Gage County, Nebraska - Chapter 31: People Who Have Done Their Part in Making Gage County, 1918 (part 1 of 29)

Chapter 31: People Who Have Done Their Part in Making Gage County

DANIEL W. COOK. - Daniel Wolford Cook lives now only in the memory of those who knew and loved him. Though passed to that bourne from which no traveler has ever yet returned, his abilities and worth of character were such as to entitle him to a place in any history of Gage county or the state of Nebraska. During a long residence in the city of Beatrice he was a potent factor in its development and in its social and business activities, and at the moment of his demise he was one of its best known and most highly respected citizens. He responded to the summons of the death angel while yet in love with life - ere he had reached the zenith of his powers and usefulness and at a period of his career when the public was turning toward him more kindly and appreciatively than ever before; when his own nature was responding more fully than ever to the social demands of the community upon him as one of its leading citizens. After an illness of more than a year, the serious nature of which he understood, and having calmly and bravely awaited the end, on Saturday, the 4th day of March, 1916, at his home on North Seventh Street, Beatrice, he passed to that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. All that was mortal of this good and true man now rests in his tomb in Evergreen Home cemetery, near the city he loved and where so many of his happiest years were spent.

Mr. Cook was born on the 27th day of March, 1860, in the little city of Hillsdale, state of Michigan, and at the time of his death he lacked but a few days of being fifty-six years of age, an age when most men are still in their prime. He was the son of John P. Cook and Martha Wolford, and was one of ten children born to that husband and wife, six sons and four daughters. They were John P. Cook, Lewis Cass Cook, Chauncey

F., William Wilson, Catherine, Anna, Daniel Wolford, Franklin M., Caroline and Belle Cook, of whom four are still living. They are Chauncey F. and Franklin M. Cook, of Hillsdale, William Wilson Cook, of New York city, and the youngest sister, Mrs. Belle Funkhouser, of Chicago, Illinois. In addition to this family, there were five children of the half blood, born to his father John P. Cook and Betsy Wolford. Their names were Amanda, Julia, Charles H., Martha A., and Mary Cook, and none of them is now living.

Mr. Cook obtained an elementary education in the public schools of his native city and at an early age entered the well known Baptist College at Hillsdale. Later he was a student for some time in the University of Michigan, located in the city of Ann Arbor. Without graduating at either of these institutions, he obtained a good usable education - and never found himself at a disadvantage when brought into contact with people of learning and refinement.

While attending Hillsdale College Mr. Cook became acquainted with Miss Elizabeth Case, who also was a student at that institution, and in the delightful intimacy of college life a friendship was formed between them which soon ripened into romantic love, the purest of all the passions of the heart, and on the 22d day of December, 1883, they were united in marriage. The conjugal felicity of this union was never doubted by those with whom this husband and wife came in contact. It was broken only by the hand of death. Four children came to bless this union and cement the marital bond, of whom three survive. They are Daniel Wolford Cook, cashier of the Beatrice National Bank; Mary E. Ramsey, the wife of Mr. William C. Ramsey, a promising young lawyer of Omaha; and John Bradford Cook, but recently graduated from the University of Nebraska and now engaged in the banking business in the thriving western town of Scotts Bluffs, Nebraska. William W. Cook, the second and much loved son, at the age of eighteen years, was drowned while bathing in the Big Blue river, on the 27th day of August, 1905.

For many years prior to his death, Mr. and Mrs. Cook owned and occupied a beautiful home at the comer of Seventh and Summit Streets, Beatrice, erected by them in 1884. Here thirty-two years of their married life were spent together; here their children were born; and from its portals a well beloved son and husband were borne to the grave and an only and much loved daughter departed a bride. Cold indeed must be the heart that can withhold its sympathy from her to whom this spot is hallowed by so many sacred memories.

No one was less inclined to speak of himself or his family than Daniel Wolford Cook. His most intimate friends rarely heard him mention his ancestry or speak of his family beyond his imrrlediate home circle. His reticence in this respect was the more remarkable since there is much in his family genealogy of which he was, no doubt, justly proud. His reticence on this subject was probably due to a natural reserve of character which ran through his entire life, and to a fine sensitiveness concerning his personal matters,

Mr. Cook's parents were both born and reared in the town of Cato, Cayuga county. New York. His father was born in 1812, amidst the stirring scenes of our second war with England. Early in life he married Betsy Wolford, and at the age of twenty he migrated to the new Territory of Michigan, locating first at Detroit. In 1833, about four years prior to the time Michigan was admitted into the union of sovereign states, he removed to Hillsdale county and settled in the village of Hillsdale, where he resided until his death, in 1884, at the age of seventy-two years. His first wife having died about the year 1850, leaving him with a family of five young children, he in 1854, married Martha A. Wolford, her younger sister. In his early years he was a wonderfully active and a very useful man. Shortly after his arrival in Michigan, he formed the acquaintance of General Lewis Cass, and formSny years he was an intimate friend of that distinguished soldier, statesman and diplomat. He was intimately connected, almost from the first, with the social, intellectual, political, and business interests of his section of country. He was the first postmaster at Hillsdale, serving his community in that capacity for a number of years ; he was one of the trustees of the state hospital at Kalamazoo, and for a long time a trustee of Hillsdale College, president of the town board of Hillsdale, and discharged the duties of other local officers. He was a delegate to two constitutional conventions of his state, twice a member of the house of representatives, and thrice a member of the state senate of Michigan. He was an exceptionally good business man and by fortunate investments in Michigan timbered lands he had amassed a fortune, which at his death amounted to nearly half a million dollars.

On his father's side, Daniel Wolford Cook was descended in a direct line from William Bradford, who came over with the "Pilgrim Fathers" in the Mayflower, in 1620, and who for thirty years was governor of Plymouth Colony. A certain Captain David Cook became the husband of Mary Bradford in the early part of the eighteenth century, who in a direct line was the great-great-granddaughter of the Puritan governor. This Captain Cook fought with distinction in the war of the Revolution, from its beginning, in 1776, to its close, in 1783. From him was descended John P. Cook, the father of Daniel Wolford Cook. On his mother's side Mr. Cook was descended from Holland and French stock, his maternal grandfather being a Hollander and his maternal grandmother, a La Rue, French. Martha A. Cook, the mother of Daniel Wolford Cook, reached the bounds of this mortal life in 1909, the object of the solicitude and affection of a host of relatives and friends. Now all that is mortal of these Michigan pioneers lies in the Hillsdale cemetery, where after having answered the call

Shortly after leaving the University of Michigan, in 1879, Mr. Cook, at the age of nineteen years, engaged in the wholesale and retail lumber trade in Michigan City, Indiana, at the foot of Lake Michigan. His business was operated in connection with his father's lumber manufacturing plant at White Lake, Michigan, and in carrying it on, he was associated with his cousin, W. C. Wilson, now president of the Bankers Life Insurance Company of Lincoln, Nebraska. After several years' successful business, he sold his interest in the lumber trade at Michigan City to his partner, and in 1884 he came to Nebraska to seek fortune, happiness, and success in this new state.

Having, through the mediation of his brother-in-law, the late Nathan S. Harwood, and the late Jefferson B. Weston^ purchased a controlling interest in the Gage County Bank, Mr. Cook moved his family to Beatrice in February, 1884. With Harwood, Weston, and others, he reorganized the bank into a national bank, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, to be thenceforth known as the Beatrice National Bank, a title still worn by this well known banking institution. The first board of directors of the bank were Harwood, Weston, Cook, Cyrus Alden, Nathan Blakely, Silas P. Wheeler, and William Lamb, of which Mr. Weston was president and Mr. Cook vice-president. All these gentlemen, well known in the early days, have passed away, Mr. Cook being the last survivor of this board of directors. Mr. Weston served as president of the board until his death, in September, 1905, and thereafter until his demise Mr. Cook was president of the board.

Beginning at a time when Gage county was just emerging from its pioneer days, when things were new and fresh within its boundaries, when Beatrice had but recently been advanced from a mere western village to a city under the law of less than five thousand population, the steady growth of the Beatrice National Bank under Mr. Cook's management is, in a sense, typical of the growth of both the city and county. The first statement by the board of directors after he took control of the affairs of the bank, under date of September 30, 1884, showed a total volume of business amounting to the sum of $124,755.37, of which $61,235.86 were deposits. The statement of the bank issued March 7, 1916, a few days after Mr. Cook's death, showed a volume of business amounting to the sum of $1,255,020.24, of which sum $988,917.49 were deposits. Assuming the management of this bank at a time when he was not yet twentyfour years of age, the unusual abilities possessed by Mr. Cook as a business man and banker are demonstrated by the steady and rapid growth of this splendid banking enterprise. While he held its destiny in his hands not a penny of its depositors' money was lost or even jeopardized by unwise banking methods.

