Adams Township

Adams Township

Nathan Blakely was born at Roxbury, Connecticut, July 26, 1824. He obtained a good, usable education in the public schools of his neighborhood and in Roxbury Academy. In 1844 he began to teach school in Westchester county, New, York, and he followed this uneventful but useful calling for a number of years, teaching thirteen terms in succession at Long Branch, the celebrated watering place in Monmouth county. New Jersey. He then returned to Connecticut and for a while engaged in newspaper work at Roxbury. In 1852 he went to Chicago, and finally he located in Iowa, where he again taught school. In 1857, in company with his brother, William Blakely, he came to the new territory of Nebraska, and, with Isma Mumford, almost by accident, stumbled upon the Beatrice Townsite Company and found the members of this company engaged in building the log house which afterward became famous in the pioneer history of the county as "Pap's Cabin." He never identified himself directly with the townsite company, but a few days after his arrival he entered the tract of land where Zimmerman Spring, is now located. He lived there from July, 1857, to the spring of 1865, and the walnut grove north of the spring was planted by him. He then sold his land to Nicholas LePoidevin and moved tO' Beatrice, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits and for a few years was the most active and prominent business man in the village.

county and the first minutes of the board of county commissioners, or the county court as that board was then called, are written by Mr'. Blakely's hand. In 1859 he was . reelected to the office of county clerk, and during his entire incumbency of that office he was ex officio county superintendent of public instruc-. tion, while for a brief period, in 1858-1859, he filled the office of county judge. In 1861 Mr. Blakely was elected the representative in the territorial assembly for the district composed of Gage, Johnson, Clay, and Jones (now Jefferson) counties, and in 1866 he was again elected, to what proved . to be the last territorial legislature. Before the adjournment of the session, in June, 1867, Nebraska had become a state and it became necessary to elect two United States senators to represent her in congress. Mr. Blakely steadily supported for these offices Thomas W. Tipton of Brownville, and Algernon S. Paddock of Omaha. Tipton was elected, but instead of Paddock, General John M. Thayer was chosen. Mr. Blakely was elected to the first state legislature in the fall of 1868, from our county, and while still a member of that body he was appointed receiver of public moneys for the United States land office at Beatrice : he took charge of that office October 1, 1869. He served the government in this responsible position for six years, handling thousands of dollars of public money, and at the close of his service it was found that the government was slightly in his debt.

In November, 1868, Mr. Blakely married ^Margaret Constance Tinkham, the daughter of Albert L. and Sarah Tinkham, who were also among the earliest settlers of Gage county. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Blakely had been one of the active and successful school teachers of Gage county. Her first school was at Blue Springs, and her pupils were: Carter C. Coifinberry and Hugh J. Dobbs, from what is now Rockford township; John Shaw, from the Otoe Indian Agency ; and from Blue Springs, Thomas, James, Richard, and Martha Johnson, Maria Knight (afterward Mrs. Louis Wehn), Retta Anthony (now Mrs. F. M. Graham), her brother Isaac, and two younger sisters, children of Dr. Levi Anthony. These, with- Sarah Fisher and her sister, daughters of King Fisher, constituted one of the earliest schools taught in the county.

Mr. Blakely's death occurred at his home in Beatrice on his birthday anniversary, July 26, 1906, and his wife passed away, at her home, December 6, 1908. At the time of his decease he had attained the age of eighty-two years, and Mrs. Blakely had reached the age of sixty-five. Mr. Blakely was a shrewd business man and at the time of his death was one of the wealthy men of our county. His fortune was all in Beatrice real estate and farm lands in Gage, Thayer, Nuckolls, and other Nebraska counties. After his widow's death this fortune descended to their only son, Charles, who is now a resident, of Omaha. This pioneer husband and wife lie side by side in their own burial plot in Beatrice cemetery, in, as yet, unmarked graves.

From the moment of its origin until the last moment of his life, Beatrice never possessed a more loyal, enthusiastic, hopeful friend than Nathan Blakely.

Early in 1856, with the great influx of freesoil immigration, he came to Kansas, and made his home at Lawrence, which, from 1854 to 1863, was the rallying point of the free-soilers and the headquarters of John Brown, Jim Lane, Redpath, Parsons, Eldridge, Pomeroy, and other anti-slavery leaders. His first occupation was to drive stage on the old Santa Fe Trail from Leavenworth to Topeka, Kansas, and in this capacity he made the acquaintance of nearly every prominent leader of the anti-slavery movement in the territory of Kansas.

In 1864 he came to Nebraska territory, where he was for a while in the employ of the Overland Stage Company and had charge of the station at Thirty-two Mile Creek. Later he came eastward on the Oregon Trail to Liberty Farm, and he had charge of that important station at the time of the great Sioux Indian raid on the Little Blue river in August, 1864. On the afternoon of that day a stage driver halted his team at Liberty Farm long enough to warn the inmates to fly for their lives. Mr. Emery and his family made their way quickly to Pawnee Ranch, a large station of the Overland Stage Company, so located as to be easily defended. They went through the siege from three or four hundred savages, and when the danger had subsided they made their way to Atchison, Kansas. From that point, for a year or two, Mr. Emery engaged in freighting across the plains to Colorado. In July, 1867, he came to Beatrice, and for a while he was engaged in farming and stockraising, but on the completion of the old stone hotel building at the corner of Fifth and Court streets, he, on January 1, 1871, became its landlord. This famous old hostelry was known for years as the "Emery House," and is to this day in favor with the traveling public, under the name of the "Burwood." Beginning with 1878, Mr. Emery owned and ran a livery barn, which was located directly east of the hotel.

While driving stage- over the old Santa Fe Trail, Charles N. Emery met Mary Benson, and on May 4, 1858, they were married, at Lawrence, Kansas. Here their two children were born, George E. and John C. Emery. This pioneer family from the first was prominent in the social and business affairs of Beatrice. Charles and Mary Emery were genial, optimistic, friendly people and were much loved and highly respected by the entire community.

