Gage County, Nebraska - Chapter 31: People Who Have Done Their Part in Making Gage County, 1918 (part 4 of 29)

In the year 1877, as previously intimated, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wright to Miss Ella E. Fetter, who was bom and reared in Macoupin county, Illinois, and who is a daughter of Adam and Amelia (McDonald) Fetter, the former of whom was born in Germany and the latter in Morgan county, Illinois, where her parents were pioneer settlers. Mr. Fetter became a prosperous far- mer in Illinois and there he and his wife continued to reside until their death, when well advanced in years. Of the eleven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Wright all are living except the last, who died in infancy; Clara is the wife of J. R. Landon; Cora B. is the wife of William B. Little and they reside in the city of Omaha; Charles is a bachelor and remains with his widowed mother, he having active management of the home farm; Minnie is the wife of Elon E. Hill of Omaha; Alice remains at the maternal home, as do also James and Lillie; Otis is married and resides in the village of Filley; Ella is the wife of Guy Steece, a farmer in Logan township ; and Marie is the wife of Edward Dobbs, of Logan township.

AARON PALMER. - An indomitable energy that has triumphed over seemingly great obstacles, as well as varied misfortunes, is that which had dominated Aaron Palmer during the varied stages of a remarkably earnest and productive business career in which he has rallied to his cause splendid initiative ability and has made each recurrent stroke of adverse fortune but a spur to renewed effort. Depending entirely upon his own resources he has pressed forward along the line of worthy ambition and that he has arrived at the goal of substantial success and influence in connection with business operations needs no further voucher than the fact that he is now president of the A. Palmer Company, of Beatrice, which conducts the largest and most complete house-furnishing establishment in the entire state of Nebraska, this important enterprise being controlled by himself and his wife, the latter of whom is secretary of the company, even as she has been his devoted and efficient coadjutor throughout the entire period of their ideal marital companionship. Mr. Palmer is widely known through Nebraska as the "Fire King," and this title has been gained through his having purchased and sold a greater number and quantity of stocks of merchandise salvaged from fires than has probably any other one man in Nebraska - in fact the foundation of his success having been laid through this means. The company of which he is now the executive head gives special attention to the buying and selling of bankrupt stocks, fire stocks, first and second hand goods, etc., and a prosperous business has been developed. The extensive and well ordered business establishment of the A. Palmer Company at Beatrice gives twenty-six thousand square feet of floor space in the main sales and display rooms, at 119-123 North Fifth avenue, and in the company's warehouse and manufacturing building, at 417 Ella street, are utilized twelve thousand seven hundred and fifty square feet of floor space. The operations of the company are based on a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, and of this the stock has been issued to the amount of thirty-one thousand dollars. The modem storage building owned and occupied by the company is a four-story structure with double walls and is moisture-proof. All save a few shares of the stock of the company are owned by Mr. Palmer and his wife.

Aaron Palmer, known and honored as one of the most substantial and progressive business men of southeastern Nebraska and as a citizen of loyalty and liberality, has the distinction of being a native of Nebraska and a scion of a family that was here founded in the early territorial days. He was bom in the old frontier town of Brownville, Nemaha county, this state, on the 9th of February, 1857 - a decade prior to the admission of the state to the Union - and he is a son of James and Elizabeth (Bell) Palmer, the former of whom was born in Missouri and the latter in Illinois, her mother having been a childhood schoolmate of Abraham Lincoln. James Palmer came , from Missouri to Nebraska in 1856 and became one of the early settlers at Brownville, in which vicinity he began the development of a small farm, besides raising various garden products that found ready demand in the frontier settlement. He died at Brownville when, he was but forty years of age, leaving his wife to care for their seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the eldest. Mrs. Palmer bravely faced the responsibilities that devolved upon her and in providing for her fatherless children manifested the utmost self-abnegation and maternal solicitude. She continued to reside in Brownville until her death and was one of the revered pioneer women of Nebraska, her death having occurred when she was about seventy-two years of age.

Reared in his native town to adult age, Aaron Palmer was about twenty-three years old at the time of his father's death, and as the eldest of the seven children, he applied himself earnestly to aiding his mother in caring for and rearing the younger children, to the support of whom he continued to contribute until they were old enough to assume individual responsibility for their own maintenance. Under such conditions it may readily be understood' that; the early educational training of Aaron Palmer was limited to a somewhat irregular and desultory attendance in the pioneer schools at Brownville, but his alert and receptive mind later enabled him to profit largely through the lessons learned under the preceptorship of that wisest of all head-masters, experience. In aiding in the support of the family he applied himself to whatever work he could obtain, and finally he learned the trade of baker, in a modest bakery at Brownville. With this line of occupation he there continued his association until 1887, when he came to Beatrice and opened a bakery and restaurant. He had no available capital and thus initiated this enterprise on credit. The venture proved a failure, notwithstanding his earnest and assiduous efforts, and within a year he came to involuntary liquidation, with an indebtedness of about eighteen hundred dollars. Thus temporarily astride the back of adversity, Mr. Palmer did not falter in couirage or determination, and' in order to provide for his family and rid himself of the burden of debt he gained appointment to the position of city mail carrier in Beatrice, in which capacity he continued to give effective service for eleven years, within which he brought himself triumphantly out of debt and also accumulated a modest reserve of sixteen hundred dollars. In 1894 the general merchandise establishment of Begole & Van Arsdale, of Beatrice, was destroyed by fire, and Mr. Palmer purchased the damaged goods salvaged from the fire, though he had only the sixteen hundred dollars to apply on the purchase price. He borrowed the balance required and in the sale of this stock of merchandise he made a profit of about two thousand dollars. Since that time he has continued to deal extensively in bankrupt and fire stocks, in which field of enterprise he has developed from a small inception a business that is now the largest of the kind in Nebraska. It has been consistently stated that in the Palmer establishment may be purchased anything from a needle to a piano,. and the display of merchandise includes clothing, dry goods, hardware, stoves, and general house furnishings of every description.

Mr. Palmer has had no communion with apathy or idleness, has been a productive worker and has been found busily at work at all stages of his career. Essentially a business man, he has had neither time nor desire to enter the turbulence of practical politics or to seek public office, though he is liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude and gives staunch support to the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor. Widely known throughout this section of the state, he has by his earnest and honest endeavors entrenched himself firmly in popular confidence and esteem, and this has contributed much to the success of his present important business enterprise. In the Masonic fraternity he has completed the circle of the York Rite, his maximum affiliation being with Beatrice commandery of Knights Templars, besides which he holds membership in the adjunct Masonic organization, the Mystic Shrine.

On the 11th of January, 1879, was officially recorded the marriage of Mr. Palmer to Miss Delia Furlow, who was born in the state of Maine, but who was a child at the time of her parents' removal to Nebraska, where she was reared and educated, her father having been one of the pioneer settlers of Nemaha county. Mr. and Mrs. Palmer have no children, but in their attractive home they delight to extend welcome and entertainment to the young folk of the communty as well as to the friends of their own generation. Mrs. Palmer is an active member of the Presbyterian church of Beatrice, and is afifiliated with the representative Masonic subsidiary body known as the Order of the Eastern Star.

WILLIAM C. MOORE. - In Sections 35 and 36, Holt township, Mr. Moore and his wife are the owners of a fine rural estate of three hundred and twenty acres, and Mr. Moore, whose farm experience has touched various sections of Nebraska, looks upon Gage county as one of the best and most attractive districts for the successful prosecution of agricultural and live stock industry that can be found within the limits of this progressive state. He has- made his farm property one specially notable for thrift and good management and is essentially one of the representative citizens and substantial farmers of Holt township.

Mr. Moore was born at Waterloo, Blackhawk county, Iowa, March 27, 1865, being the youngest in a family of ten children, of whom eight attained to maturity. He is a son of Jacob and Catherine (Waltz) Moore, the former of whom was born in Germany, March 27, 1821, and the latter of whom was bom in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1821. Jacob Moore was about eleven years old when he accompanied his parents on their immigration to America, and the family home was established in Pennsylvania, where he was reared to adult age and where his marriage was solemnized. In 1857, within a short time after their marriage, Mr. Moore and his wife left the old Keystone state and made their way to Green county, Wisconsin, both having walked a large part of the intervening distance. He became a pioneer farmer in that county, where he remained until about 1864, when he removed to Blackhawk county, Iowa, where he repeated his pioneer experience as an agriculturist. One of his sons, John W., "went forth as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war: he enlisted in a Wisconsin volunteer regiment of infantry and took part in many engagements marking the progress of the conflict between the north and the south, he having been with Sherman on the historic march from Atlanta to the sea. This honored veteran of the Civil war is now venerable in years and maintains his home in Newburg, Oregon. Jacob Moore became a farmer in Iowa, where he remained until 1874, when he came to Nebraska, the closing period of his life having been passed in Hamilton county, this state, where he died March 27, 1877. He had been an invalid for eight years. A man of sterling character and indefatigable industry, he had the distinction of being a pioneer in each of three different states, and he lived a righteous and upright life, so that he commanded unqualified popular esteem. His widow long survived him and was a resident of Newburg, Oregon, at the time of her death, in June, 1906. Both were reared in the faith of the German Lutheran church but after their removal they became members of the Dunkard church, with which they continued to be affiliated during the remainder of their lives.

