConihe gave his valuable life to his country.

One of the most influential members of the Nebraska Association was Albert Towle, "Pap" Towle as he was familiarly called by nearly every one of his acquaintance. Like Judge Kinney, Mr. Towle was a man of mature years and large experience in the affairs of life at the time the Nebraska Association was organized on board the "Hannibal," in April, 18S7. As far as the records show, he was the only member of the organization who claimed to possess any personal knowledge of Nebraska territory or any portion of it.

Mr. Towle was born in 1817, and most of^ his early life was spent in the state of Illinois. He had acquired a good usable education and throughout the early history of Beatrice and Gage county he was the most all-around servicable member of the entire community. No man devoted his life more exclusively to the interests of the public and the upbuilding of the embryo city of Beatrice than Albert Towle. By nature he was highly optimistic, and there were times when but for him the venture would have entirely failed. He possessed a singular power of infusing into others his own enthusiasm and hopeful courage. His age and experience in the afl^airs of life gave him great influence over the young men with whom he was associated in founding and building up our city. He was present and answered to his name when the roll of members was called in the office of the territorial secretary of state May 20th and responded to his name when the roll was again called, on the Beatrice townsite, July 27, 1857. From that time till the day of his death he was rarely outside Gage county.

late summer or fall of 1857, this log cabin was donated to him. For many years he occupied it as a home. It became widely and familiarly known as "Pap's Cabin," and for a decade besides serving as a wayside inn it was the postoffice, while its main room became a place for holding public meetings of almost every character. It was here that Mr. Towle's youngest child, Katie, was born. She was the first child born of white parents in the county and, growing to lovely womanhood in her native city, she became the wife of George M. Ayres, of Deadwood, South Dakota, who had spent most of his life in Beatrice. She died at Deadwood on the 28th day of March, 1890, at the age of 32 years. Her remains rest by the

Mr. Towle was the second postmaster of Beatrice, having been appointed to that position May 22, 1860, succeeding Herman M. Reynolds who was commissioned first postmaster, in 1857. By successive appointments he held the office till his death. In addition to the office of postmaster Mr. Towle was frequently honored by election to various county offices. On the organization of the county, in August, 1857, he, with George Bonham, was elected county commissioner of the county, and he retained the office three years, - until all questions respecting the organization of the county and the location of the county seat had been settled. He was county judge from 1861 to 1867; county treasurer in 1858-59-60 and again in 1864-65-66-67-68-69. He was for many years a notary public and a justice of the peace. The second instrument recorded in the office of the register of deeds of the county is his bond in the sum of two hundred dollars as a notary public, with John McConihe as his surety. It is dated October 9, 1857, and was filed for record June 3, 1858.

Mr. Towle early in life married Catherine- Holt, a woman of ability and great force of character. She strongly supported her husband's ambitions and efforts as respected the upbuilding of Beatrice, and her practical good sense rendered her an exceedingly usefulmember of the community. She survived her husband ten years and rests at his side in the family burial lot in Beatrice cemetery. To this union there was born Helen, who became the wife of Jefferson B. Weston and who recently passed away at her home in Beatrite ; Emer, who, about 1868, became the wife of Joseph Saunders, the first mail carrier from the Missouri river to Beatrice and one of the early and successful merchants of our city (Mr. Saunders died recently, at his home in Reynolds, Jeflferson county and lies with his wife in his burial lot in Beatrice cemetery) ; Adelia, who became the wife of Richard C. Davis and who died in Chicago, in 1916; Mary, who became the wife of Dr. John G. Davis

The family of Albert Towle was one of the best known and most highly esteemed of the pioneer families of our county. The head of the family more than any other man is entitled to be known to posterity as the "Father of Beatrice." This beautiful city is in a large sense his enduring monument. He died on the 8th day of March, 1879, at his home, the story and a half brick cottage erected by him in 1869, at the corner of Fourth and Ella streets this city.

Nelson was but little past twenty-one years of age in 1857.,- when he became a member of the Nebraska Association, and was probably the youngest man in the organization. He responded to his name when the roll of membership was called in Omaha May 20th, and again on the townsite of Beatrice, July 27, 1857, but he does not appear to have ever been active in the affairs of the association or to have accepted his distributive share of the townsite of Beatrice. It is not known to this writer how long he remained here nor where he went after leaving Beatrice in August, 1857, but in 1860 he is known to have made a trip across the plains to the Colorado gold fields. From there he went to Minnesota, thence to Wisconsin, and finally to Chicago, Illinois, where we find him in 1862. He attended a commercial college for a while in Chicago, and then found employment with the lyake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company until 1867, when he returned to Beatrice. In 1868, in co-operation with Nathaniel Howard, he established at Beatrice the first newspaper in Gage county, known as the Blue Valley Record. The history of the venture will be found further in this volume, in the chapter devoted to the newspapers and newspaper mgn of Gage county. On the 8th day of September, 1869, he married, at Wayne, Wisconsin, Miss Mary Eastman. Five children were born to this union, of whom only one is living, a son, Amos A. Nelson. In 1881 Mr. Nelson engaged in the general mercantile business in DeWitt, Saline county, Nebraska, where he resided until 1884, when he removed to Texas. During the great Galveston flood he lost nearly all his property and in 1901 he again returned to Beatrice. About 1910 he removed to the state of Washington, where he has ever since resided, and he is reported to be a helpless invalid, at the age