He reached the boundaries . of life when venerable in years, and on the 6th day of January, 1907, the passing Death Angel with his wing touched his companion of over forty years, and she passed peacefully from the earth forever. After their long pilgrimage together, they lie side by side, in everlasting repose, near the beautiful city which they both loved and which loved them.

Joseph Hollingworth was born in the manufacturing town of Melbourne, Derbyshire, England, November 2, 1836. He was the youngest of twelve children born to his parents, James and Elizabeth Hollingworth. In 1848 these fine English parents, accompanied by their four youngest children, came from England to the United States of America and settled in the then new state of Wisconsin, where the father fengaged in farming and in the manufacture of lumber from the pine forests of that state. After the parents had been in this country some years they were followed by most of their other children. They were James, the eldest son ; Henry and Robert ; also their married daughters Elizabeth, wife of William Wild, and Frances, wife of Francis Shelley. In 1861 all these families except Robert numbering probably twenty-five souls, migrated from Wisconsin to Gage county, Nebraska, All found homes in Rockford township except Robert, who came on later and settled in Thayer county, where he became very prominent both in public and private life. They became at once useful and valued citizens of our county and state and though all but Elizabeth Wild have answered the summons of death their posterity is to be found in numbers in the city of Beatrice, in Gage county and elsewhere in Nebraska, engaged in many vocations in the world of work. Joseph Hollingworth and his brothers, as well as Wild and Shelley, were successful farmers and belonged to the cultivated English rural class. These families all possessed the manly and womanly virtues that distinguish high-class English people wherever found.

Shortly after coming to Nebraska Joseph Hollingworth met and, on July 13, 1862, married Wealthy, the good and accomplished daughter of Rev. Albert L. Tinkham and his wife Sarah, pioneers, too, of Gage county. She was a successful school teacher. She taught the village school in Beatrice in 1861 and was teaching the second school taught in Blue Springs, in 1862, when she first met her future husband. Their marriage was from first to last a complete exemplification of perfect conjugal happiness and domestic felicity, broken only by the husband's death.

Joseph Hollingworth maintained a continuous residence here till 1882, when he went to Nuckolls county to live, on a section of land which he had purchased. In 1887 he returned to his farm in Rockford township, and in 1895 he came to Beatrice to live. After a few years spent in this city he removed to University Place and after a short time he went to California, whence eventually he went to Portland, Oregon, where he died October 23, 1914. His wife, though nearing life's boundary, still survives, - the object of the tender affection and solicitude of her children and friends.

To Joseph and Wealthy Hollingworth there were born five sons and three daughters. The sons are Arthur, Thomas, George, Albert, and Archie ; the daughters are Alma, Arvilla, and Aimee. All reside in Portland, Oregon, except Albert, who for many years has made his home in Beatrice. He served during the Spanish- American war as captain of Company C of the First Nebraska Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, a company composed largely of Gage county men. He was severely wounded in battle in the Philippines but returned with his regi- ment in 1899, and on February 27, 1906, he was appointed postmaster of Beatrice, an office which he most ably and acceptably filled for more than eight years, maintaining, however, in some capacity a connection with the military organization of the state. When the United States entered the present world war, in 1917, he was among the first to oiifer his services to his country, and he is now lieutenant colonel of one of the Nebraska regiments in training for service in France.

In the history of Gage county, few men have played so important a part as Hiram W. Parker. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, December 17, 1827 ; he died at Beatrice in 1899. Mr. Parker came to Nebraska from Ironton, Ohio, in April, 1857, and in 1858 he located a claim in old Clay county, near the present village of Pickrell, and engaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1865 he removed to Camden, in Seward county, Nebraska, where he built a saw mill, and followed this, in 1871, by adding a grist mill. On the 2d day of June, 1871, he was appointed register of the government land office at Beatrice, and by successive appointments he held this office until April 1, 1884. He was county judge of old Clay county, and was the clerk of that county in 1864, when Clay was partitioned between Lancaster and Gage counties. In 1860 Mr. Parker was elected to represent Gage, Clay, and Johnson counties in the territorial assembly, and he was also a member of the state constitutional convention in 1871.

Mr. Parker was married, at Austinburg, Ohio, in October, 1852, to Almira T. Dole, a native of that state. His living children are Franklin H- Parker of Santa Rosa, California, and Louis C. Parker of Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Parker for a long time was vice-president of the First National Bank, and was also president of a brick manufacturing company and a large canning company, in both of which he lost money, and of an early-day telephone company of Beatrice. For a number of years he was a member and president of the school board of the city of Beatrice; he was also a long-time official of the Gage County Agricultural Society.

The remains of both Mr. and Mrs. Parker lie in the old Beatrice cemetery, where two children preceded them many years, and the spot is marked by a fine monument.

Though rather abrupt in manner, Mr. Parker at bottom was a good, reliable citizen, and to those who broke through his reserve he was a good friend.

Charles G. Dorsey came to Brownville from Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1856, and engaged in the practice of the law, principally, however, in such litigation as grew out of land contests before the register and receiver in the Brownville land office. He combined with his practice a general real-estate business. On the 25th day of July, 1865, he was appointed register of the land office, and he held this position till March 7, 1867, when he was succeeded by Henry M. Atkinson, who was afterwards surveyor general of New Mexico. The land office was rrioved from Brownville to Beatrice July 7, 1868, and Mr. Dorsey removed from Brownville in 1869, and continued his practice before that office. His brother, George Dorsey, also came from Brownville to Beatrice, and the brothers, with I. N. McConnell, for a number of years practically monopohzed the Htigation before the register and receiver of the Beatrice land office, at the same time doing a very large real-estate and insurance business, from which all the partners reap>ed large profits. In the late '70s Mr. Dorsey engaged in the hardware business in Beatrice, and about the year 1882, he erected the double, three-story, brick building in block sixty-four of the original town of Beatrice, west of the Burwood Hotel. Mr. Dorsey continued in the hardware business in one of these storerooms for a number of years, but during the hard times in 1893 to 1898, he lost his property largely, and, with a mere remnant of his property, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he made an heroic struggle to recoup his fortune. He again engaged in the hardware business and was gradually achieving success, when his death occurred.

