USA > Iowa > Pottawattamie County > History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Containing a history from the earliest settlement to the present time biographical sketches; portraits of some of the early settlers, prominent men, etc. > Part 47
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Weltburger, and also in Frank Leslie's Illus- trated, this being the first knowledge of gold existing in the Black Hills. Our subject claims to the first man to correspond in German with the Eastern press from Colorado, Utah and Nevada. The Germans of Council Bluffs cele- brated the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of the poet Schiller, and soon after our subject recevied a letter from the daughter of the poet, thanking them for the honor shown her father's memory. Mr. Ables enlisted in the Fifth Iowa Cavalry, but was rejected on account of physical disabilities. He has built many small houses for poor tenants, many of whom are to-day thanking him for their homes. Mr. Ahles' shop is situated on South Main street, where he does general blacksmithing and wagon work. He has twice been a member of the Democratic State Convention, and once a member of the National Convention of the Democratic party.
MIRS. L. C. ARBUTHNOT, milliner, Coun- cil Bluffs, was born in Pittsburgh, Penn., and lived there until her marriage. Her husband, George B. Arbuthnot, died in 1865. He was a cotton broker in the South, and lost his property in the rebellion. They had one boy- George W. Arbuthnot, aged twenty-two years, who is now in Omaha. Mrs. Arbuthnot em- ploys twelve girls in her millinery and dress- making establishment. She came to Council Bluffs in 1865, from New Orleans, where her husband formerly lived.
JUDGE A. S. BRYANT, retired, Council Bluffs, whose portrait appears in this work, was born in Powhatan County, Va., twenty miles from Richmond, July 1, 1803. When he was nine years old, his parents moved to Georgia, and soon after to Frankfort, Ky., where he was reared and educated, and where in 1831, he married Miss P. G. Montgomery. In 1849, he was elected County Judge of Put- nam County, Mo., and in 1852 came to Council Bluffs, and engaged in buying and selling real
estate. He owns twelve houses in Council Bluffs, and also has a fine tract of land near, consisting of 250 acres. He speaks very high- ly of the early Mormon settlers here, whom he deseribes as honest and industrious. He was a friend of Orson Hyde, the Mormon elder, who was at Council Bluffs in 1852; the dispute between the Mormons and Gentiles at that time being settled by Judge Bryant and Elder Hyde, who were chosen arbitrators. When Judge Bryant first came -to Council Bluffs it was a place of about five hundred inhabitants, but there were flush times then and money was plentiful. He auctioned off at one time $12,- 000 worth of cattle where the Broadway Methodist Church now stands. He carried $3,000 in gold on his person from Council Bluff's to Missouri, a journey at that time at- tended with considerable peril to the traveler. His success in life has been owing to his un- tiring energy and industry. He spends the winter seasons at Beebe, White Co., Ark., where he owns some property. IJis name in full is Archibald S. Bryant; has no children; is an unele of R. T. Bryant, of Council Bluffs.
JOHN N. BALDWIN, attorney, Council Bluffs, was born in Council Bluffs July 9, 1857, where he has since resided. He was educated at the Iowa State University, graduating from the law department in June, 1877. He began the practice of law in Council Bluffs as a mem- ber of the firm of Rising, Wright & Baldwin. In 1880, Rising left for Colorado, and the firm then changed to Wright & Baldwin, as it now stands. Mr. Baldwin has achieved remarkable success as an attorney, which, perhaps, is due to his natural ability as an orator, though, as a sharp, shrewd and far-seeing lawyer, he ranks among the old attorneys of his native city. Every succeeding year since he began practic- ing, has found him higher in the estimation of the people, and deeper in the mysteries of law. Future honors may be easily won by him, if the past may be any criterion from which to judge
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In December of 1878, he was married to Miss Lilla G. Holcomb, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
HENRY BEECROFT, livery. Council Bluffs, came to Council Bluffs in 1860. and engaged in teaming. He commenced draying in 1865, with one team, and kept increasing until at present he has four teams at work. He bought his livery stable September 9, 1882, but still keeps three teams at work draying and two cabs running; he has fourteen horses in livery stock, besides several boarders; he employs five men. Mr. Beecroft was born in England in 1840, and came to the United States in 1851, his parents set- tling in Missouri. In two years, they removed to Salt Lake, our subject remaining there three years; he was married, in 1863, to Miss Mary Reeves, of Council Bluffs, and they have eight children. equally divided, four boys and four girls. Mr. Beecroft is a Republican in politics.
