Gage County, Nebraska - Chapter 31: People Who Have Done Their Part in Making Gage County, 1918 (part 2 of 29)

Mr.Albrecht was born at Lindenau, in Silesia, Prussia, and the date of his nativity was January 10, 1876. He is a son of Henry and Helena (Penner) Albrecht, of whose five children he was the second in order of birth; Henry, the eldest son, is a prosperour farmer of Jefferson county, this state; Helena is the wife of David Jansen, of that county; Abraham is a resident of Inman, Norton county, Kansas ; and Jacob died when an infant. The father was born August 20, 1845, and continued his residence in his native land until 1884, when he immigrated with his family to the United States. On the 12th of September of that year he established the family home near Beatrice, and for five years thereafter he was employed as a farm workman. The succeeding nine years found him engaged in farming on rented land and he then purchased a farm near Hoag', in Blakely township. He acquired this property in 1897, made excellent improvements on the same and at the time of his death, in 1909, he was the owner of a valuable landed estate of three hundred and twenty acres. He was a son of Jacob Albrecht, who passed his entire life in Prussia and who was a farmer by vocation. His widow later removed to Russia, and there her death occurred. The mother of Rev. Franz Albrecht was born in Prussia on the 7th of April, 1847, and since the death of her husband she has resided with her son Franz on the old homestead farm. Her parents, Cornelius and Adelgunda (Dau) Penner, passed their entire lives in Germany and her father was a cloth and linen weaver. He whose name introduces this article was a lad of eight years at the time when the family came to America and established a home in Gage county. Here he was reared to adult age under the benignant influences of the farm, the while he made good use of the advantage afforded in both the German and English schools of the locality. In 1902 he entered Bethel College, at Newton, Kansas, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the, class of 1905, after the completion of a Bible course and other work of a preparatory order for ordination to the ministry. He became a clergyman of the Mennonite church in 1905, and has since been the able and zealous pastor of the church of this denomination in his home neighborhood, besides which he gives ministerial service to other Mennonite church organizations in the county - a man of strong intellectuality, of much ability as a pulpit speaker, and of utmost zeal in all departments of his service.

Mr. Albrecht has resided on the present homestead farm from the time his father purchased the property, and his heritage from his father's estate included the one hundred and sixty acres to the management of which he gives his effective attention, as one of the progressive and representative farmers and stock-raisers of Blakely township.

was a young woman at the time of the family immigration to America, her parents, Herman and Wilhelmina (Hein) Wiebe, having been born and reared in Germany and the mother having passed to the life eternal in 1884. Mr. Wiebe has been a resident of Gage county since 1894 and lives upon his well improved homestead farm, north of the city of Beatrice. Mr. and Mrs. Albrecht have two children - Margaret and Dora H.

JOHN S. GOODBAN. - Along manifold lines has this honored pioneer exerted benignant influence during nearly a half century of continuous residence in Gage county, and he is now living virtually retired, his attractive home being in the village of Cortland. He is a man of broad intellectual ken, high ideals, and gracious personality - a citizen who commands the fullest measure of popular confidence and esteem.

Mr. Goodban was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, October 21, 1846, and is a son of William and Margaret (Langley) Goodban. William Goodban was born in Kentshire, England, February 22, 1804, and he continued his residence in his native land until 1840, when he came to America and settled in the state of New York. In 1842 he removed to Erie county, Pennsylvania, where he passed the remainder of his life, his death having occurred in October, 1861. His first wife, whose maiden name was Hannah lyangley, died when comparatively a young woman, four children having been born of their union - T^dward, Esther A., Hannah C, and one who died in infancy. Edward died when thirty years of age and both Esther and Hannah likewise are deceased, the former having become the wife of P. J-. Mosier, and the latter having been the wife of T. C. Golden. For his second wife William Goodban married Miss Margaret Langley, a sister of his first wife, and she passed to eternal rest when eighty-three years of age. Concerning the children of this marriage the following brief data are available: Margaret became the wife of J. Kellogg and is now deceased ; Sarah M. is the widow of C. L. Porr and resides in ithe city of Burlington, Iowa ; William remains on the old homestead farm in Erie county, Pennsylvania; John G., the immediate subject of this review, was the next in order of birth; Mary S. is the wife of S. Henry, of Dunkirk, Ohio; Henry F. is a resident of Ragan, Harlan county, Nebraska; Arthur J. is deceased ; and Ninetta E. is the wife of Iv. Darling, of Chandlers Valley, Pennsylvania.

In the old Keystone state John S. Goodban was reared and educated, his scholastic discipline having included an effective course in the Pennsylvania Normal School at Edinboro. His career as a representative of the pedagogic profession covered a period of nearly fifteen years - 1868-1882 - and he proved a most successful and popular teacher. In 1867 Mr. Goodban numbered himself among the pioneers of Butler county, Iowa, and in that state he continued his service as a teacher, besides following agricultural pursuits, until 1870, when he came to Otoe county, Nebraska. In 1872 he established his home in Gage county. Here he continued to teach in the district schools during the winter terms for the ensuing decade, and in the meanwhile he carried forward the improvement of his farm. In Section 14 Highland township, one mile south and one-half mile west of Cortland, he entered a pre-emption claim of one hundred and sixty acres, and here he established his home. He broke the prairie soil and made it available for cultivation, set out forty acres of timber and with the passing years so developed and improved his land as to make it one of the valuable farms of the county. He was specially successful in the raising of Red Polled Angus cattle and Poland-China swine, but did not make stock-raising subordinate to agricultural enterprise. Besides his old homestead he became the owner of other lands, and he continued his active association with farm industry until 1913, since which time he has lived virtually retired in the village of Cortland, where he owns his home property and also business ^ buildings. He is also a stockholder and director of the Bank of Cortland. He has never abated his interest in educational affairs and served a number of years as a member of the school board of his district while still residing on the farm. Well fortified in his opinions concerning public affairs, he is a stalwart advocate of the principles of the Republican party, and he and his wife are members of the Congregational church, he being treasurer of the church of this denomination at Cortland, in 1917-1918, and having previously served a number of years as a member of the board of trustees.

February 25, 1871, recorded the marriage of Mr. Goodban to Miss Emma J. Mosher, who likewise is a native of Pennsylvania and who was a resident of Iowa at the time of her marriage, her father, the late P. J. Mosher, having been a pioneer of the Hawkeye state. In conclusion is given brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Goodban: Eva- is the widow of J. Yamall and resides at Cortland; Carrie L. is the wife of F. Hoffman, of Ragan, Harlan county, Nebraska; Nettie E. is the, wife of C. P. Jones, of Highland township; Winifred died at the age of two and one-half years ; and Arthur J., whose natural mechanical talent has been so developed as to make him an expert machinist, conducts an automobile garage at Cortland, with a well equipped machine and repair , shop in connection therewith, besides which he is manager of the Cortland electric-lighting plant and system, he having been one of the organizers of the company which installed this important public utility, and being one of its stockholders.

CLIFFORD P. FALL, M. D. - For a period of virtually thirty years Dr. Fall has been established in the practice of his profession at Beatrice, judicial center of Gage county, and the unequivocal success which he has achieved in his exacting vocation fully attests to his high professional attainments and his facility in the efifective application of his technical knowledge. The Doctor has long controlled a substantial and representative general practice, commands inviolable place in popular confidence and esteem and is essentially one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Gage county.

Dr. Fall was born in Boone county, Indiana, on the 9th of February, 1863, and is a son of David and Annie (Kernodle) Fall, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Virginia, both families having been founded in the fair southland many generations ago. The parents of Dr. Fall were children at the time of the immigration of the respective families to Preble county, Ohio, in the pioneer days, and they were reared and educated in the old Buckeye state> their marriage having been solemnized in Union county, Ohio. David Fall became a successful farmer in Boone county, Indiana, and there his death occurred when his son, Clififord P., subject of this review, was but two years of age. Dr. Fall was reared in his native county and there received the advantages of the public schools. Though his youthful experience had to do principally with the basic art of agriculture, he had the ambition that led him to seek a broader sphere of endeavor in choosing his life vocation. He took up the study of medicine and finally went to the city of Chicago, whei-e he was matriculated in the College of Physicians & Surgeons. In this celebrated institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1888 and in April of that year, shortly after receiving his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine, he came to Nebraska and established his permanent residence in the progressive little city of Beatrice, which has continued as the stage of his earnest and successful professional endeavors during the inten^ening period of thirty years.