Mr. Dorsey was for many years active and prominent in the affairs of Beatrice and Gage county. He was an able man and very considerate, as well as conservative in judgment. He was an esteemed and valuable citizen.

Before coming to Beatrice, Mr. Dorsey had been a member of the territorial legislature. While here, he was frequently a member of the city council. He was married at Peru, Nebraska, in the fall of 1871, to Mary E. Majors, a daughter of S. P. Majors, a prominent citizen and pioneer of Nemaha county, whose son, Colonel Thomas J. Majors, is a widely known citizen of the state of Nebraska. Three children were born to this husband and wife, namely: William C, Edith, and Harry Dorsey. Harry, the second son, died in Beatrice a number of years ago. The elder son, William C. Dorsey, resides at Bloomington, Nebraska, and is at the present time serving as district judge of his judicial district of the state.

of Beatrice, in 1857. He accompanied Judge Kinney, Dr. Wise, Dr. Wilmans, Dr. Reynolds, J. B. Weston, and others to the Beatrice townsite, the last of May, 1857. He became a resident of Beatrice in 1859, but in 1860 he went to Pike's Peak on a prospecting expedition for gold. He returned that fall and purchasing the buhrs of Austin's mill he removed them to Beatrice. Having acquired some interest in the saw mill at that time being operated on the bank of the Big Blue river (where Black Brothers merchant mill is now located) by one Waldripp, he proceeded to put in a dam across the river and erect a grist mill, both to be driven by water power. For some reason this venture did not prove a success, but Mr. Roper persisted in the enterprise and ultimately produced a very fair grist mill. In connection with this he developed a very efficient saw mill, planing mill, and lath and shingle industry. He was not only the first miller of Beatrice, but was also for many years one of its- most important and most considered citizens. He was active in community affairs, serving the county as a commissioner . from 1862 to and including 1864, and was chairman of the Gage county board when Clay county was divided, in 1864, between Lancaster and Gage counties. In 1869, on the resignation of Nathan Blakely as representative for Gage and Jefferson counties in the state legislature, Mr. Roper was elected, to fill the vacancy. About the year 1875 he sold his mill to Henry Weatherald and his son Newton, and retired from the milling business. Abqut the same time he sold his residence and removed from Nebraska to California, settling finally in Bakersfield, that state, where he died a few years ago.

Mr. Roper was the first miller of Beatrice.; He had the business acumen to forsee the necessity for such an enterprise and the energy and enthusiasm which urged forward to its accomplishment. His old home stood and still stands facing South Second street where it terminates on Scott street. It is practically unchanged from what it was when he left it It is now occupied by Henry Von Reisen as a residence.

If worth of character and a long life devoted to the betterment of mankind are in themselves sufficient to perpetuate the memory of man, then no history of Gage county could be complete without some account of the Rev. Albert L. Tinkham.

This writer knew this good man long and well; many of the happiest recollections of his life are inseparably connected with him and his, and this sketch is written for the purpose of commemorating the life and character, and the noble and unselfish services to the pioneers of Gage county, of this heroic man.

Mr. Tinkham was born almost at the opening of the nineteenth century. He died in Beatrice at the age of seventy-eight years. He was derived from good New England stock and was endowed with all those qualities of heart and brain which win and retain the esteem of mankind. He was of a deeply religious nature and as a minister of the Gospel, he spent the greater part of his life in simply doing good. He exemplified perfectly in his long life as a Christian minister the sentiment contained in Tennyson's verse :

Mr. Tinkham came to Beatrice in 1860. He had been preceded here by his eldest son, Gilbert, who died among strangers, in the lonely, almost desolate hamlet of Beatrice, in the winter of 1859. On arriving here with his family, Mr. Tinkham became at once a useful and an influential member of the community. He found Beatrice a mere village of log and board shanties, where people hibernated in winter and vegetated in summer. It required courage of no ordinary character to bring a young and growing family, in what seems now that far-off day, to this outpost of civilization. He was presented by the townsite company with the two lots on Ella street, in block fortynine, where the three-story building known as the Penner Block is located, and he proceeded to build thereon a two-room, hewed-Iog, clapboard-roofed house, which in its day was perhaps equal to any other residence in Beatrice. It was the furthest out of any of the houses and was located on the broad, open prairie. Here he dwelt with his family during four busy years and here his son Edward was born. He was a carpenter by trade and in addition to his pastoral duties he was accustomed to labor assidubusly with saw arid plane. He and his son Elias built the old frame school house on the block where the old high-school building, now Central grade-school building, stands. Mr. Tinkham was a Methodist clergyman and possessed the fire and enthusiasm of the early ministers of that church, - the Wesleys, Whitfield, Cartwright. For many years he was the best known minister of the Gospel in Gage county, extending his gentle ministrations far and wide amongst the hardy pioneers, officiating at marriages, funerals, and other services performed by clergymen ; he was known by all and loved by all. In the lonely dugouts and log cabins he was a familiar figure and a welcome guest. People traveled far to hear him preach. At his maximum his voice was as mellow and resonant as a bell. No preachingcould have been more simple and direct, more free from rant and cant. He possessed traits of character which disarmed emnity and left him without foe or detractor in all the world. He was gentle and considerate and endowed to a remarkable degree with the charity that envieth not, is not puffed up, that vaunteth not itself, that suffereth long and yet is kind. Strictly honorable and exact in his dealings with his fellow men, he expected Almighty God to be exact with him. Not ambitious of worldly wealth or honors, he was content with a life severely simple and plain.

