USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 18
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 18
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Milligan J. Cain married, in Iowa, Nancy Morey, who was born February 16, 1840, and on February 16, 1920, celebrated, in Brooklyn, Iowa, the eightieth anniversary of her birth. Of the eleven children born of their union eight are living, two of them being residents of Nebraska, as follows: Edward L., of Omaha, was for twenty years over- seer of the parcel post terminal for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, and is now associated with the Jones Construction Company ; and Ulysses S., with whom this sketch is principally con- cerned. Both parents were worthy members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
After leaving the Brooklyn, Iowa, High School, Ulysses S. Cain made good use of every offered opportunity for advancing his knowledge, reading and studying as time allowed, and in the fall of 1888 entered upon a professional career, teaching in Iowa two years, and then in the rural schools of Washington County, Nebraska, for an equal length of time. Abandoning the desk, Mr. Cain was engaged in mercantile pur- suits in Blair, Nebraska, for three and a half years. Moving then to Omaha, he worked first for Browning & King Clothing Company and for the past ten years was connected with Central Life Insurance Com- pany of Des Moines, Iowa. Coming to Fremont in 1915 Mr. Cain accepted a general agency with the company and having made good from the start is now district manager, having control, not only of Dodge County, but of several adjacent counties, the territory in which he is so successfully working.
Mr. Cain married, September 24, 1896, Harriet T. Tracy, who was born at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, a daughter of Jonathan L. Tracy, who moved from Ohio to Iowa, and thence to Blair, Nebraska, where he engaged in farming and dairy business. Mr. and Mrs. Cain have two children, namely : Stanley and Ruth. Stanley Cain was born in Blair, Nebraska, June 6, 1897, and as a boy and youth received good educa- tional advantages, having attended the Central High School at Omaha, and later the high schools of Morris, Minnesota, and of Fremont, Nebraska. He subsequently studied pharmacy at Highland Park, Des Moines, Iowa, and there' afterward worked for a few years in a drug store. At the present time he is profitably engaged with his father in the life insurance business. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and of the Order of the Eastern Star. Ruth L. Cain, the only daughter of the parental household, is attending Wesleyan University, in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
Politically Mr. Cain is a stanch republican. Fraternally he belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and to the Independent Order
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of Odd Fellows ; and both he and his wife are members of the Order of the Eastern Star. Mrs. Cain is vice president of the Rebekah Assembly of Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Cain are promiment members of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, and take an active part in church and Sunday school work.
JOHN C. CHERNY was a lad of about ten years when he accompanied his parents on their emigration from their native Bohemia to the United States in 1870 and the same year recorded the arrival of the family in Saunders County, Nebraska, where the father took up a homestead and vigorously turned his attention to the development of a productive farm. With the passing years he became one of the successful exponents of agricultural and livestock industry in that county, where both he and his good wife passed the remainder of their lives on their old homestead. They were fine representatives of that sturdy element of Bohemian citi- zenship that has played large part in the civic and industrial progress and prosperity of Nebraska. Their names, Venzelslaus and Anna (Shav- lich) Cherny, merit enduring place on the roll of the sterling pioneers of Saunders County, both having been devout communicants of the Cath- olic Church and the father having supported the cause of the republican party after he had become a naturalized citizen of the land of his adop- tion. Of the six children, John C. of this review is the eldest ; Albert remains on the old home farm; James is a successful farmer in Dodge County ; Anna is deceased; Kate is the wife of F. A. Hines, a farmer near Morse Bluff, Saunders County ; and Joseph is engaged in the insur- ance and real estate business at Walthill, Thurston County.
