USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 13
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 13
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On December 25, 1884, Mr. Masters was married to Dora Wages, born in Wisconsin, a daughter of Gustav and Dorothea (Lubens) Wages, natives of France and Hanover, Germany, respectively. They came to the United States when young people. Her death occurred in Wisconsin, and he passed away in Iowa in 1909. They had three children, namely : Lillie Pomroy, who lives north of Arlington; Ernest, who is a retired farmer of Arlington, and Mrs. Masters. Mr. and Mrs. Masters have one daughter, Gertrude, who married F. I. Pfieffer, cashier of the First National Bank of Arlington. It would be difficult to find a man more highly esteemed than Mr. Masters. He has not sought to bring himself before the public in any undue manner, but has tried to do his duty to his fellow man and his country, and to hurt no one by word or deed, thus taking into his every-day life the religion he professes, and earning and holding that approval which means so much to the right-minded person.
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HERMAN G. MEYER. It means something to be a successful self- made man in the true sense. It means character, independence, poise, self-respect and moral strength. The self-made man has behind him developing experiences that have bestowed gifts of compassion and liberal- mindedness that cannot be misunderstood or appreciated by one who has never made an unaided struggle upward. A very prominent citizen of Arlington, Nebraska, who well understands this situation is Herman G. Meyer, vice president of the Arlington State Bank.
Herman G. Meyer was born March 25, 1871, in the Province of Oldenberg, Germany, the youngest in a family of five children born to Herman and Katherine (Hillen) Meyer. The father was a farmer and both parents spent their entire lives in Germany. Mr. Meyer has three brothers : Henry, William and John, all of whom are farmers in Ger- many ; and one sister, Hermine, who is the wife of Henry Hillen, also a German farmer.
When Herman G. Meyer was seventeen years old, he had had the usual school privileges of his class. He was a youth filled with ambition and believing that better opportunity to advance in life could be found in the United States, he found a way to come to America and landed on American soil in 1888. By the time he reached a German settlement in Wisconsin his slender means were exhausted, but he easily secured farm work, to which he applied himself no more faithfully than he did to the task of learning the English language. He spent the summer in Wisconsin, then went westward and landed in Dodge County, Nebraska, in 1889, again without means. During the next three years while work- ing on farms in Dodge County, he learned American customs and lan- guage, while carefully saving his money. The use he put his capital to was to attend the normal school at Fremont and afterward the State University at Lincoln, where he made such rapid and substantial prog- ress that he secured a certificate to teach school and for years afterward taught in country and town schools in several counties to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. He spent nine years teaching in Nebraska, being principal five years of this time.
In the meanwhile Mr. Meyer had progressed in citizenship as well as materially and became influential in republicans politics but not as a seeker for office for himself. It was in 1904 that he entered the banking field, serving first as assistant cashier of the Snyder State Bank at Snyder, Nebraska, for two years, then as cashier for six years, going then to Hooper, Nebraska, where he served four years as cashier of the First National Bank. In 1916 he came to Arlington and became financially interested in the Arlington State Bank, of which he is vice president. His time has been devoted mainly to the affairs of the bank for the past four years, but he still owns a fine farm property in Dodge County.
In 1904 Mr. Meyer was united in marriage to Miss Emily McClean, who was born in Saunders County, Nebraska, and is a daughter of Robert McClean, a prominent farmer of Saunders County, of Scotch ancestry. Mr. and Mrs. Meyer have two children, Gretchen and Allen, aged respectively twelve and ten years, both of whom are doing well at school. The family attends the Congregational Church. Mr. Meyer is a thirty-second degree Mason, and he belongs also to the Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America.
