Gage County, Nebraska - Chapter 31: People Who Have Done Their Part in Making Gage County, 1918 (part 5 of 29)

On the 17th of June, 1889, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McCann to Miss Grace E. Gast, a daughter of William and Sarah (Moyer) Gast, who were pioneer settlers in Saline county, Nebraska. There Mr. Gast became the owner of an entire section of land and developed a large and valuable farm estate, his holdings including land also in Gage county. His widow now resides at Dewitt, Saline county. Mr. and Mrs. .McCann became the parents of two children, Ethel G., who died the 28th of December, 1916, and Edith Grace, who is the wife of Walter C. Magee, of Beatrice, Nebraska.

JOHN E. MURPHY. - The history of Gage county tells what has been done during the fifty years of struggle, striving, and working toward the creation of a great county. It must tell of the individual achievements of the men who have taken an active part in the work of development and progress. These men are the foundations of the social structure of Gage county. One of the number is John E. Murphy, who is a son of Patrick and Catherine (McCaffrey) Murphy, early pioneer settlers on the former Otoe Indian reservation in Gage county. Patrick Murphy was born in Ireland and when a youth he there wedded Miss Catherine McCaffrey. The young couple left their native land to seek their fortune in the United States, and they landed in Brooklyn, New York, where Patrick worked as a laborer. By hard work and patient saving he was finally able to buy thirtytwo acres of land near Tribes Hill, New York.

In 1878, when the eyes of the east were directed upon the new western lands being opened for settlement, Mr. Murphy decided to come to Nebraska and seek better opportunities for acquiring a living and competence. This entailed a long and weary journey over rough roads that were not drained, while in many places there were virtually no roads at all. Finally, after weeks of travel, Mr. Murphy and his family arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska. Here he heard of the Otoe Indian reservation land being opened up for settlement. He came to Gage county, and on the reservation purchased a squatter's right to one hundred and sixty acres of land, a few niiles from the present village of Odell. Here the family was soon settled on the pioneer farm, and the father, with his only son, John, broke the virgin land, wresting from the soil in due time its treasures of wheat and com.

Mr. Murphy gave unstintingly of his time and talent to the community at large. As other settlers came in, there was need of civic and religious organizations. He was among the first to give aid in the organization of Paddock township and also to organize a school for the education of the children. Mr. Murphy gave liberally of his time and money to organize the Catholic church at Odell, and later he helped in the organization of the Catholic church at W3rmore. All during his life thereafter these institutions received liberally of his support. In all of his labors on the farm, in the church and community Mr. Murphy's devoted wife shared. She was born March 12, 1827, in Darlyn, County Fermanagh, Ireland, and she came to this country with her young husband, settled with him in the Otoe Indian reservation, and shared with him all of the hardships and trials of pioneer life. They became the parents of six daughters and one son. Mrs. Murphy lived to the venerable age of ninety years and six months, and passed the declining period of her life in the home of her youngest daughter.

Mrs. Rose Masek, where she died September 23, 1917. Of the children the following record is given: Mrs. Mary McCarthy resides at Wymore, this county ; Mrs. Katherine Hatmaker is deceased; Mrs. Julia Comer resides in Paddock township ; John F. is the only son and is the subject of this sketch; Mrs. Susan McCaffrey is a widow and resides at Hastings, Nebraska; Mrs. Abbie Stanosheck lives at Odell, Gage county, Nebraska; and Mrs. Rose Masek, of Odell, is deceased.

John E. Murphy was the fourth child and only son born to his parents. He was born October 1, 1863, at Tribes Hill, New York. His education was received in New York prior to his coming to Nebraska with his parents. He was 15 years old when they arrived on the Otoe Indian reservation and he helped his father to build their cabin, break the land, and perform the various other duties that were to be done on a pioneer farm. He remained on this farm until he went to Odell, to serve as a clerk in a general merchandise store. He remained thus engaged until 1900, when he went into the general merchandise business for himself. He successfully conducted the enterprise until 1914, when he disposed of the business, and he has since devoted his time to the real estate and insurance business.

In 1904 the Odell Independent Telephone Company was organized and Mr. Murphy was the leading spirit in the organizing of this company, of which he was elected secretary and treasurer. This substantial company has a modern building, erected at a cost of five thousand dollars, and in this, the business is conducted. Mr. Murphy was interested also in a cider and vinegar manufacturing company that was organized in 1907, and in 1913 the factory at Odell, Gage county, was transferred to Atchison, Kansas, where it is now located. Mr. Murphy was secretary and treasurer of the company until March, 1917, when he sold his interest in the business.

The marriage of John Murphy and Katie A. Stanosheck was solemnized May 4, 1892. Mrs. Murphy was born in Iowa City, Iowa, and is a daughter of Albert and Pauline Stanosheck.

(See Thomas W. Stanosheck sketch for the family history) . Mr. and Mrs. Murphy became the parents of nine children : Frank E. is an electrician for the Atchison Railroad Specialty Company, at Atchison, Kansas; Ruth is a teacher in the high school at McCook, Nebraska; Rosa and Eillian are twins, Rosa being a dressmaker and remaining at the parental home, and Lillian being a teacher at Culbertson, Nebraska; Adelaide died at the age of twelve years ; Marie is attending the high school at Odell ; Frances is attending the public schools ; and John and Catherine, twins, are at home. The children have received the advantages of the schools of Odell, and the family is popular in the social life of the community.

Mr. Murphy votes the Democratic ticket and has held offices of trust in his community. He has served as a member of the city council of Odell and as township clerk. He affiliates himself with the Knights and Ladies of Security, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Royal Neighbors, the Modem Woodmen of America, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He has real estate in Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, and Colorado. He is ever alert to the civic needs of Odell and is a citizen of utmost loyalty and progressiveness.

JOHN H. MENTER. - The great basic industries of agriculture and stock-growing yield substantial and worthy rewards to the man of enterprise and good judgment, and this is definitely signified in the prosperity that has attended the efforts of Mr. Menter as one of the vigorous and resourceful farmers of Grant township, where he is the owner of a valuable landed estate of two hundred acres, besides which he is the owner of three hundred and twenty acres in Deuel county, this state.

Mr. Menter claims the old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity, but the year 1918 records for him thirty years of continuous residence in Nebraska, where he has achieved substantial success and independence entirely through his own ability and well ordered ef- forts. Mr. Menter was bom in Wood county, Ohio, October 21, 1868, and is a son of Frederick and Mary (Schuerman) Menter, the latter of whom, a native of Prussia, Germany, died in 1874, at the age of thirty-six years, after having become the mother of four children, of whom three are living: Henry is a resident of Toledo, Ohio, and Louis of Pemberville, that state. The father ultimately contracted a second marriage and of the children of this union five are living, all being residents of the state of Michigan - Edward, William, Carrie, Katherine, and Ida.

Frederick Menter was born in the province of Hanover, Germany, May 20, 1840, and was six years of age at the time of the family immigration to America, his parents having settled in Wood county, Ohio, where they passed the remainder of their lives, his father having there become a prosperous farmer. Frederick Menter was reared and educated in Ohio and there he continued his alliance with farm industry until 1907, when he removed with his family to Huron county, Michigan, where, at a venerable age, he still resides on his well improved farm, the religious faith of the family having been for generations that of the Lutheran church.

John H. Menter grew to maturity under the invigorating discipline of the old home farm in Ohio and in the meanwhile profited by the advantages afforded in the district schools of the locality. In 1888, shortly before attaining to his legal majority, he came to Nebraska, where ior the ensuing nine years he worked as a farm hand, principally in Gage and Saline counties. His compensation during a considerable part of this period was only fourteen dollars a month, but he carefully saved his earnings and kept fully in view the goal of his ambition - that of becoming an independent exponent of farm enterprise. In 1896 he rented land in Webster county, and later he farmed on rented land in Adams and Saline counties. In 1911 Mr. Menter purchased his present Gage county farm, on which he has since made many excellent improvements of permanent order, including the erection of a barn and other farm buildings. His energy and progressiveness have enabled him to make his place stand forth as one of the best improved and effectively operated farms in Grant township, his attractive homestead being situated three miles southeast of the village of Dewitt, Saline county, from which he receives service on rural mail route No. 3. He gives his attention to diversified agriculture and stock-growing, and is making a specialty of raising graded swine. He gives loyal support to measures and enterprises tending to advance the civic and material welfare of the community, has served as road supervisor, and he and his family hold membership in the Lutheran church.

February 22, 1896, recorded the marriage of Mr. Menter to Miss Mary Ulrich, daughter of Charles G. and Johanna (Graff) Ulrich, concerning whom further mention is made on other pages, in the sketch of their son Edward W. A. In conclusion is given brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Menter : Carl has the management of his father's farm property in Deuel county; Alfred is associated in the work and management of the home farm in Gage county; Gertrude is deceased; and Arthur, John, Alice, and Paul remain members of the gracious home circle.