Judge Hewett was admitted to membership in the Nebraska Association April 29, 1857, at the first meeting of the board of directors on board the "Hannibal," and was thereafter for several years an active and an efficient member of the organization. He was the only one of the seven lawyers who were members of the company who engaged in the practice of his profession in Beatrice, in those far off, early years. He was the first county judge of Gage county and his name frequently occurs in the minutes of the county commissioners' court as having performed some service for the county.

graduated with the class of 1855. He then -went to Chicago, IlHnois, where he was employed for two years as a teacher. While so employed he read law and he was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1857, by the supreme court of Illinois. Almost immediately thereafter he set out for St. Louis, where we find him a passenger on board the "Hannibal" in April of that year. After the founding of Beatrice he went, in 1858, to Brownville, Nebraska, where he engaged in the practice of his profession for a short time. He spent a few months of 1859 prospecting for gold in Colorado. In October, 1862, he joined the Second Nebraska Cavalry, as a private in Company E; he was later elected captain of Company M, which he commanded until it was mustered out, in December, 1863. He was secretary of the last territorial couhcil, in 1867, and secretary of the senate in the second state legislature. During the years 1868 and 1869, he was the county superintendent of schools for Nemaha county and he was the third mayor of Brownville. Beginning with 1868, he served the people as district attorney for four years, at a time when the district embraced nearly the whole of Nebraska south of the Platte river.

Judge Hewett was always interested in the work of education and during the greater part of his life he was active in the support and encouragement of every educational agency. He was president of the first meeting of the Nebraska State Teachers' Association and a member of the first board of education of the State Normal School at Peru, Nebraska, continuing several years in its service. Judge Hewett was an ardent Presbyterian and in his later years he was especially active in the establishment of Hastings College, of which institution his son was the first graduate. He continued in the practice of the law at Brownville until 1876, when he removed to a farm near Auburn, Nebraska, from which, in 1880, he went to Hastings. There he was engaged in the practice of the law until 1893, when he removed to Riverside, California, where he again engaged in the practice of law, afterward locating on a fruit ranch in Chino, where he died, November 10, 1898.

At Brownville, Nebraska, Judge Hewett was married in October, 1857, to Miss Mary W. Turner, who was the first milliner of that western village. She died at Hastings, Nebraska, March 22, 1891. Three children of this marriage are living, James H. H. Hewett, chief clerk of the United States land office at Alliance, Nebraska; Mrs. Katherine L. Davis, of Long Beach, California; and C. William Hewett, of Little Rock, Arkansas. Mr. Hewett was again married, at Riverside, California, in 1893, to Mrs. Mary Nance, who survived him but a short time.

Personally Obediah Brown Htewett was a man of unusually large stature; he was deliberate of speech, a good, clear thinker, and a man whose whole life was dominated by absolute integrity of purpose.

Gilbert T. Loomis was one of the younger members of the Nebraska Association. He was a large, good-looking, pleasant gentleman, with brown eyes and brown curling hair and beard. He settled upon the northeast quarter of section twenty-six, Midland township, now ; owned by Markus and Jens Jepson. It was at this point, almost due east of the quarter section line running east and west through this tract, that the old Brownville, Beatrice, Fort Kearney road forded Bear creek for many, many years. He lead the uneventful life of a farmer and was never very active in the affairs of the Nebraska Association, though he maintained his inembership to the end in that historic organization, and on March 3, 1859, he went so far as to trade a yoke of oxen for the distributive share of Richard Northrop in the Beatrice townsite. The assignment describes Northrop as a resident of Tabor, Fremont county, Iowa. It bears the above date, is recorded in Book A, page 1, of the deed records of Gage county and is the first instrument of any description to be made a matter of record in the office of the register of deeds. Mr. j Loomis, in 1861 or 1862, in connection with Volney S. Whitemore, bought a new threshing outfit, and for a year or two these gentlemen did all the threshing by machinery in the county. It was an old-fashioned, horse-power affair and was the first threshing machine brought to Gage county. Loomis kept with his teams and machine a large, vicious dog and there was always more or less trouble between him and the hands about the machine over this faithful but dangerous canine. He sold his farm many years ago and with his family removed to Washington, in which state both he and his wife recently passed away. Mrs. Loomis was a kindly, gentle woman, the sister of Thomas W. Brown, who in 1866- 1867 was sheriff of Gage county and who now lives in Tumwater, Washington. Both Mr. and Mrs. Loomis left none but pleasant memories behind them in Gage county.

