USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 16
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In 1893 Dr. Clark resigned his position in the Normal University and entered Harvard University as a graduate student in mathematics, but left before the end of the year in order to become dean of the faculty of the Western Normal College at Lincoln Nebraska, where he spent one year as teacher of psychology and pedagogy, and a most busy year it was, for he delivered addresses in eighty-one of the ninety counties of the state in addition to other duties. From Lincoln he came to Peru and accepted the position of instructor in psychology and pedagogy in the State Normal, holding this from 1895 to 1898. In the latter year he returned to Harvard and took work in pedagogy, psychology and philosophy. In 1899 Harvard University awarded him the degree of A. M. In the same year he was appointed to the fellowship in pedagogy in the University of Chicago, and in connection with his duties in that position taught educational psychology. He received the degree of Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in 1900, the subject of his Doctor's thesis being "Suggestion in Education."
Dr. Clark was elected to the presidency of the Peru State Normal in1 1900. He is an active member of the National Educational Associa- tion, is a member of the Nebraska Academy of Science, of the American Association for the Teaching of Speech to Deaf-mutes, and of the American Social Science Association.
Dr. Clark is the author of several small outline text-books on arithmetic, geography and physiology ; also magazine articles on educa- tional topics. He is at present writing a work on "Suggestion in Education" which will be an expansion of his Doctor's thesis.
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WILLIAM TYNON.
William Tynon is one of the best known and most prosperous agriculturists and stockmen of Nemala county, and for thirty-five years he has been at the forefront in that business. Possessed by inheritance and nature with an energetic and enterprising disposition and adapted by early training and inclination for the various departments of the stock industry, he has made it his life work and devoted his best years and efforts to building up an industry with which his name will always be connected in this section of Southeastern Nebraska.
Mr. Tynon is the owner of an almost princely estate of ten hundred and forty acres situated two miles west and north of Peru, and this broad demesne is not only the scene of profitable and thorough agricul- tural enterprise but is also a place of beauty, and in the summer no more grateful and pleasing view could meet the eyes than that of the waving grain fields, the meadows and pastures with the many herds, and the picturesque homestead centered in the midst of giant cottonwoods and groves of fruit and shade trees-the whole place alluring and inviting whether from the standpoint of the artistic-minded or seeker after rustic ease or that of the appreciative and business-like husbandman. Mr. Tynon bought all this land at an early day, and when prices were fron ten to seventeen dollars an acre, but his acreage is now worth an average of fifty dollars per acre, and he was recently offered fifty-five thousand dollars for the estate. He feeds yearly about three hundred cattle, shipping about two bunches of his own annually; he also feeds many hogs, and in one year lost six thousand dollars from the ravages of cholera. His corn fields will aggregate about five hundred acres, averag- ing fifty bushels to the acre, and at present he feeds out about twenty thousand bushels of corn each year, although he does not go into tlie stock-feeding business as heavily as he was wont a few years ago. For
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the past ten years he has had tenant farmers on the place, and has four tenant houses. The fine large mansion which is the abode of so much open-hearted hospitality was erected in 1893. He has planted the one hundred apple trees and some of the shade trees, but the seven giant cot- tonwoods which are the chief arboreal adornment to the farmstead and one of the landmarks of all the country around, have been here for over forty years. He has about four miles of osage hedge about his place and the other fences are of wire, and all the barns and other up-to- date improvements he has placed on the farm since coming here.
Mr. Tynon was born in county Kilkenny, Ireland, March 20, 1842. His father, Patrick Tynon, was born on the same farm, and was a large dealer in horses and cattle and a tenant farmer on an extensive scale, often exhibiting stock at the weekly fairs throughout the United Kingdom, and also shipping much stock to Scotland and other places. He brought his family to America in 1848, and after the long voyage from Liverpool to New York settled in Syracuse, New York, being a man of means for that time. In 1851 he went to Joliet, Illinois, and bought a half section of land, and lived there until his death. He left a good estate, and was everywhere known as a man of integrity, honesty, thrift and well directed industry. His first wife and the mother of Mr. Tynon was Catherine Brennan, also of county Kilkenny, and she died in Ireland in 1844, leaving two sons. The son Andrew is now a stock rancher in Indian Territory, whither he removed after a number of years' residence in Nemaha county, Nebraska. Patrick Tynon was again married, but his second wife preceded him in death by twenty-four years. They had a number of children, but only two are now living : Catherine Cavanalı, a widow in Joliet; and John Tynon, a retired coal dealer of Joliet, and has one son.