William C. Moore gained his preliminary education in the schools of Iowa and was nine years of age when his parents numbered themselves among the pioneers of Hamilton county, Nebraska, where he continued to attend school until he was fifteen years of age. When eleven years of age he received an injury that compelled him to abandon his school work for a year, and as a youth he turned his attention to farm work, his initial experience as a farm hand having been gained when he was a lad of fifteen years. At the age of nineteen years he rented land in Hamilton county, where he conducted independent farm operations for the ensuing four years. He then established the first dray line at Stockham. He later became the owner of a homestead farm in the southern part of Lincoln county, and after selling this property, in 1889, he became associated with his brother John W. in purchasing of Daniel and William Nicewonger a general merchandise store and business in the village of Pickrell, Gage county. In 1893 the subject of this review sold his interest in the business to his brother and resumed his active association with farm enterprise, by renting a farm located to the east of Pickrell, in Holt township. In 1895 he purchased forty acres in Section 23 of that township, for a consideration of eleven hundred dollars, and about six years later he sold the property for two thousand dollars. In 1899 Mr. Moore purchased the Jersey Smith farm of eighty acres, and this constitutes an integral part of his now large, and admirably improved landed estate in Holt township. Energy, progressiveness, and correct business policies have enabled Mr. Moore to achieve unqualified success in the different departments of farm industry and he is one of the substantial and influential citizens of Holt township, where he has been called upon to serve in various public offices of minor order and where he is now a director of the school board for District No. 57, his political allegiance being given to the Republican party and he and his wife being active members of the United Brethren church.

February, 1891, recorded the marriage of Mr. Moore to Miss Mary Lewis, who was born in Holt township, this county, November 8, 1870, a daughter of John E. and Sarah M. (Williams) Lewis, the former a native of Wales and the latter of. the state of New York. Mr. Lewis became a pioneer of the state of Wisconsin, where he remained until 1868, when he came to the new state of Nebraska and became one of the earliest settlers in Holt township, Gage county, where he reclaimed and improved a valuable farm property and where he and his wife passed the residue of their lives as honored pioneer citizens of the county. Mr. Lewis died May 2, 1913, at the age of seventy-two years, his wife having passed away February 17, 1905, at the age of fifty-two years. Of their eight children all are living except one, only two of the number being residents of Gage county and the others maintaining their residence in Scotts Bluff county. Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Moore the following brief record is given: John is associated with his father in the managemeftt of the home farm ; Eva, who was graduated in the high school at Beatrice, is a successful and popular teacher in the district schools of the county; Walter assists in the work of the home farm; Myrtle likewise was graduated in the Beatrice high school and is an efficient teacher in the district schools of her native county; Sarah is a member of the class of 1919 in the Beatrice high school; Edward and George remain at the parental home'; and one son died in infancy.

Mr. Moore has been in the most significant sense the builder of the sturdy ladder on which he has risen to the plane of independence and worthy prosperity, and he is today not only the owner of a valuable landed estate and a. stockholder in the farmers' grain elevator at Pickrell but is also entirely free from indebtedness. He had made good improvements on his farm property and has availed himself of the most modern farm machinery and accessories, including an elevator for the transferring of the various grain products raised on his broad and fertile acres. In short, he is a successful exponent of modem and scientific farm enterprise.

THE DOLE FLORAL COMPANY. - In the year 1916 was celebrated the twenty-fifth, anniversary of the founding of one of the large, important, and interesting industrial enterprises of Beatrice and Gage county, that of the Dole Floral Company, and this publication exercises a consistent function when it gives special recognition to this representative corporation, for in the upbuilding of its business has been exemplified the splendid energy and initiative ability of its honored founder, Mrs. Sophia H. Dole, who, while representing all of gracious womanhood, has proved herself one of the most successful business women of Nebraska, has made of her individual success a medium of leverage for the uplifting of civic and material prosperity in her home city and county, the while she has ever retained an inviolable place in the affectionate regard of the community in which she has lived and labored to goodly ends. Of the inception and growth of the business founded by this representative exponent of business- enterprise in the city of Beatrice, a brief, pertinent, and interesting record was given iia the anniversary catalogue issued by the Dole Floral Company in 1916, and it is pleasing to perpetuate in more enduring form this record :

"In the spring of 1891 Mrs. Sophia H. Dole, with an investment of one dollar for flower pots and seventy-five cents for seeds, and with a hot-bed sash for a greenhouse, began the ornamental plant business at 617 Mary street. In the autumn of the same year a small greenhouse was built. The next year Josiah G. Dole and his two sons, Edward W. and Walter A., became associated with Mrs. Dole, under the firm name of S. H. Dole & Sons, and thereafter the greenhouse was enlarged from year to year until the location was outgrown. In 1898 three acres of land were leased and a new range of greenhouses was built at 609 Mary street. The business was incorporated in 1904, under the title of the Dole Floral Company. Capital stock was offered for sale and five acres of land were purchased by the company at the comer of Fifth and Hoyt streets. On this specially eligible site was erected in 1905 the present range of greenhouses, which has since been notably enlarged, in consonance with the constantly increasing demands placed upon the company in connection with its growing trade. The result is that at the present time the company has twenty-five thousand feet of glass, besides well equipped work and storage rooms.

"Our first down-town salesroom occupied a little building that was only five' by seven feet in dimensions, at 114 North Fifth street. In 1908 the company purchased a lot at 518 Ella street, and in the following year there was erected on this site the present Dole building, a substantial brick structure of two stories. The building has since been enlarged and is now equipped with a large and modern case for the preservation of cut flowers and with an artificial ice refrigerating plant."

In a progressive policy that implies the giving of thoroughly metropolitan service the Dole Floral Company has equipped its attractive salesrooms with the most modern appointments and facilities, and the establishment is a source of pride to the city of Beatrice and its people. The large display cases in which the cut flowers are preserved after being taken from the greenhouses have cold air supplied from the company's artificial ice plant, which is operated by electricity and which has a capacity for the production of four tons of ice every twenty-four hours. The company has an attractive automobile delivery car, which is utilized not only in delivering floral products to patrons in Beatrice but also in transporting fresh-cut flowers from the greenhouses each morning, for display and sale at the down-town store. The propagating facilities controlled by the company are of the most approved order and the concern offers roses, carnations, sweet peas, and all other of the popular varieties of flowers, the same being grown entirely at the conservatories of the company. Large shipments are made to other cities and many towns in this section of the state, and demands come also from points even farther removed. The company gives the best of service in the supplying of cut flowers, bedding plants, house plants, and bulbs. Special attention is given also to the producing of artistic floral designs for decorative and funeral purposes, and the company maintains a department for the handling of the finest varieties of gold fish.

The Dole Floral Company now bases its operations on a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, and the personnel of its executive corps is as here noted: Edward W. Dole, president ; Victor Ryhd, secretary ; and George M. Johnson, treasurer and manager. Of each of these officers more specific mention is made on other pages of this volume, and similar recognition is given also to the popular founder of the enterprise, Mrs. Sophia H. Dole.

CHARLES F. BONHAM was one of the organizers of the State Bank of Ellis, a thriving village of Gage county, and has been cashier of this well ordered institution since 1909, his administration having proved potent in the upbuilding of the substantial business of the bank.

Missouri, December 7, 1871, and is a son of William and Mary Ann (Nicholson) Bonham, of whose four children he was the third in order of birth, Eunice, the firstborn, having been about three years of age at the time of her death; William B. died at the age of twelve years ; and Clarence L. is now engaged in the banking business at Ayr, Adams county. William Bonham was born near the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1841, a scion of a sterling pioneer family of that state. His parents, David and Rebecca (Weaver) Bonham, were natives respectively of England and Wisconsin, and from the Badger state they finally removed to Missouri, making the long overland journey in a covered wagon that was drawn by a mule and a blind horse, besides which they had an ox team. David Bonham engaged in f arrning in Missouri and there he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. They became the parents of eight children and four of their sons were soldiers of the Union in the Civil war - David, Jr., Robert, John, and James - all now deceased.

William Bonham became a substantial farmer and influential citizen of Andrew county, Missouri, and later was engaged in farming in Gentry county, that state, where for a number of years he was engaged also in the agricultural-implement business, at King City. He came to Nebraska about the year 1892 and he reclaimed and developed a good farm in Furnas county, where he passed the remainder of his life, his death having occurred in 1902. His widow, who was born in Indiana, in 1846, and whose death occurred in 1906, was a daughter of John F. Nicholson, who was a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. William Bonham and his wife were most zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church and in politics he gave his support to the Republican party.