John C. Cherny gained his rudimentary education in his native land and attended school when opportunity offered after the family home had been established in Nebraska. He early began to assist in the work of the home farm and there remained with his parents until 1880, when, at the age of twenty years, he came to North Bend, Dodge County, where he found employment in the lumber yard of Christopher Cusack. After having been thus engaged two years he became a partner in the firm of which the other members were Mr. Cusack, his former employer, and J. Y. Smith and J. R. Acom. After having thus been actively engaged in the lumber and livestock business two years he sold his interest in the business to C. L. Coleman of La Crosse, Wisconsin. He then became associated with F. C. Cavan in purchasing the well-estab- lished implement and lumber business of J. B. Foote. The new firm continued to control a substantial and profitable business until the part- nership alliance was severed by the death of Mr. Cavan, in 1899, and within a short time thereafter Mr. Cherny admitted C. K. Watson to partnership, under the firm name of Cherny & Watson. This progres- sive firm has a large and substantial business in the handling of lumber, coal and heavy and light farm machinery and implements. In addition to the headquarters enterprise at North Bend the firm maintains branch yards at Rogers, Colfax County ; Morse Bluff, Saunders County ; Walthill, Thurston County, as well as at Winnebago, that county, and at Mineola, Iowa. This mere statement of conditions marks the firm as conducting a business of broad scope and importance and testified to the distinctive success that has attended the independent activities of the Bohemian boy who was born in 1860 and was but ten years old when he came with his parents to the state which has been the stage of his progressive move- ment in the field of normal and useful business enterprise.
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Mr. Cherny is one of the specially loval and liberal citizens and busi- ness men of North Bend, and has been influential in public affairs in Dodge County. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, he served nine years as a member of the municipal council of North Bend, as well as one year in the office of mayor, and he was for ten years a member of the Board of Education, while he also gave two years of effective service as township assessor. In his activities as a dealer in agricultural machinery Mr. Cherny introduced the first twine-binding reaping machine that was placed in operation not alone in Dodge County but also the first in this section of the state. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
In 1885 Mr. Cherny was united in marriage to Miss Victoria Sed- lacek, who likewise is a native of Bohemia, and of this union have been born five children : Mildred is a popular teacher in the public schools of North Bend; James is bookkeeper in the office of his father's business at North Bend; Leland J. is manager of the firm's business at Rogers ; Alice is at the parental home; and Helen is, in 1920, a student in the University of Nebraska.
HERMAN HOLSTEN. A prominent, prosperous and highly esteemed citizen of Dodge, Herman Holsten has for upwards of thirty years been conspicuously identified with the promotion of the financial prosperity of his home city, and as president of the Farmers State Bank is wisely managing one of the more prosperous and substantial institutions of the kind in Dodge County. Of German parentage, he was born, February 24, 1867, in Benton County, Missouri.
His father, D. Holsten, was born in Germany, and as a lad of seventeen years came to the United States in search of more favorable opportunities for earning a living. He located in Missouri, and during the Civil war enlisted in Company C, Missouri Cavalry, in which he bravely served four years. Resuming his agricultural labors on leaving the army, he remained in Missouri until 1874, when he came with his family to Dodge County, Nebraska. Buying a tract of wild land sit- uated near Scribner, he improved a valuable ranch, on which he lived and labored many years. Subsequently giving up the management of his large farm, which he afterward sold, he lived retired, first in Scribner, and then Redlands, California, where his death occurred on June 12, 1917.
D. Holsten married, in Warsaw, Benton County, Missouri, Marguerite Behrens, and they became the parents of three children, as follows: Herman, of this sketch: Emma Diels, of Redlands, California; and a child that died in infancy. The father was a republican in politics, and both he and his wife were members of the German Lutheran Church.
Completing his early education in the country schools, Herman Hol- sten took a business course of six months in the Fremont Normal School. Although he had been well trained in the agricultural arts on the home farm, he early decided to seek some other occupation than farming, and as a young man started out for himself. On March 1, 1889, soon after attaining his majority, Mr. Holsten organized the Farmers State Bank at Dodge, of which he is president, and has managed it most successfully, and to the entire satisfaction of all connected with it. The original capi- tal of this bank was $10,000, which has been increased to $30,000, while its individual deposits, which amounted to less than $50,000 the first year, are now $750,000, an increase indicative of the institution's pros- perity and popularity. Mr. Holsten has made wise investments and has valuable farming interests as well as city property.
Sterman Holsten
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In 1891 Mr. Holsten married Ella Dierker, who was born near West- point, Cuming County, Nebraska, being one of the ten children of Henry and Mary Dierker, who are now living retired in Orange, California. Mr. and Mrs. Holsten have four children, namely: Harry, cashier in the Farmers State Bank; Marguerite Johnson, San Bernardino, Califor- nia; Leona Stecher; and Viola, engaged in teaching. A republican in politics, Mr. Holsten has served the Town Board for twenty years, and has been secretary of the School Board an equal length of time. He and his wife are members of the German Lutheran Church, but the children belong to the Congregational Church.