G. I. PFEIFFER, cashier of the First National Bank of Arlington, is one of the most representative men of Washington County, and one intimately associated with its growth and development, and also with
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the expansion of the banking interests of this region. He was born near Stuttgart, Germany, on January 31, 1874, a son of Solomon and Kath- erine (Wagner) Pfeiffer, both natives of Germany, where he was born on October 12, 1833, and she on September 21 of the same year. He died on October 15, 1916, but she survives and makes her home at Arlington. They were married in Germany and came to the United States in 1881, locating first at Fontanelle, Nebraska, but in 1893 mov- ing to the vicinity of Arlington, where they bought and later developed a farm. They had eight children, namely: Solomon, who is a retired farmer of Arlington ; Fred C., who is a farmer of Fontanelle; G. John, who moved to Oklahoma, is still engaged in farming in that state; William G., who is a blacksmith and mechanic of Arlington: Henry, who is on the old homestead: G. I., whose name heads this review ; Charles, who is a salesman of Norfolk, Nebraska; and Martha, who married E. H. Woerner, a florist of Arlington. The parents were Lutherans in their religious faith, and in politics the father was a democrat. When he came to this country he was penniless, and yet when he died he was a well-to-do man, and had made everything himself. His farm com- prised 160 acres and was well improved and in a high state of cultivation.
G. I. Pfeiffer attended the public schools and then gained a working knowledge of business fundamentals by taking a correspondence course, and in 1902 became bookkeeper for the First National Bank of Arlington, rising in two years to be assistant cashier. In 1906 he became cashier and is still holding that very responsible position. The capital stock of the bank is $25,000, the surplus is $10,000, and the deposits are $200,000, and this bank is recognized as one of the sound financial institutions of Washington County.
On May 29, 1906, Mr. Pfeiffer was united in marriage with Elsie Roberts, born in Arlington, a daughter of R. E. Roberts, who was a pioneer freighter of this region, who came here in the '50s, walking from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Omaha, Nebraska. Although a poor man when he came into the state he became wealthy and at the time of his death owned 2,000 acres of land and three elevators. Mr. and Mrs. Pfeiffer have one son, Robert. who is now attending the State University at Lincoln, Nebraska. During the World war he served for two years, enlisting in the Sixth Nebraska Infantry, from which he was transferred to the One Hundred and Ninth Military Police, Thirty-Fourth Division. He was sent to France and was there from October, 1918, until July, 1919. During the last three months he was in France he attended the University at Toulouse, and received credit for his work there when he entered the University of Nebraska.
The Pfeiffer family attend the Congregational Church. Mr. Pfeiffer belongs to the Masonic order, and has served as master of his lodge for two years. While he is a democrat he is inclined to be independent. For twenty-four years he has been an Odd Fellow, passed all of the chairs in the lower lodge and was district deputy grand master of the state. Mr. Pfeiffer was township clerk for two years and treasurer of the village, and has been on the School Board for the past nine years, but of recent years he has devoted the greater part of his time to his bank. In addition to other honors conferred upon him, Mr. Pfeiffer is presi- dent of the Men's Club of the Congregational Church. Since Mr. Pfeif- fer assumed charge of the duties of cashier there has been a very mate- rial increase in the amount of business done by the bank, as at that time the deposits did not exceed $50,000, and the greater part of this expansion is the direct result of his own efforts. He has always been
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greatly interested in Arlington and Washington counties, and his excel- lent common sense and sound financial judgment are so generally recog- nized and appreciated that his advice is generally asked before any movement of any importance is promulgated. His standing is such that his approval of a measure is just about all that is needed to carry it through, but he will not sanction any lavish expenditure of the people's money, for he is conservative when it comes to finances. Such men as Mr. Pfeiffer exert a very constructive influence in their community and are a valuable addition to any locality.
CHARLES E. MAJERS. Possibly there is no other vocation in which men are so certainly but quietly influential as journalism. The printed thought that comes under the eye has a chance to make an appeal that circumstance and the spoken word might render ineffective, and the newspaper may have an audience of thousands where the speaker may not have hundreds. Hence a grave responsibility rests with those who interpret the happenings of the world to others, be they of nation-wide interest or of affairs close at home. This responsibility is felt and acknowledged by such able and experienced newspaper men as Charles E. Majers, a well-known journalist, owner and editor of the Scribner Rustler, at Scribner, Nebraska.