Charles F. Bonham was reared on the farm of his father in Missouri and after having profited duly by the advantages of the district schools he continued his studies in the village schools of King City until he had completed the work of the tenth grade. Later he completed a commercial course in Wesleyan College, at Cameron, Missouri, and after his graduation he became bookkeeper for his father, who was then engaged in the implement business at King City. In 1892 he resumed his association with farm enterprise in his native state and in 1894 he accompanied his parents to Furnas county, Nebraska, where he was engaged in farming until 1909, when he came to Gage county and became cashier of the State Bank of Ellis, of which position he has since continued the efficient and popular incumbent. This bank was organized in 1907 by his brother Clarence and eight representative farmers of this section of the county, and in the general record concerning the banking interests of the county, on other pages, due mention is made of this prosperous institution, of which Temple E. Pierce is president and Albert C. Pefiferman, vice-president.

Mr. Bonham takes vital interest in all things touching the wellbeing and advancement oi his home village and county, is a Republican in his political allegiance, is affiliated with the local organizations of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Ellis, of which he is serving as a steward in 1917-1918. He is the owner of village property in Ellis, including his pleasant home, and also has a well improved farm property of three hundred and twenty acres near Wilsonville, Furnas county.

January' 7, 1893, recorded the marriage of Mr. Bonham to Miss Elsie Timmons, who was bom in the state of Illinois, a daughter of Ephraim Timmons, and of this union have been born three children : Lee D. is assistant cashier of the Union State Bank in the city of Beatrice ; Ada died at the age of two years ; and Russell died in 1915, at the age of seven years.

ARNOTT D. McCANDLESS, - Each successive stage of a life that has been worthily lived bears its full measure of compensation, and the man who has passed life's meridian, who has stored up the lessons of rich and varied experience, and who lias wrought wisely, justly, and effectively, must find each successive year thereafter radiant in personal contentment and gracious in memories. Such a sane, direct, and productive life has been that of Arnott Duncan McCandless, who is one of the representative members of the bar of Gage county and whose buoyant optimism has enabled him to get the best out of life in its varied relations. He is a writer of exceptional talent and another dominating attribute of his makeup is his love- for the vital' sports afield and afloat, in which domain of recreation he has gained distinct prestige. He is engaged in the practice of his profession- in the city of Wymore and his status as_ a, citizen, a lawyer, and as a genial and popular man makes it specially pleasing to accord, him; recognition in this history.

Mr. McCandless is of staunch Scotch, an-. cestry on both the paternal and maternal sides, as the respective names fully- indicate. He was born on a farm six miles east of Macomb, McDonough county,, Illinois, on the 27th of August, 1849, and is, a. son of William. Wallace McCandless and; Sarah (Duncan) Mc- Candless, both natives of Pennsylvania. A literal and fully substantiated fact pertinent to the McCandless f^iily is singularly in consonance with a statement all too t;;itely made concerning the founding of other families in America. That is, the original progenitors of the McCandless family in this country were the proverbial three brothers, but it has been clearly established that one of the number established a home in Pennsylvania, that another located in the south and. that the third became a seafaring man. Prom the one who settled in the old Keystone state the subject of this review is descended.

Arnott D. McCandless was five years old when his parents removed from McDonough county, Illinois, and settled on a farm onehalf mile southwest of Aledo, Mercer county, and he was a lad of about thirteen years when his loyal and patriotic father went forth to battle for the nation's integrity as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war. On the 14th of August, 1862, Williarq W. McCandless enlisted as a private in Company H, Eightyfourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and with his command he set forth from Quincy, Illinois, marched across Kentucky and on to Nashville, Tennessee, the soldiers of his regiment sleeping at night under the open sky, as they were not provided with tents. Mr. Mc- Candless was destined soon to sacrifice his life in the righteous cause, for he was killed at the battle of Stone River, on the 31st of December, 1862, little more than four months after he had enlisted. He had become the father of six. children, and his widow and two of her married daughters eventually came to Ne- braska and settled in Box Butte county. While visiting at the home of her- son Arnott D.,, of this review, at Wymore, the widowed mother was summoned to eternal rest, her die.ath having occurred in 1910, at which time she was, eighty-eight years of age.

Arnott Duncan McCandless attended the district schools in Mercer county, Illinois, and thereafter attended for two years a Presbyterian select school in that state. He was at this time about eleven years old and thereafter he attended school only three months until after he had attained to his legal majority. The death of his father compelled him to assume heavy responsibilities when he was but a boy,, and through his application to farm work he aided in the support of his mother and the other members of the family. His insistent determination to. broaden his education led him to take his Latin grammar into the field with him, in order that he might apply himself to study during his all too few leisure moments. In the meanwhile his advancement had been such that he proved himself a successful teacher during four months of pedagogic service in the district schools of his native state.

Soon after reaching his legal majority Mr. McCandless entered the law office of Isaac N. Bassett, a leading lawyer at Aledo, Illinois, and, at a stipend of sixteen dollars and seventy-five cents a month, he here took charge of a set of abstract books, the while he vigorously applied hirnself to the study of law. In 1874 he had so efifectively absorbed and as- similated the science of jurisprudence that he was admitted to the Illinois bar, at a session of the supreme court of the state held at Ottawa. In 1875 Mr. McCandless went to the new town of Creston, Iowa, and became one of its pioneer lawyers. There he built up a substantial practice and there he continued his professional activities until 1882, when he again evidenced his predilection for being in at the start of things in a new town, as he cast in his fortunes with the village of Wymore, Gage county, Nebraska, a place that had been founded about one year previously. A man of vigorous thought and action, he proved a staunch force in furthering civic and material development and progress at Wymore, and he has continued as one of the valued and publicspirited citizens of this thriving little city, even as he has been recognized as one of the able and representative members of the bar of the county. For fifteen years after their marriage Mr. McCandless and his wife kept their textbooks constantly at hand in their home and devoted themselves earnestly to study and reading, vying with each other in enthusiasm for advancement along educational lines.

In 1873 Mr. McCandless wedded Miss Gertrude Cabeen, who was bom at Keithsburg, Illinois, a daughter of Richard C. Cabeen, an early settler arid influential citizen of Mercer county, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Mc- Candless have no children, but their devoted companionship during the long years has been of ideal order - intensified, as it were, by their having had no child to divide even measurably their interests.

In politics, as in other matters of vital im- - portance, Mr. McCandless thinks and acts for himself, and he has not been constrained by strict partisan dictates. In his home village he is affiliated with Wymore Lodge, No. 104, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons ; Hiram Chapter, No. 28, Royal Arch Masons; and Cypress Council, No. 22, Royal and Select Masters.

For many years prior to the death of his loved mother Mr. McCandless made regular visits to her and his two sisters, in Box Butte county, and incidentally he made interesting hunting expeditions in Cherry county. As he says, he "loves to sleep out on the sand hills, with only a blanket for protection, to breathe the air no one else ever breathed, and to determine the time of the night by observing the position of the Great Dipper." Along literary lines Mr. McCandless has gained no little repute by reason of the specially original and interesting articles which he has contributed to the periodical known as "Forest and Stream," his articles having been entitled "Days in Cherrj' County" and "Boyhood Days in Illinois." These articles have attracted wide attention on the part of devotees of outdoor sport, and Mr. McCandless has not only received letters of marked appreciation from the editor of "Forest and Stream," but they have led also to his being called upon to act as escort to wealthy and influential sportsmen in expeditions in western Nebraska. Among such millionaire sportsmen with whom Mr. McCandless has been thus pleasantly associated may be mentioned Mr. Wilbur, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Mr. Liles, of Aurora, Missouri. Mr. McCandless is an expert shot and has made splendid record at the traps, in which connection he has come in close competition with Thomas Marshall, of Keithsburg, Illinois, the two having become acquainted when they were boys.

Even this brief article indicates the broad mental grasp of Mr. McCandless and shows that while he has concentrated and won success in his profession he has had appreciation of other things that go to make up the full and complete life, and that he has made the passing years count not only in achievement but also in giving the benefices of happiness and contentment.

JOHN STROUGH. - In the career of the late John Strough, who was a resident of Gage county for more than a score of years, success and honor were inseparable, and he made his life count for good in its every relation. His sudden death, as the result of heartdisease, occurred at his home in the city of Beatrice, November 23, 1917, he having been stricken while engaged in his customary eve--

Mr. Strough was born in Henry county, Indiana, on the 28th of January, 1844, and was a son of John and Sarah (Miller) Strough, who reared to years of maturity a family of eleven children. John Strough, Sr., was bom in Pennsylvania, in the year 1808, and in the earlier part of his career he followed the trade of tailor. As a young man he went to the historic old state of Virginia, and later he numbered himself among the pioneers of Henry county, Indiana, where he became a prosperous farmer and where his death occurred on the 20th of May, 1863. His wife was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, in which state she was reared and educated, and there their marriage was solemnized, her father, George Miller, having been a native of Pennsylvania: she was born about the year 1835 and passed to eternal rest about 1887, her first three children having been born in Virginia, prior to the family removal to Indiana, where she continued to reside until her death.

