USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 14
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 14
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W. R. ADAMS. Among the self-made, substantial business men of Fremont is W. R. Adams, of the W. R. Adams Company, Incorporated, who came to the community some years ago. Mr. Adams was born in 1865 at Laurel, Indiana. He is a son of W. D. and Nellie (Blue) Adams. The father was born at Everton, Indiana, while the mother came from Hamilton, Ohio. They were married in Indiana and always lived there. Mr. Adams was a farmer and also had a sawmill.
There were six children in the family of W. D. Adams. Only three are living today. They are : Lillian, wife of B. F. Christy, a farmer near Oklahoma City; W. R. Adams ; and Anna, wife of J. F. Kehoe of Clay City, Indiana, president of the Kehoe Preserving Company, which raises
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and preserve pimentos. The parents have gone the way of the world. W. D. Adams was a soldier in the Civil war, and was in Morgan's raid through Kentucky. He voted the republican ticket, and was a successful farmer and lumberman, as stated, owning a mill and getting out much building material in the days of the rural sawmills.
The son, W. R. Adams, was educated in the public school at Laurel and in the Terre Haute Normal School, and his first business opportunity was in the sawmill with his father. Later he engaged in the butcher business in Indiana. After coming to Nebraska in 1890 he worked on a farm for three or four years by the month until he saved enough to engage in the butcher business in Hastings in 1894. In 1896 he started traveling on the road buying hides and in 1898 bought a half interest in the firm he was traveling for and devoted his time to management of same. This firm was the Hastings Hide and Tallow Company. In 1900 Mr. Adams purchased the other members' interests and conducted the business successfully until 1907 when he sold out and came to Fremont. He then bought out J. H. Hoebner, who had the hide, fur and woolen business in Fremont.
Mr. Adams at once enlarged the business and the buildings by adding fifty feet and a second story. He buys and sells hides, furs and wool, shipping in carload lots to the Eastern markets. He supplies tanneries with the hides and furs. The W. R. Adams Company is incorporated as a $100,000 concern, and Mr. Adams is its president and general manager. He is a director in the Commercial Bank of Fremont and devotes all of his time to his business interests. As a means of recreation he is an enthusiastic golf player, realizing that the efficient business man must have recreation.
On June 1, 1899, Mr. Adams married Gertrude Stilson. She is a daughter of S. T. Stilson and was born at Earlville, Illinois. Her people located in Cherry County, where they had a stock ranch. Now, how- ever, they live at Keisling, Washington, where they have a fruit ranch. Mr. and Mrs. Adams are members of the Episcopal Church, while he belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Knights of Pythias and is a Rotarian.
WILLIAM E. HILLIKER. One of the successful business men of Fremont who has built up his present prosperity entirely through his own efforts, and at the same time secured for himself the place in his community to which he is entitled, is William E. Hilliker. He was born at La Crosse, Wisconsin, on May 28, 1861, a son of William E. and Cornelia (Stout) Hilliker, natives of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, respectively. They were married in Wisconsin, and it was from that state that William E. Hilliker, the elder, enlisted in the Union army as a member of the Wisconsin Twenty-Second Volunteer Infantry, and was in the army for eighteen months, when he was honorably discharged.
Following the close of the war he returned to Wisconsin and having previously learned the machinist trade in the shops of the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul Railroad, worked at it in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Later he moved to Reno County, Kansas, and for a time continued to work at his trade, and then homesteaded near Hutchinson, Kansas. Still later he moved to Red Oak, Iowa, where he died, his wife having passed away at La Crosse, Wisconsin. They had four children, as follows: Maggie, who married a Mr. Schwerin of Omaha, Nebraska ; William E., whose name heads this review; Mark, who lives in California; and one who is deceased. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
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and his wife was a Catholic. In politics he was a democrat, but he never took any active part in public affairs, being too much occupied with his own concerns.