In early life Mr. Tinkham married Sarah Wilson, at Wilsonville, Ohio. To this couple there were born Gilbert, Wealthy, Elias, Margaret Constance, James Eeroy, Thomas, Alice, Edward, and Albert Tinkham. Both Wealthy and Margaret were amongst the first school teachers in Gage county. The former married Joseph Hollingworth, the latter Nathan Blakely.

by his friends to avail himself of the benefits of the homestead law, and he entered the quarter-section of land on Bear creek on the south side of the Scott-street road, extending from Cottonwood Grove school house a little way beyond the bridge. This tract of land continued to be the family home until his death. His remains, with those of his wife and other members of his 'family, lie in the family burial lot in the Beatrice cemetery.

Hiorace M. Wickham was born in Licking county, Ohio, September 2, 1832. His early life was spent in Andrew county, Missouri. He spent the years of 1855-1856 in Iowa, and on March 20, 1859, he became a resident of Gage county, Nebraska. During most of the intervening years up to the time of his death, September 4, 1906, he made this county his home and was by occupation a farmer. In 1867 he was elected a county commissioner of Gage county, and he served continuously in that responsible office till the year 1877, - the longest continuous service in that oifice of any of its numerous incumbents. On the 8th of May, 1859, Mr. Wickham was married, at the home of a Mr. Woodrow, on Bear creek, three miles northeast of Beatrice, to Lavinia Young, by Nathan Blakely, then acting probate judge of this county. Some years ago, on the occasion of a farewell party to Mr. Wickham at his home in Blakely township, Mr. Blakely, who performed this first marriage ceremony in Gage county, sent to Mr. Wickham a letter, which is not only self-explanatory but also sheds much light on the crude conditions of those early days. The letter reads as follows :

I regret that my health is such that I can not avail myself of a kind invitation to meet you and your old friends in this county before you make your departure for your new home in the Platte valley, in this state. We have always known you long and well, and we think you should have remained with us the few remaining days of our earthly pilgrimage, to cheer and comfort one another.

We have all had many joys and sorrows since we located in this wild, unsettled country so many years ago. We found many good and true friends among the old settlers of this county. We cherish the memory of many departed ones and the hearty handshake of others, who, with us, will soon bid adieu to all earthly scenes, we hope for a brighter and better life.

I have always felt a special interest in you and yours, for, in the spring of 1859, you asked me to marry you to Miss Lavinia Young. As there was no minister in this part of the country, and I being the only county official that seemed to have authority, I was compelled to perform the operation. There had never been a marriage in this county, so I could not get any information just what to say or how to proceed. I lay awake a good share of two or three nights trying to learn my piece ; then I wrote it down and used to declaim it out on the prairie - a mile from any human being. As the audience neither applauded or hissed, I decided it was good.

The ordeal came, and one pleasant Sunday in May (8th), 1859, I started for Bear creek, where Mr. Woodrow and family lived, near Fulton's Spring, Miss Young living with them. On the green grass, under a new tent, I tried my very best to make Mr. Wickham and Miss Young husband and wife, and, as far as I have ever learned, I succeeded.

I don't know what I said and I never dared ask you or your wife, but as you appeared to be so smiling, I could not tell whether it was from what I had said or from your inexpressible happiness of being made a husband.

The reader has now looked upon the first marriage solemnized in Gage county, and its commemoration by a man of keen intellect and unquestioned veracity.

Shortly after this marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Wickham went to the state of Colorado with a view of making their home there. Here the young bride was taken ill and died, at South- Park, Colorado, August 7, 1860. Mr. Wickham later married, at St. Joseph, Missouri, Mrs. Isabelle Beebe, who passed away in 1873, leaving two children, Clarissa and Franklin P. Wickham.

Isma P. Mumford

Isma. p. and Elizabeth Mumford were amongst the first pioneers in Gage county. Isma P. Mumford was born in the state of Maryland, while Elizabeth Mallock, was born in Adams county, Ohio, in 1830. She was the granddaughter of a Revolutionary soldier and the daughter of a man who bore arms for his country in the war of 1812. When twenty-one years of age she became the wife of Isma P. Mumford. Shortly after their marriage, in 1853, they migrated from Ohio to the new state of Wisconsin, and in 1857 they came seeking a home in the new territory of Nebraska. On the way out they were joined at Plattsmouth by William and Nathan Blakely, and together these heroic pioneers of Gage county made their slow way across the unmarked, trackless prairies of southeastern Nebraska. Hearing that the Big Blue river valley olifered great advantages to settlers, on account of the abundant limber and rich bottom land which Hned its course, they traveled thither, and on the 17th day of July, almost by accident, stumbled upon the members of the Beatrice Townsite Company, who were' engaged in erecting a company house on their townsite, which building later became the property of Albert Towle and widely famous as "Pap's Cabin." They also found a cluster of covered wagons and tents, in the neighborhood of the Kees Manufacturing plant, a little above the junction of Indian creek and the Big Blue river. Learning that the representatives of the townsite company had founded a town and purposed to remain arid carry their enterprise to fulfillment, and pleased both with the prospect and company, the little party resolved to cast in its fortunes with that old guard which then and for many succeeding years held this remote outpost of civilization against all hardships, privations and discouragements.

For several months Mrs. Mumford and a Miss Bailey, who accompanied the party, were the only white women in the settlement, and probably the only white women in the county. Of Miss Bailey this writer is unable to give any further account, but Mrs. Mumford enjoyed the distinction of being the sole representative of her sex in Gage county until the arrival of Mrs. Catherine Towle, in the autumn of 1857, The names of both these good ladies must be forever spoken with reverence by those for whom the early history of Beatrice and Gage county has the slightest interest. Both possessed unusual mental vigor; both were endowed with those traits of personal character that always command and retain the respect of mankind ; both have long since passed to their rest. One sleeps beside her honored husband in the old cemetery, near this city, and the other is wrapped in kindred earth of a sister state. To Mrs. Towle belongs the honor of being the mother of the first child born in Gage county, a daughter, Katie Towle, and to Mrs. Mumford, the honor of being the mother of the first white male child born within the boundaries of our county. Both these children, having reached the age of maturity, were long ago gathered to the bosom of Mother Earth. Katie Towle became the wife of V. Ayers, of Deadwood, South Dakota. She died on the 28th day of March 1890, aged thirty-two years. Her remains lie with those of her parents in the family burial ground in the Beatrice cemetery, while the turf that enfolds a father's and a brother's clay wraps also the dust of Dawson Mumford, he having perished in an accident, at the age of twentytwo years - the age when most men begin life.