William Tynon attended the district schools, and remained at home
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until his majority. In the spring of 1861 he went to Peoria, Illinois, and was a general helper and salesman in a drug store for over two years. Christmas, 1863, he returned to Joliet and remained with his father for some time, the later being afflicted with the asthma. His brother had gone to Nemaha City, Nebraska, and for several years was successfully engaged in freighting across the plains, having two outfits and four yoke of oxen for each. Andrew Tynon, the cousin of William and Andrew, was also engaged in freighting with the latter, and was afterward engaged in the merchandising business at Peru, and is now a resident of Stella, Richardson county, Nebraska. William left Joliet in 1869 and went to visit this cousin in Peru, and this led to his perma- nent settlement in Nemaha county. He soon began to buy and ship cattle to Chicago, and this has been his leading enterprise ever since. During the early days he paid one hundred and thirty dollars per car, but this tariff has since been more than halved. He has shipped from six to eight cars at a time, and at an interval of every ten days during the busy season. He used to take his cattle across the Big Muddy on a flat boat, which was a slow and uncertain operation, and made Phelps or Watson, in Missouri across from Brownville, his shipping points.
Mr. Tynon was married in Chicago, July 30, 1871, to Miss Bridget Coonin, who was born near Joliet, Illinois, a daughter of Ed Coonin, of Canada. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Tynon, as follows: Catherine, who graduated from the Peru Normal, where all the other children have likewise been educated, and is now principal of the graded school in Nebraska City; Elizabeth, who is helping her mother at home; Mary Agnes; Josephine ; Margaret ; William A., who is on the farm and purposes to follow farming as his occupation, although all his sisters have educated themselves for teachers; Louise, a teacher in this county; and Rosa, who will graduate from the normal school in the class of
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1904. Mr. Tynon is a Democrat in politics, and has served as school director for over twenty years.
CHARLES CREUZ.
Charles Creuz, one of the intelligent and progressive farmers in Bedford precinct, South Auburn postoffice, Nemaha county, has resided in this county for over twenty years, and in this time has brought out one of the prettiest farms in the locality from the virgn sod of the prairie which had hardly been touched by the civilizing power of man when he first located upon it. Mr. Creuz has already passed the seventieth milestone on his life's journey, but is still working with almost undi- minished vigor, and many results will yet be apparent before the sun of his career sets. He began life without any capital, and from careful savings has gone forward step by step to independence and a prosperous position among his fellow citizens. Besides working out his individual career, he has become the father of sons and daughters who are now filling honorable places in the world, and in matters of citizenship, also, he has not been lacking in the public spirit and readiness which are the qualities demanded by national loyalty and civic advancement.
Mr. Creuz was born in Wuertemberg, Germany, September 17. 1830, and was a son of John and Fredericka (Crummel) Creuz, who were parents of the following children: Charles; Christina, born in 1833, is the wife of Christ Rau, a farmer in Logan county, Illionis, and has eleven children ; John, born in 1837, is a farmer in Douglas county, Illinois, and has two children; Barbary, born in 1840, is the wife of John Auer, a wealthy retired farmer, and has three sons living ; Caroline,
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born in 1844, is the wife of John Mason, in eastern Illinois, and has one son and one daughter. The parents of these children were farmers, and came to the United States in 1854, making the trip in forty-six days. The father died in Coles county, Illinois, in 1855, at the age of fifty-two, and his wife, who was born in 1806, lived to the age of ninety-one years, one month and five days. Both of them rest in the Methodist churchyard in Edgar county, Illinois.