CHARLES B. MUMFORD. - From the early pioneer period in its history to the present time Gage county has claimed members of the Mumford family as sterling and valued citizens, John B. Mumford, father of the subject of this review, having been one of three brothers who came from Wisconsin to this county in the '60s, and each of these brothers, John B., Ismay, and Jacob, having taken vigorous part in the furtherance of the initial development and upbuilding of the county, where the family name has always stood forth for civic loyalty and progressiveness and for the intelligent and productive industry which makes for individual success and communal advancement.

John B. Mumford was born in the state of Maryland, where his parents established their home upon coming from England to this country, and he became one of the pioneer settlers in Wisconsin, where he engaged in agricul- ^ral pursuits and became one of the substantial citizens of L,afayette county. His initial visit to the Territory of Nebraska was made in the year 1860, when he accompanied his older brother, Ismay, to what is now the opulent and beautiful county of Gage, and of the conditions that then obtained in this locality some idea is conveyed by the statement that Dawson Mumford, son of Ismay, was the first white child bom within the limits of this county. The general historical department of this publication shows also that Ismay Mumford was the first treasurer of Gage county. After this pioneer visit to Gage county John B. Mumford returned to Wisconsin, but in 1865 he brought his family to Gage county and here established a permanent home. He purchased four hundred acres of land, reclaimed and developed one of the excellent farms of the county, and he continued to reside on his well improved homestead farm, in Logan township, until his death, when seventythree years of age, his venerable widow still surviving him and being one of the loved pioneer women of Gage county : her maiden name was Mary A. Roush and she was bom in Ohio, the original American progenitors of the Roush family having come from Holland in the early period of our national history. John B. and Mary A. (Roush) Mumford became the parents of nine children, and of the six now living Charles B., of this review, is the second eldest ; Sarah, the eldest, is the wife of William A. Foreman, of Beatrice; Eugene P. is individually mentioned within the pages of this publication ; Ida and Frank remain on the old homestead farm of their father, the former being the wife of L. W. Eppert, who is associated in the work and management of the place; and Luther A., formerly principal of the Beatrice high school, is now engaged in the school-textbook business in the city of Lincoln, capital of Nebraska. John B. Mumford was a leader in the local councils of the Democratic party, though never consenting to accept public office, and his religious faith was that of the Methodist Episcopal church, his

Charles B. Mumford was born in Lafayette county, Wisconsin, and was a small boy at the time the family home was established on the pioneer farm in Gage county, Nebraska, where he was reared to manhood and received the advantages of the common schools of the period. It can well be understood that in his boyhood and youth he acquired full fellowship with the sturdy work of the farm, and in initiating his independent career he naturally continued his allegiance to the great basic industry of agriculture. For a period of years he was numbered among the progressive and successful farmers of Logan township, and in 1894 he removed to Beatrice, the county seat, where he engaged in the livery business. A number of years later he sold this business and turned his attention to the buying of horses, which he sold for local use, besides developing a substantial enterprise in the shipping of horses to various central markets. A thorough judge of values, he made a definite success of the business and was one of the prominent shippers of horses from this state. In the spring of 1915 Mr. Mumford gave evidence of his appreciation of the modem trend of progress by identifying himself with the automobile business. He erected a large garage building on Seventh street and there installed the best of equipment, including a general repair shop and a line of automobile supplies and accessories, his broad experience and aggressive policies having been potent in the upbuilding of a very prosperous business and his active control of the same having continued until September, 1917, when he sold both the building and the business to the present owner, Austin Krous. Since that time he has renewed his allegiance to his former line of business and gives his attention to handling horses, both in placing them on the market and in fitting them for service. He is at the time of this writing the owner of two fine standard bred horses which are making good account of themselves in turf events. Mr. Mumford is well known throughout this part of Nebraska, and his genial personality, as com- bined with his sturdy integrity in all of the relations of life, has gained to him a wide circle of friends. He is a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, though he has manifested naught of ambition for public office, and his wife is an active member of the Christian church.

As a young man Mr. Mumford wedded Miss Martha Dearborn, and she is now deceased. She is survived by three children: Charles D., who is associated with his uncle, E. P. Mumford, in the furniture business in Beatrice, where he was formerly employed fourteen years in the furniture store of Walter Scott; Leslie is now a resident of San Francisco, California; and Mabel is the wife of N. Townsend, a prosperous farmer in the vicinity of Taco, in the Canadian northwest.

In September, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mumford to Miss Mae Van Boskirk, who was born in Linn county, Iowa, a daughter of Lincoln and Celia (Freer) Van Boskirk, whose marriage was solemnized in Wisconsin, whence they eventually removed to Iowa, from which state they came to Gage county, Nebraska, in 1885, establishing their residence in Beatrice, where Mr. Van Boskirk erected a large and attractive residence at the corner of Seventh and Summit street - this being the present home of Mr. and Mrs. Mumford. Mr. Van Boskirk was a second cousin of Abraham Lincoln, and in the early territorial days he acquired a large tract of land in Nebraska, the patent to the same having been signed by President Johnson, and this property still continues in the possession of the family. More detailed mention of the Van Boskirk family is made on other pages, in the review of the career of Frederick Van Boskirk, a brother of Mrs. Mumford. Mr. and Mrs. Mumford have one daughter, Clara Belle, who was born February 28, 1912.

JOHN B. RENARD is a successful farmer and stock-raiser who owns a valuable and well improved farm in Section 1, Glenwood township. As a representative citizen of that township he is entitled to recognition in this history of Gage county.

Mr. Renard was born at Keokuk, Lee county, Iowa, May 5, 1862. His parents, Adam and Catherine (Wofe) Renard, were natives of Germany, and both passed the closing period of their lives at Keokuk, lowaj where they had resided for many years and where the father was a cabinet maker by trade and vocation. John B. Renard was one of seven children, four of whom are living, he being the only one in Nebraska. When a young man he made his way to Page county, Iowa, where he remained two years, and he then came to Gage county, Nebraska. Here he farmed in Rockford township for one year, and for the ensuing five years he was engaged in farming in Logan township. For the past twenty-eight years he has conducted successful operations on four hundred and twenty acres of land in Sections 1 and 12 Glenwood township. Here he has erected a splendid set of buildings, among the finest in the county, and is here engaged in general agricultural and stock-raising enterprise. He has the cooperation of Herman Lenger, who is a bachelor brother of Mrs. Renard, and who malces his home with the Renard family.

Mr. Renard chose as his wife Miss Lottie Lenger, who was bom in Warren county, Missouri, her parents having been early settlers of Gage county, Nebraska, and a record of the family being given elsewhere in this volume, in sketch dedicated to Lewis D. Lenger, of Beatrice. Mr. and Mrs. Renard are members of the Christian church at Odell. Mr. Renard takes an active interest in the affairs of his community and was one of the organizers of the Odell Telephone Company,, of which he has been president for many years. He assisted also in organizing the State Bank of Odell. -Fraternally he is a member of Odell Lodge, No. 97, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a Republican in politics and has given years of service in the office of justice of the peace. Mr. and Mrs. Renard indulge themselves in travel and have recently made an extended trip on the Pacific coast. They are folk of sterling worth and have a host of friends.

REV. VICTOR F. CLARK. - The honored pastor of the First Congregational church of Beatrice is a man of high intellectual attainments and has labored with all of consecrated zeal and devotion in the work of the ministry, besides having wielded much influence in the field of educational service. He was reared to manhood in Nebraska, where the family home was established prior to the admission of the state to the Union and when he was a lad of about ten years. His high sense of stewardship has been shown in every ' pastoral charge which he has held and also in all other relations of life, the while his benignant influence has touched most helpfully the general communal life in every place that has figured as the stage of his earnest and prolific endeavors. There are many points of surpassing interest in both his personal and ancestral history and he takes pride in being a scion of one of the sterling old colonial families of New England, that gracious cradle of much of our national history. Mr. Clark plays a large part in the community life of Beatrice, aside from his ecclesiastical functions, and for this reason, as well as on account of his being the spiritual and executive head of one of the important church organizations of the city, he is specially entitled to the tribute which is perpetuated through the medium of this publication.

Rev. Victor Fremont Clark was bom at West Haven, Rutland county, Vermont, on the 20th of August, 1856, and is a son of Rev. Elipha Lyman Clark and Nancy (Hunger) Clark, both natives of Whiting, Addison county, Vermont, where the former was born February 27, 1813, and the latter on the 6th of March, 1815. The father died in April, 1873, and the gracious and devoted wife and mother passed to the life eternal in the following year, both having been representatives of honored and influential pioneer families of the old Green Mountain state. Rev. Elipha L. Clark, a man of fine intellectuality and exalted character, as a' youth prepared himself for the legal profession and was admitted to the bar of his native state. After having been for a time engaged in the practice of law he followed the course of his earnest conviction pertinent to his personal stewardship and entered the ministry of the Baptist church, as a clergyman of which he labored for many years, a true disciple of the Divine Master and one who gave himself with devotion to the aiding and uplifting of his fellow men. He bore to the full the "heat and burden of the day," garnered a rich harvest and also a gracious aftermath, and proved himself the friend and counselor of all who came within the sphere of his influence. In 1866 he came with his family to Nebraska Territory and entered claim to one hundred and sixty acres of government land in Seward county. There he gave his attention to the development of his farm, the while he continued his activities as one of the pioneer clergj'men of the territory and state, and he was one of the revered citizens of Seward county at the time of his death, which occurred on his old homestead farm. His was definite leadership in popular sentiment and action in the pioneer community, he was stalwart in his allegiance to the Republican party, and he served as representative of Seward county in the last session of the territorial legislature, as well as in the first legislature under state r^ime. He became the father of eleven children, of whom only four are now living, and of the number the subject of this review is the youngest.

