History of Custer County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religous, and civic developement from the early days to the present time, Part 54

Author: Gaston, William Levi, 1865- [from old catalog]; Humphrey, Augustin R., 1859- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western publishing and engraving company
Number of Pages: 1180

USA > Nebraska > Custer County > History of Custer County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religous, and civic developement from the early days to the present time > Part 54

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Security State Bank, Ansley 244,606.02 State Bank, Ansley 566,958.99

Arnold State Bank, Arnold. 624,748.67

Security State Bank. Arnold ... Broken Bow State Bank, Broken

Bow

Security State Bank, Broken Bow Custer State Bank, Broken Bow- Nebraska State Bank, Broken Bow

152,446.55 290,407.29

553,636.92

416,839.84

201,840.51

337,302.62

Farmers and Merchants Bank. Comstock 301,942.47

Citizens State Bank, Comstock. . 304,946.45

Oconto State Bank, Oconto .. 217,397.26 20,393.14 The Farmers Bank, Oconto ..

Sargent State Bank, Sargent ... 302,477.54

Farmers State Bank, Sargent ... 361.978.76

Farmers State Bank, Mason City 129,104.26

The Mason City Banking Co .. Mason City

313.591.51

Grand total in Custer county . $7,853.019.41

FIGURES IN RECAPITULATION

Perhaps it will be easier to understand the vast resources of this oversized and progres- sive county if some of the figures set forth in the foregoing paragraphs are here re- peated and tabulated. so they can be more easily comprehended :

Present ' land value. $38,919.040.00

Value of town lots. 1,020.400.00

Value railroad lines. 1,485,340.00

Value railroad terminals. 419,430.00

Tractors and threshing ma-

chines 175,220.00

Typesetting machines 28.000.00

Horses and mules

2,228,880.00

Cattle

5,180,650.00

Hogs

1,194.440.00

Sheep 43,260.00

Spring wheat 135.000.00

2,000,000.00

Winter wheat.

5.000.000.00

Corn

500,000.00

Rve. oats, barley

1.500.000.00

Alfalfa. prairie, and millet hay. Bank deposits and securities. .

7.853,019.00

Automobiles 2.000.000.00

Stocks of merchandise.

1.200.000.00

Schools, churches, public build- ings 2.000.000.00

Mills, light and water plants. . . 320.000.00

United States bonds and stamps 1.300.000.00

Grand total.

$74.492,710.00

415,562.97 451,507.39

Berwyn State Bank, Berwyn. ... Farmers State Bank, Callaway .. Seven Valleys State, Callaway. . Farmers Bank of Merna, Merna Bank of Merna, Merna.

127,575.34

668,334.69

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

While the foregoing figures are very careful estimates, they are very conservative, and are given only to enable the reader to determine approximately something of the present-day wealth.

ANOTHER STATEMENT

.To illustrate the resources of Custer county, it might be stated something like this. We have a record, nearly 4,000 years old, concern- ing the children of Israel, who found them- selves swamped, down in Egypt. and planned to emigrate to another country. They picked up bag and baggage and struck out in the middle of the night. They took their children and live stock with them, but the record de- clares they had to walk; they had no money to pay railroad fares and freight bills.

If the people of Custer county should de- cide to hunt another location, unlike the Is- raelites, they would not have to walk. They have the money to pay both passage and freight. It would take, however, something like the following equipment to load them up and haul them out of the country.

They would probably go over the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, which has fifty-four miles of road in one line running diagonally through the county. So run the engines down to the county line east of Mason City and let the box cars extend west to where the road crosses the county on the north. Then we will begin to load. Now fill 2,524 cars with machinery and farming implements, 7,000 cars with furniture and household goods, including merchandise from the stores. Then load 1,781 cars with horses and mules, 5,181 cars with cattle, 1.000 cars with small grain, 10,000 cars with corn, 1.700 cars with hay, 300 cars with potatoes, 500 cars with poultry and dairy produce. It will take 1.000 cars to haut the automobiles.

When all these worldly possessions are loaded. it will make 35,417 car-loads, and, al- lowing fifty cars to an engine, it will take eight miles of engines to pull this freight. Switch them out on the main line and run them in trains of one-half mile length with only a half- miile between the sections, and it will require

694 miles of road to line them up ready for starting. When the head engine is ready to whistle for Litchfield, the last caboose would be seven miles beyond Billings.