The subject of this memoir was reared on the old homestead farm in Indiana and acquired his early education in the pioneer schools of Henry county, that state. At the time of the Civil war he gave efficient service as a soldier in an Indiana volunteer regiment, and his service covered practically the entire period of the conflict between the North and the South. In his native state his marriage was solemnized in 1867, and in 1870 he removed with his family to Holt county, Missouri, where he purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, near the village of Craig. There he continued his successful activities as a farmer until 1890, when he and his wife established their home in Gage county, Nebras- Jca, after he had disposed of his farm in Missouri. Upon coming, to Gage county Mr. Strough purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Section 33, Holt township, and, with his progressive policies an,d mature judgment he there proved notably successful in his farm enterprise, the while he made excellent improvements on the homestead. He remained on the farm until 1908, when he retired from active labors and removed with his devoted wife to the city of Beatrice, where he passed the residue of his life, secure in the high regard of all who knew him.

Mr. Strough was well fortified in his convictions concerning governmental policies and was a stalwart advocate of the principles of the Republican party. He took deep interest in community affairs and while living on his Gage county farm he served as a member of the school board of his district. His religious faith was that of the Presbyterian church and his widow holds membership in the Congregational church of Beatrice.

In the year 1867 Mr. Strough wedded Miss Sarah Ann Bowers, who was bom in Henry county, Indiana, April 14, 1849, a daughter of George and Lydia (Weane) Bowers, both natives of Rockingham county, Virginia, where the former was born in the year 1819 and the latter on the 9th of August, 1831. Upon his removal to Indiana, Mr. Bowers became a pioneer of Henry county, and there he became a substantial farmer and influential citizen of his community. He was one of the venerable pioneer citizens of the county at the time of his death, in 1891, at the age of seventy-two years, and his widow, who attained to the age of eighty-one years, was a resident of Henry county, Indiana, at the time of her death, in 1908. Since the death of her honored husband Mrs. Strough has continued to reside in the attractive home which he provided upon their removal to Beatrice. In conclusion is given brief record concerning their children, eleven having been born to them and two of the number having died in infancy: Laura is the wife of Giles Laughlin and they reside near Sheridan, Arkansas; Mary B. is the wife of Thomas Harding, a prosperous farmer of Holt township. Gage county, Nebraska ; Joseph Leonard resides in Beatrice, this county, where he operatesa garage ; Dora E. is the wife of John Coonley, who is engaged in the grocery busi- ' ness in West Beatrice; Lloyd L., who owns and resides upon his father's old home farm in Holt township, is individually mentioned on other pages of this volume; Rufus F. is engaged in the oil business in the city of Beatrice; Jesse F. is a resident of Ottumwa, Iowa; and Nona E. is the wife of William Shenvood, a prosperous farmer in Logan township.

ANDREW J. REEDY. - In nearly every village in the United States are to be found men who fought that our nation might remain an indissoluble union, and one of such men is Mr. Reedy, of Blue Springs, this county.

Andrew Jackson Reedy was bom in Morgan county, Indiana, January 1, 1839, and is a son of William and Nancy (Cannedy) Reedy, the former bom in Ireland and the latter in Scotland; they migrated to West Virginia with their respective parents and in that state their marriage occurred. With hearts full of hope and courage they traversed the wilds of Ohio and crossed over into Indiana, where they cleared a space for their rude log cabin and where William Reedy became a pioneer farmer. Sons and daughters grew up around them, and they became the parents of a fine family of sixteen children. Three of this large family are now living; George Reedy, a Civil war veteran, is living retired at Nebraska City, Nebraska; Polly, widow of John Busha, resides at Council Bluffs, Iowa; and Andrew J. Reedy is the subject of this sketch. In Morgan county, Indiana, the mother of these children passed to the life eternal. Her husband later contracted a second marriage and by this union six children were born. The latter years of the life of William Reedy were spent in Oregon, where his death occurred. He was a Douglas Democrat in politics and was a captain in the Mexican war.

The educational advantages that the times afforded in the boyhood of Andrew J. Reedy were very meager, but such as they were he profited by these. When a youth of seventeen years he went to Missouri to farm and was called from the plowing of his land to take up arms for his country. He was in the service for a few months with the contingent from

Harrison county, Missouri, but soon enlisted with Missouri cavalry, from Gentry county, in which command he served two years, two months, and seven days. He participated in the vigorous action incidental to the historic Price raids, fighting every day against General Price, from the Ozarks to Fort Scott. In 1^3 he was in the raid for Quantrell, and one time.^as taken prisoner by the rebels, but he*inaue his escape from them.

Af tef the war Mr. Reedy went back to the peaceful occupation of tilling the soil in Missouri. It was here that he married Sarah Ann lyowe, who has been his faithful companion all of these years. She has borne him twelve children, ten of whom are living, as follows : Andrew lives at Blue Springs ; Florence first married O. T. Randall and is now the wife of Samuel Price, a farmer near Kansas City, Kansas ; William resides at Blue Springs, Daniel in Iowa, and Alonzo at Lincoln, Nebraska; Luther is in the military service of the United States as a member of a machine gun company; Lucy, widow of Fred Stratford, is now employed in Palmer's store at Beatrice; Salome, widow of George Densmore, is living in Lincoln ; Mary is the wife of John Herman, of Wymore; and Harry is in the war service of the United States.

Mr, Reedy farmed in Missouri until 1878, when he went to Kansas, and in 1886 he came to Gage county, where he continued farming until his retirement to Blue Springs twenty years ago. In politics Mr. Reedy has voted with the Republican party. He is a member of the Rawlins Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Beatrice, and is one of the valued members of the community in which he has long resided, he having given many useful years to agricultural industry.

FREDERICK W. MESSMORE. - In the year that marked the semi-centennial of the admission of Nebraska as one of the sovereign states of the Union, Gage county numbered as one of its most efficient and valued officials Frederick W. Messmore, who is still serving as county attorney and who has the further distinction of being one of the youngest men to be the incumbent of such office in the entire state. He is making a splendid record as a pubHc prosecutor and through his official activities is enhancing his reputation and is solidifying his status as one of the representative members of the bar of Gage county.

Mr. Messmore was born in Boone county, Iowa, on the Uth of July, 1889, and is a son of H. A. and Clara J. (Davidson) Messmore. both of whom likewise are natives of the Ha'wkeye state, where the respective families were founded in the early pioneer days. H. A. Messmore was reared and educated in Iowa and there became actively identified with railway operations, as a conductor on the line of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. About the year 1907 he removed with his family to Nebraska and established his residence at Randolph, Cedar county, where he successfully conducted a hotel, later continuing in the same line of enterprise in turn at Laurel, that county ; Geneva, Fillmore county ; and Nelson, Nuckolls county. In 1915 he and his wife established their home at Beatrice, and here it is his intention again to engage in the hotel business within the near future. Mr. Messmore is unwavering in his allegiance to the Democratic party, he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church, and in the timehonored Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides being affiliated also with the Mystic Shrine. Of the four children of Mr. and Mrs. Messmore, the subject of this review is the younger of the two now living, and Sylvia is the wife of T. O. Hester, a banker at Wiota, Cass county, Iowa.

The preUminary educational discipline of Frederick W. Messmore was acquired principally in the public schools of the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he completed the curriculum of the high school and also took a course in the Northwestern Business and Normal College. After his graduation in the same he followed the trend of his ambition and well formulated plans by enrolling himself as a student in the Creighton Law School, in the city of Omaha. In this well ordered institution he was graduated as a member of the class of

1912, and his admission to the Nebraska bar was virtually coincident with his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In 1913 Mr. Messmore entered, with characteristic vigor and earnestness, upon his professional novitiate, and he was favored in being at this time able to associate himself with General L. W. Colby, of Beatrice, one of the leading members of the Gage county bar. He maintained this alliance until his election to the office of county attorney, in 1914, and the estimate placed upon his administration of the affairs of this important office was unequivocally shown in his reelection in 1916.

Mr. Messmore is a most vital and effective advocate of the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor and is one of the influential young men in its councils in his home county. Mr. Messmore is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, the Delta Theta Phi college fraternity, and the Modern Woodmen of America, in which last mentioned organization he is past worthy advisor. He and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church.

In April, 1913, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Messmore to Miss Jennie Frances Saxe, who was born at Belden, Cedar county, Nebraska, a daughter of Allison and Frances (Boughn) Saxe, and she was reared in the home of her mother's uncle, Zack Boughn, who was one of the pioneer settlers of this state. Mr. and Mrs. Messmore have no children.