Shortly after his arrival, Isma P. Mumford began the erection of the building which in his hands became, and long afterward continued, to be a leading public inn of the struggling village of Beatrice. "Pap's Cabin" consisted of an unhewn story-and-a-half log structure, which stood about where the baggage room of the Burlington station is located. It was the first structure of any kind erected in Beatrice, and Mumford's inn the second. Mumford's biiilding differed from Pap's Cabin, in being a ^hewed instead of a round log house. It still stands.

The remaining history 'of Isma P. and Elizabeth Mumford may be briefly told. On August 7, 1857, at an election attended principally by the members of the Beatrice Townsite Company foR tlie purpose of organizing Gage county by electing a complete set of county officials, Mr. Mumford was chosen county treasurer, and he held that office one year. He bears the distinction of being the first county treasurer of Gage county.-. During the great Indian panic of 1864, which swept over this portion of Nebraska with irresistible force, the Mumfords, with many other families, left the territory, some never to return. But in the spring of 1865 Isma P. and Elizabeth Mumford, with their children, established a home near what was knpw as the "Steam Wagon Road," six miles west of Nebraska City. Here, in 1873, Isma died, and his wife, in 1875, removed permanently from the state, taking up her residence with a son, in Nodaway county, Missouri, where she died in March, 1897. They were the parents of nine children, seven sons and two daughters. One son, James, became a prominent Congregational minister, and as far as known to this writer, all their children who reached maturity became useful and worthy members of society.

James B. Mattingly was born in the state of Kentucky, on the 8th day of April, 1818, near Elizabethtown, Harden county. In 1841 he migrated to the territory of IlHnois and settled in Moultrie county. He was of a roving disposition, and leaving Illinois, about 1847, he moved to Iowa ; from there, in 1849, to Platte county, Missouri. In 1857 he left Missouri and started west along the Oregon Trail in an aimless search for a new location. At Ash Point, a station on the old highway, he struck a dim trail and followed it to the Otoe and Missouri Indian village. Guidied by reports of desirable locations further north, he passed the site of Blue Springs, and finally selected a quarter-section of land in the southwest corner of Rockford township, on Mud creek, in June 1857. About the year 1866 he sold his homestead to James Millard, and moved to Jefferson county, Nebraska, where he entered a tract of land, eighty acres of which now form the most populous and wealthy portion of the city of Fairbury. Shortly after arriving in Jefferson county he engaged somewhat extensively in the freighting business, along the Oregon Trail, for a few months, an occupation which he had followed also while residing in Gage county.. When, in 1867, the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad put an end tO' the freighting business along the old trail, Mattingly established himself on the Little Blue river, within pistol shot of the court house in Fairbury, in the saw-mill business, and while engaged in sawing lumber for homesteaders, who were rapidly flowing into that section of country, he was visited one day by Woodford G. McDowell, a resident of Fairbury, Illinois. The St. Joseph & Grand Island Railway waspointing up the Little Blue river, and McDowell, with keen prevision, had selected the present site «of Fairbury as the location ' for the county seat of Jefferson county. Mattingly possessed in a remarkable degree the imagination which always goes with adventure, and McDowell had no difficulty in getting him to enter into his scheme to found a town, to be called Fairbury, which should be the chief city of that entire section of country. McDowell had obtained title to eighty acres adjoining Mattingly's. They jointly laid out and platted the town of Fairbury, the history of which has more than fulfilled the dreams of both its founders.

James Bartholomev^ Mattingly belonged to that class of men which is ever adrift in the forefront of advancing civilization. After investing some money in the town of Endicott, in the vain endeavor to boom it into a city of importance, and losing heavily in the venture, he, with his son, Joel Thomas, his wife, and daughter Polly, migrated to the Pacific slope. All are dead now but the son, Joel Thomas, who lives at Condon, Oregon, in fairly comfortable circumstances. Mr. Mattingly himself died October 19, 1907, aged eighty-nine years. At the time of his death he was a resident of a little town in northern Washington.

James B. Mattingly was a wonderfully active man ; his occupations were diverse ; he was at once a, soldier, a freighter on the Oregon Trail, a speculator, a farmer, a miller, a carpenter, and^; dabbled in many other occupations. With many faults of character and of mental equipment and attitude, he was at bottom a reliable citizen and active in the public welfare. He was county commissioner of Gage county in 1861-62-63; he was deputy sheriff, bailiff of the courts, justice of the peace and occupied other civil positions of trust, if not of profit, in Gage county. He taught the first Sunday school in Rockford township and one of the first in our county. This Sunday school was organized in April, 1859. The writer of this volume, with his brother, and Joel Thomas Mattingly were his only pupils, although the school lasted two or three years.

James B. Mattingly was as eccentric a character as he was a picturesque one, and when he died, the world could have better spared a better man.

years of age his parents moved to Ohio, and settled near Gallipolis, Gallia county, where he grew to manhood. In 1845 he married Rebecca Pethoud, daughter of John Pethoud, one of the first settlers of Gage county, Nebraska. In 1855 he moved from Ohio to Platte county, Missouri, and after six months' residence there he moved to Jefferson county, Kansas, locating thirty-three miles west of Leavenworth. In In September, 1857, he came to Gage county, Nebraska territory, and in the spring of 1858 he made preemption filing and settlement on the northeast quarter of section 15, Midland township. He built a log house on his preemption claim that year, the carpentry work being done by H. F. Cook, one of the founders of the city of Beatrice. With some additions to this rude structure, to accommodate his increasing family, the building constituted his home for several years, but in 1866, he began the erection of a large stone house, near the old pioneer log cabin. This was finished by 1868 and was probably the most commodious farm residence in the county. The wood work was done by Tom Redpath, who was afterward drowned while bathing in the Big Blue river above the dam, when that stream was in flood.