Ouver Townsend

The reader may have noticed the name of Justus Townsend amongst those who originally subscribed to the articles of association of the Nebraska Townsite Company. Justus Townsend was a young physician, who with his sister, Miss Jennie Townsend, was also a passenger on board the "Hannibal" from St. Louis bound to the new territory of Nebraska. He took an active interest in the affairs of the association from the time of its organization until the founding of Beatrice, in July, 1857, and his name is frequently mentioned in the minutes of the association's meetings. Later, returning to New York, he transferred, by assignment, his interest in the townsite to his brother Oliver, who joined the organization in October, 1857, and who never, as long as he lived, claimed a home anywhere but at Beatrice, where he became one of the most active and useful citizens of our county. The lure of the west must have been very great to have held a refined, scholarly gentleman like Oliver Townsend in the forlorn hamlet of Beatrice during its earliest years. When Townsend first saw it, it consisted of a single two-room log house, "Pap's Cabin," and a v/heezy old steam saw mill, perched on the bank of the Big Blue river. All the brilliant company who, in July, had assisted in founding the future city, except Albert Towle, J. B. Weston, Bennett Pike, Gilbert T. Loomis, and M. W. Ross, had returned to Missouri river points or elsewhere to spend the winter and to earn a little money. The privations of that winter were very, very great, and these few pioneers who had been left to guard this new outpost of western civilization frequently arose in the morning with gnawing appetites and at night retired hungry to bed. But with more accurate knowledge of the food resources afforded by the prairies, the woods, and the

Several of the colony availed themselves of the benefits of existing land laws and located claims about the embryo city, the cultivation of which soon yielded abundance. Mr. Townsend himself established a claim upon the tract of land which now comprises Glenover Addition to Beatrice. This he fenced and farmed in part for four years before disposing of it. With the development of the city and the settlement of the county, honors, such as theywere, came to Mr. Townsend. He was four times elected county clerk of Gage county, and served in that office from 1862 to 1870. He was a member of the first state legislature, having been elected to that office in 1867. He served acceptably for two years and as a legislator he participated in the stirring events which accompanied the effort to remove the capital of the state from Omaha to Lincoln. As county clerk he was ex officio one of the earliest superintendents of the common schools of Gage county, serving in that office from 1862 to 1868. When the first one-room frame school house was erected in Beatrice, in 1862, Mr. Townsend was hired to teach the first fall and winter school in that building. He was, in fact, for many years active in the civic, social, political, and scholastic life of this city, county, and state.

Mr. Townsend was widely known as a pioneer merchant, and for several years was a member of the firm of Blakely, Reynolds & Townsend, which erected the old part of the stone building now owned by Kilpatrick Brothers at the corner of Eifth and Court streets, north of the Burwood Hotel, and which conducted a general merchandise business therein for a number of years. After the dissolution of this firm by the death of Dr. Reynolds, in 1875, Mr. Townsend engaged in business on his own account, maintaining for a number of years a men's clothing and furnishings store on the north side of Court street, just east of Fifth street-

In 1880 he was married, at Nebraska City, to Miss Kate Monce, and with her he spent the latter part of his life on a small farm east of the city, on the road to the State Institution. To this union six children were born, three sons and a like number of daughters. The sons died in infancy, and the daughters are Jean, Ruth and Catherine. Hfe died in April, 1914, in the eightieth year of his age. His devoted wife survives him, and, with her younger daughters, Ruth and Catherine, occupies the homestead, the object of the afection and tender regard of all who know her.

Oliver Townsend by disposition was open, friendly, and genial. He was a man of great personal worth, thoroughly honest and reliable in all the relations of life. He was from the very first the recipient of universal confidence and esteem from the early settlers of

Mr. Cook became associated with the Beatrice Townsite Company immediately on the arrival of the steamboat "Hannibal" at Nebraska City, April 29, 1857, where he was awaiting events. Learning of the locating committee and its intended search for a townsite, he offered to hire himself as a driver for the livery team with which a part of the committee, Weston, Pike, and Ross, intended to explore southeastern Nebraska. Mr. Cook accompanied these members of the committee on their long drive across green stretches of unbroken prairie, until they fiinally reached the townsite of Beatrice. Early in June he came to Beatrice and was admitted into membership in the association. He returned to Nebraska City in the latter part of July and remained there until the spring of 1858. He was agaifl in Beatrice during that year and possibly'>s late as the spring of 1859. He then left ior Connecticut and did not return to Gage county again until about the year 1867, having been absent eight years. He engaged in farming for a while on his land, a mile and a half north of the city, on Indian creek, which is still owned by a member of his family, but later he established himself, in the furniture business in Beatrice.