Rev. Elipha L. Clark was a son of Elipha. and Jemima (Moulton) Clark, and a grandson of Isaiah and Eimice (Moore) Clark, whose marriage was solemnized December 24,. 1778, at Simsbury, Connecticut, and who removed in the same year to Vermont, their son Elipha having been born in that year and his death having occurred in 1813, the parentshaving passed the remainder of their lives in the old Green Mountain state and the family name having stood exponent of strong and. noble manhood and gentle and gracious womanhood as one generation has followed another onto the stage of life.

Augustus Munger, maternal grandfather of the subject of this review, was born at Whiting, Vermont, on the 22d of May, 1794, and' his wife, whose maiden name was Temperance

Babcock, was born June 30, 1793, their marriage having been solemnized February 22, 1813, and both having passed the remainder of their lives at Whiting, Vermont, where the former died in May, 1841, and the latter in the year 1870. Augustus Hunger was a son of Moses and Mercy (Baker) Hunger, their marriage having occurred November 21, 1793. Moses Hunger was born in the west parish of South Brimfield, Hassachusetts, October 21, 1769, and his wife was bom in 1778. Both were residents of Whiting, Vermont, at the time of their death, he having passed to eternal rest on the 11th of January, 1861, and she in the year 1840. Moses Hunger was a son of Jehiel Hunger, who was born at Brimfield, Hampden county, Hassachusetts, June 3, 1737, and whose marriage to Elsie Rogers was celebrated in 1758, she having been bom at Brimfield in the year 1738 and both having passed the closing years of their life at Whiting, Vermont, where Hrs. Hunger died in 1798 and where he passed away August 3, 1817. Jehiel Hunger was a distinguished patriot soldier in the Revolution, in which he rose from the rank of sergeant to captain. He took part in important engagements marking the progress of the great war for independence, including those of Concord and the Brandywine, and in the "piping times of peace" he manifested the same spirit of loyalty and patriotism. This sterling Revolutionary soldier erected as a home for his family the first two-story house built at Whiting, Vermont, and in the same were frequently held church services, he having been a deacon of his church. Authoritative family records still extant show that Nicholas Hunger, who was bom and reared in England, came to America in 1639 and established his home in Massachusetts. He married Sarah Hall, in 1659, and their son Samuel, bom in 1665, married Sarah Hand. The next in line of descent to the subject of this review was Nathaniel, who was bom in 1712, a son of Samuel and Sarah (Hand) Hunger, and in 1736 Nathaniel wedded Elizabeth Bullen, they having become the parents of Colonel

As previously stated in this context, Rev. Victor F. Clark was about ten years of age at the time when the family home was established in Nebraska Territory, which in the following year gained the dignity of statehood, and he was reared thereafter under the benignant influences of the pioneer farm and those of a home of distinctive culture and refinement. After having made good use of the advantages afforded in the schools of the locality and period he entered Tabor College, at Tabor, Iowa, and in the preparatory department of this institution, which was founded in 1866, under the auspices of the Congregational church, he continued his studies until his graduation. Thereafter he was a student in the college proper until he went to Chicago, in 1880, and entered the theological seminary. In this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1883, his ordination to the ministry of the Congregational church having occurred in that year. His first pastoral charge was at Milburn, Illinois, where he remained four years and he then devoted a year to effective post-graduate study in Princeton University, New Jersey. For the ensuing four years he held a pastorate at David City, Nebraska ; the next five years found him as pastor of the Congregational church at Holdrege, this state. He then accepted a call to the pastorate of the Congregational church at Livingston, Alontana, where he remained six years. He then returned to Nebraska and became pastor of the Congregational church at Neligh, Antelope county, an incumbency from which he retired six years later, to become pastor of the church at Ashland, Saunders county. After two years of characteristically earnest and fruitful service in this pastoral charge Hr. Clark was tendered and accepted the position of state secretary of Doane College, at Crete, this state - an institution maintained under Congregational church auspices. In this position Mr. Clark did effective work in promoting the interests of the college and after three years he resigned his post to accept, in 1914, the pastorate of the

First Congregational church of Beatrice. Here he has done much to further the spiritual and material prosperity of his charge and has gained to his church many new members. He is not only a forceful and eloquent pulpit orator, but his every utterance bears the impress of sincere conviction and utmost altruism, while his entire freedom from intellectual intolerance makes his work in his high calling the more efiective and benignant. Aside from his pastoral functions of direct order he has marked executive ability, and has shown splendid success in gaining the earnest cooperation of the people of the various churches which he has served.

It is to be presupposed that a man of such patriotic ancestry would manifest a deep interest in the welfare of the nation and the state, and the civic loyalty of Mr. Clark is shown in his giving his influence and aid in the support of measures and enterprises tending to advance the general wellbeing of the community. He pronounces himself an independent Republican in politics and while he has never sought public office he has yielded to urgent importunities and is giving effective service at the present time in the office of probation officer of Gage county. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modem Woodmen of America.

In August, 1879, Mr. Clark wedded Miss Katie M. Woods, who was born at Tabor, Iowa, a daughter of Daniel Woods. Mrs. Clark passed to the life eternal in 1886 and is survived by one son, Roy Victor, who is engaged in the insurance business at Wilmington, California. In 1888 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Clark to Miss Alice Mathews, who was born in the state of Wisconsin, a daughter of Charles and Myra (Simmons) Mathews, the former of whom was born at Norwich, Vermont, in 1825, and the latter at Kinderhook, New York, in 1831: she died in 1857, in Wisconsin. Mr. Mathews was a carpenter by trade and became a successful .contractor, his home having been established near the state line between Wisconsin and Illinois for many years and his death having occurred in the latter state, in 1895. Mr. and Mrs.

Clark have but one child, Martha Leavitt Clark, who was graduated in the high school at Crete, this state, where she is now a member of the class of 1919 in Doane College.

ANTON NOVOTNY. - The Bohemian farmer is industrious and accumulative. His pinched opportunities for advancement in his native land make him appreciative of the opportunities offered in the new world. This nationality is found in great numbers in Elm township, and Anton Novotny is a son of Bohemian parents, Frank and Mary (Vostry) Novotny. With their family of nine children, the youngest, Anton Novotny, but a child in arms, the parents settled in Pawnee county, Nebraska, in 1878. There were years of hard work and many deprivations facing this sterling pioneer couple, who were called upon to feed and clothe the large family of children, but Frank Novotny lived to see his children all grown to manhood and womanhood. He passed away in 1906. He was bom in Bohemia in the year 1829. His wife, Mrs. Mary (Vostry) Novotny, was born in Bohemia, and since her husband's death she has made her home with her youngest daughter, Mrs. Emma Fritz, of Washington county, Kansas. The following is brief record concerning the children : Louisa died in Bohemia ; Katherine is the, wife of Anton Blecha, living near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ; Anna is the wife of Amos Hubka, living in Washington county, Kansas; Mary is the widow of Joe Herring, and lives in Washington county, Kansas ; Joseph is a resident of Washington county, Kansas; Frank lives near Virginia, Gage county, Nebraska; James lives near Gretna, Nebraska ; Louis resides in Washington county, Kansas ; Anton, of this sketch, was next in order of birth; Amos lives near Wheatland, Oklahoma ; and Emma is the wife of John Fritz, of Washington county, Kansas.

Anton Novotny was born October 15, 1876, in Bohemia, and he was only fifteen months old when his parents immigrated to the United States. He received his education in the rural schools of Pawnee county, Nebraska, and early began to assist in the work of the home farm. He left the parental roof in 1901, when he married and bought land south of Virginia. Gage county. This place he farmed until 1906, when he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Section 34, Elm township, where he has since resided. February 19, 1901, Mr. Novotny married Miss Mary Chadima, who was born in 1878, in Iowa. Her death occurred October 20, 1916, and she left three sons to be cared for by their father - Alvie, Fred, and George.

Mr. Novotny is a Democrat iti politics but has never sought any political honors. He is a member of Western Bohemian Lodge, and is a shareholder in the Farmers' Telephone Company at Odell, this county. His sons remain on the farm with him and help him in the many ways in which boys of such age can be of use.