William E. Hilliker, the younger, attended the public schools of Kansas and Iowa, and when still not much more than a lad began handling horses, and has continued in this line ever since. In June, 1904, he located permanently at Fremont, erecting a large barn, with a comfort- able residence nearby, and began to deal in horses and mules upon a very large scale. Within recent years he opened up a commission business at Omaha, Nebraska, which makes the third time he has embarked in this line at Omaha, incorporating as the South Omaha Horse and Mule Com- pany in 1912, and when he had the business well under way, sold at a profit in 1914. In 1917 he again sold a business he had built up, and in 1920 he incorporated as Hilliker & Simpson. Mr. Hilliker divides his time between Fremont and Omaha. The firm sold to the United States, Italian and French governments over 73,000 head of horses and mules. They handle about 2,500 per month at both places and sell locally ..
In March, 1884, Mr. Hilliker was married to Catherine Talty, born in Cass County, Iowa, and they became the parents of the following chil- dren : William, who is associated with his father in business; Blanche, who married A. C. Denney of Fremont ; Laura and Nellie, both of whom are unmarried, and four who died in infancy. Mrs. Hilliker was a Catholic and died firm in the faith of her church on August 26, 1916, mourned by a wide circle of warm personal friends, as well as by her family. Mr. Hilliker belongs to Fremont Lodge No. 514, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In politics he is a republican.
FRANK MARTIN HAUN. An impressive instance of the power of innate energy, self-reliance, indomitable resolution and incessant perse- verance in moulding an unaided career is manifest in the life of Frank Martin Haun, now a retired resident of Fremont, who during his active career was one of the most influential and extensive farmers of Dodge County, as well as one of its most prominent and useful citizens.
Mr. Haun was born in Houghton County, Michigan, December 11, 1867, and was still a lad when he accompanied his parents to Nebraska, a history of the family being found elsewhere in this work in the sketch of his father, John Haun. Frank M. acquired a public school education and grew up in an agricultural atmosphere, and at the time that he attained his majority entered upon a career of his own, renting from his father a farm of eighty-seven acres. After four year of renting he pur- chased 120 acres of farm land, and this proved the nucleus for his subse- quent extensive operations which brought him steadily to the forefront as one of the large and successful agriculturists of his day and locality. His good management and business foresight, his constant industry and his wise investments enabled him to accumulate a large and valuable prop- erty, and at this time he is the owner of 657 acres, of which 240 acres are in Maple Township, 340 acres in Cotterell Township and seventy- seven acres in Elkhorn Township. Seventy acres are in pasture land, the rest being improved.
While engaged in general farming, Mr. Haun was also quite a feeder of cattle, maintaining a large herd of high-grade stock. He likewise raised chickens to a considerable extent. In all of his agricultural work he displayed a progressive spirit that manifested itself in his willingness to give a trial to new methods and inventions and to adopt them if they proved practicable. While Mr. Haun's success was remarkable, it was
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gained in a strictly legitimate manner, and his associates have always known him as a man of the highest integrity. In 1919 he decided that he had done his share of hard work and accordingly turned over active labors to younger hands and shoulders and moved to Fremont, where he had purchased a pleasant modern home at 1255 North Brand Street. Here he has shown an intelligent and helpful interest in civic affairs and has demonstrated himself as ready to give his support to all worthy movements.
Mr. Haun was married February 10, 1890, to Miss Anna Edam, and to this union there have been born three children: Mrs. Ottilene Way- wood of Dodge County ; Mrs. Olga Emanual, residing near Webster, in Pleasant Valley Township; and Anna, who died in infancy. Mrs. Haun is a member of the Christian Church, while Mr. Haun is a Catholic. In political views Mr. and Mrs. Haun are democrats. During his resi- dence in the county Mr. Haun served on the School Board and as treasurer thereof for twelve years. He also took an important part in the Liberty Loan drives in his county during the war period. His only fraternal connection with the Knights of Columbus.
EDWARD F. LANGHORST. In the Township of Nickerson in Dodge County one of the capable, upright and progressive farmers is Edward F. Langhorst, whose home is in section 13, and whose affairs as a farmer and citizen deserves consideration in this publication.
Mr. Langhorst was born in Washington County, Nebraska, in 1877. His father, Otto Langhorst, was a native of Germany and was one of the earliest settlers in this section of Nebraska. He prospered as a homesteader and land owner, and of whom complete mention is made on other pages of this volume. Edward F. Langhorst grew up in a home of more than average comfort, acquired a substantial education, and started life for himself at the age of twenty-eight. He bought some land from his father and at the present time owns 160 acres thoroughly improved and operated as a general crop and stock farm.