Dr. Fall has significantly amplified the scope of his professional work, and made a valuable contribution to his home city through his conducting of a well equipped sanitarium and hospital which is known as the Beatrice Sanitarium. This institution was founded by Dr. Fall and Dr. G. A. Harris about the year 1902, and from a modest inception is has been developed into a well ordered hospital of modern equipment and facilities, the same providing for the accommodation of twenty-five patients. Dr. Fall served four years as a member of the Nebraska state board of health, and at the time of the Spanish-American war he served as special contract surgeon at the

United States military cantonment at Chickamauga, for a period of three months. He is an active and valued member of the Gage county Medical Society and the Nebraska State Medical Society, besides holding membership in the American Medical Association. Through recourse to the best standard and periodical literature of his profession and through individual study and research Dr. Fall insistently keeps in touch with the advances made in medical and surgical science, and brings to bear in his practice the results of this consistent application. Though he has subordinated all other interests to the demands of his profession he has been an exponent of loyal and progressive citizenship and gives allegiance to the Democratic party, his predilections never having been such as to lead him to seek or desire political office of any description. He not only gives his attention to his large private practice, but also has the active supervision of the Beatrice Sanitarium, of which he is now sole proprietor. He was one of the organizers of the Beatrice Building & Loan Association, which has developed a large and prosperous business that extends into the various sections of Nebraska, and of this progressive association the Doctor has been president from the time of its organization. In the Masonic fraternity Dr. Fall has completed the circle of each the York and the Scottish Rites, in the latter of which he has received the thirty-second degree. He is past exalted ruler of Beatrice Lodge of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and is a member of the Presbyterian church.

In the year 1885 was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Fall to Miss Annie Kemper, who was born in the state of Wisconsin, and they have two children, - Hazel F., who is the wife of Carl F. Shafer, of Beatrice, and Frederick who remains at the parental home.

FREDERICK H. HOWEY - The business career of Frederick H. Howey has been significantly characterized by courage, selfreliance, and progressiveness, as well as by that dynamic initiative and executive ability that brings normally in its train a full measure of success. His resolute purpose and inviolable integrity have begotten the popular confidence and esteem that are so essential in the furtherance of success in the important line of enterprise along which he has directed his attention and energies, and through the medium of which he has gained secure status as one of the representative figures in the financial circles of Nebraska. During practically his entire business career Mr. Howey has been closely associated with banking enterprise, and there is needed no further voucher for the precedence he has gained, than the statement that he is now president of the First National Bank of Beatrice; president of the First State Savings Bank of the same city ; president of the State Bank of Liberty, Gage county; treasurer of the National Accident Insurance Company of Lincoln, Nebraska; and a director of the Farmers' Bank & Trust Company of Fort Collins, Colorado. As a banker Mr. Howey has shown special constructive talent, and through his effective policies and efforts he has furthered the success of every financial enterprise with which he has become associated. As one of the representative business men and progressive and public-spirited citizens of Gage county he merits specific recognition in this publication.

Mr; Howey was born in the vicinity of Columbus, the fair capital city of Ohio, on the 9th of December, 1868, and is a son of Rev. John D. and Lina E. (Bowman) Howey.

Rev. John D. Howey was born November 21, 1831, and was summoned from the stage of life's mortal endeavors on the 29th of December, 1894. After completing a four years' course in Jefferson College, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a two years' course in the Allegheny Theological Seminary he entered the ministry of the Presbyterian church, in which he was ordained in 1858. For the long period of thirty-eight years he continued as an able and faithful clergyman of the Presbyterian fold, and his earnest labors terminated only when death set its seal upon his mortal lips. He was a man of fine intellectuality and labored with all of consecrated zeal and devotion in the vineyard of the Divine Master. He held pastoral charges in Ohio and Illinois prior to becoming one of the pioneer ministers of the Presbyterian church in Nebraska, in which state he established his residence in 1884. Here he served in various pastorates, and though his death occurred in the city of Lincoln he yras at the time maintaining his home at Hastings, this state. He was born and reared in Pennsylvania and was sixtythree years of age at the time of his death, his memory being revered by all who came within the .sphere of his kindly and benignant influence. Mrs. Lina E. (Bowman) Howey was born at Neilsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1835, a daughter of John and Nancy Bowman. Her marriage to Rev. John D. Howey was solemnized in the year 1861, and she survived him by nearly a quarter of a century. Mrs. Howey passed the closing period of her life in the home of her daughter Ivie, wife of William C. Black, Jr., of Beatrice, and she passed to eternal rest July 19, 1917, after a lingering illness and when in her eighty-second year. For more than twenty years this gracious gentlewoman had been a resident of Beatrice and was here a member of the First Presbyterian church, in the work of which she took an active and devoted interest. Concerning the children of Rev. and Mrs. John D. Howey the following brief data are available: W. Clement is living retired on a small farm homestead near the city of Lincoln, this state; Loyal B. is president of the City National Bank of Lincoln ; Frederick H., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Clyde G. is an osteopathic physician and is engaged in the successful practice of his profession in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Miss Marie T. has held responsible clerical positions in connection with the banking business for a long term of years, was for some time in the employ of Hon. William Jennings Bryan, and she now resides in the city of Los Angeles, California; Ivie B. is the wife of William C. Black, Jr., and they maintain their home at Beatrice.

was about sixteen years of age, he continued his studies in the schools of the cities of Lincoln and Fairmont, where his father held, pastoral charges. Mr. Howey early began to depend upon his own resources and he has been in the truest sense the artificer of his own fortunes as one ' of the world's productive workers. At the age of eighteen years he left the gracious environment of the parental home and found employment as a clerk in a dry-goods establishment in the city of Lincoln. His judgment and ambition prompted him to further reinforce himself by taking a course in bookkeeping and accounting, and for this purpose he pursued his studies in a business college at Lincoln. Soon afterward he found employment as bookkeeper in the State National Bank of Lincoln, and after four years of effective service with this institution he was elected cashier of the Bank of Marquette, in the village of Marquette, Hamilton county, where he remained one year - in the later '80s. For a short time thereafter he held a position in the American Exchange National Bank in Lincoln, and he then purchased an interest in and assumed the position of cashier of the First National Bank at Humphrey, Platte county, at the time the same was organized as successor , of the Citizens' State Bank. He played a large part in the upbuilding of the substantial business of this institution and continued the incumbent of the office of cashier until 1897, when he resigned his position and came to Beatrice, where he was elected vice-president of the First National Bank. This office he retained until 1911, since which time he has been president of the institution, his administration in each of these offices having been potent in furthering the advancement of this representative institution, which bases its operations on a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, the while its surplus fund and undivided profits have now attained to the. significant aggregate of more than sixty thousand dollars. Since 1909 Mr, Howey has served -*' also as president of the First State Savings Bank of Beatrice, which has a capital stock of twelve thousand five hundred dollars, sur- plus and undivided profits of six thousand dollars and deposits to the amount of more than one hundred thousand dollars. Under his careful and progressive regime the First National Bank has made a wonderful advancement in the volume of its business, and its deposits are now in excess of one million dollars, the bank having been founded in 1877, and being one of the leading financial institutions of southeastern Nebraska. It has previously been noted that Mr. Howey is president also of the State Bank of Liberty, and it may further be stated that this institution has a capital stock of twenty-five thousand - dollars and deposits of approximately three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

In 1907 Mr. Howey became associated with his brother Loyal B. in the organization and incorporation of the National; Accident Insurance Company, at Lincoln, and the saine has operations based on a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, he being treasurer of the company and his brother the president. Unequivocal success has attended the underwriting business of this corporation, and in extending health and accident indemnity the company now has in force policies representing about four million dollars. Its thorough reliability and able executive control have caused this company to have a remarkable growth within a decade, and it now has an extensive and representative list of patrons throughout the state of Nebraska, as well as a good business in other states of this section of the Union.

As a broad-gauged and liberal citizen Mr. Howey has always shown vital interest in community affairs, and he has served three years as a member of the Beatrice school board. He has been active in the local councils of the Republican party, as attested by the fact that he has served since 1916 as treasurer of the Gage county Republican committee. He is, however, essentially a business man and has not deviated from his course to become an aspirant for public office of any kind. He and his wife are active members of the First Presbyterian church of Beatrice and he is affiliated with the local organizations of the Masonic fraternity, including Mount Herman Commandery of Knights Templars, as is he also with Beatrice Lodge of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks.

In 1894 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Howey to Miss Eva Tamblyn, who was born at Mason City, Illinois, and who was reared at Altona, Knox county, Illinois, in which state she was graduated in the Musical Conservatory of Knox College, at Galesburg. A pianist of exceptional ability, she was a successful teacher of rflusic prior to her marriage, and she is a leader in church work and the literary and musical circles of Beatrice, where she is a popular factor in the representative social activities of the community. Mr. and Mrs. Howey have three children: Earle T., who was born in 1896, was a member of the class of 1920 in the University of Nebraska, where also he is affiliated with the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, but in December, 1917, he enlisted in the regular army of the United States, for service in the great European war; Katharyn, who was born in the year 1897, is a member of the class of 1919 in the University of Nebraska, where she holds membership in the Delta Gama sorority; and Walden H., born in 1900, is a member of the class of 1919 in the Beatrice high school.