PETER BECHTEL, proprietor of Bechtel's Hotel, Council Bluffs, is a native of Bavaria, Germany, born in 1827, aud came to America in 1854. After traveling for a short time, he located in Chicago, where he remained one year. after which he went to Lake Superior. After remaining there a few months, he went, in 1856. to La Crosse, where he remained till 1859, when he removed to St. Joseph, Mo .; he remained in St. Joseph for two years, and carried on the restaurant business there, and, in 1861. came to Council Bluff's; here he opened a hotel. and in 1864, bought his present stand, which he re- fitted and improved in 1867; he does a good business, having from fifty to sixty boarders, and being also well patronized by transient guests. In Havre de Grace, in 1854, he mar- ried Miss Anna Wentzl, of the Tyrol, Germany, and by this union they have been blessed with two children-Louis, twenty-six. and Anna, twenty-four years of age.
NAPOLEON J. BOND, grain-dealer, Coun- cil Bluff's, was born near Waterloo, Ill., in 1832, and is a descendent of the Bond family who came to America in 1634, with Lord Baltimore,
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and assisted in founding the city of Baltimore. In 1781, a great-great-uncle came to Kaskaskia, Ill., with Gen. George Rogers Clark, who was followed, about the year 1800, by Shadrack Bond, who was elected the first Governor of Illinois, in 1819, about which time Shadrack G. Bond, father of Napoleon, came to Illinois. The subject of this sketch remembers many of the thrilling incidents related to him by his family of the early pioneers of Illinois. After receiving a common school education, he taught school for a time, and read law with Colonel, afterward Governor, Bissell, of Illinois. A favor- able opportunity offering, he went into the bus- iness of merchandising at Waterloo, III., in 1852. Closed out in 1853. and removed to Sulphur Springs, Mo., where he carried on the mercantile business for a year and a half, and while engaged in business studied medicine, and in 1855 sold out, and went to Carlyle, III., where he continued the study of medicine, un- til he again engaged in business for himself, in 1857, in which he remained but a short time. Removed to Trenton, Ill., where he again em- barked in the mercantile business, and failed in 1859. Closed up affairs. and again took up the law, and in the spring of 1861, crossed the plains to Colorado, with the gold-seekers, and was fortunate enough to strike a bonanza in the shape of a gold mine called the Phillips, at Buckskin Joe, which was the leading mine of Colorado in 1861. He was, soon after his ar- rival in the mining camp, elected President and Judge of the district, which position he held until the Territorial organization. Was a member and President of the Council of the first Colorado Legislature, and assisted in organizing the Territorial Government of Colorado. Left Colorado in 1863, and went to Virginia City, Mont .. in 1864, with the gold excitement there, engaged in mining and merchandising. and in the spring of 1865 re- moved to Helena, where he built one of the first houses built in that city, and saw
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Johnny Keen, alias Bob Black, hung on hangman's tree, who was the first of sixteen hung on it at different times. Closed out in the fall of 1865, and returned to the States ; fitted out a mule train and freighted across the plains : again to Virginia City, Mont., in 1866, where he engaged in business, and in March, 1867. started with his train and goods for Sal- mon River Mines, Idaho ; the severest weather of the winter was experienced after his leaving, the thermometer ranging from zero to 47º be- low : but by making sleds, which he had to do, with the mercury 20° below, and placing his wagons on them, was enabled to cross the main snowy range of the Rocky Mountains, over snow from three feet to forty feet deep, which feat he accomplished without frost biting a man. or losing a single mule, and claims to be the first and only person who ever successfully crossed the main snowy range of the Rocky Mountains with a train in the middle of the win- ter. Arriving at Salmon River, seventeen miles from the mines, at the foot of the mountains, in company with Col. George L. Shoup, they laid out a town which they named Salmon City, which in about two weeks had a population of 1.200 inhabitants. But the mines proving a partial failure, a stampede set in from them, and in three months there were only about 100 out of the 1,200 left. After an eventful season, he closed out, and returned to the States, stop- ping on his way home at Council Bluffs, where an opportunity offered, and in the spring of 1868 engaged in the grain, produce, hide and wool business, with Thatcher and Mulholland, under the firm name of Bond, Thatcher & Co., which was dissolved in the spring of 1869, N. J. Bond continuing the bus- iness. In 1872, the hide and wool business was sold to Oberne, McDonald & Co., and the balance of the business closed out, after which lie removed to Vermillion, Dak., where he bought grain during that year, and loaded the first steamboat load of wheat ever shipped out
of the Territory, and after a successful trade over the Dakota Southern Railroad, the fol- lowing year, again returned to Council Bluffs, and in the fall of 1874 again went into the grain and produce trade in Council Bluffs, in which he has continued until the present time. During the most of the time, he has been work- ing and developing his old mine in Colorado, which he has at last succeeded in developing into a second Bonanza. Although a life-long Methodist, he, with his wife, who was a Mrs. Harvey, whose maiden name was MeClelland. are now both members of the Presbyterian Church of Council Bluffs.