In the everyday affairs of the community Mr. Cook acted the part of a wise and helpful banker, readily assisting the deserving in every safe business enterprise when money was needed. He had the faculty of divining character in his customers and he was never known to err seriously in his judgment of men. He was particularly generous and helpful both in monetary affairs and in advice to young men just entering a business career and he was apt to place greater reliance upon individual honesty, when coupled with ability and energy, than upon any sort of collateral. His liberal assistance to deserving customers of his bank, his habit of taking a kind and helpful interest in their affairs and his clear, comprehensive, deliberate way of looking at things, made him one of the most all-round useful citizens of his community.

He was a man of teeming activities. In addition to the personal management of his bank he devoted considerable time to farming and the breeding and sale of live stock, and he was never happier than when going over his farm, near the village of Ellis, with some sympathetic friend. In 1891 he was induced to invest a considerable sum of money in the capital stock of the Bankers Life Insurance Company of Lincoln, Nebraska. Associated with him in this enterprise were Nathan S. Harwood, John M. Thurston;

Thomas Kimball (then vice-president of the Union Pacific Railway Company), William R. Kelly, J. E. Houtz, Charles Boggs (of Lincoln), Michael Wolbach (of Beatrice), his brother, Franklin M. Cook, and his cousin, W. C. Wilson. At the time Mr. Cook became interested in this, company its capital stock was $100,000, its assets $127,000. He afterward acquired the stock of his brother in this institution, and at the time of his death he was its second largest stockholder, its president, W. C. Wilson, being the largest. This company has prospered amazingly. Its capital stock still remains at $100,000, but its business has increased by leaps and bounds, until at the present moment its assets amount to $13,000,000. During his eritire connection with this company Mr. Cook occupied the position of vice-president, and he was also an influential member of the finance committee. In 1911, the company erected a substantial five-story, modern building at the corner of Fourteenth and M streets, Lincoln, at a cost of $300,000, where its offices are now located.

Though never seeking any sort of lucrative office for himself, Mr. Cook always manifested a deep and an intelligent interest in public aifairs. He was active in all matters relating to the welfare of his city, and in the political movements of his county and state. For many years he affiliated with the Democratic party and he was twice a delegate to the national convention of that great party. Growing dissatisfied with its attitude on the question of the coinage of silver by the federal government, as set forth in its platform of 1896, he openly withdrew from it and became an active and useful member of the Republican party. This affiliation he maintained with unswerving loyalty to the last. He was eminent in its counsels and influential in shaping its policies both at home and abroad.

From this resume it is clear that Mr. Cook's mind was turned almost wholly to the practical side of life. He was a man of affairs, keen, active, decisive. He was broad in conception, sound in judgment, and endowed with masterful powers in organizing and conducting business affairs. For thirty years he devoted his time, energy, and splendid abilities largely to laying the foundation for his own fortune and the fortunes of his business associates. Success in his several undertakings being finally assured, he extended his interest, energies, and activities to the upbuilding of the entire community. For several years prior to his demise he served faithfully and efficiently as a member of the board of public parks for the city of Beatrice. He also took a deep and friendly interest in the Young Men's Christian Association of Beatrice, and it was largely through his efforts, enterprise, enthusiasm, and love of clean, wholesome sports that the Beatrice school district now owns what is probably the finest athletic park in the west. He passed away at the moment of his greatest usefulness, when he could have been least spared and at a time when he was rapidly winning the public appreciation which always attends unselfish efforts of a high order for the upbuilding of a community.

Mr. Cook, though not directly affiliated with any religious organization at the time of his death, was never indifferent to the claims of religion or the value of Christian character. He believed in Almighty God and in an overruling providence in the affairs of men. Himself candid and direct, he despised indirection and hypocracy in others. He was an entertaining conversationalist and was well informed as respects the leading events of our country's history, the lives and characters of the public men of our day as well as the past. He delighted in clean, pointed anecdotes, and a visit with him in his private office was always a thing to be remembered. Though sometimes abrupt in manner and outspoken, at bottom he was one of the kindest and most generous of men. Though never very demonstrative, he was capable of great depth of feeling. He rarely spoke of the death of his son William without emotion and never recovered from this wound to his affections. He loved the society of men and men were fond of him. He prized his friends as few men ever did, and once his friendship was given it was never lightly withdrawn. It is hard to reflect that the grave - the silent, remorseless grave - has closed forever over the assemblage of manly qualities embodied in Daniel Wolford Cook.

THOMAS YULE. - It was within the province of the late Thomas Yule, who served one term as mayor of Beatrice, one term as city treasurer and three terms as a member of the county board of supervisors, to have wielded a large and beneficent influence in the civic, industrial, and business affairs of Gage county, and he was exponent of that high type of manhood which ever stands indicative of usefulness and subjective honor. He impressed his strong individuality deeply upon the history of Gage county, within whose gracious borders he maintained his home for nearly thirty years prior to his death, and in a publication of the functions assigned to the one at hand it is eminently consonant that a tribute be paid to his memory and recognition be accorded to him as having been one of the essentially representative men of this favored county. His character was the positive expression of a noble and loyal nature and his genial and kindly personality gained and retained to him the high regard of all with whom he came in contact.

Mr. Yule was born in Northumberland county, England, on the 20th of October, 1832, and his death occurred at his home in Beatrice, Nebraska, on the 21st of June, 1907. He was a son of George and Elizabeth (Huggett) Yule, his father having been a civil engineer by profession and having for some time held a responsible position with the London & Northeastern Railway Company. Thomas Yule received excellent educational advantages in his native land and there continued to reside until 1853, when, accompanied by his parents and his young wife, he came to the United States, the family home being established in Columbia county, Wisconsin, where the father and son became pioneer exponents of agricultural industry. The honored father died in 1871, at the age of sixty-seven years, and his wife survived him by six years, she having been seventy-three years of age at the time of her demise. Four of their six children attained to maturity and became well established in life before the death of the parents.

Todd, who likewise was bom in Northumberlandshire, a daughter of John and Mary Todd. The voyage to America on a sailing vessel of the type common to that day virtually constituted the bridal tour of the young couple, and after having been for some time associated with his father in farm enterprise in Columbia county, Wisconsin, Thomas Yule removed with his wife to the village of Lodi, that county, where he was engaged in contracting and building at the time of the inception of the Civil war. His loyalty to the land of his adoption soon found significant exposition, for on the 15th of August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in the Twenty-third Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which he entered service in the Army of the West, under General A. J. Smith, and in the Fourteenth Army Corps, commanded by General Sherman. Relative to the gallant military career of Mr. Yule the following interesting record has been given : "Mr. Yule, with his comrades, in active campaign service, traveled through Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas, and with his command participated in the first battle of Vicksburg, in the summer of 1862. He continued to take part in the various engagements in which his regiment was involved until the Uth of January, 1863, when, in the engagement at Arkansas Post, he received a wound which resulted in the loss of his right leg. The grievously wounded man was removed to the Lawson hospital, in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, where he remained until the following March, when he was honorably discharged and returned to his home, at Lodi, Wisconsin. Afterward, in recognition of his service as a soldier and the sacrifice which he had made in the cause of the Union, Mr. Yule was appointed provost marshal for his Wisconsin- district. He was elected also to the offices of justice of the peace and township treasurer, both of which he retained until 1867, when he was elected register of deeds of Columbia county, an office of which he continued the incumbent eight successive years." It may further be said that in later years Mr. Yule vitalized the memories and association of his military career as a soldier of the Union by maintaining active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, in which great patriotic organization he was one of the most popular and influential members of Rawlins Post, at Beatrice, Nebraska, in which he passed the various official chairs and with which he continued to be actively identified until the close of his life.

Mr. Yule never permitted himself to view his physical infirmity as a definite handicap, and it is certain that it did not interfere with his productive usefulness and service. After his retirement from the office of register of deeds for Columbia county, Wisconsin, he continued to be there associated with Miles T. Alverson in the abstract and loan business until April, 1879. He then sold his interest in the business and came with his family to Beatrice, Nebraska, where he engaged in the loaning of money on real-estate security and where he forthwith put his previous experience to effective use by turning his attention to the preparation of a set of abstracts of realty titles from the original records of the county. In this commendable and important work he had as his efficient coadjutor his son John T., and they continued to be actively associated in the conducting of the well ordered abstract business until his death, since which time the son has individually continued the enterprise, as noted in the review of his career, on other pages of this volume.