SOLOMON HARPSTER was one of the strong and worthy pioneers who came to Nebraska in the year that marked the admission of the territory to statehood, the first year of his residence within the borders of the new commonwealth having been passed in Richardson county, and his home having been established in Gage county in 1868. He contributed to the civic and industrial development and progress of the county, represented the best in communal life and spirit and bore with fortitude and unwavering faith and confidence the hardships and trials of frontier life. He gained inviolable place in popular confidence and good will and was long and familiarly known in Gage county as "Uncle Sol Harpster." This sterling pioneer, whose death occurred in 1894, is consistently given a tribute of honor in this publication.

Solomon Harpster was born in the state of Pennsylvania and was seventy years and twelve days of age at the time of his death. He became a resident of Ohio when about nine years of age, remained in the old Buckeye state until 1867, when he came with his family to the newly created state of Nebraska and, as previously noted, established himself in Richardson county, whence he came to Gage county about one year later. In this county he secured a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of wild prairie land, in Sicily township. It is interesting to record that this land, to which he received a deed from the government, has never passed from the possession of the family, by members of which it is still held. Mr. Harpster reclaimed his land and developed the same into one of the valuable farm properties of the county. In Ohio his health had been considerably impaired, but he found the climate and vital influences of Nebraska so invigorating that he became a man of robust health. He labored with characteristic zeal and ability in furthering the development of his farm and in aiding the general advancement of the county along civic and material lines. He lived in this section of Nebraska, during the early pioneer days in which hardships and privation? drew men together in strong ties of friendship and helpfulness, and his genial personality gained to him the sobriquet of Uncle Sol, by which he was known to all the early settlers.

Mr. Harpster superintended the building of the bridge across the Blue river at Blue Springs and also the erection of the first county jail, at Beatrice. He was careful and upright in all of the relations of life, had a fine sense of personal stewardship and was never known to use profane language, tobacco or intoxicating liquors. Both he and his wife were lifelong and zealous members of the Evangelical church. In coming to Gage county he transported his family and effects with wagon and ox team, and the oxen he thereafter utilized in breaking his land and otherwise carrying forward the development of his farm.

marriage of Mr. Harpster to Miss Judith Beck, and they passed the closing years of their lives in their pleasant home in the village of Blue Springs, his death having occurred in December, 1894, and his widow having entered into eternal rest in March, 1911, when seventy-seven years of age. They became the parents of four children: Malissa is the widow of Samuel Mowry, to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this volume ; Alonzo is a boilermaker by trade and is employed in the shops of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at Wymore, this county; George resides in the city of Lincoln and is a conductor in the service of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad; and Miss Sue remains at the old home of her parents at Blue Springs.

JOHN L. ANDERSON. - Definite efficiency has characterized the service of Mr. Anderson in the responsible office of cashier of the Union State Bank, of Beatrice, and his administration has done much to conserve the success that has marked the history of this important and representative financial institution of Gage county, the while his personality and civic loyalty have gained to him inviolable place in popular confidence and esteem.

Mr. Anderson was born in Cook county, Illinois, on the 31st of August, 1875, and is a son of John P. and Carrie (Berendutt) Anderson, the former of whom was born in Scotland anti the latter in France, their marriage having been solemnized in the state of Illinois. John P. Anderson received in his youth good educational advantages, including a course in the Bryant & Stratton Business College in the city of Chicago, and he became a business man of marked circumspection and progressiveness, so that success came to him as a natural prerogative. In Illinois he was engaged in the furniture business but about the year 1885 he came to Nebraska and established the family home in the city of Omaha. There he conducted for two and one-half years two well ordered retail groceries, and in 1888 he came to Gage county and engaged in the same line of mercantile enterprise at Beatrice. He built up a large and representative business and continued as one of the leading merchants and most highly honored citizens of Beatrice until his death, when about fifty-five years of age, his widow being still a resident of this city. Of their two children the subject of this review is the elder, and Sylvia is the wife of Charles D. Loper, secretary of the wholesale woolen house of Mullin & Company, of Chicago. John P. Anderson was liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude, gave his allegiance to the Republican party, and was an earnest communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, as is also his widow.

John L. Anderson, the immediate subject of this sketch, acquired his early education principally in the public schools of the cities of Omaha and Beatrice, and at the age of sixteen years he assumed a clerical position in the First National Bank of Beatrice. In this institution he won promotion to the position of assistant cashier, of which he continued the incumbent several years. On the 4th of July, 1912, he purchased stock in the Union State Bank of Beatrice, of which he has since continued to serve as cashier and to the upbuilding of which he has contributed in large measure. The bank was founded in 1902, bases its operations on a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, has surplus and undivided profits of six thousand dollars, and its deposits now aggregate more than eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars. When he took the position of cashier the institution had deposits of only one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the remarkable increase since that time gives a measure of testimony to his efficiency of administration and to his unqualified personal popularity.

As a broad-minded and progressive citizen Mr. Anderson manifests lively interest in all things touching the communal welfare and his political allegiance is given to the Republican party. He is prominently identified with the time-honored Masonic fraternity, in which his affiliations are here briefly noted: Beatrice Ivodge, No. 19, Ancient Free & Accepted

Masons, of which he is past master; Livingston Chapter, No. 10, Royal Arch Masons, of which he is past high priest; Rabona Council, Royal & Select Masters, in which he has passed various official chairs ; and Mount Herman Commandery, No. 7, Knights Templars, of which he is past eminent commander. He is one of the charter members of the Beatrice lodge of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and served for a long period as treasurer of the same. Both he and his wife are zealous communicants of Christ church, Protestant Episcopal, and he has been a member of the vestry of this parish since 1915.

In the year 1907 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Anderson to Miss Charlotte P. Smith, who was born and reared in Nebraska and whose father, Samuel C. Smith, has been long and prominently identified with the banking business in Beatrice. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have one son, Peter, who was bom on the 19th of November, 1909. Mrs. Anderson, a woman of culture and most gracious personality, is a leader in church, musical, and social activities in her home city. She was afforded the advantages of St. Gabriel's School at Peekskill, New York, and later pursued a course in voice culture under the preceptorship of Mrs. Morris, a leading teacher of music in the city of New York. She is the popular chatelaine of one of the attractive and hospitable homes of the city of Beatrice.

HENRY J. WIEBE. - This representative agriculturist and stock-grower of Blakely township has been a resident of Gage county for forty years. He was about sixteen years of age when he came with his widowed mother and younger brother to Beatrice and by making good use of the advantages here offered he has made his way forward to the goal of independence and marked prosperity. He is the owner of a valuable farm property of two hundred and twenty acres, one hundred and sixty acres being in Section 20 and the remaining sixty acres in Section 17, Blakely township. With the effective cooperation of his sons Mr. Wiebe is now identified with the farming and stock-raising operations on an aggregate of four hundred and sixty acres, and since 1916 he has given special attention to the breeding and feeding of thoroughbred short-horn cattle.

Mr. Wiebe was born in Prussia, Germany, on the 28th of February, 1863, and is a son of Jacob and Emeline (Penner) Wiebe, his father having been a prosperous farmer in Prussia at the time of his death. The subject of this review acquired his early education in the excellent schools of his fatherland and on the 18th of August, 1878, in company with his widowed mother, his younger brother and his one sister, he set sail for the United States. Disembarking in the port of New York city, the family came forthwith to Nebraska and settled at Beatrice. In this locality the two sons found employment at farm work, and concerning the younger son, Jacob W., individual mention is made on other pages, the daughter, Anna, being now the wife of W. A. Penner, of Beatrice, and the devoted mother having here continued to reside until her health became impaired and she was moved to visit her old home in Germany. In June, 1883, she returned to Germany, and there her death occurred in the following year, when she was nearly fifty years of age. This revered pioneer woman was a devoted Mennonite in religious faith and assisted in the organizing of the first church of this denomination in Gage county.

After the family home had been established in Gage county, Henry J. Wiebe attended the public schools of Beatrice for six months, at the time when Hugh J. Dobbs was the superintendent, and as a student .both here and in his native land he gave special attention to botany and chemistry. His recompense for his services during the first year of his residence in Gage county was only fifty dollars, and he continued his activities as a farm employe for seven years, during the last of which he received wages of one hundred and eighty dollars. Thereafter he was associated with his brother in farming on rented land for one year, and in 1886 he purchased his present homestead farm of one hundred and sixty acres. The place was improved with a good house but with the passing years he has made further improvements that mark the farm as a model according to twentieth century standards. In 1907 he erected the present large barn on his farm, the same being thirty-six by sixty feet in dimensions. With increasing prosperity he added to the area of his farm and he gives his attention vigorously to diversified agriculture and the raising of superior live stock. In the season of 1917 he had one hundred and fifty acres devoted to corn and eighty-six acres to oats. He is a Republican of independent proclivities and he and his wife are earnest members of the Mennonite church, in which he is a teacher in the Sunday school. March 10, 1887, was the date of the marriage of Mr. Wiebe to Miss Mary Wiebe, who came with her parents from Prussia to America in 1876. Her father, John G. Wiebe, became a successful lumber dealer at Beatrice, and of him mention is made on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Wiebe have eight children, the two elder sons, Gerhard R. and Henry P., being progressive farmers of this county, and all of the other children remaining at the parental home, namely: Alfred, Rudolph, Arnold, Oscar, Gertrude, and Kate.