Now the people themselves have money to buy tickets, and have small disposition to walk. They will ride in sleepers and all will want lower berths. So, using lower berths, by putting them two in a bed, it will require 1.000 Pull- mans to accommodate our thirty-two thousand people. It will require 250 baggage-cars to accomodate the trunks, valises, and surphis baggage of the passengers.

Divide them into trains of twenty cars each, then the Custerites will ride in sixty-one spe- cial trains, which, running only a half-mile apart, will cover thirty miles of track, and, as lined up behind the freight, would extend the Custer county caravans thirty-seven miles be- yond Billings. Open the line, give them right of way, and start them out at twenty miles an hour, and it will take them thirty-six hours to pass a given point, or after they have been traveling thirty-six hours the last passenger coach will just get down to where the first en- gine started, but when it reaches that point the first engine will be thirty-five miles cast of Chicago.

This is as far as it is profitable to trace them, for they would probably roll over the different lines of the country and. not finding a better location would return and unload in Custer county, where they would start over again, under very different conditions than those under which they made their first start.

In the compilation of any circumscribed his- tory - such as that of a city or county -it is evident that its chief feature of interest will be found to be of a personal, family, or com- munity nature : and by the personal standard is the true value of all history to be judged. The highest critics of historical work have justly held that any production that lacks per- sonal or human interest is of little lasting value. In the preparation of this history of Custer county the projectors and authors have kept this invaluable quality in mind, the while they have been alive also to the further necessity of carefully and strongly depicting the rela-

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

tions borne by this integral division of Ne- braska to the state and nation. Both in the early times and the later periods it has been shown that general as well as specific causes have contributed to the local and county de- velopment.

While thus combining the general with the specific and personal, there has been an insistent care in avoiding the mistake of overburdening the narrative with extraneous matter. The general history serves as an effective back- ground for the bringing out, or proper revela- tion, of strictly home or county matters, and the work thus proves a fitting complement to and adjunct of the volume in which is out- lined the history of the state.

Thus it is that the following chapter, or division, needs no voucher for its consistency or its expediency. In the perpetuating of genealogieal and personal records concerning those who have wrought well in connection with the development of the great county of Custer, this publication offers still further ma- terial of enduring and cumulative historical value, and it is believed that in every instance the individual recognition that is accorded is eminently due. Those who have suffered the vicissitudes and hardships of the pioneer days merit more than passing honor, and the same is accorded in the following pages. Those who have devoted themselves with equal loyal- ty and constructive energy to carrying forward the work initiated by the pioneers and founders, likewise deserve the recognition that is here

tendered, and it is believed that the final di- vision of this history rounds out most effec- tively the more generic history which closes with these paragraphs.

The history of our country has ever been the history of the frontier. The spirit that has presided over our destinies since the day- dawn of freedom has ever been the spirit of the pioneer. The creative, formative forces that marked the nation's miraculous birth ; the achievements of a century distancing those of a cycle of the nations of old; the spirit that has preserved our honor unscathed amid the shock of battle and the riot of war: the pro- gress and prosperity which, unparalleled in the history of the race. have differentiated us from the people of all other elimes - all had their inspiration, their birth, and their fruitage in the rugged lives of our pioneers, as they swung the ax in the primeval forest or turned the virgin glebe in the untamed valleys and prairies of the west. "To such "scouts of prog- ress" Custer county must ever pay a tribute of highest honor, for within the confines of this county have been wrought works that measure up to the highest standard attained by the true American pioneer. Thus in a direct way, as well as by inference, the various personal sketches and family reviews that con- stitute the closing department of this publi- cation shall offer much to those who "read between the lines," both at the present and in future years.

402

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

CHAPTER XIX

FOUNDERS AND BUILDERS

PERSONAL MENTION OF MANY OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN EXPONENTS OF CIVIC AND MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESS IN CUSTER COUNTY

AUGUSTIN R. HUMPHREY. - There is no man more widely known and no man who has been more closely concerned with public affairs and county developments than the man whose name is announced by this title line. In a wide circle of the county he is known to everybody as "Judge Humphrey," but in the near circle of closer friends the title is omitted, and the name abbreviated to "Gus." For the purpose of this review, however, we shall refer to him as Judge, a title honorably won and richly deserved.