FRANK OVERBECK has been a resident of Gage county for nearly two score years and through his able and vigorous activities as a farmer he has achieved substantial prosperity. He is the owner of a well improved landed estate of three hundred and twenty acres, in Section 16, Holt township, and here he is now living virtually retired, his two sons having the active management of the farm property.

their entire lives in their native land. Frank Overbeck was reared and educated in Germany and there gained his initial experience in connection with farm industry. In May, 1882, he came to the United States and landed in the port of New York city. Shortly afterward he came to Nebraska and established his residence in Gage county, where he found employment as a farm workman. He continued to be thus engaged about five years and then engaged in farming in an independent way. He was encouraged to take this course by his friend Frederick Pohlman, who came to the farm on which Mr. Overbeck was at the time employed and made inquiry as to the amount of money the latter had available. Mr. Overbeck stated in reply that he had saved three hundred and twenty-five dollars, and Mr. Pohlman then said that he would lend him an additional one hundred dollars and that with the combined sum he could find him a farm that he could rent. Preparations were made by the two friends going to Dewitt, where Mr. Overbeck purchased a team of horses and the required agricultural implements, he having given his note for the purchase price of the team. He then rented the farm of John H. Steinmeyer, who established himself in the grain and elevator business at Dewitt, and on this farm Mr. Overbeck continued operations two years. He then purchased a Scully lease of land in Hanover township, and there he continued his successful activities as an agriculturist and stock-grower until he purchased his present homestead farm of one hundred and sixty acres, upon which but little improvement had been made at the time. He has developed his farm until it is now one of the model places of Holt township, the additional tract of one hundred and sixty acres having been purchased somewhat later and the farm being all in one body. Mr. Overbeck has erected good farm buildings and each of his sons has an attractive house on the half-section of land which has been under their effective management since their father retired from the labors that were so long his portion. Mr. Overbeck is a Republican in politics and

As a young man Mr. Overbeck wedded Miss Caroline Stolde, who was bom and reared in Germany and who there passed her entire life, her death having occurred in 1882, and she having been survived by four children. In the same year Mr. Overbeck came to America with three of his children, Henry, the eldest of the four having come to this country a short time previously, and being now a resident of Jefferson county, Nebraska; Ivizzie is the wife of Charles Gerhardt, of Beatrice ; Frederick is a prosperous farmer in Hanover township ; and Charles is engaged in the real-estate business in the city of Beatrice.

Prior to coming to the United States Mr. Overbeck contracted a second marriage, with Miss Ivizzie Hansjurgen, who was bom in the year 1853, and whose death occurred April 13, 1913. Of the eleven children of this union six are living: William is a successful farmer in Hanover township ; Frank is associated in the operation of the home farm of his father; Ernest is engaged in farm enterprise in Holt township; John is the other son who farms a portion of his father's place; Herman is a farmer in Nemaha township; and Edwin is engaged in farming in Saline county.

CHARLES M. MURDOCK, of Wymore, is not only one of the honored pioneer citizens of Gage county, but also a representative of a family whose name is one of singular and significant prominence in connection with the early annals of Nebraska, the subject of this review having gained wide and varied experience in connection with life on the frontier and his noble father having been one of the early missionaries to the Indians in Nebraska. A wealth of interesting data may be gleaned concerning this family, and the record cannot fail of enduring historical interest.

Charles M. Murdock was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, August 29, 1843, and is a son of Rev. Daniel A. and Prudence L. (Smith) Murdock, both likewise natives of the old Keystone state. Rev. Daniel A. Murdock received a liberal education and as a young man he entered the ministry of the Presbyterian church. His marriage to Miss Prudence L,. Smith was solemnized April 6, 1841, and concerning their nine children the following brief record may be entered: Lysander B. was born March 24, 1842, and died January 10, 1858; Charles M., of this review, was the next in order of birth ; Mary F. was born August 25, 1845, and her death occurred December 5, 1863 ; Alonzo D. was bom November 11, 1847; Bashford E. W. was bom May 11, 1850, and died July 24, 1888; Alfaretta L. was born September 22, 1852 ; Dualla R. was born October 2, 1854, and her death occurred June 25, 1908; Effie T. was born June 30, 1858, and her death occurred March 19, 1864; and Daniel A., Jr., was born Januar 18, 1861.

The following specially interesting record is taken in large part from an admirable account prepared by Charles M. Murdock, to whom this sketch is dedicated. In the spring of 1853 Rev. Daniel A. Murdock removed with his family to the pioneer wilds of Iowa and established a home near Bloomfield, Davis county, but removal was soon afterward made to the vicinity of HoUeyville, Page county. In September, 1856, Mr. Murdock and his wife, in company with their neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Hayes, drove overland in covered wagons from Page county, Iowa, into the Territory of Nebraska, and they decided to locate in Richardson county, near the present village of Stell. This sturdy pioneer clergyman purchased in that locality a tract of land, and within a short time thereafter he returned to his home in Iowa. In the same year he was requested by the Presbyterian Missionary Society, of New York city, to accept the position of missionary to the Otoe and Missouri tribes of Indians in Nebraska and Kansas, and he accepted this responsible post. On the 7th of April, 1857, in company with his wife and their seven children. Rev. Daniel A. Murdock left Page county, Iowa, with teams and covered wagons and set forth for his new field of service. When they arrived at Sidney, Fremont county, Iowa, they found that the Missouri river was so high as to make it impossible to cross the same. The family therefore remained at Sidney until the 6th of May, when they crossed the river on a ferry boat, at Weeping Water, just above Nebraska City. Three days later the pioneer missionary arrived with his family at the Indian trading post conducted by Gideon Bennett, on Plum creek, and one mile west of the site of the present village of Liberty, Gage county. The next day the family continued its journey a distance of about seven miles and arrived at the Otoe and Missouri Indian mission building, in Marshall county, Kansas. Here the Presbyterian Missionary Society had pur- - chased half a section of land, the north half of Section One (1) in Township One (1) south, Range Eight (8) east, and erected thereon a concrete building forty by ninety feet in dimensions and three stories in height, this building having been about forty rods south of the Kansas and Nebraska territorial line and one and one-half miles distant from the east line of the Otoe and Missouri Indian reservation. Soon after the arrival of the Murdock family at this frontier mission the seven chiefs of the Otoe and Missouri tribes came to visit the new incumbent at the mission. Here Arkeketa and the other six chiefs held conference and decided to send their children to the mission school. Mr. Murdock treated them with great consideration and explained to them the purpose and object of his coming as a missionary. From New York were sent two women to become teachers of the young Indians, and about seventy-five boys and two girls came to receive instruction. With its various attaches the mission represented a busy little community, and the Murdock family passed the first summer very pleasantly. When the Indians were about to set forth on their autumn hunting trip for buffalo, they asked Mr. Murdock to permit the Indian boys in the school to accompany them on the expedition. The missionary tried to persuade them to let the children remain in school. The elder Indians seemingly gave their consent to this plan, but a little after dark the same evening "all of the Indian boys at the mission vanished like a flock of quail."

While the Otoes were on this hunting expedition a band of Sioux Indians, who were not on good terms with the Otoes, appeared at the mission, evidently in search of the Indian boys, whom they doubtless wished to scalp or kidnap. When they found the boys absent they did not molest the mission, the two Indian girls having in the meanwhile been secreted. When, upon their return, the Otoes learned of the visit of the Sioux their superstitious minds led them to believe that a miracle had been wrought, in that the boys had been absent, and they did not permit the youngsters to return to the mission in sufficient number to justify the continuing of the school. Only two of the Indian boys came back to the mission. The result was that the mission was given up in the autumn of 1857, the land and buildings being later sold by the missionary society.

In 1861, however. Rev. Daniel A. Murdock and his family again occupied the mission building. In the interim he had removed to Doniphan county, Kansas, whence he went to Lawrence county, Missouri, to assume charge of a college at Mount Vernon. When the Civil war broke out he found his sympathy with the Union cause to be a source of trouble in his community, and he returned to Nebraska and settled on a tract of land which he had previously entered as a preemption claim, in Pawnee county. The next spring he went with his family to Washington county, Kansas, and within a short time thereafter he was made chaplain of the Thirteenth Kansas Infantry. In this capacity he served until his death, which occurred at Springfield, Missouri, on the 5th of April, 1863. A godly and righteous life marked by self -abnegating service was that of this pioneer clergyman and missionary, and his final days were given to his country's service in the Civil war. Mrs. Murdock subsequently contracted a second marriage and removed to Wray, Colorado, where her death occurred January 18, 1899, her remains being laid to rest in the cemetery at Wymore, Gage county, Nebraska.