Mr. Cook carried on this business until his death, which occurred at Beatrice, on the 17th day of January, 1908. He had witnessed the transformation of the bare, naked townsite of Beatrice into the beautiful city which it has grown to be. Not only had he witnessed but he had also been part and parcel of the growth and development for more than half a century of what was a prairie waste in 1857. No one can remember the time when he was not an enthusiast over the prospects of the city of his affections. He died universally respected by the community.

Harrison F. Cook was born at Norridgewock, Somerset county, Maine, November 4, 1830. He was married, at Stafford Hollow, Tolland county, Connecticut, March 15, 1860, to Lucinda H. Harvey, a native of that place. This pioneer husband and wife lie side by side in the old Beatrice cemetery.

Although abrupt in manner and very terse in statement, quick to take offense and slow to forget an injury, real or fancied, Harrison F. Cook was a wholesome, genuine, true man, and will live in the memory of his fellow citizens who knew and deeply loved him.

Dr. Wise was a young physician who found himself on board the "Haiinibal" in April, 1857, bound for the territory of Nebraska. He was active in the organization of the Nebraska Association, served as its first treasurer, was a member of the locating committee, was present at the call of the roll of the members in Omaha, May 20th, in the office of the territorial secretary of state, repaired with the others to the Beatrice townsite in June, 1857, took an active part in the Fourth of July celebration, and answered to his narhe when the roll was called on the Beatrice townsite July 27, 1857. He remained here, however, only a few days after that time, but appears to have visited Beatrice again in 1858, while located in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, in the practice of his profession. From there he removed to Fort Madison, Iowa, where he remained until the breaking out of the great Civil war, in which he served as surgeon of the Fifth Iowa Cavalry. After the close of the war, he returned to Fort Madison, and resumed his practice for a short period of time. But Dr. Wise found more congenial and perhaps more profitable employment as the state agent for the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company of Brooklyn, New York. For twenty-seven years he served this company as its field man in the great state of Illinois, with headquarters at Springfield. He died in the Deaconess Hospital at Indianapolis, May 16, 1908, of hardening of the liver, at the age of seventy-three years. His remains lie by those of his wife, in the beautiful Elniwood cemetery in the city of Fort Madison, Iowa.

Dr. Wise was survived by three sons, namely, Edward P. Wise, state agent of the Agricultural Insurance Company for the states of Kansas and Nebraska ; Frederick T. Wise, state agent for Illinois for the Home Insurance Company of New York; and Gus M. Wise, state agent and field man for the Agricultural Insurance for the state of Indiana.

Joseph Milligan joined the Nebraska Association after its organization, his name appearing among those who answered the roll call on the Beatrice townsite July 27, 1857. He did not maintain close relations with the association and appears to have gone, in the late summer of 1857, to some Missouri river point, where he remained until about the year 1860. He then returned to Gage county, settled on a claim on East Mud creek, and resided in that vicinity, with his wife Sallie, until 1863, when he, with William E. Mudge, established Buffalo Ranch, on the old Oregon Trail, at the western terminus of the stretch of roadway know as Nine Mile Ridge, on the Little Blue river, where the village of Deweese is now located. At this time the travel on the old trail had attained its maxi- mum and the partners flourished amazingly. But on the afternoon of the 7th day of August, 1864, a stage driver halted his panting horses in front of the ranch and shouted a warning that the Indians were murdering the ranchmen further down the road, burning the ranches and destroying property, and advising them to fly at once for their lives. Hastily attaching a team to a wagon and placing therein a few provisions and clothing, they loaded their families in the wagon and drove rapidly to Pawnee Ranch, eight miles up the road, passing the body of Patrick Burke, the first blacksmith of Beatrice, who had been killed by the Indians two hours before. They remained at Pawnee Ranch, which was then leased and managed by Charles N. Emery, throughout a determined attack made upon it by the Indians the same day, a few hours after their escape. Later they returned to Gage county, by way of the Nebraska City branch of the Oregon Trail, bringing with them Patrick Burke's team, which they turned over to his widow, Mary E. Burke. In 1865 the Indian war having been quelled, they returned to Buffalo Ranch, but the building of the Union Pacific Railway in 1866, across Nebraska from east to west, put an end to the freighting and ranching business along the old trail and the partnership was dissolved. William E. Mudge returned to Gage county, and in 1866 he took a homestead in Elm township, where he lived for many years, his death having occurred in Beatrice, in 1917. Joseph Milligan and wife went to Texas to live, where they both died many years ago. They were fine-looking people and would have been valuable accessions to any community. They were Irish and were endowed with the ready wit and good humor which characterize that race. They were both much loved and highly respected by the old settlers of Gage county.