Charles E. Majers was born in 1889, in Taylor County, Iowa, and is a son of Abner and Rosanna (Spencer) Majers. He was reared on his father's farm and attended the neighborhood schools until fourteen years of age, when he entered the office of the Free Press, at Bedford, Iowa, to learn the newspaper business from the ground up. He remained with the Free Press for seven years, in various capacities, then went to Topeka, Kansas, where he remained with the Trapp Printing Company for the next eight years. Mr. Majers then bought the Monitor, at Harveyville, Kansas, conducted it one year and then went back to Iowa, and for the next seven and a half years was editor of the Moorhead Times, at Moorhead, in Monona County, Iowa, making that newspaper one of the most reliable mediums in the state. In December, 1919, Mr. Majers came to Nebraska and purchased the office, good will and entire plant of the Scribner Rustler, which journal he has ably conducted ever since. It is a large newspaper, non-political in policy, and is issued weekly. Mr. Majers devotes his columns mainly to matters in which his large list of subscribers are most particularly interested, but nevertheless readers of the Rustler are kept well informed on all questions of world- wide importance. In connection with his newspaper, Mr. Majers has a well-equipped job office that turns out work that would be creditable to any printing establishment.
During his residence at Topeka, Kansas, Mr. Majers was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Ferrell, and they have one daughter, Helen L. Mr. Majers has never had any political ambitions but as a watchful private citizen, with a sense of public responsibility, he works for what he believes the welfare of the country, state and city. Personally he is genial and hospitable and those who make his acquaintance on coming to Scribner, are given a very favorable impression.
NORMAN E. SHAFFER. Prominent in both business and public affairs at Hooper, Nebraska, is Norman E. Shaffer, cashier of the First National Bank of Hooper, and a former member of the State Legislature. He is a representative of one of the substantial old families of Dodge County that was founded here forty-four years ago. Its members have been
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identified creditably with many of the developing agencies of this section, and few families are better or more favorably known.
Norman E. Shaffer was born in Dodge County, Nebraska, in 1884, and is a son of Jacob G. and Eliza (Winey) Shaffer. Jacob G. Shaffer was born in Pennsylvania October 18, 1848, a son of William T. and Bar- bara Shaffer, natives of Germany. They had four children : John, Alice, Jacob G. and Elizabeth, the only survivor being Jacob G., who lived in his native state until 1876. When a boy he earned his first money by picking stones from land that could not have been otherwise cultivated, then worked as a day laborer until 1868, when he was engaged to drive mules on the towpath along the canal, from that getting into regular canal-boat work, keeping on until he was first made boatswain and then captain. At that time in his neighborhood in Pennsylvania, canal traffic was heavy and transportation by water was of more importance than now, when much of it is diverted to the railroads.
Mr. Shaffer left the canal in 1875 and in that year was married to Eliza Winey, who was also born in Pennsylvania. On March 18, 1876, they came to Dodge County, Nebraska, renting a farm near Hooper, on which they lived until 1884, when Mr. Shaffer bought 240 acres, where he carried on general farming and stock raising very profitably for many years. He also owned a threshing outfit and did the most of the corn shelling in his neighborhood for a long time. In 1913 he retired from the farm and moved to Hooper, where he is one of the men of ample fortune, interested in numerous sound business enterprises. He is a stockholder in the Farmers Co-operative Company of Dodge County, and a stockholder in both the First National Bank and the Dodge County Bank at Hooper.
To Jacob G. Shaffer and his wife the following children were born: Dorsey, deceased ; William V., living in Lincoln, Nebraska ; Harvey W., who farms the old homestead; John A., who served in a United States infantry regiment in the Great war and now with the Farmers Co-opera- tive Company of North Bend; Norman E., cashier of the First National Bank of Hooper; Mary, who is connected with a business house at Hooper; May, a trained nurse in the Methodist Episcopal Hospital at Omaha ; Stanley, in the Government employ, is a druggist by profession ; Rose, a school teacher at Gordon, Nebraska; Clark, office man for the Avery Harvester Company of Omaha; and Jay, who is connected with a business house at York, Nebraska.
Norman E. Shaffer attended the local schools and assisted his father on the home farm until twenty-one years old, then, after a commercial and shorthand course at the Fremont Normal School, he became book- keeper for the Farmers Co-operative store at Hooper, where he remained through 1907 and 1908, when he turned his attention again to agricul- tural pursuits and from 1909 until 1918 raised grain and fine livestock. In the meanwhile he became prominent in democratic politics and in 1917 was elected to the State Legislature. He proved able and capable as a statesman but political honors did not succeed in luring him from the business field, for which he is particularly well qualified, and in 1918 he came to the First National Bank, of which he is a director, and con- tinues as cashier of this stable institution, of which his careful, conserva- tive policy is a recognized asset.