Mr. Yule entered most heartily and helpfully into the communal life of Beatrice and Gage county and his ability and sterling integrity marked him as specially eligible for service in offices of local trust. It has already been noted in this memoir that he served one term as mayor of Beatrice, a position in which he gave most progressive and efficient administration, and that he held for one term the office of city treasurer. In the late '80s he was elected representative of Beatrice township on the county board of supervisors, in which office he served three consecutive terms, during the last two of which he was chairman of the board. He was one of those interested in the establishing of the canning factory at Beatrice and became a member of the board of directors of the company operating the same, besides which he was a director of the Beatrice Street Railway Company. In politics Mr. Yule, with consummate strength of conviction, never wavered in his allegiance to the Republican party and he gave in a local way yeoman service in behalf of its cause. He became affiliated with the Masonic fraternity in 1858 and was actively identified with the various Masonic bodies in Beatrice at the time of his death.

The wife of the young manhood of Mr. Yule continued as his gracious and loved companion and helpmeet until she was summoned to eternal rest, her death having occurred April 11, 1881. They became the parents of four children, concerning whom the following brief data are available: Bessie J. became the wife of Louis E. Walker and is now deceased; John T. is individually mentioned on other pages of this publication; Albert G. was a boy at the time, of his death, in 1866; and Mary Grace, who completed her education by attending Brownell Hall, in the city of Omaha, is now the wife of John Gray, living in Los Angeles, California.

In 1884 Mr. Yule contracted a second marriage, when Miss Mary H. Burke became his wife. She was born in the Dominion of Canada, but was a resident of Beatrice at the time of her marriage. No children were bom of this union and Mrs. Yule survived her husband, she being now a resident of Los Angeles, California.

CLARENCE W. GRAFE. - The vicepresident of the representative mercantile corporation conducting business in the city of Beatrice under the title of The John H. von Steen Company, is recognized as one of the vital and representative business men of the younger generation in his native county and is further entitled to recognition by reason of being a scion of one of the well known and honored pioneer families of the county, within whose limits his paternal grandfather, Joseph Graff, established his residence at an early period in the history of development in Nebraska. Joseph Graff became one of the pioneer exponents of agricultural and live-stock industry in Gage county and here he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. On the old homestead farm was born Henry Graff, father of him whose name initiates this paragraph, and he was reared under the conditions and influences of 'the pioneer days - an environment that made for the development of self-reliance, ambition, and appreciation of the true values in the Scheme of human thought and action. Henry Graff received the advantages of the common schools of the Ideality an'd period and aftfer ha"Ving achieved independent success through his association with agricultural industry hfe was for a long term of years 'engaged' in the agriculttiral implement business in the fine' little' town bf Wymore, this county. He developed a large and prosperous enterprise in this line arid continued his activities in the same until his death, in 1907. He was ^influential "in civic affairs in his community, Was k stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and though not ambitious for public office he showed 'his loyalty by consenting to become the candidate of his party for the office of treasurer of the city of Wymore, his service in this capacity continuing for one term. He was a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, as is also his widow, who still maintains her home at Wymore. Of the two children, Clarence W., immediate subject of this sketch, is the elder, and the younger. Hazel, remains with her widowed mother. Mrs. Susan (Myers) Graff, widow of Henry Graff, was born in the state of Wisconsin and accompanied her parents on their removal to Gage county, Nebraska, where her marriage to Mr. Graff was later solemnized and where she has since maintained her home, her gracious personality having won to her a specially wide circle of friends. Her father, the late Valentine Myers, likewise was one of the pioneers of this county, and became one of its substantial farmers and highly esteemed citizens.

Clarence W. Graff continued his studies in the public schools until he had completed the curriculum of the high school at Wymore, his birth having occurred in the village of Blue

Springs, this county, on the 8th of October, 1889. In further preparation for the active responsibilities of life he took an effective course in the business college at Beatrice. For five months thereafter he held a clericcil position in a telegraph office in this city, and he then became associated with the John H. Von Steen Company, in which he is now one of the interested principals arid of which he' has been the vice-pfesident since 1917. His popularity in his native county is on a parity with his recognized ability and progressiveness as a business man and he take's most loyal' interest in all things touching the civid and inaterial welfare of his home city and county. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he is affiliated with Beatrice Lodge, No. 619; Benevolent & Protective Ofder of Elks.

April 25, 1917, recbfded the marriage of Mr. Graff to Miss Augusta R. Kilpatrick,, daughter of Joseph-M. Kilpatrick; of Beatrice, Nebraska, 'and they are popular factors in the representative social life of the Gage coilnty metropolis. They hold membership in the parish of Christ ChurCh, Pfotestant Episbopal, of which both are communicants.

C. C. JOHNSON, who is now living retired in the village of Filley,.has proved himself a man of might, like Tubal Cain of old, and for many years he followed the sturdy trade of blacksmith, through the medium of which he achieved the prosperity that enables, him to pass the gracious evening of his life in well earned peace and comfort.

Mr. Johnson was born in Denmark, on the 26th of February, 1844, and is a son of John Christ and Anna Christina (Christiansen) Anderson, the latter of whom passed her entire life in Denmark and the former of whom came to the United States in 1884, settling first in Illinois, but a few months later coming to Nebraska, where he passed the remainder of his life. Of the ten children only two are now living, the subject of this review being the elder and Nels being a resident of the city of Chicago. The father was a blacksmith by trade and after coming to the United States he lived retired until his death, the closing period of his , life having been passed in the home of his son C. C., subject of this sketch. Both he and his wiie were earnest communicants of the Danish Lutheran church.

C. C. Johnson acquired his early education in his native land and there learned the trade of blacksmith under the effective direction of his father. He was twenty-eight years of age when he came to the United States and established his residence in the city of Kankakee, Illinois, where he was employed three years in one blacksmith shop. He continued to follow his trade in that state for seven years and then, in 1879, he came to Gage county, Nebraska, where he opened a little blacksmith shop four miles north of the present village of Filley. When this village was platted he here established its first blacksmith shop, and he was not only the first citizen to erect a house in the village but also the first to buy a lot in the newly established cemetery, in which the remains of his stepmother were the first interred. He continued actively and successfully in the work of his trade, with a large and representative patronage, until 1902, since which time he has lived virtually retired. Mr. Johnson has gained and retained the unqualified confidence and esteem of the community in which he has long maintained his home. He has a little farm of nine acres and finds recreation in giving to the same his personal supervision. He is independent in politics and is an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his wife.

In 1873 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Johnson to Miss Anna Nelson, who likewise was bom in Denmark. She is the daughter of Christ Nelson, whose entire life was passed in Denmark, his widow having finally come to the United States and having been a resident of Iowa at the time of her death, in 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson became the parents of six children, of whom three are living : Lars Jansen is now a resident of Iowa ; Sena Peterson maintains' his home in the state of Texas ; and Mrs. Johnson is the oldest of the number. To Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have been born five children : Fritz owns and operates a farm of eighty acres, four miles northeast of Filley; Nels is a farm employe in this county, as is also Louis; Lena is the wife of Chester Hill, of Filley, and they have one son, Lloyd Everett; and Clara remains at the parental home.

JOHN O. ADAMS. - The chance traveler who might have found his way in the spring of 1857 into what is now the beautiful Nemaha valley would have seen in what is now Adams township, Gage county, something that looked like the beginning of a home, but, knovving that no settlers vvere in the neighborhood, he would have been at a loss to understand the meaning thereof until he chanced to notice, stretched between two saplings, a tablet of bark, upon which was written, "John O. Adams claims this tract of land, this 30th day of March, 1857."

The late John O. Adams was born in New Jersey, July 17, 1808, and when a child was taken by his parents to Kentucky. In 1838 he moved to Dubois county, Indiana, and in 1840 he married Letitia Harris, a native of Kentucy, born January 4, 1812. Mr. Adams engaged in farming in Dubois county until the fall of 1856, when he started west. On October 20th the family arrived at the home of a brother in Atchison county, Missouri. In the early spring Mr. Adams started to look over the country and find a suitable place to locate, and the result was his making a claim in Gage county, Nebraska, as above stated. This locality was known as Clay county at that time. With two covered wagons drawn by oxen which he had driven from Indiana, he and his family came to that new home. Not a wagon track was to be seen or a habitation found for many miles from the spot where he located. They had to build a bridge to cross the Nemaha river. On Section 26, Adams township, half a mile east of where the town of Adams now stands, they unloaded their goods, Mr. Adams's wife and their seven children having accompanied him. They cut and hewed logs, and just one month from the day they arrived they moved into their new home.

Here the family assiduously set about to develop a farm out of the wild and unbroken prairie. This was ten years before Nebraska became a state. No homestead laws were in existence, and Mr. Adams held squatter sovereignty over one hundred and sixty acres until he could file and prove up. Here he reared his family amid the pioneer conditions, .and he prospered. Before his death he divided a section of land among his children and lived to see them all well established in life.

fo be the first permanent white settler in Gage county. He was one of the founders of the Methodist church in the township and was a devoted member. He was a Republican in politics and represented old Clay county on the board of commissioners. He was a blacksmith by trade and conducted a shop on his farm. This worthy pioneer passed from the scene of earthly activities December 24, 1887. His wife had preceded him to eternal rest many years previously, her death having occurred November 21, 1867.

concerning whom the following data are available: Nelson A. resides at Adams; Nancy became the wife of B. P. Zuver and is now deceased ; Isaac and Leander are deceased ; John Q. was the next and his whereabouts are unknown; Naomi became the wife of Thomas Davis Mosby and lives in Adams township; Anna is deceased; and one child died in infancy.