Perhaps no man was more active in the affairs of the Nebraska Association while identified with it than Bennett Pike. The minutes of the organization show that much of its early success was due to his clear, logical and vigorous intellect. He was a member of the important "Locating Committee," and with Jefferson B. Weston and M. W. Ross selected the townsite for Beatrice. He prepared the report of the committee and presented it at the meeting of the organization in Omaha; May 20, 1857, in which the advantages of the site selected by the committee were set forth in detail and with great clearness. While in Omaha the company selected him as the mill agent to transport to the proposed townsite the steam saw mill which had previously been purchasel and which formed practically the only asset of the association.

Mr. Pike answered to his name when the roll was called on the Beatrice townsite July 27, 1857. He took a very active part in the preliminary work of founding Beatrice. With Weston, Reynolds, Towle, Townsend, and Loomis, he remained on the townsite until late in the fall of 1858, over fifteen months. In the meantime he preempted and purchased of the government the northeast quarter of Section 33, township 4, range 6 east, joining the townsite, north of Grant and west of Sixth street. On leaving the territory he seems to have gone to Rockport, Missouri, and during the year 1859 he engaged in the practice of law at that point, but later he removed to Saint Joseph.

Mr. Pike was the son of John and Elvira (Check) Pike. He was born in the town of Cornish, state of Maine, January 6, 1829, and died at Arcadia, Missouri, July 15, 1892, He was educated at Bowdoin College, Bruns-, wick, Maine. He was colonel of the Fifty-eighth Regiment of Missouri State Militia during 1863 and 1864;, at the same time representing his district in the house of representatives of the state legislature; he was also appointed brigadier general of militia, About the time the Civil war closed he was appointed federal district attorney for the Northern District of Missouri, and he served several years in that office. He was elected to congress from the Saint Joseph, Missouri, district in 1870, but was counted out; he was elected district judge for the Buchanan county district and afterward became the general attorney for the Iron Mountain Railroad Company, with headquarters at Saint Louis,

Missouri. Five days after his death the Saint Louis bar held a memorial meeting in which a preamble and resolutions in regard to Judge Pike were unanimously adopted.

disposition that marked him as an important influence in his community. Personally and socially he was genial and full of sympathy, with a great heart full of love ; he stooped to kiss the wounds of the sorrowing, and, with

Judge Bennett Pike died July 25, A. D. 1892. He ran his mortal course, and at the end bowed unmurmuringly to the arbiter of all human destines.

manly generosity, rejoiced with those who deservingly won life's laurels. He was a helper of his fellow kind. Distinctions came to him and he bore them with modesty, dignity and honor. '

He served as federal district attorney in this state at a time when passion ran high and prosecution was prone to take the form of persecution, but with a heart incapable of embitterment, an impartial and scrupulous mind, he stood, at once, the protector of rights and the just defender of violated law.

As a judge upon the state circuit bench he challenged the deference and confidence of the lawyers and people, neither fawning to the leadership of the one nor cringing to the impulse of the other. He was just, discriminating, learned and courageous.

For many years he was with us as a practitioner at the bar. His integrity was impregnable, his demeanor calm, gentle and dignified. His humor in conversation sprang freely as from a fountain of good nature, and if weakness he had it was his admiration and veneration for his chosen and constantly pursued profession.

No other man connected with the Nebraska Association became as thoroughly identified with the history of the state of Nebraska as Jefferson Burns Weston. From the moment of arriving in the new territory of Nebraska to the end of his long career he was a loyal and useful citizen of our state. He was widely known and was universally honored and respected throughout our commonwealth.

Mr. Weston was born March 23, 1821, in the little town of Bremen, Lincoln county, Maine. He was the son of Eliphaz and Elizabeth Ivongfellow Weston, natives of the Pine Tree state and both highly respected members of old New England families who traced their ancestry back to Puritan days in this country. Mr. Weston obtained his elementary education in the common schools of Maine and,' having prepared himself for a collegiate course of study, he, about 1852, entered Union College, now Union University, at Schenectady, New York, which under the presidency of Dr. Eliphalet Knott (1804-1866) had become one of the foremost educational institutions in the western world and drew bright, capable young men from every portion of the country. Mr. Weston graduated in the classical course from the college in 1856, and lending ear to the call of the great west, he came first to Chicago, and, still following the Star of Empire to the cry "Westward Ho," he went, in the spring of 1857, to St. Louis, where on a soft April morning, in 1857, he joined Judge John Fitch Kinney, John McConihe (a fellow alumnus of his alma mater), Albert Towle, Herman M. Reynolds, Bennett Pike, and the rest on board the "Hannibal" in her memorable voyage to the upper Missouri. He became a leader in that band of intrepid spirits who, on the 23d day of April, entered into a written compact to remain together and found a city somewhere in the new territory of Nebraska. From the moment of its organization Mr. Weston was most active in furthering this venture into what was, in fact, little more than a prairie waste. He was member of the locating committee, and with Bennett Pike, M. W. Ross, and Harrison F. Cook, reported to the organization at Omaha, May 20, 1857, their selection of the original townsite of Beatrice as the most eligible site for the prospective city. He never for a single moment wavered in his loyalty to this enterprise and throughout his life he was an efficient force in the upbuilding of Beatrice - child of his courage and brain. From May 29, 1857, when the first stake was driven on the townsite of Beatrice, with the exception of about nine years spent in Lincoln during and immediately following his six years' service as a state official, this city was his home. He retained his distributive share in the original townsite of Beatrice until it became valuable and he, more than any other of the Nebraska Association, profited from this venture.