Samuel Jones was a farmer all his life, but during the pioneer days in Nebraska Territory he engaged in freighting and ranching to some extent, along the old Oregon Trail, and was one of the best known freighters and allaround business men in the county. He was a very active man, good natured, kindly, and was heartily liked by the early settlers. He died February 8, 1872, and with his father, William Jones, and sister, Mrs. Elizabeth McDaniel, and daughter Helen, aged five years, is buried on the hill a quarter of a mile south of the old stone dwelling. His wife, Rebecca Jones, died at Gooding, Idaho, about 1901, while making her home with a daughter, and was buried there.

To these pioneer parents there were born fourteen children - eight sons and six daughters. Seven of these children are numbered with the dead. The living are William R. Jones, the eldest son, who resides in the city of Beatrice and has made his home in Gage county sinc^ September, 1857, when he was eleven years of age ; the third daughter, Sarah A. Drew, wife of Lorenzo L. Drew, also lives in Beatrice; John T. Jones and Elizabeth Dwyer, son and daughter, live at Gooding, Idaho; I^eroy C. Jones, another son, is United States marshal of Idaho and lives in the city of Boise ; Albert Jones, a son, lives at Baker City, Oregon; Rebecca (Jones) Pethoud, daughter, lives at Cotopaxi, Colorado.

Algernon Sidney 'Paddock was born at Glens Falls, New York, November 9, 1830. He died at Beatrice, Nebraska, October 17, 1897. He was the son of Ira A. l^addock, a well known and prominent lawyer of Glens Falls. He received his elementary education in the com-

The old stone mansion erected as a family home by Samuel Jones in 1866 is in process of demolition and will soon be a thing of the past. Time was when this pioneer residence was a place of great interest and importance. It was the abode of hospitality, generous, ungrudging, and was a center of the social forces of the surrounding community. It stood, staunch and inviting, near one of the old trails that led from Beatrice up Indian creek bottom and on past its portals to the head of Salt creek, and down that stream to the salt basin, where it connected with the old trails from Nebraska City, Plattsmouth and Omaha. One after another the pioneer homes have disappeared, until at the present moment there are probably not twenty of these ancient buildings left in mon schools of his native city, and, preparing himself for college in the academy of Glens Falls, at the age of eighteen years he entered Union College (now university), at Schenectady, New York, where sO' many of the able men of the nation have received their education. On account of financial affairs he wascompelled to leave the college when just entering upon his senior year. For a while he taught school, reading law at the same time, and, having been admitted to the bar in his native state, he, in May, 1857, came by steam boat from St. Louis, Missouri, to Omaha. He was a man of great amiability and pleasing address, and these and other qualities won him influential friends in Nebraska from the moment of his arrival. He was always aa ardent, unflinching and loyal Republican, and in 1860 he was a delegate from Nebraska, to the national convention of his party which nominated Abraham Lincoln for president. In the convention Mr. Paddock, however, supported his friend William H. Seward for that office, a service which that able and good man never forgot, and in 1861, through his influence, Mr. Lincoln appointed Mr. Paddock territorial secretary of state for Nebraska, an office which he both adorned and exalted for the period of six years, retiring only upon the admission of Nebraska to the Union, March 1, 1867. At the first state legislature Mr. Paddock was a candidate for United States senator, but was defeated by General John M. Thayer, a Civil war hero of Nebraska. In 1869 he became interested in the construction of the Burlington Railroad system in Nebraska, and for a. while maintained business relations with the officers of that railroad company. In 1872 he moved from Omaha to Beatrice, which was his home for the remainder of his life.

Mr. Paddock was elected United States senator for Nebraska in 1875, in place of Thomas W. Tipton, for the term of six years. In 1881 he was defeated for that office by Charles H. Van Wyck, and in 1882 he was appointed a member of the very important "Utah Commission'' by his friend President Arthur, upon which body he served with great distinction until October 1, 1886, when he resigned. In 1887 Mr. Paddock was again chosen United States senator for the state of Nebraska, serving until 1893, when his place was taken by William V. Allen.

On entering the United States senate few western senators were as well equipped as Mr. Paddock for serving their section of the country. He was familiar with western conditions, versed in the land laws under which title could be obtained to land in the public domain, he was acquainted in detail with questions growing out of Indian depredations, schoolland selections, surveys and re-surveys of public lands, Indian and military reservations, and the necessary military equipment for all the great west. He was indefatigable in his efforts to secure proper legislation for the entire country and particularly for the western states and territories. Perhaps it is no more than just to say that Nebraska has never had in either house of congress an abler, more conscientious and more faithful and intelligent servant than Senator Paddock.

For many years Senator Paddock was not only a citizen of Beatrice but he was also a force in this community. In 1887-1888 he built the Hotel Paddock, which in many respects is the most important private property in the city of Beatrice. He platted and laid out Fairview and Paddock additions to Beatrice, and in other ways exhibited his interest in the destiny of the fair city of Beatrice.

In his personality Senator Paddock was one of the most attractive of men. He was extremely optimistic in temperament and his faith in Nebraska was unbounded, - and this through good, as through evil report. Mr. Paddock stood four-square to all the world, and, though of tea subject to adverse criticism by his political opponents, no man ever had the temerity to attack him in his private life.

On the 22d day of December, 1859, Mr. Paddock married Anna L. Mack, of St. Lawrence county. New York, a daughter of Daniel Mack, an honored citizen of that state. It was a most felicitous marriage, covering a period of thirty-eight years. His devoted wife still ( 1918) survives him, and makes her home in Lincoln. The children of this marriage were Daniel Mack and Susan, both of whom died at an early age; Harriet, wife of O. J. Colman, of Lincoln, Nebraska; Francis Amelia, now deceased ; and Franklin Algernon Paddock, of Kansas City, Missouri.