CALVIN STARR, M. 'D. - Dr. Calvin Starr, who was nearly ninety-four years of age at the time when he passed from the stage of life's mortal endeavors, came to Nebraska at the beginning of the decade following its admission as one of the sovereign states of the Union, and Gage county was favored in having eventually gained him as a citizen and as an able and distinguished representative of the noble profession to which he gave himself with all of earnestness and self-abnegation for more than sixty years. To his name and memory the county shall ever pay a tribute of veneration and afifection, and this publication would stultify its consistency were there failure to enter at least brief record concerning the singularly interesting and truly unassuming and exalted life record of this venerated citizen, who passed to eternal rest on the 25th of November, 1915, at his home in the city of Beatrice.

Dr. Starr was one of the favored mortals whom nature launches into the world with the heritage of sturdy ancestry, a splendid physique, a masterful mind and energy enough for many men. Added to these attributes were exceptional intellectual and professional attainments and the useful lessons of a wide and varied experience stored away. He was a type of the true gentleman and a representative of the best in the communal life, dignified and yet possessed of an affability and abiding human sympathy that won him warm friends among all classes and conditions of men.

Dr. Starr, a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of the old Buckeye state, was born on the old homestead farm of his parents, in Franklin county, Ohio, and the date of his nativity was April 2, 1822. It is worthy of special note that this ancestral homestead, now in part occupied by the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, was an integral portion of the original tract of land deeded by the government to an ancestor of Dr. Starr in recognition of his services as a patriot soldier in the war of the Revolution. An appreciable portion of the original allotment of land remained for several generations in the possession of the Starr family, and Dr. Starr himself owned at one time a part that now lies between the Ohio State University and the state capitol.

The youngest in a family of eleven children, all of whom attained to years of maturity. Dr. Starr passed the period of his childhood and early youth under the sturdy and invigorating discipline of the home farm, his father, John Starr having become one of the substantial exponents of agricultural industry in Franklin county, where he reclaimed a productive farm from the virtual forest wilderness. John Starr was bom in Nova Scotia, and as a young man he established his residence in Connecticut, where was solemnized his marriage to Miss Betsey Havens, a native of Groton, that state. In 1812, John Starr and his wife removed to the wilds of Ohio and settled in Franklin county, the site of the present capital city of the state having at that time been marked by a single log house. Living up to the full tension of pioneer life, John Starr and his noble wife passed the residue of their lives in Franklin county. He was a man of strong mind and sterling character - a citizen who was influential in community affairs, he having been in his young manhood a successful teacher and the passing years having continuously widened his intellectual horizon. His death occurred in 1837, and his widow survived him by thirty years, she having passed to the life eternal in 1865. Both were devoted Christians in faith and service, and in politics Mr. Starr was to be found a staunch supporter of the cause of the old-line Whig party.

county and later he completed a four years' course in Central College, at Blendon, Ohio, where his alert mind and distinctive ambition enabled him to make the best possible use of the higher academic advantages thus offered. In consonance with well formulated plans he finally began the study of medicine under private preceptorship, in accordance with the custom of the day, and in the furtherance of his technical education he took two full courses of lectures in historic old Starling Medical College, which is now a part of the University of Ohio. In completing his admirable fortification for the work of his exacting profession Dr. Starr entered the Homeopathic Medical College at Cleveland, Ohio, one of the first and most important Homeopathic colleges in the west, and in this institution he was graduated February 21, 1851, with the well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. In this connection it may consistently be stated that at the time of his death Dr. Starr was the oldest alumnus of this college, which, about the year 1912, was removed from Cleveland to Columbus, where it became the constituent Homeopathic medical school of the University of Ohio. The Doctor, a pioneer of the benignant system of Homeopathy in the west, ever retained a deep affection for his alma mater, and after his death his widow, Mrs. Julia C. Starr, M. D., received a letter from a member of the faculty of the college, the context of the communication containing statements that are worthy of preservation in this connection : "In the death of Dr. Starr our college loses its oldest alumnus, and one whose name was frequently mentioned in faculty meetings, especially in connection with the oil painting of Hahnemann that Dr. Starr presented to the college. It is a privilege granted to but few men to be permitted to engage actively in the practice of medicine for more than sixty years, and to his family it is an occasion of just pride to know that the husband and father was permitted to accomplish so great an amount of good in the world." It may further be noted that the Hahnemann portrait thus presented by Dr. Starr now occupies a place of honor in the

Homeopathic building of the University of Ohio and that since his death there has been attached thereto a metal plate with the following inscription: "Calvin Starr, M. D., Class of 1851, Donor."

After having been graduated, with high honors, Dr. Starr began his professional novitiate by engaging in active general practice at Xenia, Ohio, but one year later he removed to Springfield, that state, where he remained five years. Becoming convinced that a greater field of usefulness lay open for him in connection with the rapidly developing west, Dr. Starr removed to Iowa City, Iowa, in the year 1857, and as one of the most able and honored pioneer physicians of the Hawkey e state he continued in active practice at Iowa City for twenty years, within which he built up a large and representative professional business, besides contributing much to civic and material progress and prosperity in his home community.

In 1877, ten years after Nebraska had gained the dignity of statehood, Dr. Starr came with his family to this now favored commonwealth, and after successfully continuing in practice at Nebraska City for five years he came, in 1882, to Beatrice, judicial center of Gage county, which place remained the central stage of his earnest and able professional activities during the remainder of his long and useful life, he having been a veritable patriarch of the community at the time of his death. In his profession and as a man he was ever one to remember and aid "those who were forgotten" and he bore optimistic cheer and encouragement as well as professional ministration to those in suffering or distress, so that it may well be understood that he was loved in every community in which he had lived and labored. At this juncture may consistently be reproduced an appreciative estimate that was a part of an obituary article published in a Beatrice paper at the time of his demise:

"Dr. Starr had marked abilities as a physician and as a man of high moral character and kindly disposition. On account of his advanced years, nearly ninety-four, he had been confined to his home for some time, but his influence has continued to go forth with all who came to see him. He inherited those virtues which go to make sterling manhood, but he did not rest content with mere ancestral bequest. While true to the faith of his fathers in every essential, yet he thought for himself and followed the truth as God gave him to see it, the finest product of his religious belief being a character that gave him the absolute confidence of his fellow men - and that is the final test of religion." The Doctor was an active member and liberal supporter of the Congregational church of Beatrice, as is also his widow.

As a young man Dr. Starr wedded Miss Sophia J. McPherson, of Xenia, Ohio, and she passed the closing years of her life at Iowa City, Iowa, where she died April 23, 1876. Of this union were born five children, concerning whom the following brief data are given : George B. now resides in the state of California; Clarence A. is a resident of Winona Lake, Indiana; Emma H. was a resident of Lincoln at the time of her death; and Mary P. and John A. maintain their residence in California, the former being the wife of W. S. Bray ton.

On the 27th of June, 1878, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Starr to Dr. Julia C. (Candee) Scudder, of Muscatine, Iowa, her first husband having been Horace Scudder, and the one child of this union was Horace, Jr., who died in 1906. Mrs. Starr was bom at Muscatine, Iowa, and is a daughter of Sheldon N. and Lucy A. (Starr) Candee, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of Ohio. The parents were numbered among the honored pioneers of both Iowa and Nebraska and they passed the closing period of their lives in the latter commonwealth, the father having devoted the major part of his active career to the carriage-factory business, and both having been residents of Beatrice, Nebraska, at the time of their death.

Dr. Julia C. Starr, a woman of high professional attainments, became the able and valued coadjutor of her husband in the control of their large and representative joint prac- tice in Gage county, and she still maintains her office at the attractive home at 409 North Sixth street, Beatrice. She was graduated in the medical department of the University of Iowa, at Iowa City, and an unequivocal success has attended her benignant service in the practice of her profession, in which she has gained status as one of the leading women physicians and surgeons of Nebraska. She still continues in active practice and her gracious womanhood and gentle sympathy have enhanced the effectiveness of her earnest labors in the alleviation of human suffering, the while she has gained the affectionate regard of all who have received her ministrations and counsel. She has a large practice, in connection with which she spares herself neither time nor effort, and she insistently keeps in touch with the advances made in medical and surgical science, through recourse to the best standard and periodical literature of her profession, the while she is a gracious and popular figure in the representative civic and social life of her home city, where her circle of friends is coincident with that of her acquaintances. No children were born of her second marriage, but the Doctor holds hallowed memories of the gracious relations that obtained at all times during the years of her conjugal and professional association with the honored subject of this memoir.