Mr. Weston remained with Townsend, Towle, Pike, and Loomis, throughout the summer and fall of 1857 and the following winter, as a component part of the guard left behind to protect the interests of the Townsite Company. Some time in 1858, or possibly as late as 1859, he returned to Chicago and took a course in the study of the law. He was admitted to the bar and on his return to Beatrice he engaged for a brief time in the practice of his profession. But he soon turned to a more adventurous, a more profitable and (to him at that period of life) a more congenial field of activity. About 1860 he engaged in the business of freighting across the plains along the old Military Highway from Beatrice to Denver and other western points. Later he engaged in mining and other enterprises about the gold fields of Colorado, but, returning to Beatrice in 1868, he resumed the practice of the law. His professional card appears in Volume I, No. 8 of the Blue Valley Record, the first newspaper published in Gage county. It reads as follows:

He continued in the practice of law at Beatrice till 1873, when, having been elected auditor of public accounts for the state of Nebraska, he removed his family to Lincoln. He served the people as their auditor from January 1, 1873 to January 1, 1879, - six years.

On the 18th day of November, 1883, Mr. Weston, having with Daniel W. Cook and others purchased the stock of the Gage County Bank, organized the Beatrice National Bank, of Beatrice, Nebraska. He was chosen the president of this institution by the first board of directors, a position which he held for over twenty years, and until his death. Of those who were associated with him at the time, namely, Daniel W. Cook, Hiram W. Parker, Cyrus Alden, Silas P. Wheeler, Nathan Blakely, and William Lamb, of Beatrice, and Nathan S. Harwood, of Lincoln, all have passed away, Mr. Cook, the last survivor, dying in March, 1916.

On the 30th of April, 1860, Mr. Weston married Miss Helen Towle, the eldest daughter of Albert Towle. To this union four children were born, namely Ralph A., Elizabeth L., Katherine, and Herbert T. Weston. Mr. Weston died September 15, 1905, in the seventieth year of his age, and in 1917 his wife followed him to the grave. Their remains rest in the beautiful Evergreen Home Cemetery, as do also those of their younger daughter, Katherine. To every loyal citizen of our county, and to every man who values worth of character, the turf that wraps their clay should be hallowed mold.

No sketch of the life of Mr. Weston would be complete which failed to take account of the remarkable influence which, without conscious effort on his part, he exercised over others. From first to last he was an important factor in the affairs of the territory and state. He was a just man, kind and sympathetic. He was remarkably deliberate and conservative in judgment, and was accustomed to take an accurate and comprehensive view of human affairs. H;is clear, inclusive way of looking at things made him one of the most useful citizens the state of Nebraska has ever possessed.

In his habits and association, Jefferson Burns Weston was the most democratic of men. His charity was large, .his integrity above question. With a generous, open-hearted faith in humanity and a deep-rooted faith in Almighty God, he reached the end of his long journey in an atmosphere of hope, courage, and cheer that was infectious to all who came under his influence.

Though not a member of the Beatrice Townsite Association, William H. Brodhead was so intimately connected with the enterprise as to deserve a place amongst the founders of our city. In 1857 he was the best known and perhaps the most competent I surveyor and topographical engineer in the territory of Nebraska, and for this reason he was employed by the directors of the Beatrice Association to survey and make plats of the original town of Beatrice. During his entire life Mr. Brodhead took a keen interest in Beatrice, and to friends here he frequently expressed an appreciation of the fact that he had been instrumental in the founding of the city.

Mr. Brodhead was born near Milford, Pike county, Pennsylvania, August 25, 1832. He died at Hailey, Idaho, October 21, 1898. At Honesdale, Wayne county, Pennsylvania, June 11, 1867, he married Eliza Avery. Surviving him are his widow and their son, W. A. Brodhead, who is a prominent, lawyer of Mackay, Idaho, and the chairman of the Idaho state highway commission.

his professions, having been admitted to practice before the courts of the territory June 4, 1857. In 1859 he was elected a member of the house of representatives of the territory,

William H. Brodhead, in addition to a very accurate and useful education in civil engineering, was a lawyer of ability, having been admitted to the bar of Pennsylvania November 21, 1856. The same year he came to the territory of Nebraska, where he practised both of from Otoe county, and he served during that session. His friend, the distinguished Nebraskan, J. Sterling Morton, also was a member of that legislature. In 1861 Mr. Brodhead went to Utah territory to live; there he served for a while as the federal district at- torney. Although a non-Mormon in belief and practice, he was a warm personal friend of Brigham Young and was frequently the recipient of the Prophet's favor. In 1863 he located at Carson City, Nevada, where he practiced law for a few years, but, being drawn into the maelstrom of the mining excitement then rife in Carson City, he dropped the law and sought wealth as a miner. He followed this business until the fall of 1879, when he moved to Hailey, Idaho. In 1894 he was appointed register of the United States land office at Hailey, and he died just after he had completed his four years' term of office.