Both time and space forbid the further extension of these sketches of territorial pioneers of our county. The reader will find in the biographical department of .this work and elsewhere, the life history in more or less detail of a large number of these pioneers. The chief aim of the writer in these sketches has been to show the kind of men and women who were the first to people our county, and who set in motion those forces and influences which eventuated in the creation of a great, free commonwealth, one of the most attractive and interesting in the sisterhood of states.

As early as 1867 a postoffice was established in Adams township, called Laona. John Lyons was the first postmaster, the postoffice being at his home, a mile and one-half west of the present town of Adams. In 1873 the Atchison & Nebraska Railroad Company built its line of railway through Adams township from Atchison to Lincoln, and in May of that year John O. Adams, in conjunction with the railroad company, laid off the south half of the northeast quarter of section 27, into a townsite and it was named Adams. Village organization was deferred until March 10, 1892. The first board of village trustees comprised the following well known residents of that place, namely: Frank E. Whyman, Henry H. Norcross, W. C. Garrison, Nathaniel C. Shaw, and William C. Gray. They were duly qualified for office by James B. Shaw, justice of the peace. F. E. Whyman was elected first chairman of the village board, W. C. Gray the first secretary, and H. L. Watson was appointed the first marshal of Adams. One of the first ordinances passed prohibited "the sale, giving away, delivering or furnishing in any manner any spirituous, malt, vinous or intoxicating liquors within the village," an ordinance which has stood intact from the beginning. The open saloon never found a place to conduct business in Adams.

The town of Adams has flourished from the beginning. It was supported by an unusually intelligent, progressive and loyal class of citizens. Amongst them the Whyman family, who came overland from western Pennsylvania, consisting of the parents and twelve children; the Adams family and the Shaw family, of whom mention has already been made in this work in the chapter on the early settlers in this county; the Silas Bryson family, who came from Ohio by boat down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi and Missouri, consisting of the parents and fourteen robust sons and daughters, who have contributed ably to the making of the state of Nebraska; William Curtis, who was the fourteenth man to make homestead entry at the Brownville land office, and his family; H. J. Merrick, who is a veteran of the Civil war and who has proved a force in the upbuilding of the village ; Byron P. Zuver, Stephen Disher, John Lyons, George and Alfred Gage, L. R. Horrum and his son, Dr. J. W. McKibbin, and many other residents of the town of Adams and vicinity.

In 1874 John O. Adams, the founder of the village, and William Curtis, built the first grain elevator, and Curtis the first store building erected in Adams. In 1874 a postoffice was established at Adams, Mrs. Hannah Noxon, who had been postmistress at Laona, was appointed postmistress and for many years she occupied that position, in a manner highly satisfactory to all patrons of the office, maintaining at the same time a general store in connection with the office. In 1880 J. H. Spellman erected a store building and put in a complete stock of goods. He continued business in this building for thirty years. In 1880 L. R. Horrum, who had taken a homestead near Adams in 1868, working in the meantime at his trade as a harnessmaker in connection with his farm work, built a harness shop in Adams, and this he conducted until his death, in 1913, the business still being carried on by his son, George Horrum. The senior Horrum built the first brick business house in Adams- Dr. J. W. McKibbin, the first resident physician of Adams, located in the village in 1881, and has been in constant practice of his profession here since that time.

Early in the history of Adams, H. J. Merrick organized a patrons' cooperative company, with a capital stock of five hundred dollars, its object being the conducting of a general merchandise business. Stephen Disher became president of the company ; H. J. Merrick, secretary; B. P. Zuver, manager. This was the pioneer business of Adams, it being established in June, 1874. From it has developed the Tourtelot-Barber Company, which conducts one of the best general stores anywhere to be found in a village of seven hundred inhabitants, the present population of Adams.

The grain business has been an active industry at Adams from the moment the railroad came. Many individuals and companies had helped develop it until finally the Central Granaries Company obtained control of the business. In 1908 this company sold its elevator to the Farmers Elevator Company, incorporated, with a capital stock of $10,000, held by two hundred farmers and business men of Adams and adjacent territory. J. B. Zuver was its first president, J. W. Campbell its first secretary, and J. B. Zuver its manager. The officers at present are: H. J. Merrick, president; Henry Bable, secretary; and J. B. Zuver, manager; capital and surplus, $40,000.

In 1905 W. E. Bryson and J. E. Miller erected a large, first-class flouring and feed mill, which was later sold to the Nebraska Com Products Company, and was dismantled, the machinery being removed and the building sold to the Farmers Elevator Company.

The lumber business first operated at Adams was known as the Chicago Lumber Company, with A. Huyser, manager. This company was succeeded about 1880 by the Stewart, Chute Lumber Company and others.

The first bank at Adams was a private bank, owned by Messrs. Holber & Bauer, who began business in 1884. It was followed by the State Bank of Adams, in 1889; capital stock, $10,000. The board of directors under the . original charter comprised W. P. Norcross, H. J. Merrick, J. W. McKibbin, B. P. Zuver, J. H. Spellman, W. W. Barnhouse, W. E. Bryson ; - Norcross, president ; McKibbin, vice-president ; and Merrick, cashier. March 1, 1902, the controlling interest was purchased by C. S. Black and L. B. Howey, of the First National Bank of Beatrice, and F. B. Draper, of Lincoln, Nebraska, W. P. and H. H. Norcross retiring. Mr. Black became president and Mr. Draper the cashier, the capital stock being increased to $15,000. Directors : Black, Draper, Howey, Merrick, Barnhouse, McKibbin, and Bryson. In 1908 the bank was reorganized as the First National Bank, with a capital of $25,000. The former officers and board of directors were retained. The institution is a depositary of the Federal Reserve Bank.