February 14, 1907, Mr. Langhorst married Miss Lizzie Lallman, who was born and reared in Washington County, where her people were early settlers. Mr. and Mrs. Langhorst have two children, Florence and Mabel, both at home.
In addition to looking after his farm Mr. Langhorst has taken much interest in church and public affairs, serving as township clerk for a long period of years. He is a republican voter and he and his wife are members of the Lutheran Church.
FRANK THEODORE UEHLING. The career of the honored Dodge County pioneer, the late Theodore Uehling, in whose honor the Town of Uehling was named, is the subject of a separate article in this work. A son of Theodore, and his wife Catherine (Schwab) Uehling, is Frank Theodore Uehling, who now owns the old family homestead. He has lived there all his life, and was born at the home place October 26, 1877.
During his boyhood he attended the local public schools and in preparation for a serious vocation as an agriculturist and stock man attended two sessions of the State Agricultural College. For five years he managed the home place for his parents, and subsequently bought out the interests of the other heirs and has given the old farm distinction as one of the centers of pure bred livestock in Northern Dodge County. He has bought an additional 160 acres, making 320 acres. This is
C. h. Dudley, na B. Dudley
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known as the Oak Hill Stock Farm and is one of the model farms pointed out to visitors in Dodge County.
September 12, 1908, Mr. Uehling married Miss Bertha Pauline Von Seggern. She was born in Dodge County where her parents, Henry and Sophia (Brockhus) Von Seggern were pioneer settlers, they having come from Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Uehling have five children : Thelma A., Raymond F., Lucile H., Wilma L., and Frank Theodore, Jr. Mr. Uehling is a stanch republican in politics. He has served as township treasurer, is secretary of the Farmers' Co-operative and Mercantile Association of Uehling, a member of the school board, and is a member of Oakland Lodge No. 91, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
CHARLES L. DUDLEY. With attractive appointments and large and select stock, the Dudley Music Store figures as one of the popular and prosperous retail establishments in the City of Fremont. Here is found a general line of musical instruments, sheet music in required variety and scope, and the various supplemental stock that marks a high grade musical emporium of modern facilities.
Mr. Dudley began selling musical merchandise soon after leaving college. He was very fortunate in his marriage, Mrs. Dudley being an accomplished musician as well as a thorough-going housewife and mother, and since they came to Fremont she has been closely associated with every phase of the developing business.
Mr. Dudley was born in Seward, County, Nebraska, October 14, 1882, son of Rolland and Senith (Ogden) Dudley, the former a native of Kendallville, Indiana, and the latter of the State of Ohio. They were married at Weeping Water, Cass County, Nebraska, Rolland Dudley having come to Nebraska in 1868, about a year after the admission of the state to the Union. He took up and improved a homestead in Seward County, where eventually he became the owner of a large and valuable landed estate and was long one of the representative . farmers of the county. He is now living virtually retired, he and his wife having a pleasant home in University Place, a suburb of the City of Lincoln. Of the six children all are living except one, and of the number the oldest is Raymond, an accountant in the employ of Amour & Company at Sioux City, Iowa; Charles L. comes next in order of birth; Lulu at home; Eugene and Clarence engaged in the automobile business at Hastings, Adams County. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while the father is a republican in politics and is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. He and his wife are numbered among the honored pioneer citizens of Nebraska.
Charles L. Dudley acquired his early education in the public schools, including the high school at Ulysses, Butler County. In 1900 he gradu- ated from Nebraska Wesleyan University at University Place. For the eleven subsequent years he was in the employ of the Matthews Piano Company of Lincoln. After severing his association he was for a short time engaged in the general merchandise business at Glen- wood, Iowa. In 1915 he established himself in the music business at Fremont, where he has built up a substantial and prosperous enterprise and is numbered among the city's representative business men of the younger generation.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Dudley are stanch republicans and take loyal interest in the furtherance of its cause. Mrs. Dudley cast her first vote for Mr. Harding. The only official position he has held was as a
Vol. II-7
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member of the Municipal Council while a resident of Glenwood, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar Mason, affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen.