As a surveyor, Mr. Brodhead was required to make three plats of the original town of Beatrice, one of which was filed in the local land office at Brownville on the 12th day of August, 1859, and one was forwarded to the General Land Office at Washington to be kept as a part of its files. The third was, of course, delivered to Herman M. Reynolds, as mayor of the city. Some dissatisfaction existed for a while over Brodhead's survey, and about the year 1875 Anselmo B. Smith was employed to. resurvey the original town of Beatrice. These surveys differ slightly; the Smith survey showing a deviation from the true lines of less than three feet in some parts of the city. When we take into account the crudeness of the time and the probable haste with which the original survey was made by Mr. Brodhead, it is evident, assuming that the error did exist, that his work was well. done. A careless chain carrier might easily account for this error.

It would be difficult for any one to speak the whole truth about Dr. Herman Myer Reynolds without appearing to be his panegyrist. But seven days past the age of twenty-five years when he joined with Kinney, McConihe, Towle, Weston, Wise, Pike, and the others to form the Nebraska Association, on board the old steamboat "Hannibal," he was already a man of affairs and for some time had been a successful practicing physician. He was a native of Sullivan county, New York, and was a son of Andrew and Catherine Reynolds, both natives of the state of New York. The father was of English lineage, and the mother was the daughter of Garrett Van Benscoten, a Hollander and a soldier of the Revolution. Dr. Reynolds obtained his elementary education in the common schools of his native state, and in his youth entered an academy at Liberty, New York. He afterward pursued a course of study in the State Norrnal School at Albany, with the view of fitting himself for a teacher, and he did for a while engage in that occupation. When still a very young man he began the study of medicine, at Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His final course was taken in the great medical college at Albany, from which institution he graduated May 31, 1853, and he at once entered upon the practice of his profession at Barryville, in his native state. Afterward he removed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he remained two years, engaged in the practice of his profession. Dr. Reynolds was not the man to yield to the wanderlust,, as his subsequent history clearly shows, but the call of the gfreat west was in the air. The romance, the spirit of adventure and its excitement, proved to him as to many other young men, irresistible, and him too we find, on a soft April morning, in 1857, aboard the old steamer "Hannibal," headed for the new territory of Nebraska.

With characteristic modesty, his name first appeared in the records of the townsite company amongst those who signed the articles of association, following the names of Dr. Wilmans, Dr. Wise, and Albert Towle. It is next found when the membership roll was called by the scholarly secretary, John McConihe, in the office of the territorial secretary of state, in Omaha, May 20, 1857, and when the roll was again called on the townsite of Beatrice, July 27, 1857, Dr. Reynolds was one of the members who answered "Here." Prior to coming to Beatrice, it had been arranged that the members of the association should observe some sort of order in locating claims on the public domain with respect to the townsite, so as to avoid rivalry and contests over the matter, and the first pubHc service Dr. Reynolds was called upon to perform was to act as a member of a committee of three persons "to draft resolutions for a claim association," evidently to be given jurisdiction over this delicate subject. The importance attached by the members of the association to the subject of claims is evidenced by the fact that this committee was the first one appointed at Beatrice, July 27, 1857. At the adjourned session in the afternoon of that day, on the coming in of the report of this committee, Dr. Reynolds was chosen as secretary and treasurer for this claims association, and the next day Bennett Pike was selected as president, the other members being David P. Taylor and H. F. Cook. Their duties were plainly outlined by the proceeding of May 28, 1858, when it was resolved that "Each individual hold his own claim as at present staked out, regardless of the valuation of the same, but subject to the location of the town," and it was further "resolved that the claim club settle boundary lines of claims and that the same be referred to them," and it was at this meeting also "resolved that no one individual be allowed to hold more than one hundred and sixty acres within one mile of town."