Judge Humphrey was born in 'Madison, In- diana, in February. 1859, and is a son of Augustin R. Humphrey, Sr., and Hanna ( Hicks) Humphrey. The father descended from a fine old Kentucky family, and the date of his birth is recorded as July 12. 1816. The mother was born in Wales, and in her veins coursed the blood of that staunch, patriotic people who have made always a valuable con- tribution to the world, and who have furnished some of the best citizens America has ever pos- sessed. She came to this country with her parents when a mere child, and here received her training and lived her life. The Judge's parents were married in the county of his na- tivity, March 26, 1846, and both lived until the last week in August, 1904, at which time. by a striking and appropriate coincidence, both died in the same week.

The Judge ran the gamut of the common schools in Iowa, to which state his father's family emigrated when the Judge was but five years old. It was in the public schools that the Judge imbibed the principles of Ray's Third Part Arithmetic, and committed to memory McGuffey's Reader and Speller, to- gether with most of the principles of Pinneo's Grammar. At the close of this public-school career he could repeat the contents of these schoolbooks verbatim, and in all probability he can come nearer repeating the contents of these volumes to-day than any other Custer

county man or woman in whose school curri- culum they had place. He quit the common school at the age of fifteen, and entered the Normal College at Bloomfield, Iowa, in the fall of 1878. There he continued the studies until 1881. He taught school in the winter to get money to go to school the rest of the year: From this institution he was graduated in 1881, and he then went to the Iowa State University, where he took his law course, graduating from the law department in June, 1882. This makes up the educational equip- ment of this useful citizen, whose life record it is a pleasure to relate.

His domestic life began June 28, 1883, when he led to the altar Miss Nellie N. Nightingale. as the result of a college romance - owing to the fact that the bride was a member of the same class in college and graduated in the same class with her husband. In the fall of the same year the young couple turned their faces toward the west, following the star of empire until they reached Nebraska, where the Judge began by teaching school at Unadilla. There they remained almost one year. In the fall of 1884 they came to Broken Bow and se- lected this place for their future home: and as soon as possible established a residence which has been the Humphrey home ever since. Here he commenced the practice of law ; here he won his first legal victories ; here he shied for the first time his castor into the political ring, and received his first public recognition. Here he first won his successes, and here he has reached to-day the years of his retirement from the hard and strenuous duties of active practice.

Into the family circle, as the years went by. three sons were born, all of whom are grown to manhood, a credit to the father and mother and entered upon what will undoubtedly be successful careers, Paul N. is now living at Pawhuska, Oklahoma : Donald R. operates a farm owned by the Judge on the South Loup;

403

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

Fred A. is a medical student in the State University. The two former are married and have established homes of their own. In the home of Donald is to be found the only grand- child, a bright boy who occupies a large place in the grandsire's affections.

The shadow fell across the Humphrey household on May 30, 1914, when the wife and mother passed from life into that unknown and mysterious realm to which the great ma- jority of mankind has journeyed. Her death occurred in the Bailey Sanitarium at Lincoln, to which place she had gone in the brave struggle to regain health. Mrs. Humphrey was an excellent, cultured lady, prominent in many lodges and social circles, loved and re- spected by friends and neighbors.

Concerning the political career of the Judge, and it has been an enviable one, it is to be re- corded that in 1889 he attended the state con- vention as a delegate. The convention was look- ing for a man from the middle part of the state to fill an important post on the ticket, and ac- cordingly the Judge was drafted. He says there was no reason - it was purely acciden- tal that he should be nominated at that time for commissioner of public lands and build- ings. but he received the nomination, was elected in the fall of 1890, and filled the office with credit. He was re-elected in the fall of 1892 and served until the end of that second term. at which time he returned to Broken Bow and resumed the practice of law. He was elected county attorney in the fall of 1902, and elected county judge in the fall of 1905, being re-elected in 1907. In the spring of 1916. over his earnest protest. the citizens of Broken Bow made him mayor, which position he filled one year, and then absolutely refused to be a candidate for re-election. The Judge has always taken a keen interest in educational affairs. The public school was a favorite realm for his activities. From the spring of 1890 until the end of the school year of 1914. he was a member of the board of education of his home city, and for the most of the time was chairman of the board. It can be truth- fully said that he made more president ad- dresses to graduating classes than any other man in Custer county, and it is quite likely that this is true of the entire state.