WILLIAM A. G. COBB. Distinguished not only for his service in the regular army, more especially during the Civil war, but as a man of sterling worth and integrity, the late William A. G. Cobb, for nearly half a century a resident of Fremont, was eminently deserving of the high position he attained among the esteemed and valued citizens of his community. He was born February 8, 1841, in Wurtemburg, Germany, a son of Simon and Wilhelmina Cobb, and died at his home in Fremont, Nebraska, April 1, 1918.
Immigrating to the United States in 1857, he first found employment as a farm hand in Michigan, where he remained two or three years. Going from there to Illinois he enlisted July 5, 1860, as a private in the United States army, becoming a member of Company E. Eighth Regi- ment, United States Infantry, which was under the command of John T. Sprague. He then went with his comrades to Fort Leavenworth, Kan- sas, from there marching across the plains to Hatcher's Run, and a week later continuing his journey to Fort Fillmore, New Mexico. Leaving there in March, 1861, with his command, he marched 700 miles across the country to San Antonio, Texas, where the entire company of 315 men was taken by Van Dorn's Confederate brigade, and he and his comrades were being held as prisoners when the outbreak of the Civil war was announced.
Rejoining his regiment when paroled, Mr. Cobb took part in several important engagements of the war, including the first battle of Bull Run, the engagement at Fredericksburg, and the battle of Gettysburg. Soon after the latter battle, he and his company were ordered to New York City to suppress the draft riots. Going then to Warrenton, West Virginia, with his command, which became the provost guard of the Ninth Corps, he took an active part in all the movements of that organization. His term of enlistment having expired, Mr. Cobb was honorably discharged from the service, at Indianapolis, Indiana, on July 12, 1864, and subse- quently re-enlisted in the same company for another term of three years.
For meritorious and efficient service, he was promoted to the rank of first sergeant, and on January 1, 1867, was made regimental commis- sary sergeant. Just after his re-enlistment Mr. Cobb joined his old company at Baltimore, Maryland, and was detailed as clerk at the head- quarters of General Hancock, a position that he filled ably and most satisfactorily. On July 12, 1867, his term of enlistment having expired, he was honorably discharged from the army, at Raleigh, North Caro- lina, and returned north to resume his duties as a private citizen.
Coming to Dodge County, Nebraska, in the spring of 1869, Mr. Cobb located in Fremont, and first clerked in a grocery, and later in a hard- ware store, entering the employ of a Mr. Carter. Taking up a claim a short time later, he lived on his homestead three years, there beginning the improvement of a farm. The work not proving to his liking,
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Mr. Cobb returned to Fremont, and ran an elevator for several years. He subsequently bought an elevator and a lumber yard in Hooper, Nebraska, and managed it ably for several years. Again returning to Fremont, he established a lumber yard and built an elevator, and oper- ated both for some time. He then engaged in the horse business, but the venture was a losing one. and he then lived retired from active business cares until his death. He was a self-made man in every sense implied by the term, and by his own efforts accumulated a fair share of this world's goods, at his death leaving considerable property. He built, in 1889, the large and conveniently arranged home at 1612 East Military Avenue, the valuable lot on which it is located containing eighteen acres of land, and Mrs. Cobb still occupies it.
Mr. Cobb married October 9, 1870, Eliza A. Mefferd, who was born in Logan County, Ohio, a daughter of Andrew and Nancy (Wellings- ford) Mefferd, who came from Ohio to Dodge County, Nebraska, in the fall of 1869. Her father first rented land, and later took a homestead claim in Colfax County, where both he and his wife spent their remain- ing years. Mr. and Mrs. Cobb reared one child, Gustav L. Cobb, who was born February 10, 1872, and after his graduation from the Fremont High School attended a business college for a year. This son, who was general passenger agent for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad at Chicago while the Government operated the railway, but is now in New York City, was recently given a medal by King Albert, who greatly appreciated the courteous attention tendered him when he traveled over that railway while visiting this country. William Cobb was a republican in politics, and a loyal member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was reared in the Lutheran Church and his wife was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
MYRON G. SNYDER. For many years actively engaged in agricul- tural pursuits in Dodge County, Myron G. Snyder used excellent judgment and good business methods in the care and management of his farm lands, and met with such signal success that he acquired much wealth, and is now living retired from active labor in Fremont, enjoying all the comforts of life. He was born April 3, 1856, in New York State, which was likewise the birthplace of his father, George Snyder.