After these meetings, the name of Dr. Reynolds frequently occurs in the association's record. At a meeting of the association, held May 22, 1858, when sixty votes were cast for president of the Nebraska Association, he received fifty-seven, and was at the same time selected as a member of the board of directors. Under the federal townsite act, the government did not recognize individuals but required at least a semblance of a village or town organization, the mayor of such body alone having authority to enter land for townsite purposes. Dr. Reynolds was chosen as the first mayor of Beatrice, - at a time when there was neither councilmen, clerk, treasurer, city attorney nor any semblance of civic organization, - in order that the law might be complied with and the land comprising the original townsite of Beatrice be purchased, pursuant. to the above mentioned act of congress. An assessment was levied upon the members of the association and a thousand dollars was in some way gotten together to pay for the survey and the government price of one dollar and twentyfive cents per acre for the land and other necessary expeditures connected with the survey and entry of the townsite. On the 12th day of August. 1859, Dr. Reynolds, as the mayor of Beatrice, entered at the government land office at Brownville the half-section of land comprising the original townsite. Most of the mayor's deeds for lots in the original townsite were executed by him.

Dr. Reynolds was also very active in the early affairs of Gage county. With Mr. Towle he served from January, 1858, to January 1, 1860, as a member of the first board of county commissioners, and after the county was divided into three commissioner districts he served on the board till May, 1860, when he resigned, so that J. M. Summers of Blue Springs could be appointed to represent that part of the county on the board. He was county treas- urer in 1858 and 1859 and again in 1863 ; he was county judge in 1868-1869; clerk of the district court in 1866-1867; county superintendent of school in 1868-1869. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1866, from Gage county, and represented our county in the legislature of 1874 .

Dr. Reynolds was the first resident physician of Gage county and one of the first in the state of Nebraska. In 1857 there was of course but little call for men of his profession. But, undeterred by the discouraging outlook, he took up his work as a physician amongst the settlers, and for several years he devoted his time, when called upon, simply to doing good, such compensation as he was willing to accept being usually in some sort of farm produce - butter, eggs, poultry and the like. In the first issue of the Blue Valley Record, of August 1, 1868, is found this card:

Until the last moment of his life Dr. Reynolds treasured above his earthly possessions his ability to relieve the sick, minister to the afflicted, console the dying. Until prostrated by disease, he was never known to fail, even in his busiest years, the demands upon his professional skill and knowledge. Through cold and heat, across desolate prairies, this pioneer physician went about among the people ministering with all kindness to those who sought his aid.

The Doctor frequently engaged in business ventures outside of his profession. In 1864, he put up a considerable quantity of prairie hay, and in the fall and winter he bought a large number of cattle. Roughing the cattle through the winter, he herded them on the prairie until they became fit for market, then drove them to St. Joseph, Missouri, where they were sold. So many died during the winter that his profits, if any at all, were small. A number of times he engaged in mercantile business of some kind. As early as 1859 he had a small grocery and provision store, about where the old First National Bank began business in 1872. His goods were kept in a small, round-log cabin, with the side next to Court street. Finally he and Oliver Townsend opened a general store here, later the firm became Blakely, Reynolds & Company, and still later Dr. Reynolds and Oliver Townsend erected the old part of the stone building now owned by the Kilpatrick Brothers at the corner of Fifth and Court streets, where the firm continued in business until he died, in 1875. Mr. Blakely, however, was appointed receiver of the government land office at Beatrice, August 10, 1869, and retired frorn the firm, being succeeded later by I. N. McConnell. This business made money for the various partners and was really the foundation of their fortunes.

Dr. Reynolds was of medium height and probably never weighed in excess of one hundred and forty pounds. When he was a young man his hair was thick, black, and curled; his complexion was dark; his eyes gray, large, and very expressive; his nose Grecian, features regular, forehead broad and high, countenance frank and open. He was a most kindly, sympathetic man and wonderfully considerate of the feelings and wishes of others.

On October 20, 1861, Dr. Reynolds married Naomi Barcus, who at this writing survives him, and with her daughters, Josephine and Ruth, the wife of Corey C. Farlow, occupies the two-story, brick dwelling house, at the corner of Market and Eighth streets, which was erected by the Doctor as a home a few years prior to his death. His widowed daughter is Mrs. Elsie Loeber, of Beatrice, and his other children are Mrs. Mollie Randall, the wife of George Randall, of Morrill county, Nebraska, and Mrs. Hermina Sackett, the wife of Hon. Harry E. Sackett, of Beatrice.

To the last moment of conscious existence Dr. Reynolds was a most loyal citizen of the city which he was so instrumental in founding. He rarely left Gage county and his interest in its welfare was such as always to hasten his return. He died at Beatrice on the 26th day of April, 1875, after a lingering illness, and when but a few days past the forty-third year of his ag-e. His remains lie in the Beatrice cemetery, near the city whose history is inseparably linked with his name. He was deeply loved and universally mourned. On the day of his burial, the business houses of the city closed out of respect for him. Some one has said "To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." If this is a true saying, then Dr. Reynolds is immortal, for he can never be forgotten while the city of Beatrice lasts. As in the case of Albert Towle, Oliver Townsend, and Jefferson Burns Weston, the beautiful city of Beatrice stands as an enduring monument to the memory of Dr. Herman Myer Reynolds,