WIIvBUR S. BOURNE. - This representative member of the Gage county bar has been established in the practice of his profession at Beatrice, the county seat, for the past thirty-five years, and he has exemplified in his activities the best ethics of his profession, which he has dignified alike by his character and achievement. He is now (1918) serving as city attorney, and his inviolable hold upon popular confidence and esteem has been shown by his having been called upon to serve in various other offices of public trust. He presided six years on the bench of the county court of. Gage county, has held the offices of city clerk and member of the board of education of Beatrice, and in 1898 he was elected mayor of the city, an office in which he gave a most able and popular administration, marked by well ordered progressiveness, his tenure of the position of chief executive of the municipal government having continued for two years. Judge Bourne is unswerving in his allegiance to the Republican party and has given effective service in the furtherance of its cause. In the Masonic fraternity he has completed the circle of the York Rite, in which his maximum affiliation is with Mount Herman Commandery of Knights Templars, besides which he holds membership in the adjunct Masonic organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, his affiliation in this being with Sesostris Temple, in the city of Lincoln, Nebraska. Both he and his wife are active and valued members of the Christian church of Beatrice.

Wilbur S. Bourne was born at Macomb, McDonough county, Illinois, on the 22d of June, 1854, and is a son of Rev. Milton Bourne and Melvina (Gardiner) Bourne, the former of whom was born in the state of Massachusetts and the latter in that of New York, she having been the second wife of Rev. Milton Bourne, and the latter having been the father of five children by his first marriage and five by the second. One of the sons, Milton, Jr., went forth from Illinois as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. Rev. Milton Bourne was a child at the time of his parents' removal to the state of Vermont, where he was reared and educated. He entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church and became one of its pioneer clergymen in Illinois, where he formed the personal acquaintance of his historic contemporary, Peter Cartwright, while he was presiding elder of the Monmouth district of the Methodist church in Illinois at a time when said district comprised fully one-third of the entire state. Rev. Milton Bourne labored with all of zeal and self-abnegation in his chosen calling and the closing period of his life was passed on a farm in McDonough county, Illinois, where he died when his son William S., of this review, was a lad of nine years, his loved wife surviving him by a number of years.

Wilbur S. Bourne passed the period of his childhood and early youth in his native county and after having profited by the advantages of the public schools he provided ways and means that enabled him to supplement this training by a course in a normal school of Illinois.

In 1878, with a team and old-time "prairie schooner," Mr. Bourne and his young wife made the overland journey from Illinois to Nebraska, and for the ensuing year he was here engaged in farming, in Gage county. He then returned to Illinois, where he completed his interrupted law studies and gained admission to the bar. In 1882 he returned to Nebraska and established his home at Beatrice, where he has since continued in the practice of his profession and where he is not only a representative member of the bar of southeastern Nebraska but also one of the most honored citizens of Gage county.

In the year 1878 was solemnized the marriage of Judge Bourne to Miss Georgia Rile, who likewise was born and reared at Macomb, Illinois, and they have three daughters : Fannie L., who is the wife of Edward Buhler, of Lincoln, Nebraska, and Etsel and Velma, who remain at the parental home.

GEORGE W. PITTS. - The early '80s saw great numbers of farmers coming to Gage county and possessing themselves of their several portions of land. They built their sod huts and set themselves with a will to win the wild prairie to fertility. One of these men is George W. Pitts, who for nearly forty years has tilled Gage county soil on Section 7, Glenwood township.

Mr. Pitts came to Gage county February 22, 1880, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land from the government, for $3.50 an acre. As far as the eye could see there was nothing to obstruct the view of the rolling prairie with the exception of one lone tree, which Mr. Pitts cut down to provide fuel for cooking the first meal after the family arrival in the county.

Mr. Pitts was born September 16, 1844, in Ross county, Ohio, where his parents, George and Lucinda (Turk) Pitts, followed their farming operations upon coming from Pennsylvania, their natal state. It was in the year 1840 they established their Ohio home and in 1848 the father was called to his eternal rest. His widow later married a Mr. White, and her last days were spent in Kansas, where her death occurred in 1882.

The early days of Mr. Pitts' life were spent amid the rural environments of Ohio, and it was here he met and married, in 1865, the companion of these many years, Albina

Runnels. She was born October 17, 1845, in Licking county, Ohio, and is a daughter of Sollis and Eliza (Nash) Runnels, who were born in Vermont and became pioneers of Ohio, where they passed the remainder of their lives.

In 1869 Mr. Pitts and his good wife removed to Washington county, Iowa, where he continued farm operations until 1880, when he made selection of his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres, in Gage county, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Pitts are the parents of the following named children: Flora, the wife of D. Baker, living in Idaho; Sollis, a resident of Alda, Nebraska; Cora, the wife of H. Coleman, living at Diller, Nebraska; Walter, residing in Louisiana; Arthur, of Thedford, Nebraska; and Eva, wife of O. A. Dean, farming the home place of subject. One child died in infancy.

SAMUEL D. RUTH. - Controlling a large and representative trade, the John H. von Steen Company holds prestige as one of the leading business corporations of Gage county and its progressive metropolis, and more specific mention of this important Beatrice business house is made on other pages of this publication. Of this company Mr. Ruth is the secretary, and his activities as an executive and a progressive business man have inured materially to the success of the enterprise with which he is thus identified.

Mr. Ruth was born in St. Clair county, Illi- . nois, on the 29th of March, 1873, and he received his early education in the schools of his native state. He was there graduated in the McKendree College as a member of the class of 1898. He then came to Beatrice, Nebraska, and entered the employ of the John H. von Steen Company, with which he has since maintained his alliance and in connection with which he has advanced to the responsible office of secretary, of which he has been the incumbent since 1908. He has entered fully into the general communal life of his adopted city and is essentially liberal and progressive in his civic attitude. He gives his political allegiance to the Republican party and he and his wife hold membership in the Mennonite church.

In the year 1904 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ruth to Miss Marie C. Dueck, who was born in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, and their two children are Clinton and Mildred.

JOHN W. McKISSICK is known and valued as one of the loyal and influential citizens of Gage county, which he has represented in the Nebraska legislature, and he is now an executive of the pure-food department of the state, in which position he is serving his fourth consecutive year, his official duties demanding virtually his entire time and attention and involving his traveling through all parts of the state. He maintains his home in the city of Beatrice, and this history of Gage county properly accords to him specific recognition.

Mr. McKissick is a native son of the west and during the course of his earnest and constructive career he has exemplified most fully the progressive western spirit. He was born near Hamburg, Fremont county, Iowa, on the 2d of November, 1875, and is a son of William A. and Ruth (Utterback) McKissick, both likewise natives of Fremont county and both representatives of pioneer families of that section of the Hawkeye state. William A. McKissick was born June 11, 1842, on the same farm as was his son John W., of this review, and in Fremont county, Iowa, he passed the closing years of his life. He was a son of Cornelius McKissick, who was bom in Scotland and who was a boy at the time of the family immigration to the United States, where he was reared and educated. The family home was established in Missouri, and from that state he removed to Fremont county, Iowa, in 1830. He was the first settler of that county, where he took up a squatter's claim and where eventually he developed a valuable farm property. He became one of the influential citizens of Fremont county and remained on his old homestead until his death, in 1894 - a patriarchal pioneer who had been a leader in the march of development and progress in the great empire of the west and whose name and achievement merit enduring place in the annals of Iowa history. Cornelius McKissick assisted in the construction of the pioneer stage road between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in compensation for his services he received an allotment of land in Iowa, which was under the territorial jurisdiction of Michigan Territory at the time when he there established his home on the frontier. His wife survived him and remained on the old homestead until her death, at the remarkable age of one hundred and two years. Mrs. William A. McKissick is a daughter of James R. Utterback, who was born in Indiana and who was the second person to make settlement in western Iowa, Cornelius McKissick having been the first settler.

William A. and Ruth (Utterback) McKissick became the parents of seven children, of whom John W., of this review, is the eldest son; Edward resides at Riverton, Iowa, and is engaged in the telephone business; Mattie is the wife of Ora Hatton, of Fremont, Nebraska ; Miss Stella remains with her widowed mother in the pleasant home at Riverton, Iowa; Winnie is the wife of Herbert Jones, a farmer near Riverton, Iowa; Nellie is the wife of Frederick Beam, who is engaged in the agricultural implement business at Riverton; Gosper is associated with the Palmer- Wheelock Company, in the metropolis of Gage county, Nebraska.

William A. McKissick had a broad experience in connection with life on the frontier, and it is worthy of record that he made, with wagon and ox team, eight trips across the plains in the early days. On the last of these venturesome journeys he made his way to California, where he remained seven years and was engaged in the buying and selling of horses. Upon his return to Iowa he brought with him from the Pacific coast several horses, besides which he was accompanied by some faithful Indians. Mr. McKissick gained through his own ability and efforts a generous measure of success and prosperity and he wielded much influence in his native county, where he was held in unqualified popular esteem. He was sixty -three years of age at the time of his death, December 18, 1908, and, as before intimated, his widow now resides at Riverton, Iowa. Her father, James R. Utterback, settled in Fremont county, Iowa, in 1833, and there he remained on his original homestead until his death, in April, 1893, his wife having passed away in 1883. William A. McKissick was a staunch supporter of the principles of the Democratic party and his religious faith was that of the Presbyterian church, of which his widow has long been a devoted member.