CARIv SONDEREGGER. - One of Nebraska's sterling pioneer citizens who has here had the prescience and energy to make the most of the opportunities offered in connection with civic and material development and progress, Mr. Sonderegger has achieved large and worthy success through his association with agricultural industry and later as an aggressive exponent of the nursery business. His original dwelling in Jefferson county was a "dugout" of the most primitive pioneer type, the same being established on the embryonic farm which figured as the stage of his vigorous activities in the early days. In evidence of his ability and worthy achievement stands his now extensive and well ordered nursery and seed industry, high-grade fi'uit and ornamental trees, shrubbery, seeds of all kinds, etc., being now shipped from his well equipped nursery plant into the most diverse sections of the Union, the while the little farm dugout pales into retrospective obscurity when it is recognized that the home of the Sonderegger family in the city of Beatrice is conceded to be one of the finest residence properties in the county, the building being a commodious structure of modern architectural design and most attractive appointments. Mr. Sonderegger has proved himself one of the world's constructive workers and in the furtherance of his own prosperity has aided also in the civic and material development and progress of the county and state of his adoption. As one of the honored and representative citizens and business men of Gage county he is especially entitled to recognition in this history.

Carl Sonderegger was born in the fair little republic of Switzerland, on the 31st of January, 1856, and is one of the eight surviving children of Conrad and Lena (Hohl) Sondercfgc""! both of whom passed their entire lives in Switzerland. Of the children only two came to America, - Carl, subject of this review, and Arthur, who is now a representative civil engineer residing at Los Angeles, California. The father was identified with farm industry in earlier days, but achieved his success principally as a manufacturer, and he accounted well for himself in all of the relations of life, his father, Conrad Sonderegger, likewise having been a farmer and manufacturer in Switzerland. The family has been notable for the sturdiest of physical powers and for incidental longevity, and in this connection it may be noted that not until their final illness were either the parents or the paternal grandparents of Carl Sonderegger known to be sick for even a day. Jacob Hohl, maternal grandfather of Mr. Sonderegger, was a citizen of prominence and influence in Switzerland, where he served as governor of his canton and held for forty years the office of mayor of the city of Heiden.

In his youth Carl Sonderegger received good educational advantages, and, like many another son of Switzerland, he acquired full command of both the German and French languages. As a youth he became associated with his father in the manufacturing of the fine Swiss embroidery, and finally his youthful ambition led him to sever the home ties and come to the United States, where he felt assured of better opportunities for attaining independepce and prosperity through his own effort. In 1875 he came to America and in the same year he numbered himself among the pioneers of Jefferson county, Nebraska. He purchased a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of unimproved land, twenty miles west of Beatrice, and developed the same eventually into one of the valuable farms of this section of the state. There he continued his successful activities as an agriculturist and stockgrower for a full quarter of a century, and at the present time he owns his admirably equipped nursery farm of one hundred and twenty acres, the soil being specially available for the propagation of high-grade nursery stock and its fertility being perpetuated through proper scientific treatment.

In initiating his nursery industry Mr. Sonderegger began operation on a modest scale, and the first catalogue which he issued contained only four pages. . He has brought to bear the best scientific methods and the most scrupulous care in the development and upbuilding of the enterprise, and the business now demands the issuing of large catalogues annually, an average of one hundred thousand of these attractive catalogues being distributed each year. In the year 1900 Mr. Sonderegger established the headquarters of his nursery business in the city of Beatrice, and the industry has in its splendid development contribiited much to the industrial and commercial prestige of the city and county. Mr. Sonderegger is imbued with the most vital spirit of civic pride and loyalty and has been specially influential in the development of the attractive system of public parks in Beatrice, where he is now chairman of the municipal board of park commissioners, his political allegiance being given to the Pemocratic party.

As a matter of commercial expediency Mr. Sonderegger has incorporated his business under the laws of Nebraska and with the title of the Sonderegger Nursery and Seed House. Operations are based on a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, but all of the stock is held by members of the Sonderegger family, so that it is a close corporation, the subject of this sketch, as may be inferred, being the executive head of the business. He is a member of the directorate oi the Union State Bank of Beatrice and also of that of the Bonner Portland Cement Company, of Kansas City, Missouri. He is affiliated with the Beatrice lodge of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and he and his wife are active members of the Christian church in their home city.

In the year 1875 "was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sonderegger to Miss Babetta Hohl, who likewise was born and reared i;n- Switzerland and who joined him in America within a short time after his immigration to this country. Most gracious have been the relations of the family home circle and in the concluding paragraph of this article are given brief data concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Sonderegger.

Clara married and resides in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Charles, who is associated with his father in business, married Miss Mabel Jones and they have two children,' - Carl and Morris ; Lydia is the wife of Charles Hughes, a farmer of Jeflferson county, this state, and they have three children, - Clara, L,eo and Lucille; Leo, who is now engaged in business in New York city, married Miss Louise Getzentanner and has two children, - Leo and IvOuise; Frederick, who is associated with his father's nursery business, wedded Miss H. Sonderegger and they have three children, - - Frederick, Arnold and Margaret; Ernest has more special connection with the seed department of the Sonderegger nursery: the maiden name of his wife was Helen Loeber and they have no children ; Lena is the wife of Ralph Rosezell, who is engaged in the photographic business in Beatrice, and their two children are Richard and Catherine; Arthur, who is connected with the nursery business of his father, wedded Miss Ruth Atwater, and they have one child, Phyllis ; Hilda is the wife of Clayton Harris and they reside at Los Angeles, California; and Helen remains at the parental home.

FRANK W. JONES. - The attractive little village of Clatonia claims Mr. Jones as one of its liberal citizens and representative business men. Here he has developed a prosperous enterprise in the handling of lumber and building supplies, and in connection therewith he keeps pace with, the modern trend by acting also as agent for'thjel«elebrated Overland automobile for this parf'^f the county.

Mr. Jones was born on a farm near the city of Dixon, Illinois, on the 8th of April, 1870, and is a son of George H. and Jane A. (Whitcomb) Jones. He is the eldest in a family of four children and concerning the others the following brief data may consistently be entered : Elva is the wife of James E. McCormack, who is a partner in the' business of the 'subject of this sketch ; Cyrus P. is a prosperous farmer in Highland township ; and Verna remains with her widowed mother in the pleasant home in the village of Cortland, this county.

George H. Jones was born in the state of Maine, in 1847, and was nine years of age when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Illinois, where he was reared and educated and where he continued his residence until 1872, when he came to Nebraska and became one of the pioneers of Gage county. He entered claim to a homestead of eighty acres in Highland township; in 1874 he purchased from the railroad company an adjoining eighty acres, arid in 1884 he added another eighty acres to his valuable landed estate. His old homestead place is situated in Section 30, and he owned also the northwest one-half of Section 31 in the same township. He made the best of improvements upon his land and was one of the prominent farmers of the county for many years. For a- time he rented his farm and he was engaged in the mercantile business in Cortland, Nebraska, about two years. Finally he retired again from his farm and moved to Cortland, where he remained until his death, in 1909. Mr. Jones was a man of sterling character and marked ability, so that he consistently was called upon to serve as a member of the county board of supervisors - an- office in which he made a record for liberality and progressiveness. He was a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party and was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his widow. Mrs. Jones was born near the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was a resident of Illinois at the time of her marriage. She is one of the loved pioneer women of Gage county and is now about seventy years of age. She still resides at Cortland.

Frank W. Jones was a child of two years at the time of the family removal to Gage county, where he was reared on the home farm and early gained experience in herding cattle on the prairies, besides which he recalls as a part of his experience in the pioneer days the occasional seeing of deer in this section of the state. He was afforded the advantages of the public schools and continued to be associated with his father in farm industry until the removal of his parents to the village of Cortland, where for the ensuing two years he clerked in his father's general store. The next year there found him employed as assistant in a lumber yard,- and on the 14th of February, 1893, he removed to Clatonia, where for the following year he had charge of the lumber yard of his uncle, H. H. Jones. He then opened a general merchandise store in the village and for the following eleven years he successfully conducted this business. In 1893 he was appointed postmaster of Clatonia, and of this office he continued the incumbent until he sold his mercantile business and formed a partnership with James E. McCormack, with whom he has here been associated in the retail lumber trade since that time. He is the owner of his attractive residence in Clatonia and also of other realty in the village. Taking a loyal interest in local affairs, Mr. Jones was the one who prepared the petition that led to the incorporation of the village of Clatonia, and since that time he has served several terms as ' a member of the municipal council. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church.

December 21, 1893, recorded the marriage of Mr. Jones to Miss Ella E. Albert, a daughter of Henry Albert, of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this work, so that further record concerning the family is not demanded in the present connection. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have but one child, Izetta, who was born July 27, 1896, and who remains at the parental home - a young woman of culture and one who is a popular figure in the social activities of her home community. Miss Jones was for two years a student in the high school of Lincoln, Nebraska's capital city, and thereafter she was for two years a student in the high school at University Place. She is now attending Wesleyan University, at University Place, Lancaster county. She taught two terms of school in Grant township and proved herself a successful worker in the service.