In 1909 Mr. Shaffer was united in marriage with Miss Anna Antoinette Monnich, who was born in Dodge County, and they have three children, namely : Donald, Charlotte and Cornelius. Mr. and Mrs. Shaffer are members of Grace Lutheran Church. Mr. Shaffer is a
Jahr Mannich
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Scottish Rite Mason. In all that concerns Nebraska and Dodge counties in particular he takes deep concern and although one of the younger men in the county's public affairs, has made a favorable impression as a fearless, upstanding citizen not afraid to defend his convictions on any subject, when convinced they are right and for the general welfare.
JOHN N. MONNICH, proprietor of the Monnich Garage, is one of the aggressive young business men of Fremont, and one who is held in high esteem by his competitors and the public generally on account of his fair treatment and good judgment. He was born at Hooper, Nebraska, on January 26, 1885, a son of Herman and Margaret (Parkert) Mon- nich, natives of Iowa and Michigan, respectively, who were married in Dodge County, to which they had come about 1869. They are now living on their farm north of Hooper, their residence being one of the nicest country homes in the county. Ever since coming to Nebraska Herman Monnich has been a farmer and stockman. In politics he is a republican. Mrs. Monnich is a Catholic and Mr. Monnich is a member of the Lutheran Church. They became the parents of the following children: George, who is on the home farm; John N., whose name heads this review ; Bernard, who is also on the farm: Antoinette, who married Norman Shaffer, cashier of the First National Bank of Hooper; Edward, who lives at Oakland, California, was in the service during the late war for six or seven months; Ardelia, who is a trained nurse, lives at Akron, Ohio; and Clarence, who was in the service for nine months during the late war, was sent overseas, participating in four big drives and at pres- ent is living with his parents. The paternal grandfather was Gerard Monnich, born in Germany.
John N. Monnich attended the rural schools of Dodge County and Highland Park, where he took a course in electrical engineering, after- ward finishing in the Fremont Normal School. Until he was nineteen years of age he was engaged in farming, but then with the money he had saved up, took his courses in electrical engineering. Completing them he went into the automobile business at Hooper, holding an agency for the Ford cars. As a partner in this business he had his paternal uncle, Bernard Monnich. In 1912 he came to Fremont and established the Ford agency and built a large brick garage with a floor space of 28,000 square feet on its two floors in 1916. At present he owns this garage and one each at North Bend and Valley, Nebraska, being the second oldest Ford agent in Nebraska in point of service.
In March, 1911, Mr. Monnich was united in marriage with Bertha Olson of Fremont, a daughter of N. P. Olson. They have a daughter, Priscilla, who was born on April 13, 1912, and a son, John Charles, born November 10, 1920. Mr. and Mrs. Monnich belong to the First Con- gregational Church of Fremont. Mr. Monnich is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to Fremont Lodge No. 513, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and other fraternal organizations. A strong republican he is now serving as a member of the board of public works of Fremont.
Beginning in a small way Mr. Monnich has expanded his business until he owns several well-equipped garages in different communities and gives employment to thirty-five persons. His present prosperity has not come to him without effort, but it is all the more appreciated because it is the result of his energy, foresight and excellent judgment, and he is proud of it and the place he has gained in public esteem.
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WILLIAM J. CRANE. There must be an immense amount of satisfar - tion to a man to be able to look back over a long and well-spent life and realize that he has attained not only to a material success, but that at the same time he has won and held the confidence and respect of business associates and social intimates. William J. Crane of Arlington, now enjoying the contentment of honorable retirement, has achieved more than ordinary success in his business ventures, and no man of Washing- ton County stands any higher in public confidence.