Iowa, and was reared under the conditions and influences of frontier life, his educational training having been received largely under the direction of his father and mother, both of whom were persons of superior intellectuality. He accompanied his parents on their various removals, as noted in the preceding context, and was able to attend the college of which his father was the executive head in Missouri. On the 11th of July, 1862, about one month prior to his twentieth birthday anniversary, Mr. Murdock tendered his aid in defense of the Union. At Marysville, Marshall county, Kansas, he enlisted as a member of Company K, Ninth Kansas Cavalry. The command went to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in September, 1862, and there received a complete outfit. It thence marched to join the army in the field in southwestern Missouri, where it thus joined the active forces on the 2d of October following. Under the command of General Blunt the Ninth Kansas Cavalry participated in the following named battles and other engagements : Newtonia, Missouri, October 3d; Neosha, October 4th; Cane Hill, Arkansas, November 28th; Prairie Grove, December 7th; Van Buren, December 28th. The command then marched to Fort Scott, Kansas, and for the remainder of the winter it was employed in escorting trains loaded with supplies from that place to the Army of the Frontier, in Arkansas. In the performance of this duty, Mr. Murdock's company had frequent engagements with guerrilla forces, which attempted to capture the trains under its escort. In March, 1863, the regiment was stationed at points on the Kansas- Missouri state line, from the Missouri river to the Osage. Company K was stationed at Aubrey, in Johnson county, Kansas, and during the following year was engaged in scouting and fighting guerrillas and bushwhackers through the border tier of counties in Missouri. Mr. Murdock continued in service until victory had crowned the Union arms and peace had been re-established. He proved a loyal and gallant soldier, always at the post of duty, and was never wounded or captured. His record was one that shall ever reflect

After the close of the war Mr. Murdock settled in Washington county, Kansas, and for several years thereafter he was engaged in freighting across the plains. He was well acquainted with William Hecock, commonly known as "Wild Bill," and has been in the room in which this frontier character shot McCandless and four others of his gang, at Elkhom Station, in Jefferson county, Nebraska. Those were strenuous times and Mr. Murdock, known for his courage and selfcontrol, was elected and efficiently served as sheriff of Washington county, Kansas. He relates many thrilling tales concerning the problems and danger which he faced in the performance of his official duties. The courthouse of Washington county was destroyed by fire while he was serving as sheriff, and he was employed by the county to draft a new set of abstract books; as the original county records had been destroyed in the fire.

On the 18th of August, 1874, Mr. Murdock came to Gage county, Nebraska, and established his residence at Blue Springs, where he engaged in newspaper enterprise. He founded the Blue Springs Reporter, of which he became editor and publisher, and later he was .editor and publisher of the Wymore Reporter. He was appointed right-of-way representative for the Burlington Railroad in this section of the state and was instrumental in locating and naming the present thriving city of Wymore, where he has maintained his residence since 1881. He also gave efficient service in obtaining the right of way through Gage county for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroads. A man of broad views, mature judgment, and utmost civic loyalty, Mr. Murdock has done much to further material and social advancement in Gage county, and he so thoroughly grounded himself in the science of jurisprudence as to gain admission to the Nebraska bar. In later years he has given his attention principally to the practice of law and to the handling of real estate.

Mr. Murdock has given unswerving allegiance to the Republican party from the time of attaining his legal majority, and his loyalty to the party has been intensified by the thought that it represented the cause for which he fought at the time of the Civil war. He perpetuated the more gracious memories and associations of his military career by affiliation with Coleman Post, No. 115, Grand Army of the Republic, at Wymore. He is a charter member of this post, was elected its first commander, and is serving as its commander in 1918.

On the 25th of March, 1868, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Murdock to Miss Jane E. Pasko, who was born in Wisconsin, and they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in the spring of 1918, their long companionship having been one of ideal order. Of their six children only two are living : Arthur A. is engaged in the newspaper business at Dewitt, Saline county; and Glenn E. is in the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, at Great Falls, Montana.

Mr. Murdock is a recognized authority on historical data in Kansas and Nebraska, and has dates and names at his tongue's end - an evidence of his remarkably vigorous and retentive memory. He figures as a pioneer of both Nebraska and Kansas, and has lived up to the full tension of life on the frontier, even as he has done his part in the progressive movements that have compassed the development of these two opulent commonwealths.

ALBERT MILLER is one of the sterling pioneer citizens whose alert mentality, fine observative powers, and distinct intellectuality make his reminiscences of the early days specially graphic and interesting, and it has been through his own industry and good management that he has gained place as one of the prosperous exponents of farm industry in the county that has represented his home for nearly half a century, and to the development and progress of which he has contributed his quota. He is the owner of a well improved landed estate of two hundred and eighty acres, in Section 2, Logan township, and in the man- agement of the place he is assisted most effectively by his only son, Eilert, who is a bachelor, so that the two reign supreme in the pleasant home, the devoted wife and mother having passed to eternal rest December 4, 1891.

Mr. Miller was born in Germany, in February, 1847, and is a son of Eilert Miller. Mr. Miller was little more than an infant at the time of his mother's death and was six years old when he came with his father to the United States, settlement being made in St. Clair county, Illinois, where the father died a few months later. The orphan boy was taken into the home of a family by which he was reared to adult age on a farm in that county, and the somewhat meager education which he gained in his youth has since been supplemented by extensive and careful reading of the best in general and current literature, as well as by the diversified experiences of a singularly active and earnest life. In St. Clair county, Illinois, Mr. Miller continued his alliance with agricultural industry until he came to Gage county, Nebraska, in 1870, his wife, whose maiden name was Rachel Jurgens, having likewise been a native of Germany and having accompanied him to Gage county, where she passed the remainder of her life, the son Eilert being the only surviving child.

Upon coming to this county Mr. Miller purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land in Section 2, Eogan township, and with the passing years he has transformed this virgin prairie land into one of the fine farms of the township, where he has acquired a valuable estate of two hundred and eighty acres. His original domicile on the farm was a primitive dug-out of the pioneer type, and this was replaced by a log house which he occupied until he erected his present frame house, which he has kept in excellent repair, besides supplying other farm buildings of good type. Mr. Miller had his full share of trials and vicissitudes in the pioneer days, as did other early settlers of the county, and he went twelve miles across the prairie to Beatrice for his mail, the present attractive county seat having been a mere hamlet at that time and its postmaster having been

Oliver Townsend, who, as Mr. Miller has facetiously stated, "kept postoffice in his overcoat pocket." From his youth Mr. Miller has been an earnest communicant of the Lutheran church, and the first meeting of the Lutheran society organized in Logan township was held in his home, the little dug-out, as was also the first school meeting for the district. Mr. Miller has liberally done his part in support of progressive measures and movements, has continued active in the affairs of the Lutheran church, and is one of the honored and influential pioneer citizens of Logan township, where his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and in the early days he had to go to Beatrice, the only polling place, to cast his vote. He served one year as township assessor and held for a quarter of a century the office of treasurer of Logan township.

FRANK BERAN, a representative farmer of Glenwood township, is farming four hundred and eighty acres of land in Section 8. Mr. Beran is a son of Anton and Pauline (Shalla) Beran, who had three children, but he is the only one who survives ; the mother is deceased. Anton Beran was married the second time, to Josephine Beran, and the family history is recorded in another portion of this volume.

Frank Beran was born November 16, 1876, in Washington county, Iowa, where his parents had followed their farming operations previous to their coming to Gage county in 1878. At that time Mr. Beran was just a babe in arms and he has passed practically all of his life thus far upon Gage county soil, growing up with her sons and receiving the education of her institutions. From 1900 to 1902 he rented land from his father and in the latter year he puchased his present farm, where he is enjoying the fruits of the labors of years gone by. He is a breeder of Duroc- Jersey hogs and is attending efficiently to his large and well improved farm.

children who are growing up in their home and being educated in the district school - in short, receiving the preliminary discipline that shall prepare them for the good citizenship necessary to make happy homes and national wellbeing. They are as follows: Frank, Alfred, Adolph, Rose, and Benjamin. Mrs. Beran was born March 7, 1878, in Marshall county, Kansas, and is a daughter of John Vavruska, who, after years of active farming life, is now retired and living in Wilber, Nebraska.

In politics Mr. Beran is loyal to the Democratic principles and in 1913 he was elected township clerk, in which position he is still serving his community.

CARL F. WOIvLENBURG. - As an exponent of most modem and scientific policies as applied to farm industry Mr. WoUenburg stands forth prominently as one of the distinctly representative and influential agriculturists and stock-grow^ers of his native county. He is a member of one of the sterling and honored families of the county and by his own energy and well directed efforts he has made his way to the goal of success and prosperity, as evidenced in the fact that he is the owner of a valuable landed estate of two hundred and eighty-eight acres, eligibly situated in Sections 3, 4, and 10, Blakely township, his homestead place being in Section 4 and on rural mail route No. 3 from the village of Dewitt. Saline county. Mr. WoUenburg is associated with his brother Henry in operating each season a thoroughly modern threshing outfit, and in his plowing and various other work for which the modern device is available he utilizes a high-grade tractor. These statements indicate unmistakably his progressiveness, which is further shown in his use of the best of farm implements and machinery and the general air of thrift and good management that pervades his fine farm property.

Mr. WoUenburg was bom on his father's old homestead farm in Grant township, this county, and the date of his nativity was March 7, 1882. He is a son of the late William Wollenburg, to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this volume, so that there is not demand for a further review of the family history in the present connection. In the Lutheran parochial schools and the district schools Mr. WoUenburg gained the discipline that matured his mental powers as a boy and youth, and he has shown his good judgment by his continued association with farm enterprise, through the medium of which he has achieved splendid success. In 1913 he purchased his first land - a tract of one hundred and twenty acres, in Sections 3 and 10, Blakely township - and with increasing prosperity he continued to make judicious investments until he has accumulated one of the finely improved and well ordered farm estates of his native county. In making this excellent account for himself in his indef>endent activities Mr. WoUenburg has not become self -centered but has at all times shown loyal interest in community affairs, his political support being given to the Republican party and both he and his wife being communicants of the Lutheran church.