BENJAMIN F. STEINMEYER, who is one of the progressive and successful exponents of agricultural and live-stock enterprise in his native county and a member of one of the well known and influential pioneer families of this section of Nebraska, was bom in Clatonia township, on the 27th of January, 1883, a son of William and Louisa (Schlake) Steinmeyer, of whose ten children the firstborn was John, who died in infancy; Sophia, who was born April 11, 1873, remains with her widowed mother; Ella died in early childhood; Henry, a representative farmer of Clatonia township, was bom April 13, 1878; Anna is the wife of Fred Carsten, of Hallan, Lancaster county, her birth having occurred February 5, 1881 ; Benjamin F., immediate subject of this review, was the next in order of birth; William, who was born April 5, 1885, has the management of the old homestead farm, in Clatonia township ; Jennie, who was born Februaray 16, 1887, is the wife of A. P. Kost, of St. Joseph, Missouri; Edwin, who was born February .25, 1890, is a prosperous farmer of Clatonia township, and his twin brother, Albert, died at the age of nineteen years.

(Fradiker) Steinmeyer, there having been five other children, - Frederick, Henry, Mary, Ann and Emma. John Henry Steinmeyer immigrated with his family to America in 1857, and after a voyage of eight weeks on a sailing vessel they landed in Baltimore, Maryland. The family home was established in Scioto county, Ohio, where John Henry Steinmeyer continued his residence until the autumn of 1865, when he came with other members of his family to Nebraska Territory. In the following spring he came to Gage county and filed claim to a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres in Clatonia township, the present thriving village of Clatonia being on the tract which he thus secured prior to the admission of Nebraska to the Union. He reclaimed his pioneer farm to cultivation and he and his wife here passed the remainder of their lives.

William Steinmeyer was reared and educated in his native land and was eighteen years of age at the time of the family immigration to America. Upon coming with his father to Gage county, Nebraska, in the spring of 1866, he took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, in Section 28, Clatonia township, this place being an integral part of the large and finely improved landed estate which he eventually accumulated and which is still owned by his widow. Of the conditions that here prevailed at the time when Mr. Steinmeyer initiated his pioneer experience the following interesting statements have been written: "The embryonic farm bore little resemblance to its condition in the present day, the plowshare never having passed over it and not a building having been erected for the shelter of man or beast. Mr. Steinmeyer was prepared, however, for this state of things and after finding a temporary home he began to gather toge;ther implements for the cultivation of the soil, while he girded himself earnestly and staunchly for the developing of a productive farm from the prairie wilds." Mr. Steinmeyer made the best of improvements upon his original homestead, and the buildings and general attractiveness of the place to-day evidence his industry and good management.

On the old homestead he continued to reside until his death, which occurred July 3, 1911, and he was one of the honored pioneer citizens of the county when he was thus called from the stage of life's mortal endeavors. He became the owner of a fine landed estate of one thousand four hundred and sixty acres in Gage county, five hundred acres in Missouri and three hundred and twenty acres in Kansas. His sons utilize the various farms for their productive activities as agriculturalists and stock growers. He was a stalwart Republican in politics was loyal and progressive as a citizen and his ability and popularity gave him marked influence in community affairs. He served two terms as treasurer of Clatonia township and was a charter member of the German Methodist church that was organized by his father in Clatonia township, his widow likewise being an earnest member of this religious body.

January 19, 1870, recorded the marriage of Mr. Steinmeyer to Miss Louisa Schlake, who was born in Prussia, February 12, 1851, a daughter of Henry and Mary (Tieman) Schlake, the former of whom passed his entire.life in Germany and who was survived by five children, - Mary Ann, William, Charlotte, Louisa and Caroline. The devoted mother came to America in 1870 and came with her daughter to Gage county, where she died four weeks later. Mrs. Steinmeyer was reared and educated in her native land and was about seventeen years of age when, in 1869, she came to the United States in company with her sister. She remained for a time at Aurora, Illinois, and after a few months came to Gage county, Nebraska, where her marriage was shortly afterward solemnized. After the death of her husband she removed to the village of Clatonia, where she and her eldest daughter have an attractive home, and she still retains ownership of the valuable farm property accumulated by her honored husband. All of her ten children, of whom mention has been made in an earlier paragraph, received good educational advantages, including those of the college at Warrenton, Missouri.

Benjamin E. Steinmeyer, the immediate subject of this review, was reared on the old home farm, and after completing the curriculum of the district schools he was for some time a student in the Central Wesleyan College, at Warrenton, Missouri. He has never found it expedient or a matter of desire to deflect his course from farm industry and he is now successfully carrying on progressive enterprise as an agriculturist and stock-grower in his native township, where he operates a part of the family estate, in Clatonia township. His political support is given to the Republican party and at Beatrice he is affiliated with the lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, besides which he is a member of Blue Valley Lodge, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, at Wilber, Saline county.

On the 2d of June, 1915, Mr. Steinmeyer wedded Miss Alice Balderson, who was born at Crete, Saline county, October 1, 1890, a daughter of Jacob and Carrie (Schnacker) Balderson, who removed eventually to Wilber, that county, where the father is living retired, Mrs. Balderson being now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Steinmeyer have a fine little son, George Benjamin, who was bom August 6, 1916.

TAMME R. ZIMMERMAN, a venerable and highly honored citizen who is now living retired in the city of Beatrice, is a man who has proved one of the world's productive workers and one who has merited the distinctive prosperity that is his in the gracious evening of his long and useful life. He is the owner of two thousand acres of land in Texas, and in Nebraska he owns sixteen hundred and eighty acres in Gage county, four hundred and eighty in Red Willow county, three hundred and twenty in Cherry county, and one hundred and sixty in Franklin county. In his extensive operations as a farmer and ranchman he made a specialty of raising the best type of live stock, and his energy and good judgment made his success assured and cumulative.

Mr. Zimmerman was born in the province of Hanover, Germany, October 14, 1834, and is a son of Frank and Anna (Dom) Zimmerman, of whose family of two sons and three daughters only the two sons are now living, Claus being a resident of the village of Pickrell, this county, and having celebrated in 1918 his eighty-seventh birthday anniversary. The parents passed their entire lives in Germany.

The subject of this review was but two years old at the time of his mother's death and only six years of age when his father died. Thus he was early thrown on his own resources, and how effectively he has lived up to the responsibilities devolving upon him is shown in the unqualified success which he has won through his own efforts. As a boy and youth in his native land he was able to attend school only one month each year, and there he continued to be employed at farm work until 1856, when he came to America and found employment on a farm in Menard county. Illinois. In 1859 he there took unto himself a wife, and in the following year he and his young wife came to Nebraska Territory and numbered' themselves among the early pioneer settlers of Richardson county. In Franklin precinct of that county he purchased forty acres of raw prairie land, upon which he built a primitive log house, and there he continued his farming activities two years. In 1862 he came to Gage county and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in Eogan township.. Here he began vigorously the agricultural and live-stock enterprise that brought to him everincreasing success with the passing years, and as his financial resources were augmented he added gradually to his landed estate, while eventually he accumulated valuable property in other counties of Nebraska, as well as his extensive land holdings in Texas. He continued as one of the representative exponents of farm enterprise in Logan township until 1904, since which time he has lived in well earned retirement, with a comfortable and attractive home in Beatrice.

In 1859 Mr. Zimmerman married Miss Catherine Miller, who was born in Germany and who came with her father to the United vStates in 1855, the family home being established in Illinois. Mrs. Zimmerman passed to the life eternal on the 11th of July, 1910, a devout communicant of the German Lutheran church. Of this union were born eight children : Mrs. Anna Dom lives in Franklin county; Mrs. Abbie Meints is a resident of Logan township, Gage county; Mrs. Fannie Baughman lives near Pickrell, this county; Eilert is living on his father's old homestead farm, in Logan township ; Rachel and Renken are deceased; Mrs. Tillie Frerichs resides in Logan township ; and Mrs. Mary Huttenmaier lives on a farm five miles east of Beatrice.

On the 6th of December, 1911, Mr. Zimmerman wedded Mrs. Julia (Matthews) Ayers, widow of Jonathan Ayers. By her first marriage Mrs. Zimmerman has three children: William is a resident of Dodge City, Kansas, where he holds the position of inspector in the service of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad; Harry is superintendent of the plant of the great packing house of Swift & Company in the city of St. Paul, Minnesota; and Mrs. Effie Grace resides at Downs, Osborne county, Kansas. Mrs. Zimmerman was born in Warren county, Pennsylvania, and was five years old when her parents, Ansel and Barbara (Dias) Matthews, became pioneer settlers in Iowa, her father having been a native of Massachusetts and her mother of Indiana. After her marriage to Jonathan Ayers, Mrs. Zimmerman came with her husband to Gage county and made settlement on the Otoe Indian reservation, in 1878, their elder son having been the first white child bom on this reservation. Mr. Zimmerman is a Democrat in politics and is a member of the Lutheran church, Mrs. Zimmerman being a member of the Methodist church.