D. W. BUSHNELL, book and news dealer. Council Bluffs, was born in Ashtabula County. Ohio, in 1844; was educated there, and re- mained till 1859, when he moved to Boone. Boone Co., Iowa, where he lived on a farm two years; he then entered the army as a private in Fifteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and, at the close of the war, returned to Boone, where he filled the office of Deputy County Treasurer for two years; he then engaged in the book business, which he carried on under the firm name of Moffatt & Bushnell to the fall of 1872. when he came to Council Bluffs; here he bought an interest in L. Brackett's Post Office Book Store, and carried on business in company with Mr. Brackett until 1876, when he sold out to W. C. Erb. After two years, he again bought an interest in the business. On first coming to Council Bluffs, Bushnell & Brackett started a store on upper Broadway, and they have operated that and the post office book store ever since. In the spring of 1882. the post office store was removed five doors above the post office. The Pearl street store is 100 feet long and twenty feet wide, and occupies one floor, where they carry on both wholesale and retail business, keeping a full stock of goods in their line; this store is conducted by Mr. Bush- nell. The store on Upper Broadway is con- ducted by Mr. Brackett, and a full stock of toys
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are kept in addition to the books and news busi- ness; this store is seventy feet long and fifty feet wide. Mr. Bushnell's ancestors came to this country many generations back.
REUBEN T. BRYANT, real estate and mining, Council Bluffs, was born in Scotland County, Mo., in 1837, and is of Scotch-Irish descent, although his ancestors came to this country many generations past and settled in Virginia. He remained in Scotland County, Mo., until the spring of 1851, when he came to Council Bluffs, and after living there a year and a half, moved back to Scotland County, Mo. He received his education in the schools of Scotland County and Council Bluffs. He returned to Council Bluffs in 1863, and attended school, and also taught until 1866, when he went to Chicago and took a business course in Eastman's Business College. Returning to Council Bluffs the following year, he taught school for two years, then engaged in real estate business. In December, 1869, he went to Avoca, Iowa, where he engaged in general merchandising until the fall of 1872, when he was elected Clerk of Court on the Republi- can ticket, and he accordingly sold out his business in Avoca and entered upon his duties as Clerk in January, 1873, and held that posi- tion for four years. During this time he had carried on the real estate business, and on leaving the Clerk's office he gave his attention to that business. In the spring of 1879, he took a trip to Colorado, and while there became connected in the mining business with the Sen- eca Mining & Tunnel Company, and the R. T. Bryant Mining Company (named after subject), and afterward became interested in some placer mines located on Mandano Creek, on the south side of Sangre de Christo Mountains, Col., in San Luis Valley, and in some copper mines on Pass Creek, the company being known as the Huerfano Mining Company. At Council Bluffs, in 1872, Mr. Bryant married Miss Anna C. Drain, of that city, and by this union they
have been blessed with one child-Fannie Anna, aged four years.
GEORGE C. BROWN, dentist, Council Bluffs, was born in Watertown, N. Y., February 11, 1859 ; removed, in 1869, to Council Bluff's, where he received his education in the public schools. He has lived in Council Bluffs ever since, with the exception of the time spent in acquiring his knowledge of dentistry. He began studying dentistry with Anstin & Darby, of St. Joseph, Mo., in the spring of 1877, and in the fall of that year entered the Pennsylva- nia College of Dental Surgery. In the spring of 1878, he returned to the office of Austin & Darby, where he pursued the study of his chosen profession, and in the fall of the same year entered the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated March 12, 1879. In the summer of that year he began the practice of dentistry corner of Pearl street and Broad- way, Council Bluffs. His office is now in room 11, in the same block, on Pearl street.