March 15, 1905, was marked by the marriage of Mr. Dudley to Miss Ina Finch. She was born in Troy, Wisconsin, June 20, 1881, daughter of Charles L. and Clara L. (Brigham) Finch, both natives of Wisconsin, who removed to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1888. Her father was an engineer on the Burlington Railway for about twenty-three years and subsequently in the real estate business and also operated a hotel at Wahoo and York, Nebraska, until his death which occurred in 1917 at the age of sixty-seven. Mrs. Finch who is a member of the Reformed Church makes her home at Fremont. Mrs. Dudley was about seven years old when brought to Nebraska, was educated in the grammar and high schools of Lincoln, spent three years in the Nebraska School of Music and the old L Street Conservatory of Lincoln, and had private instruction as well. She took a business course and was a stenographer in the music department of the Matthews Piano Company at Lincoln when she became acquainted with Mr. Dudley. She taught music for about three years in Glenwood. Iowa. When they opened their store in Fremont in 1915, Mrs. Dudley took an active share in the work and fully shares in the credit with her husband for building up the business. Mrs. Dudley possesses much real business ability, is a thorough musi- cian, and individually and through the store has contributed much to the raising of sound musical standards. They now have the leading general music store in Fremont, and their business is widely extended, since four traveling salesmen represent the establishment over a large Nebraska territory. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley have two children, Lavone and Charles.
RAY NYE. Throughout the great Middle West, more especially may- hap in Nebraska and Iowa, the name of Nye is synonymous with enter- prise, influence and prosperity, in the grain marts and lumber districts standing pre-eminent, one Theron Nye having been the founder and pro- moter of the very extensive and substantial grain and lumber business with which his son, Ray Nye, is now actively identified.
Theron Nye was born July 26, 1828, in Brookfield, Madison County, New York, where his parents, Thomas and Anna (Goldsmith) Nye, located on migrating from New England to the Empire State. The father, a soldier in the War of 1812, was a manufacturer of potash, but never accumulated great wealth. Brought up in his native county, Theron Nye acquired a practical education in the public schools, and as a young man learned the druggist's trade. He afterwards embarked in mercantile pursuits in Hubbardsville, New York, where he remained four years. Early in 1857, responding to the lure of the then distant West, he bade farewell to his family, and on May 1, 1857, landed in Omaha, Nebraska, having come to that city from St. Louis, Missouri, by boat. He was variously employed for a very short time, but finding nothing that suited him in the line of employment, he came to Fremont on May 27, of that year, with a limited capital of $25 at his command.
Pre-empting 160 acres of land, Theron Nye embarked in agricul- tural pursuits, and also engaged in freighting across the plains to Denver. Hard working and thrifty, he accumulated some means, and in 1866 formed a partnership with S. B. Colson, J. T. Smith and J. G. Smith,
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and embarked in the lumber and grain business as head of the firm of Nye, Colson & Company, to which William Fried was subsequently admitted and from which the Smith brothers withdrew. In 1884 Mr. Nye sold his interests in the business to his son Ray, and in 1887 this firm together with two others was consolidated and the Nye, Wilson, Morehouse Company was incorporated, later becoming the Nye, Schneider, Fowler Company, which operates grain elevators in seventy Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota towns, along the lines of the prin- cipal railways of those states.
Active and prominent in advancing the interests of Fremont, his home city, Theron Nye was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Fremont, and served as its president during the first fourteen years of its existence. A republican in politics, he served as mayor of Fremont two terms, and was county treasurer of Dodge County an equal length of time. After his retirement from the firm of Nye, Colson & Company, he lived a comparatively quiet life in Fremont until his death, which occurred on March 6, 1901.
The marriage of Theron Nye and Caroline M. Colson was solemnized in New York State on May 22, 1853. Two sons blessed their union, as follows: Fred, who has passed to the life beyond, was a prominent journalist, having served on the staff of the New York World several years, and prior to that having edited the Omaha Republican ; and Ray, of this sketch. The mother survived her husband a number of years, living in Fremont until her death.