REV. LEONARD POEVERLEIN, the honored pastor of the parish of St. John's German Lutheran church in the city of Beatrice, has retained this incumbency since the 13th of December, 1883, and is one of the revered pioneer clergymen of the Lutheran faith in this section of the state - the devoted shepherd of his flock, the friend of all humanity, and the earnest vicar of the Divine Master whom he has served with all of consecrated zeal.

Mr. Poeverlein was bom in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, December 25, 1848, a son of George and Maria (Fakelmeier) Poeverlein, who passed their entire lives in that part of the German empire. In his native land Mr. Poeverlein was given excellent educational advantages in his youth and in preparation for the responsible work of the ministry he completed a most thorough academic and theological education in the Lutheran seminary at Neuen Dettelsau, Germany, his ordination to the ministry having occurred in 1873. Prompted by faith that in America he would find a field for effective service in his chosen calling, Mr. Poeverlein came to this country in the autumn of 1873, arriving in New York city on the 25th of September, and a few weeks later continuing his westward journey to Dubuque, Iowa. Soon afterward he became pastor of a small church organization at Iowa City, where he remained until the spring of 1874, when he came to Nebraska and, on the 18th of April, entered upon pastoral duties in Nemaha county. One year later he went to Rockport, Missouri, where he held a pastoral charge until December 13, 1883, since which time he has been pastor of St. John's church in the city of Beatrice. Under his faithful pastoral and executive direction this parish has prospered both spiritually and temporally, and the congregation now includes fifty families or more, with a roll of one hundred and fifty communicants. Mr. Poeverlein has been earnest not only in his church activities but also as a loyal and publicspirited citizen interested in furthering the communal welfare along all lines, and he has the high esteem of the people among whom he has so long lived and labored.

In 1876 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Poeverlein to Miss Louisa Hemperer. who was born and reared in Clayton county, Iowa, and of the four children of this union, the firstborn, Charles, died at the age of seventeen months; Matilda, who remains at the parental home, was graduated in the Beatrice high school, and is now a popular .teacher in the public schools of her home city; Heade, likewise a graduate of the Beatrice high school, is now an efficient teacher in the public schools at Columbus, Platte county; and Freda, who remains with her parents, was graduated in the local high school and also the Beatrice Business College.

ALFRED HAZLETT. - Judge Hazlett was born and reared in Indiana county, Pennsylvania. To the country public schools of his native commonwealth he is indebted for his preliminary educational discipline, which was supplemented by a course of higher studies in Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. In preparing himself for his chosen profession, he prosecuted his studies under the tutorship of former United States Senator Edgar Cowan, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and in June, 1871, he was admitted to the bar of his native state.

In the fall of 1871, having just arrived at the age of his majority, with all of his vital and youthful ambition, he came to Nebraska, and established his residence in Beatrice, where he has since continuously resided.

In the year 1876, at Omaha, Nebraska, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Hazlett to Miss Sibbie Cotton. They have no living children. Those of the early pioneers now living, and who knew him from the time of his location in Nebraska, were impressed with his tall, manly, dignified figure, and pronounced him the man that he was subsequently found to be. He was strong in mind and still at his present age is maintaining a fine, shapel-y physique. Of Scotch-Irish descent he was born strong for decision, judgment, and with pronounced self-independence. During all of his life he has had a dislike for the affected or pretentious, and despised hypocrisy, deceit, and dishonesty. Perhaps, on account of this one permanent feature in his character, he has always refrained from entering into what he has termed the tainted cesspool of politics, although his friends many times . have urged and beseeched him to run not only for state, but for national office.

a reputation for being one of the strongest, and most resourceful trial lawyers in southeastern Nebraska. No member of the Gage county bar has participated in so many contested cases, both of a civil and criminal nature as he, and with so great a success. His whole aim in his work was not so much for the money he could obtain from his clients but to win their cases. His judgment of men is recognized by all, and this attribute alone has never failed him in selecting the jury, and in questioning the witness. The make-up of his machinery is grand, in this : He is honest ; he is keen, with a bright mind stored with legal lore ; in appearance he is somewhat austere - and yet no one is more gentle in spirit - and retiring; he stands as one of our central figures; he has a liberal education, and is an able advocate. Those who have seen him in our different courts, in important cases, and have heard him address a jury, say that for forensic eloquence and convincing argument few, if any, surpass him. He is indeed a strong man, by reason of his force of character and his ability as a lawyer, and he has been and is a potent factor in the affairs of men. In all of his active professional life it is to be said that he is possessed only of a modest estate in worldly goods, and this fact is a genuine testimonial to his honesty and self-sacrifice. He has often said that there is no grander type of manhood on earth than an able, cultured, honest lawyer.

MRS. SOPHIA H. DOLE. - More than casual distinction attaches to the personality and record of this venerable and revered pioneer woman, for not only has she been a resident of Nebraska since the territorial period of its history and endured her share of the hardships and vicissitudes that marked the early stages of development and progress in this now favored commonwealth, but it has also been within her province to found and upbuild in her home city of Beatrice a most prosperous and representative business enterprise - that conducted under the corporate title of the Dole Floral Company. Though this gracious gentlewoman celebrated in 1917, the eighty-first anniversary of her birth, she still takes vital and earnest interest in the world's work and fortunes, and incidental to the activities of preparation for the nation's participation in the stupendous war in Europe she has been found busily applying herself in skillful knitting of garments and supplies for the Red Cross service and otherwise "doing her bit" to exemplify the ardent patriotism of American womanhood.

Mrs. Dole was born in the state of New York, on the 6th of October, 1836, and is a daughter of P. J. and Mary (Derbyshire) Hooker, who were pioneer settlers of Seward county, Nebraska, and whose names merit enduring place on the roster of those who aided in the civic and industrial development of the territory and state. Mrs. Dole was reared and educated in her native state and after two of her brothers had returned home after valiant service as soldiers of the Union in the Civil war, the entire family came to the Territory of Nebraska, in 1866, settlement being made in Seward county, the father, two sons, and two daughters taking homesteads. The compEirative isolation and the primitive conditions that marked the life of Mrs. Dole during the pioneer period of her residence in Nebraska, could not in the least curb her intellectual activity or her ambitions, and she has grown in mental stature with the passing years, has shown abiding human sympathy and tolerance and has manifested her stewardship in kindly words and kindly deeds. Mrs. Dole has been a member of the Congregational church since she was fourteen years of age, and has exemplified her Christian faith in her daily life. Her marriage to J. G. Dole was solemnized in the year 1869, and her husband devoted the major part of his active career to brick manufacturing, he having been a resident of Beatrice at the time of his death, April 19, 1903.

Mrs. Dole has maintained her home at Beatrice, judicial center of Gage county, since 1889, and in establishing and developing the now extensive business of the Dole Floral Company she has demonstrated not only her executive ability and mature judgment, but also exemplified her desire to provide for humanity the gracious natural products that make for beauty and good cheer. Of this company specific mention is made on other pages. In her venerable years she is sustained and comforted by the filial devotion of her five children, concerning whom the following brief data are available: Edward W. is engaged in farming and is the subject of an individual record on other pages of this volume ; Walter A., who was long and actively associated with the Dole Floral Company, has sold his property interests at Beatrice and is at the time of this writing, in the winter of 1917, making provisions to establish his home in the state of Georgia; Anna D. is the wife of George M. Johnston, who is manager of the Dole Floral Company, and who is individually mentioned on other pages of this publication; Ella S. is the wife of Frederick von Boskirk, who is a successful farmer of Gage county and whose life work is portrayed elsewhere in this volume ; and Elbert J. is engaged in the photographic business in the city of Lincoln, this state.

JAMES B. McIvAUGHLIN was a gallant young veteran of the Civil war when he made his first visit to Nebraska, in the year that marked the admission of the state to the Union, and in the autumn of the same year he returned to Illinois, where he wedded the gracious young woman who was to prove his devoted companion and helpmate during the remainder of his long and useful life and who is still living. In the spring of 1868 they settled in Sherman township. James Brady Mc- Laughlin was a man of sterling character and high ideals, and he bore his full share of the burdens and responsibilities incidental to the march of progress in a pioneer locality, as proved by his civic loyalty and influence during the many years of his residence in Gage county and by the success which attended his activities as an exponent of agricultural and live-stock industry. He was one of the honored and venerable pioneer citizens of Rockford township at the time of his death, which occurred September 12, 1914, and it is fitting

Mr. McLaughlin was born at McKeysport, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, on the 5th of January, 1841, and was a son of David and Hannah (Brady) McLaughlin, both natives of Westmoreland county, that state. The paternal grandfather of the subject of this memoir was John McLaughlin, who came from Scotland to America when he was a youth of sixteen years and who passed the residue of his life in Pennsylvania. The maternal grandfather was a cousin of Samuel Brady, who achieved historic reputation as an Indian hunter. For fully a quarter of a century David McLaughlin served as a pilot on boats plying the Ohio river, and in 1857 he removed with his family from Pennsylvania to Rock Island county, Illinois, where he became a prosperous farmer and where he died in 1870, at the age of fifty-seVen years, his widow having survived him by a number of years. They became the parents of eight sons and one daughter and all save one, the daughter, are deceased.