REV. P. F. BRESEE, one of the most active members of the Iowa clergy, was born in the township of Franklin, Delaware County, N. Y., December 31, 1838. His father, P. P. Bresee, at that time farming in Franklin, is a native of the same county, as is also his mother, Susan, daughter of Luke Brown. who came to Delaware County from Massachusetts at an early day. Mr. and Mrs. Bresee had one daughter and two sons-Diantha, P. F. our subject, and Reed, who died at one year of age. Diantha married Mr. Giles Cowley in New York. They all came West, pursued farming in Iowa County, this State, for a time, then removed to Des Moines in 1864, and engaged in milling and merchandising, and, in 1872, came to Council Bluff's, where Mrs. Cowley died April 20, 1875, leaving one son, Fred. P. F. Bresee, our subject, attended the common schools of his native home, and later the Franklin Seminary. He spent a portion of his youth in a general store in Davenport, in
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which his father for several years owned an interest. He experienced a change of heart at sixteen years of age, joined the Methodist .Church in Davenport, Delaware County, and from that time was inclined to the work of the ministry. Two years later he came West, with a view of ultimately entering the religious field. Owing to a great need of ministerial workers in Iowa, he almost immediately joined the Iowa Conference. Although being at that time but eighteen years of age, he was assigned a charge as junior Pastor of the Marengo work, comprising six or eight appointments. It was a year of hard work, but success crowned his labors, and the church was greatly strength- ened. Mr. Bresee first came to Council Bluffs in 1870 as Pastor of the Broadway M. E. Church, and remained there three years. He labored earnestly for the prosperity of the church, and during his pastorate the member- ship was greatly increased, and a much higher state of spiritual power was enjoyed. He has ever been careful to educate his people on every moral question, and has ever been a rad- ical temperance man. He was sent as delegate to the General Conference in 1872, held at Brooklyn, N. Y. From Council Bluff's he labored at Red Oak, Iowa, three years, then in Clarinda three years, and next in Creston two years, and, in 1881, he returned to Council Cluffs, where he is now actively engaged in a new and most important work of organizing a new society and erecting a mag- nificent new church edifice. Mr. Bresee has been assigned this special work because of his well-established reputation as a worker, an organizer and a man of marked executive ability. The success of this enterprise at the time of writing is assured by large subscrip- tions of money, and the efficient manner in which Mr. Bresee has thus far conducted the business, not only contributing to the work his undivided attention, but liberally from his pri- vate purse. Mr. Bresee has been engaged in
the work of the ministry for more than twenty- five years, and during the entire time in the State. He first joined and worked in the Iowa Conference until 1864, when that Conference was divided, and his field of labor put into the Des Moines Conference. July 31, 1860, he married Miss Maria E. Hebbard, daughter of Horace and Samantha (Hoyt) Hebbard. Mr. Hebbard was a native of the Empire State, and a farmer by occupation. Mrs. Hebbard was born in the State of Connecticut. They had two sons and three daughters-R. L., Debora, N. H., Maria E. and Mary. Mrs. B. was born Novem- ber 15, 1836. She received her education at the schools in Davenport, Delaware Co., N. Y., where she lived until after her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Bresee have had seven children, six of whom are now living. The second child- Lillie M., died when fifteen months old. Ernest H., the oldest, is now in college. Phineas W., Bertha, Paul, Melvin and Susie, are at home. Mr. Bresee, besides attending to his pastoral duties, finds time to devote to outside business, and has been fortunate in making modest investments in mining stocks, upon which he has received handsome margins, and now owns stock in several of the most prolific mines of Mexico and Arizona, with the returns from which he is enabled to gratify a life-long desire to promote the prosperity of and spread the word of God.
AMELIA BURROUGHS, physician, Coun- eil Bluffs, was born in Wellington, Ohio, a few miles from Cleveland. From early childhood, she manifested a passion for the study of med- icine and surgery. She was educated in Cleve- land and graduated at the Homeopathic Hos- pital College in March, 1881. She was Dis- pensary Physician at the Woman's Dispensary connected with the college. She has a large and steadlly-increasing practice in Council Bluff's. She was married, in 1873, at Cleve- land, Ohio, and has one child-Willie.