WILLIAM HOLM has identified himself most fully with the civic and material interests of Gage county, for he is not only a representative merchant in the village of Virginia, but is also the owner of a well improved farm estate in Sherman township. He is a native son of the west and has exemplified its progressive spirit in the varied activities that have brought to him a generous share of temporal prosperity.

Mr. Holm was bom in Pottawatomie county, Kansas, on the 6th of January, 1873, and is a son of Charles J. and Louise (Anderson) Holm, who were born and reared in Sweden, where their marriage was solemnized. In 1865 the parents came to the United States and settled in Kansas, where the father became a pioneer farmer of Pottawatomie county and improved his farm of one hundred and twenty acres, and where he passed the remainder of his life. William Holm was the youngest member in a family of four children and was six years of age at the time of his mothei''s death. John E., the eldest of the children, is a farmer in Kansas ; Charles A., who was for several years engaged in the plumbing business at Virginia, Gage county, is now a resident of Lincoln, Nebraska, and is a traveling salesman; and Frank has the active charge of the fine Gage county farm of hi? brother William, of this review. For his second wife Charles J. Holm wedded Miss Lottie Carlson and the one child of this union is Emma, the wife of Walter F. McGaffey, of Virginia, Gage county. Charles J. Holm was a Republican in politics and he and each of his wives held the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church.

The public schools of the Sunflower state afforded to William Holm his early educational advantages and the same were supplemented by a course in shorthand and typewriting in Pond's Business College, in the city of Topeka, as well as by further commercial instruction in the Kansas City Business University. In his youth, after leaving the farm, Mr. Holm became associated with the retail lumber business, at Olesburg, Kansas, and in the spring of 1893 he came to Gage county and established his residence in Virginia. Here for two years he conducted a lumber yard, and for seventeen years thereafter he was successfully established in the hardware business, besides serving simultaneously as postmaster of the village. He finally sold his hardware stock and business and eighteen months later he purchased the stock and business of J. S. Hubka. He expanded the business by installing a large and well selected stock of general merchandise and has since conducted a most substantial and prosperous enterprise. He is the owner of a well improved farm property of three hundred and twenty acres, and the same is under the active charge of his brother Frank, as previously noted. On this place he is giving special at-

In 1896 Mr. Holm wedded Miss Bessie Wright, who was born and reared in Gage county, and who is a daughter of Amos L. Wright, a retired farmer residing in the village of Virginia, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Holm have two children - Grace A., who is a student in the Beatrice high school ; and Mildred Genevieve, who had the distinction of receiving first prize as the best baby girl at the Gage county fair in 1917. Mrs. Holm is an active member of the Christian church,

Mr. Holm has been active and liberal as a citizen of intense public spirit, has held various township offices, and commands inviolable place in popular confidence and good will.

NELSON ADAMS. - The subject of this record has the distinction of being the oldest living settler in Gage county. When a lad of sixteen years he arrived in what is now Adams township, in com.pany with his father, John O. Adams, who was the first permanent settler of the county. Mr. Adams was born in Dubois county, Indiana, February 24, 1841. He grew to manhood on the pioneer farm in Nebraska and at an early age began to aid in the development and improvement of the old homestead. In September, 1864, he enlisted in Company C, Second Nebraska Regiment, for a term of four months, or during the war. He was sent to Fort Kearney and from there to Camp Blue, where the winter was passed. In the spring of 1865, the regiment was honorably discharged and young Nelson returned home The next year he was united in marriage to Miss Laura Haskins and they settled on a farm he had purchased. But they were destined to enjoy their companionship for only a brief season, for four months and eight days after their marriage Mrs. Adams passed away. In April of that year Mr. Adams made a trip of over five hundred miles, into Colorado. He drove overland from Nebraska City with a load of produce - eggs, butter, corn, etc. - and the Indians made it so uncomfortable for him that he was compelled to hasten to Denver. He had entered a homestead in Section 25, Adams township, . and had built a log house sixteen by twentytwo feet in dimensions. He returned from the west and in 1868 he married Miss Lydia J. Wilson, a native of Putnam county, Indiana. Of this union were born two children, Nancy E., who is the wife of C. B. Ashcroft and resides in Wyoming, and Letitia O., who died in childhood. The mother of these children passed away, and the present Mrs. Adams was in her girlhood Emily J. Dilworth. She is a native of Grant county, Kentucky, where she was boi^n April 7, 1843. Her parents,

Lindsey and Sarah (Simpson) Dilworth, came to Nebraska in 1863, settling in Johnson county. They gave the name to the town of Crab Orchard, from the large number of wild crab-apple trees growing in the vicinity. By a former marriage, to William H. Stoner, who was a Union soldier in the Civil war, Mrs. Adams became the mother of three children, the eldest of whom is William H. Stoner, who resides in Cass county, Minnesota, and is the only one now living. At the time of her marriage to Mr. Adams, Mrs. Adams was the widow of G. T. Simpson, and their one son,

Hugh M., died at the age of seventeen years. Nelson Adams successfully followed farming until 1902, when he retired, and he now makes his home in Adams. He has been a witness of the vast changes which have taken place in Gage county, having been a member of the first family to establish a home here. Mr. Adams is a Methodist in religious belief, and in politics is a Republican. He held various township offices years ago, but is now retired from all activities.

ELIJAH FILLEY. - In the summer of 1867, the year that marked the admission of Nebraska to statehood, Hon. Elijah Filley, a young man of industry, self-reliance, and courage, came with his wife to Gage county and numbered himself among its sterling pioneers. He and his faithful wife ran the full gamut of pioneer experience and their reriiiniscences of the early days are most graphic and interesting. They made the overland journey to Nebraska with teams and wagons and girded themselves with the indomitable valor and undauntable purpose that are ever the prerequisite of success under the conditions that must obtain in opening a new country to civilization and progress. Mr. Filley has been in the most significant sense the architect of his Own fortunes and few men have pkyed a larger or more benignant part in connection with the development and upbuilding of Gage county along both civic and industrial lines. Of this no further assurance need be given than the statement that a township and a village of the county have been named in honor of this venerable pioneer citizen, while it has been his to represent Gage county in both houses of the state legislature, to gain through his own ability and well ordered energies a substantial fortune, the while he has so ordered his course as to merit and receive at all stages the unqualified respect and confidence of his fellow men. It is most gratifying to be able to present in this publication a tribute to Mr. Filley as a pioneer of pioneers and to enter brief review of a career that has been marked by earnest and honest endeavor. He and his wife now live in gracious retirement in the city of Des Moines, Iowa, and though venerable in age the years rest lightly upon them, while they find a full measure of satisfaction in reverting to the attractive social and material conditions and environment which they have aided in creating in Gage county, Nebraska. Mr. Filley was bom in Jackson county, Michigan, on the 28th of November, 1839, and is a son of Ammi and Mary (Marvin) Filley, both natives of Bloomfield, Connecticut, where they were reared and educated. Ammi Filley, a member of one of the early colonial families of New England, was born January 2, 1808, and he continued his residence in Connecticut until 1833, when he immigrated to Michigan, which state was not admitted to the union until 1837. He became one of the pioneers of Jackson county, where he reclaimed a farm from the forest and where he continued his active alliance with agricultural industry about thirty years. In the summer of 1867 he retired from the active labors that had so long been his portion and accompanied his son Elijah, of this review, to Gage county, Nebraska, where he remained until his death and where he received during the intervening period the deepest filial care and solicitude on the part of his son and the latter's family. He was seventy-two years of age at the time of his death, which occurred May 13, 1880. Ammi Filley was one of the gallant sons of the nation who went forth in defense of the Union when the Civil war was precipitated on the country. In response to President Lincoln's first call, he enlisted as a private in Company D, Second Michigan Cavalry, and with this gallant command he served throughout the entire course of the war. He was a skilled sharpshooter and participated in many of the important battles marking the progress of the great conflict. He took part in the siege of Vicksburg and the famous charge at Fort Donelson, and previously had been with his command in heavy campaigns and engagements in the southern states farther to the east. In later years he found pleasure in vitalizing the associations of his military career by affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. Ammi and Mary (Marvin) Filley becarne the parents of four sons and two daughters, and of the number only Elijah is living in 1918.