John W. McKissick, the immediate subject of this sketch, acquired his youthful education in the public schools of Riverton, Iowa, and he passed his childhood days on the old home farm of which mention has been made in preceding paragraphs. As a lad of thirteen years he accompanied one of his brothers to western Nebraska, where he passed about two years on a large ranch owned by his father. During the ensuing two years he was at the parental home and in the meanwhile he continued his educational work. In 1895 he settled in Polk county, Nebraska, where he continued his successful activities in connection with agricultural and live-stock industry until 1902, when he came to Gage county and established his residence in the city of Beatrice, where he has since maintained his home. Here he engaged in the insurance business, in connection with which he was made general agent for the Nebraska Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Hastings. For a few years he held the position of actuary of this company, besides having served for a term of years as a member of its board of directors. Since 1914 he has been one of the most efficient and valued executives of the Nebraska pure-food department, and he is doing also an important work as secretary of the Municipal Code Commission, of Lincoln, this state. This commission was organized for the authoritative handling of the work of codifying the ordinances of cities and minor municipalities, and in each instance it makes a definite guaranty to the accuracy of its work and to the legal impregnability of the same. The commission has already produced valuable work in its special province and this has been in connection not only with Nebraska municipalities, but also those of other states of the Union. In this connection it is interesting to record that the commission is at the time of this writing, in the summer of 1918, completing the codification of the ordinances of Gage county's judicial center and metropolis, the city of Beatrice.

Admirably fortified in his opinions concerning economic and governmental f>olicies, Mr. McKissick is a staunch advocate of the principles of the Democratic party and has been an influential figure in the party councils in Nebraska. He served from 1911 to 1915 as representative of Gage county in the lower house of the Nebraska legislature, and here made an excellent record in the furtherance of wise legislation and the forwarding of the interests of his constituency. He is prominently affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he is serving in 1918 as deputy grand master of the Nebraska grand lodge. He has passed the official chairs also in the Modern Woodmen of America.

On the 26th of February, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McKissick to Miss Delia E. Swan, who was born in Polk county, Nebraska, January 8, 1876, and who is a daughter of William H. and Ida (Blowers) Swan, the former a native of Iowa and the latter of Indiana. Concerning the brothers and sisters of Mrs. McKissick the following brief data may consistently be given : William H. and Clara reside in the city of Beatrice and the latter is the wife of Rudolph R. Woelke; Harry is a resident of Shelby, Polk county, this state; Jennie is the wife of Edward Globes, of the same place; Minnie is the wife of Andrew Peterson and they likewise reside at Shelby, as do also the younger children - Perry, Pearl, Vernal, and Floyd. The names and respective dates of birth of the children of Mr. and Mrs. McKissick are here noted: William A., March 26, 1896;

REV. WILLIAM T. McKENNA. - The life work of a priest of the Holy Roman Catholic church is essentially one of selfsacrificing devotion to the needs of his people, his church, and the Divine Master whom he serves. The work demands years of preliminary study and preparation, for the highest of intellectual standards and the broadest of practical humanitarianism are demanded, the while there can be in prospect no temporal rewards coipmensurate with the service to be rendered, save the satisfaction of having labored faithfully and well in behalf of Christ and humanity. Father McKenna has measured up fully to the demands and exactions of his high calling and is one of the representative members of the Catholic priesthood in this section of Nebraska. He is pastor of St. Mary's church at Odell, and commands the high esteem and affectionate regard of the members of his parish, as well as the confidence and good will of the entire community.

Father McKenna was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada, on the 21st of September, 1873, and he received his preliminary educational discipline in the rural schools of his native province. He remained with his parents on the home farm until he was a lad of twelve years, and was then sent to a Canadian college in which he prosecuted his studies of preparatory order as well as along higher academic lines. In 1893 he entered St. Mary's Seminary at Baltimore, Maryland, and in this institution he completed the philosophical and ecclesiastical studies that prepared him for the priesthood. In this celebrated theological seminary he was graduated in 1896, and in the same year he was ordained to the priesthood. Shortly afterward he was assigned to a pastoral charge at Fairbury, Nebraska, but after three months of service at that place he was transferred to Nebraska City, where he remained six years and gave effective pastoral service, in the parish of St. Mary's church. In July, 1916, Father McKenna came to Gage county and assumed his present charge, as pastor of St. Mary's church at Odell. He has been since that time the zealous and devoted shepherd of this fold and has given earnestly of his time and talents to the furtherance of the spiritual and temporal wellbeing of his parish.

CHARLES D. KNOX has the best of modern facilities in the conducting of his successful livery and transfer business in the city of Beatrice, and is one of the wide-awake and progressive citizens of the Gage county metropolis. He was born in Belmont county, Ohio, November 23, 1855, and is a son of Isaac and Jane (Foster) Knox, who were bom and reared in West Virginia, where their marriage was solemnized, and who removed thence to Belmont county, Ohio, where the father engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1865 Isaac Knox removed with his family to Illinois, and later he became a pioneer settler in eastern Kansas, where he entered claim to a quarter section of land near the present town of Erie. There both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. Of their ten children the subject of this sketch was the sixth in order of birth and of the number six are now living. Isaac Knox was a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, his service covering a period of about three years ; his political allegiance was given to the Republican partj' and both he and his wife were earnest members of the Christian church. James Knox, father of Isaac, was a native of Ireland and was a resident of West Virginia at the time of his death.

Charles D. Knox acquired his early education in the schools of Illinois and Kansas, and he has just claim to pioneer distinction in Nebraska, to which state he came in 1873. He settled in Seward county and later took up land and engaged in farm enterprise in the southwestern part of the state. Still later he engaged in the stage and livery business at Grant, Perkins county, where he continued operations in this line of enterprise for ten years. He then returned to the eastern part of the state and engaged in the livery business at Seward, judicial center of the county of that name. Several years later he established himself in the same business at College View, a suburb of the city of Lincoln, and in 1913 he came to Beatrice and purchased the livery and transfer business which he has since conducted with marked success. That his establishment is thoroughly modern in its equipment needs no further voucher than the statement that he now operates a number of taxicabs and other motor vehicles, his business being the most important one of the kind in the city. In politics Mr. Knox gives his allegiance to the Republican party, he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

In 1879 Mr. Knox wedded Miss Arpha Hickman, who was born at Newton, Iowa, and they have four children : Clarence B. is now engaged in buying and shipping horses at Beatrice; Clara is the wife of Chas. B. Hand, of Seward, this state; Fern remains at the parental home; and Eva is the wife of Frank R. Shelley, of whom mention is made on other pages of this volume.

HARVEY O. MASON, owner of an excellent farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Section 1, Lincoln township, was born in Ontario county. New York, March 21, 1841, and has been a resident of Nebraska since 1867, the year that marked the admission of the state to the Union. His life has been one of varied experiences and consecutive productiveness, and he stands forth as one of the sterling pioneer citizens of Gage county.

In a little log house of one room, in Farmington township, Ontario county. New York, Harvey O. Mason was born March 21, 1841, a son of Robinson and Mary (Brandt) Mason, of whose six children he was the fourth in order of birth ; Hannah E. and Samuel are deceased ; George is a resident of Fort Dodge, Iowa ; and Franklin and Byron are deceased. Robinson Mason was a representative of one of . the pioneer families of Ontario county. New York, where he was born, in

Farmington township, in August, 1813. He continued his alliance with farm enterprise in the old Empire state until 1848, when he removed with his family to Chicago, Illinois, the future metropolis having then been little more than a straggHng village. It was his intention to buy land in Illinois, but his wife found so little appeal in the west that he consented to return to New York. At Churchville, that state, he engaged in the general merchandise business, but about a year later he removed with his family to Wisconsin and engaged in the same line of business at Portage City. Two years later he became identified with lumbering operation near Grand Rapids, that state, and in 1856 he became a pioneer in the same line of enterprise at Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, in which locality he became the owner of three thousand acres of valuable timber land. In his lumbering camps he gave employment to sixty men, and work was continued night and day, with consistent shifting of the working forces. In 1864 Mr. Mason returned to the state of New York and purchased a large farm, besides which he became concerned in the oil development business in Pennsylvania. Finally he established the home of his family in Monroe county. New York, after which he went to South Pass, Wyoming, and engaged in mining for gold. He shipped in from Chicago, via the Union Pacific Railroad, his ten-stamp quartz mill, and from Bryan, Wyoming, he hauled the mill across the desert to South Pass - one hundred and ten miles distant. John C. Fremont, the great "pathfinder," had visited South Pass in 1848 and the name was given to the point in honor of the expedition which he led through this newly discovered pass to the Pacific coast. Mr. Mason failed to develop gold in vein quality, and finally abandoned his undertaking. The government then employed him to saw lumber for use at Fort Stambaugh, besides finally purchasing his power plant. Mr. Mason eventually returned to his family and he was a resident of Monroe county, New York, at the time of his death, in 1885. His wife was bom in On-