James B. McLaughlin gained his youthful education in the schools of the old Keystone state and was sixteen years old at the time of the family removal to Illinois, where he supplemented his education by attending school 3uring several winter terms, when his services were not in requisition in connection with the work of the home farm. Mr. Mc- Laughlin was twenty years of age at the outbreak of the Civil war and in 1862 he enlisted, for a three months' term, as a private in Company F, Sixty-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was assigned to guard duty over the great number of Confederate prisoners held at Camp Douglas, Chicago, and in the atuumn of 1862, he was an escort of such of these prisoners as were taken to Vicksburg, Mississippi, for exchange. He continued in service three months after the expiration of his term of enlistment and then received his honorable discharge, at Camp Douglas. In 1865 he again enlisted, for the duration of the. war, and after being mustered in he was sent to New Orleans, whence he was transferred to Mobile. Finally he was assigned to guard duty at Montgomery, Alabama, where he was taken ill with fever and confined in a hospital two months. He was finally discharged, on account of physical disability, and he arrived at his home in Illinois in the autumn of 1865. There he remained until 1867, when he came to Nebraska, and after a tour of investigation he decided to establish his residence in Gage county. In Section 1, Sherman township, he entered claim to a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, and also made entry on an additional two hundred acres in the same township. He then returned to Illinois, and in March, 1868, he there wedded Miss Phoebe King, who was bom in New York city, on the 30th of August, 1843. Her father was an expert in cotton manufacturing and as such was employed in various important cotton mills in the eastern states. Mrs. Mc- Laughlin is a daughter of James and Charlotte (Allen) King, who were natives of Manchester, England, where the father was overseer in a large cotton factory until 1840, when he came with his wife and two children to the United States, Mrs. McLaughlin having been the sixth of the ten children born. Two of her brothers are deceased and three of her sisters are living in 1918. She received good advantages and developed her marked musical talent under most favorable auspices. At the age of twenty-one years she went to Illinois and engaged in the teaching of music, which she there continued until her marriage. It may well be understood that her musical talent came in for marked appreciation in the pioneer community after she came with her husband to Gage county, and both became zealous in church work, as members of the Methodist Episcopal church, as well as popular factors in the representative social activities of the county. In pioneer reminiscence Mrs. McLaughlin states that in early days she and her husband attended church services in the old Dobbs school house, where they also served in the sessions of the Sunday schooL On many an occasion Mr. and Mrs. Mc- Laughlin were dinner guests in the home of

Mr. and Mrs. F. H. Dobbs, and she states that no family in Gage county has been more benignant in influence than the Dobbs family, both in the pioneer days and in later generations, her kindly mark of appreciation being one that will be specially appreciated by the editor of this history of the county. In the early days Mrs. McLaughlin often rode home on horseback after having visited at the residence of "Father and Mother Dobbs," and frequently one of their young sons would be her escort.

Mr. and Mrs. McLaughlin remained on their farm in Sherman township until 1881, when they sold the property, with the intention of removing to California. After a visit to the old home in Illinois, however, they decided to return to Gage county, and here Mr. McLaughlin purchased the farm of one hundred and sixty acres on which he passed the remainder of his life and on which his widow still maintains her home, near the village of Rockford. He made excellent improvements on the place and it is one of the attractive rural homes of Rockford township. No children were born to Mr. and Mrs. McLaughlin but they adopted and reared a boy and girl, the latter of whom is deceased. The home of Mrs. McLaughlin is endeared to her by the hallowed memories of the past, and in the association with friends who are tried and true she is passing the gracious evening of her life in peace and comfort, loved by all who have come under her gentle influence.

In politics Mr. McLavighlin was a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party, he was actively affiliated with Rawlins Post, No. 35, Grand Army of the Republic, at Beatrice, and was also a member of the Masonic fraternity. His life was guided and governed by the highest princpiles of integrity and honor, and naught better than this can be said of any man.

CHARLES R. HITE, president and general manager of tlie Blue Valley Mercantile Company, of Beatrice, has the securest of status as one of the representative business men and progressive citizens of the fine metropolis and judicial center of Gage county. He was born at Marion, Iowa, February 2, 1862, and is a son of Eli and Elizabeth (Runner) Hite, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of West Virginia, their marriage having been solemnized in Iowa, where the parents of Mrs. Hite established a home in the early '50s. Eli Hite was reared and educated in Ohio and became a pioneer settler near Marion, Linn county, Iowa, where he owned land and reclaimed a good farm. Later he was thirty years engaged in the express and transfer business at Shenandoah, Page county, Iowa, where he died when about seventy-seven years of age and where his widow still resides, the subject of this review being the eldest of the three children; Addie became the wife of Marshall Morgan, who is now deceased, and she maintains her home in the city of Beatrice, Nebraska; and Frances is the wife of Michael Gauss, who is engaged in the drug business at Sheridan, Iowa. Eli Hite was a Democrat in politics and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his venerable widow. His father, John Hite, passed his entire life in Ohio, where the family was founded in an early day, and he was a farmer by vocation. John Runner, maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a pioneer in Iowa, where both he and his wife died.

In the public schools of Shenandoah, Iowa, C. R. Hite continued his studies until he had attained to the age of fifteen years, and thereafter he ser\'ed a three years' apprenticeship to the baker's trade, at Shenandoah. In the same town he then clerked five years in the grocery department of a general store, and in 1887, as an ambitious young man of twenty-five years, he came to Nebraska and settled at Giltner, Hamilton county, where he was employed three years in a general merchandise establishment. He then became associated with James Sherard in purchasing the store and business, and Mr. Hite continued as a member of the firm for the ensuing three years. For several years thereafter he was a successful traveling salesman for the wholesale grocery house of Hargreves Broth- ers, of Lincoln. Upon severing this alliance he assumed a similar position with the wholesale grocery house of Groneweg, Schotgen & Company, of Lincoln, with which concern he was connected in this capacity until 1904. In the meanwhile he had established and maintained his home in Beatrice, and in the year last mentioned he here became associated with three partners in establishing a fruit and vegetable business. Two years later the business was incorporated under the present title of the Blue Valley Mercantile Company, and the scope of operations was extended to include a wholesale grocery and confectionery business, the operations of the company being now based on a capital stock of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and its trade being extended and well established throughout Nebraska and Kansas, so that the concern has contributed much to the commercial precedence of Beatrice, where is maintained the large and well ordered wholesale house. It has already been noted that Mr. Hite is president and general manager of the company; Gilbert L. Griffith is vice-president; and Harry S. Ahlquist is secretary and treasurer. Besides these executive officers the directorate of the company includes also William E. Rife and Joseph Bouske. When the principals in the company established the original enterprise each made an investment of only two thousand dollars, and at the time of incorporation the capital stock was placed at thirteen thousand dollars. No better evidence of the splendid growth of the enterprise can be offered than the statement that the capitalistic investment is now two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and that the annual business averages fully seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, a corps of seven efficient traveling salesmen being retained and the number of employes at headquarters being about fifteen. It is an admirable record of achievement that has been made by Mr. Hite in the business world and his success has been won entirely through his own ability and efforts. He is liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude, as behooves one who has been thus greatly prospered in business, and his political allegiance is given to the Republican party. He holds membership in the United Commercial Travelers' Association, is a member of the Congregational church, and his wife holds membership in the Episcopal church.

December 31, 1891, recorded the marriage of Mr. Hite to Miss Jemima Armstrong, who was born in Scotland, and who was a child at the time when her parents came to the United States and settled in Illinois, where her father engaged in farm enterprise. Mr. and Mrs. Hite have two daughters, both of whom remain at the parental home and are popular figures in the social life of Beatrice: Ethel received the advantages of the public schools of Beatrice and also completed a four years' course in the Nebraska Agricultural College; the younger daughter. Hazel, has been graduated in the Beatrice high school.

FRANK T. SCHOWENGERDT, M. D., whose character and professional attainments have given him secure vantage-ground as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Gage county, is established in the general practice of his profession at Cortland, where he has maintained his residence since 1911. He is a valued member of the Gage County Medical Society, and is identified also with the Nebraska State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.

Dr. Schowengerdt was bom in Warren county, Missouri, December 2, 1875, and is the younger of the two surviving children of John and Amelia (Schaake) Schowengerdt, the former of whom was born in Franklin county, Missouri, in 1846, a member of a sterling pioneer family of that state, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Schowengerdt, having come from Germany to America about the opening of the nineteenth century and having established their home in Missouri, their acquaintanceship having been formed and their marriage solemnized after they had come to the United States. John Schowengerdt, a farmer by vocation, passed his entire life in Missouri, where he died on the 11th of October, 1888. His first wife, mother of the Doctor, was bom in Germany, in 1854, and her death occurred in 1882. For his second wife John Schow&ngerdt married Emrna Niemeyer, who was born in Warren county, Missouri, and of the three children of this union the two survivors still reside in Missouri. Emma, the other surviving child of the first marriage, is the wife of William Dorsett and they reside at Alton, Illinois.