The Judge has ceased the active practice of law, and spends a great deal of his time at his country home, where he delights in the quiet hour and the healthful exercises of gar- dlening and other productive recreation. No man in Custer county has responded more liberally to all calls of the public ; no man has contributed more cheerfully to the promotion

of every public enterprise, or has lent a greater service to the development of Custer county.

These lines are written by a personal friend who has known him long and intimately, and who delights to pay the homage he feels is due to such a character as the judge has been. W. L. GASTON.

MACK C. WARRINGTON. - When he located at Broken Bow, in May, 1916, to assume the duties of register of the United States Land Office, Mack C. Warrington left behind him at Mason City, this county, nu- merous business interests and a reputation for honorable dealing as a business man, integrity in public office, and probity in private life. In his new community and in his new official capacity, he has not only maintained the repu- tation noted, but has also extended and strengthened it, so that there are few men in public life in Custer county to-day who stand higher in public favor, esteem, and confidence.

Mr. Warrington was born at Guthrie Center. the county seat of Guthrie county, Iowa, Octo- ber 29. 1864, and is a son of William and Julia (Cooper) Warrington. His father was born in England, in 1820, and was a young man when he came to the United States. He was a blacksmith by trade. In 1854 he lo- cated in Illinois, where he began to work at his trade, and shortly thereafter he met and married Julia Cooper, who was born in Ire- land and who had come to the United States in 1848 and located in Illinois. Not long after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Warrington re- moved to Guthrie Center, Iowa, where, in 1856, the father founded a blacksmith shop that is still in existence and is being conducted by one of his sons. He became one of the highly esteemed men of his community, was an influential Democrat and a Mason, and died in 1905, aged eighty-five years, in the faith of the Baptist church, of which Mrs. Warrington, who died in 1901, also was a member. They became the parents of six children, of whom four are living - Mrs. J. F. Holster, a widow, residing at Guthrie Center, Iowa: Mack C., of this notice; Mrs. T. J. Campbell, the wife of a ranchman of Pali- sades, Colorado : and Bert, of Guthrie Center. who conducts the blacksmith business which was founded by his father sixty-two years ago.

After attending the public schools of Guth- rie Center, Iowa, Mack C. Warrington com- pleted a course at Cornell College. Mount Vernon, that state, and began his career as a printer, a vocation which he learned in his home community. He was variously employed until August, 1886, when he came to Nebraska,

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

and, locating at Mason City, secured a posi- tion on the local newspaper, the Transcript, of which he became proprietor through pur- chase in the following year. During the thirty years that followed he continued to act as publisher and editor of this paper, which he developed into one of the strong and influen- tial journals of the Democratic party in this part of the state, and which had a large fol- lowing and a subscription list which extended over several counties adjoining Custer. In addition, he built up a large and profitable job-printing business and had interests in sev- eral other directions, being accounted one of the substantial men of Mason City.

For a number of years Mr. Warrington has been prominent and influential in Democratic politics in Custer county, both personally and through his newspaper ownership, and while a resident of Mason City he served in a num- ber of capacities, including that of member of the school board, justice of the peace, and postmaster, of which last named office he was the incumbent for five years. In May, 1916, he received the appointment, from President Wilson, as register of the United States land office at Broken Bow, and moved to this city to take charge of his duties, which embrace the responsibilities for a district that covers twenty-four counties. He disposed of his newspaper interests in 1917 and has devoted his entire attention to his office, in which he has already established an excellent record for capable, expeditious, and conscientious service. Mr. Warrington was a charter mem- ber of Mason City Lodge, No. 170, Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons, of which he is a past master, and he still belongs to the Masons and to the Modern Woodmen of America.

In 1893 Mr. Warrington married Miss Mena Mengel, who was born in Illinois, a daughter of Frederick Mengel. Mrs. Warrington is a member of the Catholic church.

CHARLES H. HOLCOMB. - A resident of Custer county since 1883, when he came to this locality as a homesteader, Charles H. Hol- comb has been engaged in the practice of law at Broken Bow for a period of thirty-two years, within which time he has risen to a position of eminence among the attorneys of central Nebraska. Judge Holcomb is a native of Gibson county, Indiana, born January 21, 1856, and is a son of John C. and Rebecca (Skelton ) Holcomb.