Charles Creuz had about eight years' schooling in Germany, and at the age of twenty, on November 28. 1850, sailed from Bremen for the United States. After encountering five severe storms, which caused all to lose hope of ever reaching land again, and during which Mr. Creuz displayed as much fortitude of mind and body as did the best of the sailors, the ship landed at Baltimore in January. He came out to visit his uncle in Ohio, having barely enough money to get there. He arrived in Delaware county, Ohio, in January, and for the following three years worked out by the month. When he was married in 1855 he had about four hundred dollars, all saved from his earnings, and he began life as a tenant farmer. He and his brother John owned one hundred and eighty acres in common for a time, but in 1880 he sold and came to Nemaha county, Nebraska. He bought one hundred and seventy-six acres for two thousand dollars, and then went back to Illinois and brought his family to his new land in February, 1882. This was all prairie land in the state of nature's dress, and in the twenty years since then it has become as fine a farm as one could wish to see. His first house was of two rooms, to which he has since added until he has a com- fortable abode of six rooms. He built a good barn in 1891. Mr. Creuz was fifty-three years old when he was planting his orchard, and a neigh- bor woman remarked in passing, "The old fool is out planting trees, and he will never live to eat the fruit." But the orchard of one hundred
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and twenty-five trees has borne fruit many times since that day, as many other improvements to the place have served their days of usefulness and been replaced with others. But he is not yet weary of well-doing, for he believes that the good he does here will live after him, and every good deed will bear its fruit, if not for him, for those that come after, and thus the world will be better for his effort.
July 22, 1855, Mr. Creuz was married to Miss Cynthia Summers, who was born March 22, 1830, in Cincinnati, Ohio, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Wite) Summers. The former had a cooper shop in Cincinnati, and in 1831 he fell a victim to the cholera scourge, as did also his wife and all the relatives. Cynthia, who was the only child, was adopted by a Mr. McFaren, and from an early age she knew the life of toil, and had meager schooling. She met Mr. Creuz about a year before they were married. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Creuz, as follows: Jonathan Jackson is a tenant farmer in Oklahoma, and has lost his second wife and has six children, the son Luther living here with his grandparents; Clara is the wife of George Gillen, of Oklahoma, and has four children; Herman is a well-to-do farmer in Oklahoma, owning one hundred and sixty acres, and has nine children; Charles is a farmer in Clay county, Nebraska, and has eight children ; and Franklin owns a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Oklahoma, and has three children. Mr. and Mrs. Creuz have twenty- nine grandchildren living, and have lost five. Mr. Creuz has a good picture of his mother which was taken when she was about ninety years old, one year before her death. Mr. Creuz and his wife are Lutherans, and he is a Republican in politics. They are still active, although Mrs. Creuz has the rheumatism much of the time, and it is to be hoped that they may live many more years to adorn the county and community in which they have done such useful service in the past.
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HON. THOMAS JEFFERSON MAJORS.
Hon. Thomas Jefferson Majors, ex-lieutenant governor of the state of Nebraska and one of the most prominent figures in the agricul- tural, financial, public and political life of Nemaha county, is a pioneer and old-time settler of this part of Southeastern Nebraska, where he first took up his residence in June, 1859. From the very first he took a foremost part in the county's development. He has had an extreme- ly prosperous career from a material point of view, but his place in the community and state is not due to his financial success, for he has given some of his best efforts to public enterprises. He is honored as a veteran of the Civil war, in which he rose from the rank of lieutenant to colonel, and had a creditable record of five years' service to his coun- try. He has been again and again sent to the state halls of legislature, as well as to the second executive office of the commonwealth. Educa- tional progress also owes much to Mr. Majors, and wherever he has touched the life of the community he has left his impress for good and advancement.
Mr. Majors was born at Libertyville, Jefferson county, Iowa, June 25, 1841. His Scotch-Irish ancestors from the north of Ireland settled in this country many generations ago, and the family has always been a race of stalwarts in physique and mentality, and as a rule there have been large families of children. Mr. Majors' great-grandfather was a Kentuckian. but the son of a South Carolinan. Elijah Majors, the grandfather of Mr. Majors, was a native of Simpson county, Kentucky, born during the earliest days of that commonwealth. He owned a large plantation, worked by slaves, but his sons did not favor the "pecu- liar institution," although during the Civil war some were ranged on the side of the north and others with the south.