Dr. Schowengerdt passed the period of his childhood and early youth on the home farm and as a lad of thirteen years began working on the farm of his uncle, Frederick Schowengerdt, of Osage county,. Missouri. In the meanwhile he had made good use of the advantages of the public schools and in 1894 he entered Central Wesleyan College, at Warrenton, Missouri, in which institution he pursued a general academic course during a j>eriod of three years. In 1897 he was matriculated in the Marion Sims Medical College, in the city of St. Louis, which institution is now the medical department of St. Louis University, and in this celebrated institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1902, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He gained most valuable clinical experience by serving eleven months as an interne in the Alexian Brothers' Hospital, St. Louis, and three months in the St. Louis Female Hospital. In 1903 he engaged in the practice of his profession at Morrison, Missouri, whence, three years later, he removed to Brownsville, Texas, in which place he continued in the active practice of medicine until 1911, when he came to Gage county and established his home at Cortland. Here he has built up a substantial and representative practice that attests alike his professional ability and his personal popularity. The Doctor gives unswerving allegiance to the Republican party, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Modem Woodmen of America, and he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. When the United States entered the European war, in 1917, Dr. Schowengerdt made application for appointment as medical officer in the Medical Reserve Corps of the army, but physical inability caused his application to be rejected.

July 8, 1903, Dr. Schowengerdt wedded Miss Mary E. Smith, who was bom and reared in Osage county, Missouri, a daughter of George and Henrietta Smith. Mr. Smith was born in Germany, came to America when young, and was a loyal soldier of the Union in the Civil war, he having thereafter become one of the prosperous farmers of Osage county, Missouri. Dr. and Mrs. Schowengerdt became the parents of five children - Irene, Waldo, Grace, Gladys, and Frances. Waldo and Gladys died in early childhood and the other children remain at the parental home.

HOMER J. MERRICK. - If a man comes of a good family he ought to be proud of it and he performs an immeasurable duty when he employs the best means to preserve the family record in enduring form, that future generations may receive instruction through principles and influences, personality and careers of the ancestors.

The subject of this biography can trace his ancestry from the same source that gave the world such persons as John Greenleaf Whittier, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Frances Meriam Whitcher. The Merricks are descended from the Welsh Royal family and King Elwood I of England, and the first representative of the family in this country, came over in 1636.

The parents of our subject were Austin and Sylvia (Whitcher) Merrick, natives respectively of Connecticut and Vermont. The paternal grandfather was accidentally killed on the Erie canal while making a trip to westem Pennsylvania. His wife was named Alden, and was a direct descendant of John Alden, whom Longfellow made famous in his poem entitled "The Courtship of Miles Standish." The matemal grandparents were Stephen and Esther (Emerson) Whitcher, who were probably uncle and aunt of the poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Grandmother Whitcher was closely related to that other distinguished author, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Frances Meriam Whitcher, author of the "Widow Bedott

Austin Merrick located at Pleasantville, Venango county, Pennsylvania, and was a merchant and farmer who resided there until his death, in 1875, at the age of seventy-five years. He was married three times, the mother of our subject being his second wife. She passed away in Pennsylvania in 1849, at the age of forty years.

Homer J. Merrick was born at Pleasantville, Pennsylvania, November 18, 1846. He was reared on a farm and attended village school until the outbreak of the Civil war. When just past his seventeenth birthday he enlisted, in December, 1863, in. Company B, One Hundred and Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, for three years, or during the war. Plis regiment was detailed to Bridgeport, Alabama, where it arrived in time to join the Atlanta campaign and participate in the battles of Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, and the Siege of Atlanta, and thereafter it was with General Sherman on the historic march from Atlanta to the Sea. Subsequently the command went up through the Carolinas and was present at the Grand Review at Washington, the greatest military pageant ever seen on the western hemisphere.

Returning home, Mr. Merrick attended the State Normal School at Edinboro, Pennsylvania, two years, and later was a student in a commercial college at Cleveland, Ohio. In 1869 he came to Gage county, Nebraska, and took a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, in Section 22, Adams township. He purchased a wagon, team of horses and some implements and began farming. His first home was a dug-out in which he lived and kept bachelor's hall the first year. He boarded then with neighbors, breaking prairie for them. He would haul grain to Nebraska City and bring back to Beatrice a load of lumber, the trip requiring five days. As time passed he prospered. In 1875 Mr. Merrick bought land in Section 16, Adams township. This he improved with good buildings, and there he continued his operations as an agriculturist, meeting with the success which always comes as the reward of industry and intelligently directed effort.

On the 21st of December, 1870, Mr. Merrick was united in marriage to Miss Lucy A. Lyons, a native of Kenosha county, Wisconsin. Her parents, John and Almira (Shaw) Lyons, became residents of Gage county in 1857, settling in Adams township, where they spent the remainder of their lives. The father was a native of Litchfield county, Connecticut, and the mother was bom in Dutchess county, New York. The ancestors of Mrs. Merrick were of English descent. Her grandfather, John Lyons, was born in England. On the maternal side is shown a direct descent from Richard Hicks, who came to America from England on the ship "Fortune," in 1621, this being the second vessel to arrive after the "Mayflower." Mr. and Mrs. Merrick became the parents of seven children, as follows : Frank A. and John H. are deceased; Julia, is the wife of Dr. Turner, of Sterling, Nebraska; Dell, is the wife of J. M. Burnham, of Adams township; Olive R. is the wife of R. B. Winter, of Adams township ; Homer C. resides in Adams ; and Sylvia is deceased.

Mr. Merrick contributed his full share to the agricultural development of Gage county, and until 1907 was engaged in general farming and the raising of Shorthorn cattle, both branches of his business yielding him a substantial income. He made judicious investments in farm lands and is today the owner of thirteen hundred acres. In 1893 his neighbors, recognizing his ability and worth, elected him to represent them in the lower house of the state legislature. He was reelected, and served two terms, to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. Among the many measures which he introduced and which have found place on the statute books of this commonwealth was a bill authorizing the building of the Soldiers' Home at Milford. His community has been benefited by his wise council and he has efficiently filled all of the offices of his township. In 1898 he received an injury which necessitated his leaving the farm, and he was appointed and served as postmaster of Adams for five years. He was one of the organizers of the First State Bank of Adams, which is now the First National Bank, and he has since helped to shape its policy by serving as a director. He is now vice-president of the institution, of which he was cashier for one year. Mr. Merrick is president of the Farmers' Elevator Company of Adams and was at one time interested in a hardware business. His religious belief coincides with the doctrines of the Methodist church, of which he and his wife are members. In politics Mr. Merrick is a Republican, and fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and several of the other Masonic bodies. He maintains pleasant relations with old army comrades by membership in Sargeant Cox Post, No. 100, Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Merrick is an honorable representative of a noble family, and while he has achieved success which places him among the men of affluence in his county and state, he has not been remiss in any duty and enjoys the respect and confidence of all with whom he has come in contact.

ROBERT H. STEINMEYER, cashier of the State Bank of Holmesville, of which his father, John H. Steinmeyer, is president, is a member of a prominent and influential Gage county family, concerning which adequate mention is made on other pages of this work. Mr. Steinmeyer was born in Saline county, Nebraska, August 25, 1889, and in his youth he attended the public schools of Clatonia, Gage county, besides having taken a higher course in an academy in the city of Lincoln. His active career as a business man has been marked by his close association with banking enterprise, and he is giving most efficient service as cashier of the State Bank of Holmesville, which bases operations upon a capital stock of ten thousand dollars, and which now has in surplus and undivided profits a fund of more than one hundred thousand dollars, the substantial institution proving an important adjunct to the industrial and commercial facilities of this section of the county. In addition to his executive service at the bank Mr. Steinmeyer has developed a prosperous business in the buying and shipping of live-stock.

In politics Mr. Steinmeyer is found aligned as a loyal supporter of the cause of the Republican party and he has served as township clerk, as has he also as a member of the school board of Holmfesville. He is an appreciative and popular member of Beatrice Lodge, No. 619, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, of which he is serving, in 1918, as esteemed lecturing knight. His wife holds membership in the Brethren church.

October 15/ 1913, recorded the marriage of Mr. Steinmeyer to Miss Mabel Gish, who was bom and reared in this county and who is a daughter of James W. Gish, a representative farmer of Rockford township. Mr. and Mrs. Steinmeyer have one child, Phyllis, who was born in 1917.

JOSEPH C. DELL merits consideration in this history as one of the representative farmers and valued citizens of Rockford township, and also by reason of being a member of one of the sterling pioneer families of the county, where the family home was established when he was a lad of twelve years.