Harvey O. Mason attended school in Farmington and Churchville, New York, and also at Portage, Wisconsin. One of his schoolmates at Churchville was that noble and re- Tered woman. Miss Frances E. Willard, founder and president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and their friendship endured until this gracious gentlewoman passed to eternal rest, in 1898. Mr. Mason was associated with his father's business activities until 1865, when he engaged in the meat business in the city of Chicago, where also he became a member of the Board of Trade. In 1866 he sold his interests in Chicago and returned to the state of New York, but in the following year he came to the new state of .Nebraska and purchased land in Douglas county, three miles south of Omaha. In 1870 he sold this property, and thereafter he remained in the state of New York until 1874, on the 9th of May of which year he arrived at Beatrice, the judicial center of Gage county. The following day he went by stage to Plymouth, Jefferson county, in which locality he purchased land and engaged in farming on an extensive scale. In 1887 he sold his property in that county and settled on his present attractive homestead in Gage county. For eighteen years, while continuing his association with the management of his farm, Mr. Mason was a traveling representative of the Beatrice Creamery Company, one of the foremost concerns of the kind in the west. He has stood exponent of broad-gauged and progressive citizenship, has achieved independence and prosperity through his own efforts and is one of the well known and highly esteem citizens of Gage county. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church.

In February, 1869, Mr. Mason wedded Miss Jennie Shindoll, who was bom in Racine county, Wisconsin, in 1857, a daughter of John G. and Mary (Nelson) Shindoll. In conclusion is given brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Mason: Luella is a popular teacher in the schools of Long Beach,

California ; Byron, who is engaged in the drug business at Riverton, Wyoming, married Miss Mary Grififeth of Chicago, and they have one child; George is a successful ranchman near Blackf oot, Idaho ; Gertrude is the wife of D. M. Bendernagel, of Lincoln township, Gage county; Harvey is a successful farmer in Riverside township ; Roy is a resident of Deadwood, South Dakota; Elmer resides at Riverton, Wyoming ; Esther is a trained nurse at the Green Gables Institute, Lincoln, Nebraska; Marjorie remains at the parental home; and two children died in infancy.

HENRY ALBERT. - The attractive village of Clatonia claims as one of its honored citizens this venerable and revered pioneer, whose has been a large and beneficent part in connection with the development and upbuilding of Gage county along both civic and industrial lines. Mr. Albert is president of the Clatonia Bank and is the owner of a valuable landed estate of eight 'hundred acres in Sections 23, 25, 26, and 27, Clatonia township, besides which he has six hundred and forty acres in Hand county. South Dakota, and a fine farm of one hundred and thirty acres in Allen county, Kansas. As an extensive landholder he has done most effective service in connection with the march of progress in the nation's great empire of the west.

Mr. Albert was born in the province of Hanover, Germany, on the 24th of April, 1837, and while he has attained to the age of four score years he exemplifies in his sound mental and physical powers the effectiveness of right living and right thinking during the course of a signally active and useful carea". Mr. Albert is a son of David and Katherine (Kinker) Albert, of whose four children he is the firstborn; Mrs. Elizabeth Shaffer, the next in order of birth, remain's a resident of Hanover, Germany ; Eberhart has been a resident of Gage county since 1874 and is now living retired in the village of Clatonia; and Katherine, who is the widow of August Struckmeier, likewise maintains her home m this village, her husband having been another

David Albert continued his residence in the Hanovarian fatherland until 1874, when, in company with his wife, he came to America, to which country three of their children had preceded them, and they gained likewise a pioneer distinction by joining their two sons and one daughter in Gage county, the closing years of their earnest and upright lives having here been passed in the home of their daughter, Mrs. Stuckmeier.

Henry Albert is indebted to the excellent schools of his native land for his early educational discipline, and he was but fifteen years of age when his father provided him with sufficient fimds to pay the cost of the ocean voyage. It was in the year 1852 that the United States thus gained this youthful immigrant. Mr. Albert landed in the port of the national metropolis and soon afterward made his way to Ohio, where he turned his attention to the vocation of teaming and where he continued his residence until he manifested his unbounded and insistent loyalty to the country of his adoption by going forth as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war. In response to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, he enlisted, July 15, 1861, at Cincinnati, as a private in Company M, Second United States Artillery, with which gallant command he saw wide and varied campaign, service in Virginia, North Carolina and other sections on which were staged activities incidental to the great conflict between the north and the south. He was a member of the famous brigade commanded by General Custer, who later sacrificed his life in conflict with the Indians in Montana, and he participated in many engagements, including a goodly number of the important and sanguinary battles marking the progress of the war. His military career in the field extended from July IS, 1861, until he received his honorable discharge at Light House Point, Virginia, on the 16th of July, 1864, at which time he was near the spot on which, about one year later. General Lee made his historic surrender. It may well be understood that Mr. Albert has continued to feel vital interest in his old comrades and that he signalizes the same through his active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, as a member of which he was one of the organizers of Rollins Post, No. 35, at Beatrice, Nebraska, of which he served as senior vice-commander, his present affiliation being with the post in the city of Lincoln.

After the close of his military career Mr. Albert continued his residence in Ohio until the spring of 1865, when he came to Nebraska Territory and numbered himself among the early pioneer settlers of Nebraska City, Otoe county. He arrived in Gage county on the 1st of April, 1866, and soon afterward entered claim to a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, in what is now Clatonia township. This ambitious young veteran of the Civil war was fertile in resources and expedients, as befits one who essays the burdens and responsibilities of a pioneer, and in instituting the improvement of his land he purchased four yoke of oxen at Nebraska City, from which point he drove them overland to his embryonic farm, fully seventy-five miles distant. With these faithful but plodding animals Mr. Albert broke about one hundred acres of his land, and in the meanwhile he constructed a rude "dugout" as a domicile for himself and his devoted young wife, who proved his true helpmeet in these days of struggle and hardship. It may be mentioned also that he assisted in the construction of the little dugout which was placed in commission as the first schoolhouse in Clatonia township. The passing years rewarded the earnest and indefatigable activities of Mr. Albert with cumulative success and prosperity and he finally developed his old homestead into one of the fine farms of this section of the state. He erected on the old homestead modem buildings, besides making other improvements of the best order, and there he continued to reside for the long period of thirty-eight years, in the meanwhile having gained recognition as one of the most substantial and influential citizens of the county.

the village of Clatonia, where, in a commodious and modem home known for its generous hospitality, he is now living in semi-retirement, though his important capitalistic and landed interests make imperative demands upon much of his time and attention. He owns one-third of the stock of the Clatonia Bank, of which he has been president since 1894, and his mature judgment and conservative policies have made this institution a valuable factor in the furtherance of the civic and material interests of this section of the county.

In 1876 Mr. Albert was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, and incidental to his effective service in this important office he was a member of the committee which had the supervision of matters pertaining to the erection of the county court house, as well as that in charge of the building of the bridge across the river on Court street. He served six years as county commissioner and did much to advance public improvements of an enduring order as well as to provide for the county effective governmental policies. In politics Mr. Albert has never wavered in his allegiance to the Repubican party, and he reverts with satisfaction to the fact that his first presidential vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln. In 1901-02 he represented Gage county in the state legislature, where he made his influence distinctly felt in the promotion of wise legislation, though he was of the minority forces in that signally Populistic session of the legislature. He has served as mayor of Clatonia, was one of the organizers and original members of the school board of this village, and has given his service in other village offices. Mr. Albert is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Clatonia and contributes liberally to the support of the various departments of its work.

At Portsmouth, Ohio, on the 9th of April, 1865, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Albert to Miss Emma Steinmeyer, who was born and reared in Germany and who became a resident of Ohio soon after coming to the United States. Mrs. Albert shared with her husband in the tension incidental to pioneer life in Nebraska and lived to enjoy the gracious rewards that eventually attended their endeavors. She was summoned to the life eternal on the 14th of December, 1909, at the age of sixty-three years, secure in the affectionate regard of all who knew her. She was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church and exemplified her faith in her daily life and her association with others. Of the ten children born of this union brief record is here consistently given: Anna died when about twenty years of age; Ella is the wife of Frank W. Jones, of Clatonia, who is individually mentioned on other pages of this work; John died at the age of about thirtythree years; Frank resides upon and has active charge of the old homestead farm of his father and concerning him specific mention is made in this volume ; Mrs. Minnie Latshaw and her husband reside at Chetek, Barron county, Wisconsin; Benjamin is a resident of Clatonia township and a sketch of his . career appears on other pages ; Augusta is the wife of J. W. Lydick, of Clatonia; Daniel is a resident of Clatonia township and is represented individually elsewhere in this publication ; Alma became the wife of Roy Barker and is now deceased; and Clara is the wife of Edward Chittenden, who is an executive in the Clatonia Bank.