Elijah Filley was but five years old at the time of his mother's death, and the home was broken up. For about three years thereafter he lived in the home of a man named Crandall, a farmer in Jackson county, Michigan, and his father then contracted a second marriage and re-established a home for his children. However, with so little consideration and kindness did the stepmother treat Elijah Filley that he was compelled to leave home when about twelve years of age, and the immature youth began to provide for himself by taking up the arduous work of plowing for a neighbor farmer for a compensation of six dollars a month. In reminiscent way he frequently reverts to this period of his life, when he drove the plodding ox-team to the plow and did other heavy farm work. He continued to be employed by the month as a farm hand during the summer seasons and attended school during the intervening winter terms, the while he worked mornings and evenings to pay his board.

In 1858, when nineteen years of age, Mr. Filley went to Joliet, Illinois, and there he was employed by the firm of Poole & Ring on one of the canal boats on the old Michigan & Illinois canal until the freezing of the canal put a stop to such navigation. During the following winter he was employed in sawing wood for use on railroad locomotives, and he recalls that the buzz-saw used for the purpose was operated bj' a treadmill on which power was furnished by horses. In 1859 Mr. Filley went to Odell, Livingston county, Illinois, and after working for a time on a farm in that vicinity he made his way to LaSalle county, that state, where for three years he was engaged in herding, driving, and dealing in live stock, in the employ of William Strawn, an extensive farmer and stock dealer of the day. In company with Mr. Strawn he made the overland trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and incidentally accumulated a herd of one hundred and forty-six fat cattle at Des Moines, Iowa.

With this large herd they then started for Chicago, but Mr. Strawn was summoned to his home, when fifteen miles east of Des Moines, so that Mr. Filley alone had charge of driving the cattle through to the future metropolis of the west. During his three years of association with Mr. Strawn he gained knowledge and experience that proved of inestimable value to him in later operations of an independent order that enabled him to lay the substantial foundation for his success. After leaving Mr. Strawn he continued to be engaged in farming in Livingston county, Illinois, until 1867, in the summer of which year he provided himself with three covered wagons and three good teams, and with these set forth on the overland journey to the new state of Nebraska, his young wife accompanying him on this momentous trip. In due course of time they arrived in Gage county, and here Mr. Filley utilized the money which he had previously acquired to effect the purchase of six quarter-sections of government land, besides which he filed claim on a homestead of equal area. His horses died soon after his arrival in the county and he finally acquired ox teams and began breaking the virgin prairie soil to pay for his oxen. He continued to break soil for others for about three years and in the meanwhile established a pioneer home on his own land. Instead of following the custom of the majority of the early settlers by providing a dug-out or sod house, Mr. Filley determined to make a residence of less primitive type. In the meanwhile he and his wife lived in a tent and around the same they eventually built a stone house of one room, this structure having in later years been familiarly known as "The Old Stone House," and constituting one of the veritable landmarks of this section of the state. Mr. Filley himself quarried the stone and burned the lime for mortar, while Mrs. Filley hauled the material to the site of the new home by means of the ox team. Together these ambitious pioneers mixed the mortar and laid the walls of the little dwelling, after which a roof was constructed. They lived in the one room during the first winter and in the following summer they added to the domicile, eventually making the house one of good size and excellent provisions for comfort. In this dwelling they continued to maintain their home for sixteen years.

Soon after coming to Nebraska Mr. Eilley put his previous experience to good use by buying cattle to stock his large farm, and soon he developed a prosperous business in the feeding and shipping of cattle. On the completing of the railroad line to Beatrice he had the distinction of loading the first carload of cattle ever transported from Gage county to Chicago by rail. Later the railroad was extended to the present village of Filley, which was named in his honor and which is situated on a part of his old farm. He there erected a large grain elevator, the same having thereafter been utilized by him for many years in connection with his extensive operations in the buying and shipping of grain.

When the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad was completed from Beatrice to Nebraska City, Mr. Filley, in the summer of 1883, founded on the line the town which bears his name and which, as before stated, is located on one of his farms. In 1885 the county authorities conferred upon him a merited distinction, in that they authorized the changing of the name of Mud Creek township to Filley township, a fitting tribute to the sterling pioneer who was the first settler within the limits of that township. Mr. Filley was for a long term of years recognized as the most progressive and substantial farmer, stock-feeder, and stock-shipper in this section of the state, and among his early enterprises of importance was also the owning and operating of a threshing outfit.

About the year 1890 Mr. Filley sold the major part of his large and important realestate and business interests in Gage county, and settled on a tract of one thousand acres which, in an early day, he had purchased in the adjoining county of Jefferson. This property he improved in excellent order and he operated the same successfully in connection with his extensive stock business for several years - until, in fact, he met with an accident that nearly resulted in his death. He then decided to sell his property and retire from active business, and since that time he and his devoted wife have lived in the serene enjoyment of the gracious rewards of former years of earnest endeavor.

In politics Mr. Filley has been a recognized stalwart in the ranks of the Republican party and as a progressive citizen he wielded much influence in shaping the governmental policies that brought normal development and growth to Gage county. He was elected county commissioner and in this office served two terms, of three years each. In 1881 and 1883 he represented Gage county in the state legislature, and soon after his retirement from this office he was elected state senator from his district, in which position he served until 1885. His record as a legisaltor has become a very part of the history of the state and is illumined by his characteristic loyalty and public spirit. Mr. Filley has been affiliated with the Masonic fraternity since 1866, was made a Master Mason and also a Royal Arch Mason in Fairbury, Illinois. He then settled in Nebraska and was a charter member and helped to organize the Blue Lodge, No. 26, also the chapter and commandery at Beatrice, Nebraska. Then he organized Temple Lodge, No. 175, at Filley, and of this he served as master for about twelve years.

Matured and invigorated through the herculean labors and hardships of the pioneer daySj the physical constitution of Mr. Filley has been sturdy and thus he retains, as he nears the eightieth milestone on the journey of life, the mental and physical vigor of a man many years his junior, while his loved wife has been his devoted companion and helpmeet for more than half a century - a woman whose strength has been as the number of her days and who had a remarkable share in pioneer experience in the great west, as will be attested by statements yet to be made in this context.

On the 4th of November, 1863, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Filley to Miss Burd, of Pleasant Ridge, Livingston county, Illinois. She was born in Will county, that state, November 6, 1844, and is a daughter of Silas and Betsey Ann Burd, the former of whom was born in New Jersey, December 8, 1818, and the latter of whom was bom in the state of New York, on the 13th of September, 1817. Silas Burd numbered himself among the pioneers of Illinois and later emphasized his pioneer experience by removing with his family to Texas, this action having been taken primarily for the benefit of the health of himself and his wife. Mrs. Filley was a girl of twelve years when the family thus removed to the Lone Star state, and the greater part of the journey was made with teams and wagons. Georgetown, Texas, was made the destination and from that headquarters Mr. Burd engaged in buying and selling cattle and horses. Mrs. Filley accompanied him in his trips about the country to buy stock, and finally, with a herd of about eighty cattle and several ponies, they started overland for Chicago in the spring of 1858. In the meanwhile Mr. Burd had traded his wagons for a top buggy, cattle, etc., and in starting forth on the long journey a sturdy yoke of oxen was provided for the transportation of the camp outfit. The family started on this return trip when Mrs. Filley was a girl of about fifteen years and she assisted, in driving the ox team. They had proceeded as far as Waco, Texas, when the fa^er Was so stricken with illness as to be unable to proceed farther, and in the camp which they made he died on the 22d of February, 1859, leaving his wife ill in bed and with the care of theif two sons and three daughters. Mrs. Filley, the eldest of the children, bravely assumed the care of her mother and the directing of family afifairs in general after the remains of the loved father had been laid to rest in Texas soil. After the grass came up in the following spring the little family resumed their weary journey to the east, with the cattle and general camp equipment. On they drove through Texas and the Indian Territory, where they were urged by each successive Indian tribe encountered to give one or more head of the little band of cattle, in order to obtain permission to pass on unmolested, but

Mrs. Filley, with a courage and tact beyond her years, contrived to gain this permission without sacrificing the live stock, only one beef steer having been contributed to the Indians. Continuing in the saddle every day, she led the outfit onward until they crossed the Mississippi river at Alton, Illinois, where they were joined by a brother of her mother. Thus reinforced the party continued the journey to Livingston county, Illinois, and in the village of Avoca the family rented a house until the live stock could be sold in the Chicago market, to which Mrs. Filley assisted in driving the cattle from the Texas wilds - in fact she thus made the entire trip from Texas to Chicago on the back of a little Texas pony. After the sale of the cattle the family purchased a farm in Livingston county and there Mrs. Filley remained until her marriage, within a few years after which it was again her portion to endure the trials and vicissitudes of pioneer life, as noted in foregoing paragraphs.

Mr. and Mrs. Filley became the parents of six children, concerning whom the following brief data are given : Fitch died at the age of twelve years ; Hiram is now a resident of the state of Arkansas ; Emma died at the age of eighteen years; Oscar Elijah died in April, 1916, aged forty-six years; Charles Elmer was four years of age at the time of his death; Daisy C. is the wife of Murray A. Scoular, of Des Moines, Iowa.