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Sterling P. Majors, the father of Mr. Majors, was born in Simp- son county, Kentucky, in April, 1819, and died in Nebraska, July 13, 1886, his remains resting in the cemetery at Peru." He had the follow- ing brothers and sisters: Alexander Majors, a stone and brick mason and contractor in Kentucky, Illinois and Iowa, and he died in the last named state when past middle life, leaving three sons and one daugh- ter; Katie, the wife of Henry Hart, died in Illinois at an advanced age, leaving four sons and four daughters; Mary, the wife of Amos Hart, a farmer in Sangamon county, Illinois, left three sons and one daughter.
Sterling P. Majors was married in Lee county, Iowa, to Miss Ann Brown, who was born in Simpson county, Kentucky, March 18, 1820, a daughter of William and Mary (Ingraham) Brown. There were eleven children of this union, of whom five grew up, as follows : Sarah, the widow of W. G. Glasgow, in Peru, has six living children, three sons and three daughters, and twenty-three grandchildren, having lost one; Thomas J. is the next oldest; Wilson E. Majors lives in Peru; Lizzie is the wife of C. G. Dorsey, of Kansas City, Missouri, and has two liv- ing children : John F. was a merchant in Bradshaw, Nebraska, where he died in January, 1897, leaving a wife and seven children, with a small estate.
The following is the obituary of Sterling P. Majors: "Hon. S. P. Majors, born in Kentucky, April 27, 1819; reared on a farm and had a common schooling during winters until sixteen; learned the brick and stonemason trade and worked at it for several years; studied law and was admitted, but was a merchant many years and well-to-do, although he met losses ; his later years were spent in agriculture; moved to Iowa from Illinois, where he and his wife had gone in childhood, and lived in Iowa from 1837 to 1861, when he came to Nebraska; was a Methi- odist, and an active and efficient official most of his life."
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Thomas Jefferson Majors was reared in Libertyville, Iowa, en- joyed a liberal schooling, and as his father was a prominent merchant of that town he early became familiar with mercantile affairs. On June 15, 1861, when he lacked a few days of being twenty years old, he en- listed in the First Nebraska Infantry as first lieutenant of his com- pany. He participated in the engagement at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, siege of Corinth, Memphis, Helena, Cape Girardeau and numerous minor battles. While in Arkansas the regiment re-enlisted, and was then sent to the western frontier to hold the Indians in check. Mr. Majors spent the last two years of his service on the plains. He was mustered out at Omaha, July 1, 1866, and during this five years of army life had spent one month in the hospital at Pilot Knob, Missouri, ill with pneumonia.
After this gallant career as a soldier he returned to Peru, Nebraska, where he had settled in 1859 and engaged in the mercantile business, and now resumed his activity in that line. In the fall of 1866 he was elected to the territorial council, and in the next year was elected to the first state senate, being re-elected. The first important act he did while in the senate was to introduce and carry through the bill providing for the State Normal School to be located in Peru, thus conferring inesti- mable benefit upon his adopted town. For a time he was assessor of internal revenue for district of Nebraska. He served for three successive terms as the representative of his county in the state legisla- ture and in 1887 was elected to the state senate and in 1889 again re- turned to the house. In 1891 he was elected lieutenant governor of the state, and re-elected in 1893. In 1894 he was the Republican nomi- nee for governor, but by the margin of three thousand votes was de- feated by Silas Holcomb. He is still active in politics, and has always
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wielded much influence in party councils in his own county and in the state.
In August 1870, Mr. Majors was married to Miss Isabelle Bush- ong, who was born in Bureau county, Illinois, a daughter of John and Lucinda (Munson) Bushong, who were natives, respectively, of Tennes- see and New York, and are now deceased. Her father, who was a prominent farmer, in 1893 received some votes for the United States senate. Mrs. Majors is a lady of much intelligence and culture, and is a skilled musician. Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Majors, but five died when young. Frank Majors is a graduate of the Peru normal and the Law Department of the State University at Lincoln, and is now an attorney in North Yakima, Washington ; James, a farmer on one of his father's farms, is married and has two daughters; Thomas is married and is the station agent of the Burlington Railroad at Rockford, Nebraska; Charles is at home and unmarried; and Gladys, aged fourteen, is attending the normal school.