On the 12th of July, 1911, Mr. Albert contracted a second marriage, when Mrs. Augusta Kroff became his wife. She was born and reared in T-,ippe, Germany. By her first marriage she became the mother of six children, all of whom are living. She was a resident of Lincoln, Nebraska, at the time of her marriage to Mr. Albert, and she is the gracious and popular chatelaine of their pleasant home at Clatonia.

ELMER L. HEVELONE. - The efficient and popular secretary of the State Savings & Loan Association of Beatrice became a resident of G&ge county when he was a lad of six years, and that in his character and achievement he has proved fully equipped for keeping pace with the march of developinent and progress in this favored commonwealth is attested by the fact that he has been called upon to serve in various positions of distinctive responsibility and trust, including that of treasurer of Gage county. He has been in the most significant sense the builder of the ladder on which he has risen to the plane of definite success and prestige, and his activities have been varied, though each stage of his career has been marked by his consecutive advancement, the while he has so ordered his course as to merit and retain the inviolable confidence and esteem of all with whom he has come in contact in the varied relations of life.

Mr. Hevelone, though imbued with the utmost loyalty to Nebraska and fully appreciative of its manifold attractions and advantages, takes a due measure of satisfaction in reverting to the old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity, - perhaps in consonance with the humorous paraphrase which Hon. Chauncey M. Depew once made of a familiar quotation, his version being as follows : "Some men are born great; some achieve greatness, and some are born in Ohio." Mr. Hevelone was born in Seneca county, Ohio, on the 12th of May, 1874, and is a son of Sylvester and Cynthia C. (Wonder) Hevelone, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Ohio. Sylvester Hevelone was born on the 28th of December, 1847, and was young at the time of the family removal from Pennsylvania to Ohio, where his marriage was later solemnized. In the climacteric period of the Civil war he manifested his intrinsic patriotism by tendering his services in defense of the Union. In 1864 he enlisted as a member of Company A, Fifty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with this gallant command he continued in active service until the close of the war. Mr. Hevelone lived up to the full tension of the great conflict between the north and the south, participated in numerous engagements of important order and as a soldier made a record that shall ever reflect honor and distinction upon his name and memory. In later years he vitalized the more gracious associations of his military career by retaining active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. His political allegiance was given to the Republican party and both he and his

After the close of the Civil war Sylvester Hevelone continued his association with agricultural pursuits in Ohio until 1880, when he came with his family to Nebraska and settled in Gage county, where he established the family home on a farm owned by his father-in-law, George Wonder, in Blue Springs township, near the present thriving village of Blue Springs. He marked the passing years with earnest and well directed endeavor and became one of the substantial farmers and influential citizens of his township. Both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives at Blue Springs, where his death occurred in the year 1897 and where she was summoned to the life eternal in 1908. They are survived by eight children, concerning whom brief mention may consistently be made at this juncture: George D. resides at Blue Springs and is a farmer by occupation ; Samuel J. is a successful farmer in Riverside township, this county ; Sidney F. is engaged in the merchandise business at Beatrice, the county seat ; Ralph R., of Alma, Harlan county, is a farmer by vocation ; Emma P. is the wife of David I. Ault, of Alma Harlan county; Eva P. is the wife of Frank Hatch, of Greeley, Colorado ; Alice T. is the wife of Abraham L. Bowers, of Edinburg, Texas ; and Elmer L., the immediate subject of this review, was the first in order of birth.

Reared to the sturdy discipline of a semipioneer farm, Elmer L. Hevelone acquired his early education in the excellent public schools of Gage county, and in 1890 he completed an effective course in the Beatrice Business College. As a boy and youth he had found both diversion and valuable experiencfe by working about the depot of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at Blue Springs, and there he learned -efficiently the art of telegraphy. As a skillful operator he was given employment by the railroad company mentioned, and for a time he was in service at Atchison, Kansas. Later he became station agent for the same company at Kesterson, Jeflferson county, Nebraska, where he served in this capacity until 1899, when he was transferred to a similar post in the village of Filley, Gage county, where he remained thus engaged until 1901. For eighteen months thereafter he gave his attention to the buying and shipping of grain, with headquarters at Tecumseh, Johnson county, and from 1903 to 1906 he was Burlington station agent at Blue Springs, near the old homestead farm.

In the year 1906 Mr. Hevelonf was appointed deputy treasurer of Gage county, under the administration of Julian A. Barnard, and of this position he continued the incumbent four years. His efficiency and his strong hold upon popular confidence and good will then marked him as a logical candidate for the office of county treasurer, and to this responsible position he was- elected in 1910, as the candidate on the Republican ticket. He received at the polls a most gratifying support, and the high estimate placed upon his administration was shown in his re-election at the close of his first term, without opposition in either political party. By a change in the state laws dtiring his second term the adjustment was such that instead of serving for a total of four years, the regular two terms of the previous regulation, he retained the office for five consecutive years. His ability in the management of the fiscal affairs of the county marked Mr. Hevelone as a man well fortified for the administration of financial business of a general order, and after his retirement from the office of county treasurer he was chosen president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank at Wymore, this county.

Of this position he continued in tenure two years, and in 1914 he became a stockholder and director of the State Savings & Loan Association of Beatrice, which is recognized as one of the strong, well ordered and representative financial institutions of southeastern Nebraska. In February, 1917, Mr. Hevelone was elected secretary of this banking corporation and as such he has the active administration of its large and substantial business, with incidental status as one of the efficient and representative figures in financial circles in this part of the state. The State Savings & Loan Association of Beatrice was organized and incorporated in the year 1890 and it has proved a valuable conservator of civic and material progress and prosperity in Gage county. Of this institution Albertus H. Kidd, of Beatrice, is president; Thomas J. Chidester, of Western, Saline county, is vice-president, Mr. Hevelone being its secretary, as already noted, and Louis Graff holding the office of treasurer. The assets of the institution are $1,700,000.00 and it gives special attention to the handling of savings accounts and to assisting in the purchasing and improving of real estate.

Mr. Hevelone, as intimated in a preceding paragraph, is a veritable stalwart in the local camp of the Republican party and as a citizen he stands exponent of the loyalty and public spirit that are potent in the furtherance of the general wellbeing of the community. He is one of the active and valued members of the Beatrice Commercial Club and served two years as its president. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Eastern Star, the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and the Royal Highlanders. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Christian church in their home city and are popular factors in the representative social life of the community.

On February 23, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hevelone to Miss Anna M. McVey, who was born in the state of Missouri a daughter of Solomon and Lean (Kibler) McVey, the former of whom passed the latter years of his life in Gage county, Nebraska, and Repviblic county, Kansas, his widow being now a resident of Blue Springs. Mr. and Mrs. Hevelone have one child - Maurice Sylvester, born October 23, 1905, at Blue Springs.

JOSEPH MANGUS, who has figured as a successful farmer and stockman in Gage county, was born in Macoupin county, Illinois, August 17, 1871, and is a son of William and Catherine (Garst) Mangus, a record of whom appears elsewhere in this volume.

short time after coming to Nebraska. He came to Gage county with his parents in 1881. He has always followed fanning, beginning by renting land and later buying one hundred and twenty acres in Sherman township. After operating this for a few years he purchased eighty acres on Section 33, Rockford township, where he established his home. There were no buildings on this farm when Mr. Mangus bought it, with the exception of a small shack. Mr. Mangus greatly improved this farm, upon which he erected a fine twostory house, a good modern barn, and other buildings.

On September 2, 1915, Mr. Mangus was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Hutchinson, daughter of James and Frances (Combs) Hutchinson, who were born in Illinois and who removed to Kansas in 1882. Mr. Hutchinson now makes his home in Missouri, his wife having passed away several years ago.

Joseph Mangus and wife are members of the Congregational church. Mr. Mangus is independent in politics and has never desired or held public office, thinking it better to devote his entire time and energy to his farm and the raising and feeding of live stock, in which line of enterprise he has been successful.

WALTER H. DbBOLT. - If perseverance, self-reliance and worthy purpose constitute the genius of success, then there is no need for indirection or puzzling in determining the forces that have been brought to bear in gaining advancement for Mr. DeBolt, who has depended entirely upon his own ability and resources in making his way in the world, who has shown himself a master of expedients and who has pressed steadily forward to the goal of ambition. He is now one of the stockholders of the John H. von Steen Company, one of the leading wholesale concerns of Beatrice, Nebraska, and has an active part in directing the executive policies and general business of this representative corporation, which is engaged in the wholesale and retail lumber business.

Mr. DeBolt can well claim to be intrinsically an American of Americans, as he is a scion of a family that was founded in this countrjprior to the war of the Revolution. In 1772 three brothers, William, George and Henry DeBolt, each bearing a personal name spelled according to the French method and the original French surname of DeBaul, immigrated fropi the fair French province of Alsace - the present stage of much of the frightful military operations incidental to the great European war - to America, little wotting that more than two centuries later the land of promise to which they thus made their way would become involved in warfare in their native province, to which William and Henry finally returned, the brother George remaining to perpetuate the family name and honors in the new world and to become the worthy ancestor from whom the subject of this review traces his lineal descent, the presumption being that this founder of the family in America established his residence m the historic Old Dominion - Virginia. Isaac DeBolt, grandfather of him whose name initiates this article, was born and reared in Ohio, and thus is given assurance that his parents were numbered among the pioneer settlers of the Buckeye commonwealth.