The foregoing record, implying much to him who can read between the lines as well as appreciate the data, of the context itself, will be read with pleasure by the many friends of Mr. and Mrs. Filley in Gage county and will prove a definite and worthy contribution to the generic history of this favored section of Nebraska, as their names merit enduring place of honor and distinction on the pages of Gage county history.

SAMUEL RINAKER. - No history of Gage county or the state of Nebraska wouW be complete without the name of Samuel Rinaker. For nearly a third of a century this able and scholarly lawyer has made his home in the city of Beatrice and has engaged in the active practice of his profession in the state and federal courts. During this entire period of time he, with the several firms of which he has been a member, has enjoyed a lucrative practice at the bar of this county and state. He has been professionally connected from the beginning of his career as a lawyer here with a large portion of the important litigation arising in this section of the country, and by sheer force of character, learning and abilities of a high order, he has embedded his tiame deeply and permanently in the legal history of his state and country.

Mr. Rinaker was born at Carlinville, Macoupin county, Illinois, on the 14th day of September, 1860. He is the second son of the late John I. Rinaker and Clarissa Keplinger, his wife. Besides Samuel, the surviving children, of these worthy parents are the eldest son, Thomas Rinaker, a prominent lawyer of Carlinville and for many years his father's partner in the practice of the law; John I. Rinaker, a well known and successful architect of the city of Springfield, Illinois, and Judge Lewis Rinaker, who after several years' successful practice at the Chicago bar was elected judge of the county court of Cook county, Illinois, and held this important office four years.

Shortly after locating in Beatrice, Mr. Rinaker married Miss Carrie Palmer Mayo, who like himself was a native of Carlinville and who was the da.ughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Palmer) Mayo. Her father was a prominent and influential citizen of Macoupin county and her mother was a sister of the late General John M. Palmer, of whom further mention will be made later on in this sketch.

Mr. and Mrs. Rinaker occupy a handsome and attractive home at the corner of Fifth and Washington streets, Beatrice. Their mairriage has proven to be a happy one - lapse of time serving only to cement more firmly the marital bond. To Mr. and Mrs. Rinaker two children have been born, Samuel Mayo Rinaker, a son, and Miss Carrie Rinaker, a daughter. The former after graduating at the Beatrice high school in 1905, with highest honors, entered the Nebraska State University in the autumn of that year and after two years spent in that institution, successfully passed a competive examination for a Rhoades scholarship in Oxford University, England, as a representative from the state of Nebraska. In 1910 he was graduated with honors from that historic institution and, returning to the United States, he entered the law departent of Harvard University. After a three years' course at Harvard he took his degree as Bachelor of Eaws in the spring of 1914 and in the fall of that year he went to Chicago, Illinois, where he is now well established in the practice of his profession The daughter. Miss Carrie Rinaker, also graduated from the high school of Beatrice, as a member of the class of 1909, and in the autumn of that year was matriculated as a student of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. She attended this institution for some time and is domiciled under the paternal roof.

While pride of ancestry is not a marked characteristic of the American citizen, it is, nevertheless, not only natural but highly commendable that one should feel a just pride in the fact that he has descended from ancestors who were more than ordinarily distinguished in their day ' and generation. With this thought in mind it is hoped that a brief account of the parents of Samuel Rinaker will not be deemed inappropriate in this sketch of their son.

His father, John I. Rinaker, was one of the best known and widely influential citizens of the great state of Illinois. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in the year 1830. He was bereft of his parents when a child six years of age and was taken to Illinois, where for a tew years he made his home with the family of John T. Alden of Sangamon county. When ten years of age he was thrown on his own resources and found a home and occupation on a farm. He acquired the rudiments of an education by attending the common schools of Illinois in the winter time. By great industry, thrift and economy, as well as by close application to his studies, he was finally enrolled as a student in the Illinois Col- lege at Jacksonville, where he remained for some time, and later entering McKendree College at Lebanon, Illinois, he was graduated from that institution with the class of 1851, receiving afterward from his alma mater the degree of Doctor of Laws. Animated by an ambition to give full scope to his abilities, he entered upon the study of the law in the ofiSce of John McAuley Palmer, at Carlinville, shortly after his graduation. His preceptor, in addition to being a lawyer of renown, became afterwards distinguished as a general in the Union army during the great Civil war and as a politician of more than ordinary ability. His services as major general of volunteers began in 1862, and he closed his military career as a commander of an army corps under General Sherman, in 1865 . He was elected United States senator from Illinois in 1869 as a Republican and again in 1891, as a Democrat, and he closed his political career as a candidate for the presidency of the United States as a sound-money Democrat, in 1896.

General Rinaker was admitted to the bar at Carlinville, in 1854, and was immediately successful in his profession. In 1862 he took an active part in organizing the One Hundred and Twenty-second Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, was elected and commissioned its colonel and served throughout the remainder of the great Civil war at the head of this gallant regiment - participating in its marches, sieges, battles, victories. He was seriously wounded in the battle of Parker's Cross Roads, December 31, 1862, but as soon as he recovered he rejoined his command, and on the 13th day of March, 1865, a month before Lee surrendered to Grant at lAppomattox Court House, Virginia, he was breveted brigadier general of volunteers, on account of "great and meritorious services". At the close of the war he returned to Carlinville and resumed the practice of his profession. He rapidly achieved success as a lawyer and great prominence as an orator and politician. He began life as a Democrat but in 1858 became affiliated with the rising, young Republican party, and to the end of his long and useful life he remained a loyal member of that great national organization - eminent and influential in its counsels, honoring it and frequently honored by it, and he closed a conspicuously honorable political career as a member of the congress of the United States to which he was elected in 1894, from the Sixteenth congressional district of Illinois - a district then and now strongly Democratic. He died at Eustis, Florida, where he was spending the winter with his wife, on the 15th day of January, 1915, in his eighty-fifth year, bequeathing to his posterity the example and influence of a life crowded with duties faithfully performed and of honors modestly and worthily borne. His venerable wife, though near the bounds of life, still survives her distinguished husband, the object of the tender solicitude and veneration of a host of relatives and friends.

Samuel Rinaker spent his childhood, youth and early manhood in the little city of Carlinville and acquired his elementary Education in the public schools of that city. At the age of sixteen he entered Blackburn College, also located at Carlinville, from which institution he graduated in the classical course with the class of 1880. He then pursued a course of study in the business college at Jacksonville, Illinois, and having through these agencies laid the foundation for the study of the law he entered the law department of Yale College (now University) prosecuting his studies during the years of 1882 and 1883 in that historic institution and afterward completing his legal studies in the lawoffice of his father and brother at Carlinville. He was admitted to the bar of Illinois in the autumn of 1884, by the supreme court of that state. In February, 1885, he came to the city of Beatrice, then a hustling, growing, promising western town of probably five thousand people. Upon his arrival here he formed a p?rtnership for the practice of the la-.v with the late Nathan Kirk Griggs, under the firm name of Griggs & Rinaker.

success in the legal profession. Mr. Griggs was from Indiana. He came to Beatrice in June, 1867, and was therefore a pioneer lawyer of Gage county. He was a man of boundless energy and teeming industry, a careful practitioner of the law and a most formidable antagonist in the trial of causes. Besides being- an unusually skillful and adroit trial lawyer he was an office lawyer of exceptional ability. He was forty-four years of age and at the very zenith of his powers. He brought to the co-partnership a wide experience as a lawyer, politician and legislator. He had served the United States six years as our consul at Chemitz, Saxony, a period which had produced the same effect on his mind and character as a college education might have done, and he was cosmopolitan in learning, taste, sympathy. He was the most variously endowed of any of the lawyers of the state with whom he was contemporary, being at once poet, singer, composer of songs and music, orator, writer, and lecturer - and excelling in all. As an indication of the esteem in which he was held as well as an indication of the mental equipment and attitude of its writer,. on certain matters, attention is called to the following letter:

Several days ago I had the pleasure to receive a copy of your address, entitled "Christ in America's Life," for which accept my thanks. I was pleased with the ideas vvhich you advanced therein and with the striking and elegant manner in which you expressed them. You show that Christianity is the vital and conservative force in all moral progress, the solvent of the refractory problems that confront human society in its onward march to a higher and better destiny. You make plain that religions are the creations of men, but that Christianity is the gift of God to man, that it is a force irresistible, immaculate and immortal and that while permeated with that force, America will lead the world to the longed for Golden Age.

and abilities of its senior, and he possessed necessary qualities to success which Mr. Griggs lacked to some extent. The success of the firm was immediate and lasting and each partner grew toward the intellectual stature of the other with a uniformity and certainty rarely seen in such relationships.