Mr. Majors is a Mason of thirty-six years' standing and has at- tained the thirty-third degree, and all his sons are members of that fraternity. He is also prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic, and is a past department commander. Since retiring from his mercan- tile business in 1878, Mr. Majors has given his attention to his real estate interests. He owns eighteen hundred acres of farm lands, be- sides residence property in Peru. He was one of the organizers and is a'director of the only bank in Peru. His home farm consists of eight hundred acres, and he located upon it in 1870. He has recently erected not only the finest residence in Peru but in the entire county, and it is a place of architectural beauty, comfort and homelike elegance. The building is strictly "home-made." The brick which forms its walls was burned on his own land, and the timbers for the frame work grew
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on his place. Its dimensions are forty-eight and forty-eight feet, with basement. two full stories above, and the top floor being practically a story. It contains a Grand Army hall and rooms for the Women's Re- lief Corps. It is finished in quarter-oak, is heated throughout with the latest hot water apparatus, and has all the comforts and conveniences of the urban home. It is situated under the bluffs, facing the east, and is surrounded with a spacious lawn and abundance of shade trees. Here it is the privilege of Mr. Majors to enjoy what his career of in- dividual effort and public-spirited endeavor have brought him, and his own genial good nature and the open-hearted hospitality of the family make this a home which a guest, once welcomed, loths to leave and longs to revisit.
HARVEY J. CALLEN.
Harvey J. Callen, one of the prominent grain dealers of South- eastern Nebraska, has been in business in South Auburn, Nemaha coun- ty, for a number of years, and is one of the well known citizens of that place. Besides being concerned in many of the business interests of the town, he has taken a due part in social, political and religious ac- tivities, and is in all things a public-spirited citizen who may be de- pended upon for influence and aid in promoting the progress and de- velopment of his town and community.
Mr. Callen's grandfather was Edward Callen, of Tennessee, who married Miss Martha Cate, also of that state. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry and she of German, and they had five children, one of the sons dying while in the service of the Union during the Civil war. Grandfather Callen was a large and rugged man, and lived to be about seventy years old.
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Pryor L. Callen, the father of Harvey J. Callen, was born in east- ern Tennessee in September, 1827, and in 1853 came from that state to Appanoose county, Iowa, where in 1855 he was married to Miss Lementine America Hays, who was born near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1833. Pryor L. Callen was a pioneer farmer of this part of Iowa, taking up eighty acres of land, and is now the owner of two hundred acres, al- though he lives in Des Moines. He and his wife were parents of the following children : Harvey J .; Preston Alex is a contractor and builder of Des Moines, and is married: Edward is in business with Harvey in Auburn, and is married; John A. Logan Callen is a con- tractor and builder of Des Moines and has two sons and two daughters; Ella, wife of J .- B. Kenyon, of Centerville, Iowa, has one son ; Frank Hays Callen, a grain dealer of Marquette, Nebraska, has six children ; Myrtle died at the age of three; George P. is a contractor and builder of Des Moines, and is single; Mrs. Lora Spurgeon, whose husband is a farmer near Centerville, Iowa, has two children.
Harvey J. Callen was born in Appanoose county, Iowa, March 19. 1856. Being the oldest of the family he had to work from an early . age, although he obtained good schooling in the public schools. He left the home farm and Iowa in 1879 and came to Hamilton county, Ne- braska, where for two years he was engaged in the farm implement business at Aurora. He later came to South Auburn, and the firm of H. J. Callen and Company has two elevators in this city and is doing an extensive business in handling grain. W. H. Furguson, of Hastings, Nebraska, is the company part of the firm, and is one of the large speculators and grain men of the state, having about eighty elevators in various towns over a large area. Mr. Callen is also a stockholder in the new fine brick hotel, called Avenue Hotel, in Auburn,
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and besides his own comfortable home on Maxwell street owns consid- crable other city property.
On Christmas day of 1880 Mr. Callen married Miss Ellen Hiatt, who was one of his schoolmates in Iowa, and is a daughter of Oren A. Hiatt by his first wife, both of whom were natives of North Carolina. Her father is now living with his third wife, and has four children by his first wife and five living by his third wife. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Callen; Irene Glen, who died at the age of nine years; Ernest Ray, who died at the age of eighteen; and Fay, a girl of thirteen. Mr. Callen affiliates with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has been trustee for nine years. He votes the Republican ticket, but has never aspired to office. He is a good citizen, and he and his family are held in the highest esteem wherever known.
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