J. W. BUFFINGTON, book-keeper for Erb & Duquette, Council Bluffs, was born at Ta-
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neytown, Carroll Co., Md., November 10, 1847. and is of English descent. His father was Chief Judge of the Orphans' Court of Carroll County, Md., for eight years. When subject was nine years of age, he moved with his par- ents to Baltimore, Md. He received his edu- cation at Irving College, Manchester, Md., and took a business course at Bryant & Stratton's Business College, Baltimore, Md. He first be- gan business in 1866 as salesman with Delphey & Shorb, dry goods merchants, with whom he remained about a year ; then entered the store of F. H. Elliott, Tancytown, Md., remaining there till 1870. He then engaged in farming and dairy business, near Baltimore, Md., and continued in that occupation till February, 1875, when he came to Council Bluffs and there engaged as salesman with J. W. Laing, with whom he remained till 1876. He then returned to Maryland and engaged with his former em- ployer, F. II. Elliott, for two years, when he returned to Council Bluffs and again engaged with J. W. Laing, and after being two years in his employ accepted his present position of book-keeper for Erb & Duquette, wholesale confectioners and fruiterers, of Council Bluffs. They are the largest dealers in their line west of Chicago.
BECK BROTHERS, grocers, Council Bluff's. Peter Beck now has control of the business of this firm, his brother, Charles Beck, having died Angust 8, 1881. The style of the firm, however, yet remains-Beek Brothers. They commenced business July 19, 1879, in the house occupied by them now, 600 South Main St. Their stock when beginning business amounted to $1,500, and their annual sales were $20,000. The firm has on hand at pres- ent about $4,000 stock, and the annual sales now amount to $30,000. Mr. Beck attends in the store himself and has two salesmen besides. Peter Beck was born at Bingen on the Rhine, Germany, in 1854. His parents removed to this country when he was but six years old,
and came to St. Joseph, Mo., where they lived one year. They then moved to Omaha, re- mained there a year. and then came to Council Bluffs, where he has ever since resided. He was educated in the public schools of Council Bluffs.
J. H. BURROUGHS, real estate, Council Bluffs, was born in Onondaga County, N. Y., in June, 1820, and is of English descent. He was one of the originators of the Wyoming Mutual Insurance Company, of which he was General Manager at Warsaw, N. Y. In the spring of 1868, he came West and located at Council Bluffs, where he has since resided. Since he came to Council Bluffs, he has been engaged in the real estate and loan business. He is now and has been for two years Overseer of the Poor. He is a supporter of the Repub- lican party.
J. W. BAIRD, attorney, Council Bluff's, was born in Morgantown, W. Va. He came to Council Bluffs in the fall of 1862, where he has ever since resided. He was educated in Coun- cil Bluffs Public Schools and at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa. He graduated from the former school in 1870, in the first class ever graduating from that school, and from the lat- ter institution in the spring of 1874, having at that time conferred upon him the degree of B. S., and in 1877 the honorable degree of M. S., from the same college. He commenced read- ing law with Sapp & Lyman in 1878. Was admitted to practice the same year, and in the fall of 1878 was elected Justice of the Peace of Council Bluffs, which office he has ever since held. He is of Irish descent.
J. F. BARKE, Excelsior Gallery, Council Bluffs, came to Council Bluff's in 1879 from England and opened up business on First av- enue, between Main and Pearl streets. He has a branch gallery at Missouri Valley, Iowa. He employs four assistants. In the fall of 1881, he introduced the new instantaneous gelatine bromide process, he being the first to
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introduce it in the West. It has proved an eminent success. He was born, in 1844, in Warwickshire, England. Came to the United States in 1874, and soon after returned, and came back here in 1879. Mr. Barke is about to re-model his operating room, which will then be the finest in the State. Ile has met with great success with children's photographs.
THOMAS BOWMAN, Mayor, Council Bluffs, has been a resident of the city since 1867. He first entered the employ of John Hammer, contractor and builder; next spent two years with J. P. & J. N. Casady, real estate dealers, and left them to take the management of the Crystal Mills at Council Bluffs. He held the office of City Assessor during 1872-73-74 and 1875, four terms, resigning in the latter year to accept the office of Treasurer of Pottawat- tamie County, to which he was elected by the Democratic party. This is a two years' term office, and Mr. Bowman held it for three con- secutive terms. In 1881, he was elected May- or of the eity of Council Bluffs. He has been connected with the fire department of the city since 1868, and is Captain of Reseue Hose Company, No. 3. In 1881, the firm of Bow- man. Rohrer & Co. was organized. Their principal business is storage and commission. Mr. Bowman was born in 1848 in Wiseasset, Me. He has a full genealogieal history of his family, by which his ancestry is traeed to English origin. His family was represented in the pilgrims of the Mayflower. He has been remarkably successful as a business man, and his position is among the best society of the city.
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