Born in Fremont, Nebraska, October 7, 1861, Ray Nye was educated in the Fremont schools, and when a boy of fifteen years entered the office of Nye, Colson & Company as bookkeeper, a position that he ably filled for six years, gaining in the time valuable business knowledge and experience. In 1882 he was admitted to partnership in the concern, and in 1884 bought his father's interests in the business. Three years later that firm consolidated with the firms of W. R. Wilson & Company and B. F. Morehouse & Company, and was incorporated as the Nye, Wilson, Morehouse Company. In 1890 Messrs. Nye and R. B. Schneider purchased the interests of Messrs. Wilson and Morehouse, and Mr. Nye was made president of the new firm of the Nye & Schneider Company, later the Nye, Schneider, Fowler Company which operates 200 or more elevators in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, and annually handles millions upon millions of bushels of grain, and operates exten- sive lumber yards in different cities of Nebraska and nearby states.
Mr. Nye has other interests of importance and value, and for a number of years has been a large stockholder, and the president of the Omaha Printing Company, one of the most extensive printing and sta- tionery manufacturing concerns in the West. He has been an impor- tant factor in promoting the highest interests of Fremont, the city in which his entire life has been spent, and although he is a prominent member of the republican party, he has never held any public office, his entire time and attention having been devoted to his business affairs. Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons, belonging to Lodge, Chapter, Commandery, and Shrine.
On November 22, 1883, Mr. Nye was united in marriage with Miss Annie End, of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Their only child, George Theron, born August 30, 1884, died June 20, 1886.
EDWARD R. STEWART, M. D. Distinguished not only as the longest established physician and surgeon of Blair, but for his professional success, and his high standing as a man and a citizen, Edward R.
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.
Stewart, M. D., is a fine representative of the medical fraternity of Washington County, and eminently worthy of the respect and esteem so generally accorded him. A son of the late John G. Stewart, he was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, April 8, 1862.
Born and reared at Spruce Creek, Pennsylvania, John G. Stewart acquired a good education when young, and being an intelligent reader kept in touch with the topics of the day throughout his life. In 1867 he moved with his family from Tyrone, Pennsylvania, to Moweaqua, Illinois, where he bought land, and was engaged in tilling the soil many years. Going, in 1883, to Union Star, Missouri, he improved a farm, and there both he and his wife spent their remaining days. He was a republican in politics, and a member of the Presbyterian Church, to which his wife likewise belonged. Of the nine children born of their union, eight grew to years of maturity, and four are living, as follows : Maggie B., wife of S. H. Shomers, a general merchant of Linwood, this state; John, of Urbana, Illinois, a retired farmer; Abraham E., a retired farmer, lives at Nickerson, Nebraska; and Edward R., of this sketch. One of their sons, Samuel Stewart, served in the Civil war from 1863 until the surrender at Appomattox.
Edward R. Stewart received his preliminary education in Illinois, and after attending the State Normal School about a year then taught in the public schools for a time, and entered the Missouri Medical College, at St. Louis, Missouri, which at that time was a department of the Missouri State University, and was there graduated in 1887 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
Coming directly to Nebraska, Doctor Stewart located at Linwood, Butler County, where he remained for four years, his practice being extensive. Coming from there to Blair in 1891, the doctor soon won a position among the leading physicians and surgeons of Washington County, and through his professional skill and ability which are recognized and appreciated, has maintained it until the present writing. While living in Linwood, he managed a drug store, and in Blair he is owner of the Stewart Pharmacy, which is now managed by his son, John H.
In January, 1889, Doctor Stewart was united in marriage with Estelle Diefendorf, who was born in New York State, where her parents spent the major part of their lives, her birth having occurred in Canajoharie. Five children have blessed their union, namely: Ethel, who completed her early studies in Rockford, Illinois, is now teaching in Riverton, Wyoming, being engaged in primary and second grade work; John Harold, in charge of the Stewart Pharmacy, is a graduate of the Blair High School; Donald D., of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, enlisted in the World war October 1, 1917, trained at Camp Cody, went across in July, 1918, joined the Thirty-second Division jas replacement man, was in action on three fronts, Chateau Thierry, Soissons, and the Argonne Forest, and after receiving his discharge in June, 1919, returned home; and Keith Edward and Kenneth Arthur, twins, both pupils in the Blair High School.
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