On the 25th of AprU, 1905, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. WoUenburg to Miss Matilda Schafer, who was bom near Wilber, Saline county, and is a daughter of Henry Schafer, who was born in Germany and who was twelve years old when the family came to the United States and settled in lUinois. Mr. Schafer came to Gage county about 1887, he being still a resident of this county, where his wife died a few years ago. Mr. and Mrs. WoUenburg have six children - Matilda, Elsie, Wilhelmina, Carl, Theodore, and Helen, the twin sister of Helen having died in infancy.

REV. J. B. REENTS has been a faithful and zealous worker in the vineyard of the Divine Master and is one of the able and honored members of the clergy of the German Lutheran church in Nebraska. He has served since 1902 as pastor of what is familiarly known as the Hanover German Lutheran church, the present edifice of which is in Logan township, near the Hanover township line. This splendid organization claims precedence as one of the strongest and wealthiest rural churches in the entire state and offers a splendid field for the earnest and consecrated labors of its honored pastor.

Mr. Reents was born in the province of Hanover, Germany, January 15, 1874, a son of John and Jennie (Straate) Reents, both likewise natives of that historic province, where the father was bom February 11, 1834, and the mother November 21, 1833, their marriage having been solemnized in 1858. In his native land John Reents continued to be actively identified with farm enterprise until the death of his loved wife, in 1911, and in the following year he came to America, the residue of his life having been passed in the home of his son J. B., the subject of this review. Both he and his wife were most devout communicants of the German Lutheran church and exemplified their faith in their noble and gracious lives. Of their five children the eldest is Joost, who is now a prosperous farmer near Clara City, Chippewa county, Minnesota ; Bernard likewise is a prosperous farmer in that county; Ailt is engaged in farming near Allison, Butler county, Iowa; Rev. J. B., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; and Theda is the wife of William Kramer, a farmer near Bristow, Butler county, Iowa. Three of the sons served the required term in the German army.

Rev. J. B. Reents acquired his early education in his native land, where he completed a course in a teachers' preparatory school. He was eighteen years of age when he came to the United States, in 1892, and has been a resident of Nebraska since 1900. After coming to this country he maintained his residence for three years at Nora Springs, Iowa, where he was a student in a seminary, and for one year thereafter he continued his studies at Cedar Falls, that state. Thereafter he was for five terms a successful teacher in the public schools of Iowa, after which he entered Wartburg Seminary, in the city of Dubuque, Iowa, in which institution he completed a thorough course in philosophy and theology and was graduated as a member of the class of 1900. In the same year he was ordained a minister of the German Lutheran church, and was assigned to the pastoral charge of the Lutheran church located four and one-half miles north of the village of Pickrell, Gage county, Nebraska. There he continued his service until February, 1902, when he assumed his present important pastorate, in charge of Zion's German Lutheran church in Logan township, near the Hanover township line. The original church building was located in Hanover township, within a comparatively short distance from the site of the present edifice, and the name of "Hanover Church" is still familiarly applied. The present fine church edifice, which was dedicated in 1917, is one of the best church buildings in the entire state and has been definitely proclaimed as "probably the most beautiful rural church in the west." The edifice was completed at an approximate cost of forty-five thousand dollars and it is pleasing to record that all money necessary for the construction and equipment of the building was raised before the work of construction was initiated - and that without calling for any assistance of financial order save from members of the congregation itself. The church is beautiful in its interior design and appointments, is equipped with a pipe organ of the best modem type, and it was dedicated without one cent of indebtedness, the normal seating capacity of the edifice being eight hundred. In this connection the following brief record is worthy of perpetuation: "The Hanover German Lutheran church was organized, with ten members, March 14, 1874. In 1875 a parsonage was erected, but this was destroyed by a tornado, on June 26th of the same year. Church services were held in the school house of the district No. 38 until 1881, when was erected a church building that was thirty by forty-six feet in dimensions. This soon proved too small, and an addition was made in 1898. A belfry also was built at this time and a bell of two thousand pounds was installed, this being now in the new church edifice, on the opposite of the road from the old church building. The pastors of the church from its organiza- tion to the present have been as here noted: Rev. Mr. Martin, Rev. WilHam Ehmen, Rev. Theodore Seylor, Rev. O. Lompe, Rev. Wolfgang Hertel, and Rev. J. B. Reents, the pastorate of the present incumbent having covered a period of nearly sixteen years. Constructed of cream-colored brick and notable for the beauty and consistency of its architectural design, the new church edifice presents a very handsome appearance, two tall spires adorning the facade. Standing on a hill, the church is visible for a considerable distance in each direction and the chimes that have been installed in the taller spire can be heard for miles."

This vigorous and noble parish organization claims a membership of one hundred and fifty families - the largest congregation in Gage county and the largest of the Lutheran faith in the entire state. The present pastor, a man of fine intellectuality, is an earnest pulpit orator, unselfish and indefatigable in all pastoral duties, and an able and progressive executive.. He takes deep interest in all things touching the communal welfare and his influence is in all ways beneficent, the while he has the unqualified esteem of all who know him. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party.

On Christmas day of the year 1900 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Reents to Miss Ivouisa Hertel, daughter of Rev. Wolfgang Hertel, who was the immediate predecessor of Mr. Reents as pastor of the Hanover Lutheran church. Mr. and Mrs. Reents have six children: John is attending college at Sterling, this state; and the other children remain at the parental home - Walter, Irene, Arthur, William, and Bemhard.

ALBERTUS H. KIDD. - This representative member of the Gage county bar has shown in his professional activities and service the power of concentrating the full forces of the individual and raising them to the plane of large achievement. He has demonstrated his ability not only as a lawyer but also as a citizen well qualified for leadership in movements and enterprises contributing to the general wellbeing of the community, and thus, while never wavering in his fealty to his profession, he has directed his energies also in successful exploitation of the basic industrial resources of Gage county and in fostering the progressive policies that make for civic and material advancement and prosperity in the communal life. Mr. Kidd has been engaged in the active practice of law at Beatrice, judicial center of Gage county, since 1891, and since 1909 he has maintained a professional alliance with Samuel Rinaker, with offices in the First National Bank building. The firm of Rinaker & Kidd is uniformly conceded to be one of the strongest in the southern part of the state, and this fact in itself vouches for the character and technical ability of the principals in the firm. As a lawyer Mr. Kidd has achieved high repute and has definite professional prestige throughout southeastern Nebraska - a prestige based on results achieved.

Albertus H. Kidd is a scion of sterling American colonial stock in both the agnatic and distaff lines, and takes definite pride in reverting to the fact that both paternal and maternal ancestors were numbered among the patriot soldiers of the Continental Line in the war of the Revolution. Family tradition is to the effect that the historic character^ Captain Kidd, was of the same family line, and the subject of this review has never found it consonant to criticise the somewhat misdirected energies of the redoubtable captain, who under more favorable circumstances probably would have marked his career with worthy achievement as remarkable as were his storied exploits of seeming depredation.

Mr. Kidd was bom at Ada, Allen county, Ohio, on the 19th of March, 1863, and is a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of the old Buckeye state, within whose borders were born his parents, Rev. Jeremiah W. and Elvira (LilHbridge) Kidd, both of whom passed the closing period of their lives in the state of Illinois. Rev. Jeremiah W. Kidd, a man of broad intellectual ken and fervent piety, prepared himself for the ministry of the Methodist Protestant church, and as a clergyman of this denomina- tion he was called to service in Illinois in the year 1874. In that state he held thereafter pastoral charges in many different counties, and he was a revered patriarch of Bureau county, Illinois, at the time of his death, which occurred when he was nearly ninety years of age, his devoted wife having preceded him to eternal rest by many years. He labored with all of consecrated zeal in his chosen calling for a long term of years, and his ministerial services were given first in Ohio, later in Indiana, and finally in Illinois. Both the Kidd and Lillibridge family_ lines trace back to staunch English origin and both families sent representatives to America in the early colonial period of our national history, as previously intimated in this context. Mr. Kidd of this review has in his possession a comprehensive genealogical record of the Lillibridge family, and data therein presented show that members of the family in various generations have been prominen^pd influential in American affairs and in varied walks of life.