Walter H. DeBolt was born at Edinburg, Johnson county, Indiana, on the 27th of July, 1860, and is a son of George and Mary (Webb) DeBolt, both natives of Indiana, where their marriage was solemnized. In 1866 George DeBolt removed with his family to Sterling, Illinois, but in the following year he numbered himself among the pioneers of Moulton, Appanoose county, Iowa. In the spring of 1878, with team and wagon, he made the overland journey from the old home in Iowa to the state of Nebraska, and became one of the early settlers of the village of Utica, Seward county, where he opened a shop for the repairing of wagons and where he maintained his home for many years. He passed the closing period of his life at St. Petersburg, Florida, where he died at the age of eighty-three years, his wife having been seventy-seven years of age when she was sum-

Walter H. DeBolt was a lad of about seven years at the time when the family home was established in Appanoose county, Iowa, where he early became inured to active labor and responsibility, the while he made the best use of the educational advantages afforded him in the public schools. Through his own resources Mr. DeBolt defrayed the expenses of his course in the Iowa Normal School at Moulton, and it is a matter pf record that he attended extra classes three evenings a week, under the instruction of Mrs. H. M. Bushnell, who now resides in the city of Lincoln, Nebraska. He applied himself diligently to study during the midnight hours, found employment through the day and bent every energy to bringing himself up to the standard of his class, in which he was three years behind in his studies, owing to the conditions under which he applied himself. Of his indomitable perseverance and his marked mental receptiveness no further voucher need be asked than the statement that he made good on all his studies, though covering three years' work in one, and was triumphantly graduated in regular order with his class, that of 1877, besides having had the distinction of delivering the valedictory address.

Reinforced with the academic honors thus sturdily won, Mr. DeBolt set forth, in 1878, to join his parents in Seward county, Nebraska. Upon his arrival in Seward county he found employment at farm work, and though he had received absolutely no experience in the job assigned to him, he contrived, with much mortification of the flesh, as we may well imagine, to turn out his share of work in the binding of grain in the trail of a Marsh harvester. In the spring of 1880 Mr. DeBolt went to Montana, and he passed four years moving about in that frontier section of the country. He then returned to Nebraska, where for several years he was identified with the lumber business, a portion of the time in the position of auditor for the Searle & Chapin Lumber Company, of Lincoln. In 1909 he came to Beatrice, still in the employ of the company mentioned, and from this center he continued his activities as auditor until he accepted a place as traveling salesman for the John H. von Steen Company. In this capacity he made an admirable record of productive business and finally he became a stockholder of the company, besides which he has served as a member of its directorate since 1914. He now remains at the headquarters of the company and is actively identified with the general management of its extensive business. Mr. DeBolt has lost none of his characteristic nerve and energy and holds prestige not only as one of the representative business men of the Gage county metropolis and judicial center but also as a progressive and wide-awake citizen who is always ready to lend his influence and cooperation in the furtherance of measures for the general good of the community. He has not been assailed by ambition for political office but has never swerved in his allegiance to the cause of the Democratic party.

In 1888 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. DeBolt to Miss Alice Corkens, daughter of James Corkens, of Beaver Crossing, Seward county, and they are popular factors in the social life of their home city : they have no children.

SILAS BRYSON. - No one who knows the facts concerning the early settlement of Gage and Johnson counties would consider the history of these counties complete were the story of the Brj^son family omitted from its pages. Silas Bryson was one of the greatest and noblest of the early pioneers of this vicinity.

Silas Bryson was born June 20, 1835, in Athens county, Ohio. There he spent his boyhood days and he completed his education at the Zanesville Academy. On April 12, 1855, he was united in marriage to Clarinda Young, of Morgan county, Ohio. To this union were born fifteen children, twelve of whom are still living at the opening of the year 1918.

Johnson county, near the Bents Mills. Here they remained four years and they removed to Gage county and estabished their home near Adams, where Silas Bryson continued to reside until the time of his death. Shortly after coming to Nebraska the family had reason to be considerably in fear of the Indians, and on one occasion word came of an Indian uprising. All of the neighbors for miles around banded together and started for Nebraska City, sixty miles distant. Terrible rain storms came on, all the bedding became soaked, the victuals were ruined and the settlers were in dire distress. The third morning Mother Bryson arose in camp and announced her intentions of going back home. She said, "This style of living is worse than the Indians, and I am going back." Her courage inspired the crowd and by night the next day all arrived at home and found that their habitations had not been disturbed or their property molested. One winter when meat was scarce Father Bryson saw a fine big turkey coming into the clearing from the woods, and running back for his gun he soon brought the turkey down. This was the day before Christmas, and there was surely holiday rejoicing in the pioneer home. The older children have often said, "It was the finest Christmas dinner we ever had, and no turkey since has tasted half so good."

Mr. Bryson was one of the early pioneer school teachers of Gage and Johnson counties, where he spent thirty-five years in the noble work of moulding the characters of Nebraska boys and girls. He organized the Adams Methodist Episcopal Sunday School and for seventeen years was its superintendent. Mr. and Mrs. Bryson were charter members of the Methodist Episcopal church of Adams. Their oldest grandson. Dr. Roy D. Bryson, is one of the Nebraska surgeons in the war and is now in France. Three other grandsons, Edgar Evans, Horace Patch, and Frank L. Bryson, and a grand-son-in-law, James F. Brown, also are in the government service in connection with the great world war. Mrs. W. W. Bamhouse, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Silas Bryson, lives at

Wheeler, Kansas ; William E. makes his home at University Place, Nebraska; three daughters, Mrs. George Horrum, Mrs. Viola Sheppard, and Mrs. Mollie Barmore, live at Adams, Gage county, as do also the sons David F., the well-known auctioneer, and John A.; one daughter, Mrs. Jennie Patch, lives at Canby, Oregon; Mrs. Ruth Bassett lives at Bayard, Nebraska; S. Y. resides at Grand Island, this state; George lives at Arcadia, Nebraska; and another daughter, Mrs. Gertrude Evans, lives at Lincoln, Nebraska's capital city.

Although the members of this good family are rnuch scattered, yet their influence is still felt throughout Gage county. Mother Bryson passed to her reward on April 2, 1909, and Father Bryson remained with us until November 10, 1915, when he answered the summons of his Maker and joined the heavenly assembly around the throne of God.

JAMES W. SHELLEY, whose mental, moral, and physical powers well fiifted him for enduring the trials and responsibilities of pioneer life and who marked the passing years with large and worthy achievement, came to Gage county in the. territorial epoch of Nebraska history and here played a prominent and influential part in connection with civic and material development and progress. He was one of the honored pioneer citizens of the county at the time of his death, which occurred October 24, 1908, and this history properly pays a specific tribute to his memory.

Mr. Shelley was born in Derbyshire, England, February 5, 1843, a son of Francis and Frances (Hollingsworth) Shelley, who, in 1855, came with their family to the United States and established a home in Portage county, Wisconsin, in which state they remained until 1861, when they came to Nebraska Territory and numbered themselves among the very early settlers of Rockford township. Though Francis Shelley had followed in his native land the trade of shoemaker he showed versatility and adaptability when he became a pioneer farmer in Gage county, and he developed a good farm in the township mentioned. On the old homestead.

in Section 19, he passed the remainder of his life, his death having occurred May 25, 1884, at which time he was seventy-two years of age: his widow survived him by nearly a quarter of a century and passed, to the life eternal in 1897, at a venerable age, their children having been six in number.

James W. Shelley acquired his early education in his native land and was twelve years old at the time of the family immigration to America. He continued to attend school in Wisconsin, but there his advantages along this line were meager. He was a sturdy youth of eighteen years when he accompanied his parents to Gage county, Nebraska, and he drove an ox team through from the former home in Wisconsin. In 1864 he took up a homestead claim of one hundred and twenty acres, and while giving vigorous attention to reclaiming and improving this land he continued to remain at the parental home for six years after acquiring the property. With increasing .prosperity, he made judicious investment in adjoining land and finally he developed a well improved landed estate of more than four hundred acres, the while he stood forth as one of the energetic and progressive exponents of agricultural and livestock enterprise in this section of the state. He provided excellent buildings for his farm property and was known and valued as a leader in community affairs in Rockford township, where he continued to maintain his residence until his death, his venerable widow, one of the revered pioneer women of the county, being now a resident of the city of Beatrice. Mr. Shelley was a man whose course was ever guided and governed by the highest principles and his broad range of vision made him naturally a leader in community affairs. Conscientious in every relation of life, he voted in consonance with his convictions and was a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Prohibition party. He and his wife became early members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Holmesville, a village not far distant from their farm, and he served a number of years as a member of the board of trustees of this church. He was zealous in the support of