The paternal grandfather of Judge Holcomb was a minister of the "Hard-Shell" Baptist

church, who came from the south at an early (late and settled in Gibson county, where, in 1821, was born John C. Holcomb. The latter passed the greater part of his life in farming, although he was also prominent in Democratic politics and at various times held official po- sitions, being for eight years deputy county auditor, and serving also as county auditor for a number of years. His death occurred in 1879, and his first wife, also a native of Gib- son county, passed away in 1856. They were members of the Baptist church and were the parents of three children, of whom two are living: J. B., who is a ranchman of Broken Bow ; and Charles H. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Holcomb married her sister, Lucinda Skelton, and they became the parents of seven children, of whom three are living : S. A., of Lincoln, is at present a member of the board of control, he being a former gov- ernor of Nebraska and former member of the supreme court of the state ; S. H. is engaged in farming in. Gibson county, Indiana ; and Es- tella is the wife of L. E. Kirkpatrick, of Seattle, Washington, a former attorney of Broken Bow.

The early education of Charles H. Holcomb was secured in the public school at Fort Branch, Indiana, and, having decided upon a professional career, he started the study of law in the office of an attorney at that place. He practiced in Indiana until 1881, when he came to Nebraska and first settled in Hamil- ton county, which was his place of residence for two years. In 1883 he changed his center of activity to Custer county, locating on a homestead, but after three years he moved to Broken Bow, which has since been his home. Here he established himself in practice. sub- sequently becoming associated with the law firm of Kirkpatrick & Holcomb, an alli- ance which lasted until 1891. In that year he formed a partnership with his younger brother, W. W. Holcomb, and the firm of Hol- years - until the death of the younger men- ber. He then continued alone until 1909, when he was elected judge of the county comb Brothers continued in existence for eight court, and he remained on the bench for five years, during which time he established a rec- ord for dignity, for judicial bearing, and for the wisdom and fairness of decisions that won him uniform commendation. When he retired from the bench, Judge Holcomb formed a partnership with Judge Humphrey, and this now forms one of the strongest law firms in central Nebraska. Judge Holcomb is one of the men who have risen from the ranks, and

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

his entire career has been one of steady and constant advancement, marked by the utmost integrity, sincerity, and fidelity to duty.

Judge Holcomb was married in 1879, in Gibson county, Indiana, to Miss Alice Finch, who was born in that county, and to this union there have been born five children: A. Wil- bur. engaged in the automobile business at Hastings, Nebraska; Vessa, the wife of C. O. O'Banion, a cigar manufacturer of Aurora, Nebraska : Mabel, formerly her father's dep- uty and always his assistant in his office work, now the wife of William Darnell, a contractor of Broken Bow; Edna, the wife of S. S. Parkison, a railroad man ; and Roy, a member of the United States Coast Artillery, is in service in France at the time of this writing. Mrs. Holcomb is a member of the Christian church. The Judge is a Democrat in his political allegiance, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which fraternity he has passed all the official chairs.

HARVARD LOMAX. - Two occupations. ranching and banking, have attracted the in- terests and energies of Harvard Lomax, and in both fields of endeavor he has won standing and prosperity, being at this time the owner of much valuable land in Custer county and president of the Custer State Bank, of Broken Bow. Also he has been a prominent figure in public life and in several positions of marked responsibility has demonstrated his worthiness for such honors and his capacity for discharg- ing the duties of his high position.

Mr. Lomax was born at Stockport, England, September 15, 1859, a son of James and Mary (Hobson) Lomax, natives of England, who passed their entire lives there, the father dying in 1905, aged eighty-three years, and the mother in 1900, aged seventy-eight. James Lomax was a wholesale paper merchant and was a successful business man. He and his wife were members respectively of the Church of England and the Wesleyan Methodist church. They were the parents of seven chil- dren, of whom five are living : Henry Hobson. in the British government service at West Kirby, England: Harvard, of this review : Mrs. Robert Hamilton, a widow who lives in England: Maude, of New Quay, Cornwall. England ; and Sarah Lloyd, of the same place.

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History of Custer County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religous, and civic developement from the early days to the present time, Part 54

Author: Gaston, William Levi, 1865- [from old catalog]; Humphrey, Augustin R., 1859- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western publishing and engraving company Number of Pages: 1180

Author: Gaston, William Levi, 1865- [from old catalog]; Humphrey, Augustin R., 1859- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western publishing and engraving company
Number of Pages: 1180