Albertus H. Kidd was about six years of age at the time of the family removal from Ohio to Indiana, and was a lad of about eleven years when removal was made to Illinois, in which latter state he acquired the major part of his early educational discipline, which included the curriculum of the high school at Wyoming, Stark county. Thereafter he pursued higher academic studies in a college at La Harpe, that state, and he put his scholastic acquirements to practical test and utilization by entering the pedagogic profession, as a teacher in the public schools of Illinois. In the meanwhile he had formulated definite plans for his future career, and in consonance therewith he began reading law under the effective preceptorship of the firm of Matthews & Peacock, of Monmouth, Illinois. With characteristic earnestness and zeal he applied himself to the study of the involved science of jurisprudence, and he proved himself well fortified in the same when he applied for and received admission to the bar of Illinois, in 1887. In the same year Mr. Kidd came to Nebraska and engaged in the practice of his profession at Alma, Harlan county. There he continued to reside until 1891, when, for the purpose of obtaining a broader field of professional endeavor, he came to Gage county and established his residence at Beatrice, where he has continued in the practice of his profession during the intervening period of more than a quarter of a century and where he has won secure vantage-ground as one of the leading members of the bar of southeastern Nebraska.

In Gage county Mr. Kidd has entered most loyally and fully into the communal life and has exemplified specially vital and well ordered progressiveness and public spirit. He served six years as a member of the board of education of Beatrice and for fifteen years as a member of the board of directors of the Beatrice public library, of which he is still a member. While he gives unfaltering allegiance to the Republican party and has accorded yeoman service in behalf of its cause, Mr. Kidd has considered his profession worthy of his undivided fealty and thus has manifested no desire for political office. His civic loyalty was shown, however, in two terms of effective service as city attorney of Beatrice. He was for four years the president of the Gage County Crop Improvement Association and his interest in agricultural industry has been shown in his ownership and improvement of several farms in Nebraska, in which connection it may be noted that he is at the present time the owner of a fine farm in Midland township. He gives a general supervision to the operations of this farm and is active in the improving of the grades of live stock in this section of the state, as well as in the advancing of scientific methods in agricultural enterprise. Mr. Kidd is president of the State Savings & Loan Association, of Beatrice, one of the substantial and important financial institutions of the county, and he is also a stockholder in the First National Bank of Beatrice. He is an influential and appreciative member of the Beatrice Commercial Club and has served for years as a member of its board of directors. In connection with the various movements incidental to the nation's participation in the great European war, Mr. Kidd

In the year 1888, at La Harpe, Hancock county, Illinois, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Kidd to Miss Elizabeth Gilliland, who was born in Schuyler county, that state, and they have two daughters - Dora A. and Norma J., both of whom were graduated in the Beatrice high school and also in the University of Nebraska. The elder daughter remains at the parental home and Miss Norma J. is assistant secretary of the Young Women's Christian Association in the city of Lincoln, this state.

JAMES K. P. PETHOUD was a lad of fourteen years when he came with his parents to Nebraska Territory and his father became one of the earliest settlers of Gage county, where the family home was established nearly a decade prior to the admission of Nebraska to statehood. Here the subject of this memoir was reared to manhood under the conditions and influences which marked the initiation of civic and industrial development in this section of the state, and thus he was the more strongly fortified in mature years to carry forward his quota of the important work which has made Gage county one of the opulent and attractive divisions of a great and prosperous commonwealth. He was one of the .world's constructive workers and was one of the honored pioneer citizens of the county at the time of his death, which occurred on the 7th of Tune, 1896. Adequate record concerning the family history is given on other pages of this work, in the specific tribute dedicated to John Pethoud, father of him whose name introduces this article.

James Knox Polk Pethoud was born in Lawrence county, Ohio, November 24, 1844, and was named in honor of the Hon. James Knox Polk, who had in that year been elected president of the United States. He received his early education in the schools of the old Buckeye state and in 1858 accompanied his parents to the frontier wilds of what is now Gage county, where he assisted in reclaiming a pioneer farm and where, upon attaining to his legal majority, he entered claim to a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of land in what is now Section 10 Midland township. For about three years after his marriage he and his wife remained on the old homestead farm of his father, in order that they might give proper filial care to his venerable parents, and after he had instituted the improvement of his own farm his parents there remained with him until they were called from the stage of life's mortal endeavors. Mr. Pethoud was a man of superabundant energy and ambition and thus he was specially successful in his progressive activities as an agriculturist and stock-grower. He continued to maintain the active supervision of his fine farm property until the time of his death,' and though his early educational advantages were of necessity very limited, he profited greatly from the lessons of experience and became a man of broad views and mature judgment, even as he was one of sterling integrity of character. His political allegiance was given to the Democratic party, but he pursued the even tenor of his earnest and unassuming way with no desire for political activity or preferment. He was one of the sturdy yeomen who aided in civic and material development and progress in Gage county, true to the duties and responsibilities that devolved upon him and known for simple and unpretentious rectitude.

As a young man Mr. Pethoud wedded Miss Nancy Melissa Bunker, who was born in the state of Indiana, November 12, 1844, and who was reared in the state of Iowa, where her parents were pioneer settlers. She was a daughter of Daniel Bunker, a descendant of Nathaniel Bunker, who owned the farm on which was fought the great Revolutionary battle of Bunker Hill. Chief Justice Chase, of the United States supreme court, was a scion of the Bunker family and it was through his genealogical research that definite proof was given that the celebrated battle was thus fought on the property of his forebear, whose name is thus perpetuated in history. Mrs. Pethoud survived her husband by more than a decade and was one of the venerable and loved pioneer women of Gage county at the time of her death, June 3, 1908. They are survived by only one child. Miss Arabella Pethoud, who remains on the old homestead farm which her father obtained from the government under homestead entry in the early pioneer era, the place being endeared to her by the hallowed memories and associations of the past and the pleasant home being known for its generous hospitality.

JOHN R. McCANN, who has held since 1914 the office of postmaster of the city of Beatrice, was born at Mount Sterling, Brown county, Illinois, on the 11th of January, 1868, and is a son of Thomas and Bettie (McEntee) McCann, both natives of Ireland. Thomas McCann was born in the city of Dublin, November 12, 1839, the youngest child and now the only survivor in a family of four sons and three daughters. Thomas McCann was a lad of about ten years when he accompanied his parents to America, the voyage having been made on a sailing vessel of the type common to that period and the family having landed in the port of New York city on the 5th of June, 1849. From the national metropolis the parents, Thomas and Rose McCann, proceeded to Cincinnati, Ohio, the journey having been made by canal and the Great Lakes, prior to the time when railroad facilities had been provided. After remaining about three months in Cincinnati the family went by steamer down the Ohio river and across the Mississippi to St. Louis, Missouri, where the home was maintained until 1854. Removal was then made to Brown county, Illinois, where Thomas McCann, Sr., purchased land, near Mount Sterling. There he developed a productive farm and there he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, both having been communicants of the Catholic church, to the faith of which the later generations of the family have adhered. The father of the postmaster of Beatrice was reared to manhood on the pioneer farm in Brown county, Illinois, where he owns and still resides upon the old homestead farm which was obtained by his father nearly sixty-five years ago. Mrs. Bettie (McEntee) McCann was born in County Cavan, Ireland, in 1838, and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick McEntee, were pioneers of Brown county, Illinois, where they continued to reside until their death. Mrs. McCann passed to the life eternal in 1879, and of the seven children John R., of this review, is the eldest; Thomas M. is a resident of the city of Chicago; Rose is the wife of Henry Moss, of Mount Sterling, Illinois ; Elizabeth is the wife of James W. Brady, of Mount Sterling ; Clara died at the age of eighteen years and George in infancy; and Miss Anna remains with her venerable father on the old homestead farm.

John R. McCann was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and acquired his youthful education in the public schools of his native county. At the age of seventeen years he went to Jewell City, Kansas, where for a period of about two years he was employed in a wholesale grocery establishment. He next went to Mankato, Kansas, and there he learned the tinner's trade. After about two years his health became impaired to such an extent that he sought a less sedentary occupation and entered the employ of the Carpenter & Gage Nursery Company, at Fairbury, Jefferson county, Nebraska, where he had previously worked at his trade for some time. In 1888 Carl Sonderegger, who was the proprietor of the German Nursery at Fairbury, had occasion to make a trip to Switzerland, and he engaged Mr. McCann to assist in the management of the nursery during his absence. Mr. McCann continued his alliance with the Sonderegger nursery and in the meanwhile lived in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Sonderegger until the time of his marriage. He became a traveling representative of the concern and after his marriage he resided at Dewitt, Saline county, until 1893. Save for a brief interval he continued in the employ of Mn Sonderegger for a period of fifteen years, during which he sold nursery stock to the value of thousands of dollars, the while his relations with his honored employer were ever of the most gracious and mutually appreciative order. Mr. McCann established his residence in Beatrice in 1893 and here he continued his active connection with the Sonder- egger nurseries, as a salesman, until 1898, when he here engaged in the real-estate business. His operations in this field of enterprise extended into Texas, Florida, and Georgia, where his transactions involved the handling of much land and also the promotion of immigration to those states. He continued as a successful exponent of important real-estate operations until his appointment to the office of postmaster of Beatrice, a position of which he has been the valued incumbent since 1914, as previously noted in this context.

Mr. McCann is unwavering in his allegiance to the Democratic party, and he has been active and influential in its councils in Nebraska, where he served three years as a member of the Democratic state central committee.