In 1890 Mr. Griggs accepted an appointment from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company as its attorney for the western division of this great corporation and was assigned to the state of Wyoming and other inter-mountain states. He held this position until his death, which occurred while he was journeying to the northwest from his home in Lincoln, in the service of his company, at Alliance, Nebraska, on Sunday morning, September A, 1910, he being found dead in his berth on the sleeping car at that time and place.

After Mr. Griggs accepted this appointment the late Robert S. Bibb was admitted to the co-partnership which thereafter for some time was known as Griggs, Rinaker & Bibb. But in 1893, on the removal of Mr. Griggs to Lincoln, his name was dropped from the firm name, which thereafter was designated as Rinaker & Bibb. Following the death of Mr. Bibb, in May, 1907, Mr. Rinaker practiced his profession alone until the year 1909, when he became associated with Mr. A. H. Kidd, of Beatrice, in the practice of the law under the firm name of Rinaker & Kidd, a title by which it is still known and under which it does business.

His natural amiability of character and great adaptability to the profession of the law, have enabled Mr. Rinaker always to take a leading place in the business of his several firms, and this by common consent stripped of every semblance of jealousy or envy. The volume of business with which he has been professionally connected in the various courts of the state and country has been great and varied in character. He has numbered amongst his clients, public officials and public bodies, railway companies, banks and banking institutions, manufacturing and mercantile concerns, loan associations and agencies, general corpor- ations, firms and individuals. His practice has not been confined to the courts of the state of Nebraska alone, but it has embraced the courts of several other states and the great national courts of the country.

Mr. Rinaker is a trained and skillful trial lawyer ; he possesses an accurate and a usable knowledge of the rules and principles of the law and their practical application to the trial of causes. He is eminent in counsel, clear and concise in statement, whether of fact or law, discriminating and logical in argument, courtly and dignified in address, fair, just, dispassionate. Though earnest and forceful in presenting his case to court or jury he is suave, self-possessed, deferential. He is a successful trial lawyer and as an advocate and minister of justice, no member of the legal profession in Nebraska is held in higher esteem or commands greater consideration from judges and courts than Samuel Rinaker.

Though eminently qualified for public life, whether in the judicial, legislative or administrative branches of our government, Mr. Rinaker has, in the main, steadfastly refused to enter the political arena as a seeker of office. In 1896 he was put forward by his friends as the Republican candidate for county attorney of Gage county and was triumphantly elected. He was reelected to the same office in 1888. With these exceptions he has never permitted his name to be brought forward for any political office whatsoever. He has, however, served his community most acceptably as a member of the Beatrice school board, and since it was founded, twenty-five years ago, to the present moment he has been a director of the Eree Public Library of Beatrice. The fact that so far his friends have failed to induce him to look with favor upon a political career has been a source of deep regret to his many friends, both at home and abroad in the state.

The talents and abilities which mark Mr. Rinaker for a useful and a successful public career have not been lost to his fellow-citizens but have served more fittingly to qualify their possessor for the duties and activities of professional and social life. Mr. Rinaker is a citizen of the utmost loyalty and public spirit. He takes an active and a sympathetic interest in the social, intellectual and business affairs of his community, and by his comprehensive way of looking at things, the accuracy of his judgment and the probity of his character he is everywhere accorded a first place as a citizen of his county and state. He is a member of the Commercial Club of Beatrice, the Beatrice Club - a social organization, - and the Golf Club of his city. Eor many years he has been a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Beatrice and the First Savings Bank, an adjunct institution. He is a Mason, a Knight Templar and a Modern Woodman. Eor a man with only a moderate fortune, his charities, though discriminating, are large and varied. Without advertising the fact he always contributes to every worthy enterprise or beneficence applying to him for assistance.

In politics, Mr. Rinaker has always affiliated with the Republican party and as a trusted leader in that great party he has been very influential in formulating and directing its policies and activities in both the state and nation.

If to gain and through long years of association to be able to hold the esteem of an entire community ; if to so discharge the duties of an advocate and a lawyer as to dignify and ennoble that great and learned profession, if to command through the third of a century the profound respect of the bench and bar of a great state furnish sufficient evidence of worth of character, then the case for Samuel Rinaker is complete. Time may bring additional honors; it may enlarge his field of activities and usefulness, it may broaden his acquaintance; but it cannot augment the esteem, confidence and affection with which he is regarded by those Vi^ho already know him.

HARRY M. HEPPEREEN, M. D. - No member of the medical profession in Nebraska has shown a greater appreciation of the exactions and responsibilities of his humane calling or has more thoroughly equipped himself for the work of the profession than Dr. Hep- perlen, whose attainments are of high order and who has gained specially high reputation as a surgeon. He is distinctively one of the leading physicians and surgeons of southeastern Nebraska, has been established in practice at Beatrice since 1898 and his is the distinction of having founded the first hospital in this city. In this connection he manifested not only his professional zeal and loyalty, but also his liberality and progressiveness as a citizen. The hospital which he established constituted the nucleus of the present admirably equipped and conducted Lutheran Hospital, and Dr. Hepperlen continues his effective and valued services as chief of the surgical staff of this admirable institution. The hospital is situated about one mile distant from the center of the city of Beatrice and one block distant from the beautiful city park, which formerly was the Chautauqua assembly grounds of this city. The hospital occupies a modern three-story building, and in its general equipment and appointments it is maintained at the most approved standard, with facilities for the care of eighty patients. In connection with the hospital is conducted a well ordered training school for nurses, and the institution as a whole is a source of pride and satisfaction to the citizens of Gage county, besides standing as a monument to the initiative ability and professional zeal of its founder. As a surgeon Dr. Hepperlen controls a practice that in scope and importance is especially noteworthy, his services being demanded through a wide territory of the middle west, - particularly in Nebraska and Kansas. Many delicate surgical operations, both major and minor, stand to the credit of the Doctor, and in the field of surgery he is frequently called upon as an authority by his professional conferees. He is an enthusiast in the work of his profession, keeps in closest touch with the advances made in medical and surgical science, has a comprehensive and select library of standard medical works and has made valuable contributions to the periodical literature of his profession He is an active member of the American Medical Association and the Nebraska State Medical Society, as well as the American College

Dr. Harry M. Hepperlen was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, January 26, 1868, and is a son of John and Mary (Michael) Hepperlen, who removed from the old Keystone state to Nebraska in 1880 and established their home in Jefferson county, where the father became a substantial and influential citizen. Dr. Hepperlen acquired his earlier education in the public schools of Jefferson county, this state, and supplemented his training by attending during three winter terms the select school conducted at Beatrice by Professor Blake, an educator of exceptional ability. After having formulated definite plans for his future career Dr. Hepperlen entered Keokuk Medical College, in the city of Keokuk, Iowa, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1891, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. It has already been intimated in this context that Dr. Hepperlen has spared neither pains nor eftort in fortifying himself for his profession, and in assurance of this it may be noted that a few years after receiving his degree he took effective post-graduate work in historic old Jefferson Medical College, in the city of Philadelphia, from which institution he received in 1896 the supplemental degree of Doctor of Medicine. Thereafter, in 1897-8, he took a two years' post-graduate course in the University of Vienna, Austria, where he specialized in surgery, as had he also at Jefferson Medical College.

In 1891, soon after his graduation. Dr. Hepperlen engaged in the practice of his profession in the village of Harbine, Jefferson county, and there he continued his residence and professional headquarters until he went abroad for further study. Upon his return to the United States, in 1899, Dr. Hepperlen established his residence in Beatrice, where he has since maintained his home and been a valued and honored figure in the community life. Here he founded soon after his arrival a small hospital, the same having but six beds as total accommodation for patients, and within the nine years that the hospital was conducted by the Doctor he brought about its splendid development and increased its accommodations to thirty-six beds. In 1912 the institution was acquired by the Brethren church, under the auspices of which it was conducted until 1914, with Dr. Hepperlen as head of its surgical staff knd a valued factor in the general administration of its affairs. In 1914 the hospital, by sale, passed to the c6ntrol of the Lutheran church, under the auspices of which it has since been Conducted.

August 8, 1 899, recorded the marriage of Dr. Hepperlen to Miss Rosa B. Warner, and they have four Children; namdy : Mary Bernetta, Joseph PHce, Fanstella May, and Harry Michael, Jr. Mrs. Hepperlefi is a member of the Presbyterian church.

REV. ..FRANZ ALBRECHT. - In a double sense is this honored citizen a -faithful and prolific worker in the harvest, .for not only is he serving with consecrated zeal as a clergyman of the Mennonite church but he is also actively and successfully identified with the basic industries of .agriculture and stockgrowing, as the owner of a well improved farm, of one hundred and sixty acres, the northeast quarter of Section 19, Blakely township.