In 1908 the Farmers' State Bank was organized, with a capital stock of $25,000. President, G. W. Meeker; vice-president, W. E. Bryson; cashier, Frank O'Neal. After some changes in management, a controlling interest of the capital stock was purchased, in 1917, by Mr. Christiansen and Frank M. Stapleton. Stapleton being the cashier and A. M. Replogle the vice-president.

The bank known as the Adams State Bank was organized with a capital stock of $20,000. Officers and directors : Chris Hennies, president; Frank Schoen, vice-president; Frank Grammann, cashier; F. H. Hennies, August Hoehne, Adolph Hoehne, Thale Tholen, directors. The three banks here named are all in flourishing condition, which indicates a prosperous and wealthy community.

In the spring of 1859, Mrs. Hannah Hicks Shaw invited the settlers with their children to meet at her home to study the Bible. A dozen of all ages responded. The older ones were taught by Miss Phoebe Gale, daughter of George Gale, and the younger by Mrs. W. W. Silvernail (Rebbecca Shaw). Mrs. Shaw then visited Nebraska City and obtained second-hand Sunday-school supplies from Mr. W. L. Boydston, of the Methodist church of that place. From this lively root have sprung all the religious activities of Adams township. In 1861 D. H. Wheeler, representing the American Sunday S'chool Union, came to the township for the purpose of establishing a Sunday school, but he found the work already advanced and in good hands. In 1861 and 1862 the school was held at a new school house in district No. 2, old Clay county, but continuing under the superintendency of Mrs. Shaw. In 1866 the school was held in a log house on what was known as Chambers' farm, and afterward at the Disher farm, now owned by S. B. Fraper; the superintendent was William Curtis. It was afterward held in a barn recently built by John Lyons, and in 1868 and 1869 again was held in the school house of district No. 2. In 1870 school district No. 30 was organized and a dug-out school-house was made on the land now a part of Adams village. In this place Matthew Weaverling (afterward, for three terms, county superintendent of schools of Gage county) taught the first school in that district. In 1871 a new frame building was erected one-half mile west of what is now the village of Adams and the Sunday school was transferred to it, where it remained until 1882, when it was transferred to the newly built Methodist Episcopal church, on the present high-school grounds in the village of Adams.

This had been a union Sunday school until this time, when the Presbyterians withdrew to their own newly built church, and organized as a denominational school, with W. C. Gray as superintendent. The remainder organized as a Methodist Episcopal school, with Silas Bryson as superintendent. In the early '70s the Baptists organized a Sunday school in school district No. 2, with J. H. Lynch and Charles Whyman as principal supporters.

1859, followed in 1860 by Rev. Kindall, both Methodists. From this time until 1867 Rev. Luther Gibbs, a Baptist homesteader, served the people. In that year Rev. Leroy F. Britt, Methodist minister of Tecumseh, preached during the summer, and organized a class of seven persons, namely : William Curtis, Silas Bryson, Mrs. Clara Bryson, Mrs. Almira Lyons, Mrs. Letitia Adams, Mrs. Harriet Adams, Mrs. Robert Howard. Robert Howard was appointed leader. In 1868 Silas Bryson was elected leader, with Rev. George Paddock pastor in charge. In 1869-1870, Rev. A. L. Folden and Rev. J. H. Presson were pastors in charge, followed, in 1872, by T. A. Hull. In 1873-1874 J. H. Presson ; 1875, H. P. Mann; 1876, N. W. Van Orsdal; 1877, T. A. Hull, who died in his chair while holding services in the Hooker school house; 1878, H. A. S. King; 1879, G. W. Walker; 1881, Isaac New - all were pastors of the Methodist congregation. Within these years the first Methodist Episcopal church was built and the congregation thereafter was served by J. W. Taylor, in 1883; B. C. Phillips, 1884-1885; J. S. Orr, 1886; M. C. Smith, 1887-1891; A. L. Folden, 1891 to 1894; J. J. Stannard, 1894- 1898; Duke Slavins, 1899-1902, when the new church was built, at a cost of $10,000.

Rev. Mr. Wharton, a missionary Baptist, organized a church in 1869, with J. H. Lynch and wife, Charles Whyman and family, and others as its supporters.

The First Presbyterian Church was organized February 22, 1880, by Rev. George L. Little, of Omaha, assisted by Rev. A. B. Irwin, of Beatrice. William A. Gray and F. G. Dickinson were chosen as ruling elders. This church, ill connection with its Sunday school, Christian Endeavor and other organized activities, has been a directive force in the development of the moral uplift of the community. Rev. W. I. Boole is the present pastor.

The Freewill Baptists and the Christian church each has an active organization, with Sunday schools and Christian Endeavor societies in connection therewith.

Odd Fellows, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, Grand Army of the Republic, Women's Relief Corps, Sons of Veterans, Woodmen of the World, Royal Highlanders, Independent Order of Good Templars, and others.

In November, 1905, the village board of trustees granted to E. J. Shaw and his successors, or assigns, the right to install an electric light and power plant, and this has been in constant operation since that date. In 1915 the village acquired control of this plant, enlarged its capacity and placed it on a modern basis, since which time it has been giving its patrons the best of service.

The Adams Gazette, Volume I, No. 1, was issued March 25, 1886, by W. H. Fitzgerald, and this was the begfinning of newspaper enterprise in Adams. The paper soon passed into the hands of Mr. Snyder, who continued this publication until 1892, when M. D. Horham became editor and proprietor. In 1907 the present owner and publisher, E. W. Varner, purchased the plant and he ha;s given to Adams and vicinity probably the best weekly newspaper now published in Gage county.

This brief summary of the origin, business interests, religious and social life of Adams was prepared in the main by Hon. Homer J. Merrick, whose life has been so long identified with the community of which he writes, and it modestly omits extended reference to the citizens of Adams and the country tributary to it. It is no exaggeration, nor is it fulsome praise, to state that no community in our county is more distinguished as possessing a large intellectual life and all those qualities and attributes of character which go to make up a loyal, enterprising and wholly reliable citizenship than the one of which he writes.