Mr. Crane is a New Yorker, as he was born in Owego, Tioga County, New York, November 30, 1840, a son of John G. and Sarah (Day) Crane, both of whom were born in New York State. John G. Crane was born in that state on February 9, 1809, a son of Henry Crane, a native of New Jersey, who moved to New York State at an early day and died at Wellsville, that commonwealth, having been a shoemaker by trade. During the second war with England he served as a soldier, and his father was a soldier of the American Revolution. Mrs. Sarah Day Crane was born at Gilderland, Albany, New York, in 1799. Her father was a physician and a very wealthy man, owning a tract of land ten miles square and including much of the present City of Albany. John H. Crane and his wife were married in New York State on May 27, 1830. During his younger life he was a worker in the woolen mills of his native state, but later became a minister of the Methodist Epis- copal Church and as such was stationed at different points, one being Blossburg, Pennsylvania, but for the most part he was in his native state, and he continued in the ministry for a long period, only leaving it when he had reached his seventy-fifth birthday. He and his wife had seven children, of whom three are now living, namely: Henry P., a retired business man, who has traveled considerably and is now living at Rochester, New York; Sarah, who married Joel Davis, a banker of fifty years' standing, lives at Blossburg, Pennsylvania ; and William J., whose name heads this review. When the slavery question was the living issue of his day John G. Crane was a strong abolitionist, but later espoused the principles of the republican party. For over sixty years he was an active member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Growing up in his native state, William J. Crane secured his educa- tional training in the public schools, and was engaged in mercantile pursuits when he felt the urge of patriotism which prompted his enlist- ment in the Union army in August, 1861, as a member of Company H, Eighty-Fifth New York Volunteer Infantry, and served with his com- mand until the battle of Fair Oaks, at which time he was wounded, the bullet passing through his left lung, and he has never recovered fully from its effects.
In 1858 Mr. Crane went to Kansas for a period of two years, and then returned to New York, but during that time he acquired a love for the west, and so, in 1871, returned to it, but selected Arlington, Nebraska, as the location of his new home. The first season he was there he raised a crop of corn but found that his health was not equal to the strain put upon it by agricultural pursuits, and so secured the position of station agent in the Arlington depot in 1872, and held it for three and one-half years. In 1878 Mr. Crane embarked in a banking business, and con- ducted it until 1886, when he went to Wyoming, although continuing to maintain his residence at Arlington. He was interested in the oil fields of that state and was the first to take machinery into them. Later he became interested in mining, this industry absorbing the major portion of his time and attention until his retirement. The various ventures in
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which Mr. Crane has been interested have proven very successful, and Mr. Crane has reaped abundantly from his business acumen and able handling of his large and varied affairs. Always, from the organization of the Grand Army of the Republic, he has been a forceful factor in it, and since 1890 has been on the committee on the finances connected with the operation of the Old Soldiers' Homes.
In 1865 Mr. Crane was united in marriage with Miss Mary Harding, born in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, and they became the parents of one son, William H. Crane, who was born on December 15, 1872. He was educated at Arlington and in Doane College, and following the comple- tion of his education he returned to Arlington and established himself in a real estate business. Still later he went to Colorado in order to homestead. During the Spanish-American war he served as a soldier, but the war terminated before he was sent further south than Chicka- mauga Park. Mrs. Crane died in 1906, a consistent member of the Con- gregational Church, and Mr. Crane maintains his connection with that body. This church organization was started in the Crane home, and Mr. Crane is the only living charter member of it. For over fifty years Mr. Crane has been an Odd Fellow, and organized the lodge of that order at Arlington in 1873. While he has always been very active in the republican party he has never aspired to office. His residence at Arling- ton is one of the best in the city, and here he is living in comfort.
Although handicapped almost at that most important period of a man's career, the beginning by his disability incurred during his military service, Mr. Crane has not allowed it to hamper him unnecessarily, but has gone straight ahead, rendering an efficient service, and bringing to bear on each undertaking, no matter how small, the full force of an unusually intelligent mind, with the result that in his declining years he occupies the place in his locality to which his abilities and accomplish- ments entitle him and there are few men who have as many warm, per- sonal friends as he. Generous in his contributions to civic undertakings Mr. Crane has always advocated those improvements which his experi- ence taught him were practical and not unduly extravagant, and his advice is generally sought before a movement is launched, for his fellow citizens rely on his judgment and desire his advocacy of a plan before it is placed before the public for decisive action. Mr. Crane is an inspir- ing example to the veterans of the late war of what can be accomplished by one who came out of his country's service in a much worse condition that when he went into it, and the young heroes of this generation, learn- ing from him need not be discouraged but go ahead as did he, and rest assured that they, too, can attain to ample means and prestige among their fellows, provided of course that they are willing to put up a good fight against the obstacles that will of course rise in their path.
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