George Snyder, who was of English ancestry, was a lifelong resident of the Empire State, where he carried on general farming throughout his active career. He was a steadfast republican in politics, and served as sheriff of Herkimer County, New York. His wife, whose maiden name was Lydia Case, was born in Massachusetts, and died on the home farm in New York State. They became the parents of several children, as follows: William, a soldier in the Civil war, was wounded in the battle of Antietam and died eighteen days later, in October, 1862; Charles, a resident of Herkimer, New York, visited his brother Myron in Fremont, Nebraska, in December, 1919, and died very soon after his return home, his death occurring January 1, 1920; Horace N., foreman of a factory in Utica, New York : Myron G. of this sketch ; and Albert E., foreman of the Remington Gun Works at llion, New York.
Educated in the public schools of his native state, Myron G. Snyder was there first engaged in tilling the soil, and later taught school there for two years. Coming to Nebraska in the spring of 1878 he taught school in Saunders and Dodge counties several seasons, and subse- quently worked in a store, and clerked in a bank. In 1882 he invested a part of his savings in Fremont real estate, and later bought seventeen
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acres of land in the vicinity of Fremont. Mr. Snyder met with success in his undertakings, and having accumulated some money invested it in a farm of 400 acres, situated two miles west of Fremont. In addition to carrying on general farming, he made a specialty of dairying, which he continued until moving into Fremont, in March, 1910. He has sold all his land.
Mr. Snyder married, in 1883, Nettie N. Burt, who was born in New York State, where her parents, Henry and Caroline Burt, were lifelong farmers. Five children are living and two deceased of those which have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Snyder, namely: Frank B., of Fre- mont, is shipping clerk for the Hammond & Stevens Company, in which he is a stockholder; George, engaged in farming in Colorado; Winifred, living at home ; Ray H. of Fremont is in the employ of the Nye, Schnei- der & Fowler Company ; Lydia, at home; Ethel, who married James E. Nerray and died at the age of thirty-nine years, leaving one son Eldon ; and Berne C., died when nineteen years old.
Politically Mr. Snyder invariably casts his vote in favor of the repub- lican party. He is liberal on local affairs.
GEORGE S. BROWN. Prominent among the representatives of the farming and stock growing industry of Dodge County, one of this coun- ty's native sons who has worked his own way to position and independence is George S. Brown. Mr. Brown, who is the owner of a valuable prop- erty in section 12, Maple Township, was for some years an operator in Nance County, but the call of his native soil brought him back thereto, and in the Fremont community he is making the most of his opportuni- ties and is steadily acquiring a higher position and richer emoluments.
George S. Brown was born on his father's farm, about nine miles northwest of Fremont, in Dodge County, in 1879, a son of David and Catherine (Raycraft) Brown. His father was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1839, a son of John and Ellen Brown, the former being a native of Erin's Isle who settled in young manhood in Canada and there passed the rest of his life as a farmer, dying at the age of seventy-two years. David Brown acquired a public school education in Ontario and for nine years followed the vocation of educator. When he came to the United States, in 1866, he first settled in Benton County, Iowa, and was engaged in farming for one year, but following that moved around considerably until 1871. In that year, after spending a short time at Fremont, he rented a farm nine miles northwest of that city, which he later acquired by purchase. He developed into one of the substantial agriculturists of his community, but for several years has been in retirement, having reached the advanced age of eighty-one years. He is a prohibitionist and a man of integrity and probity, and is a faithful member of the Presby- terian Church. He married, in Ontario, Catherine Raycraft, who died in 1917, at the age of seventy-two years, and to them there were born six sons and three daughters: Alfred D., William J., Emma V., Agnes S., Helen M., George S., Earl R., Owen D. and Ernest H. Of these Agnes S. is deceased.
George S. Brown attended the public schools of his native community and was given the further advantages of attendance at the normal school at Fremont. He made his home under the parental roof until he reached his majority, and at that time went to Nance County, where he began operations on his own account. For sixteen years he continued in that community, carrying on general farming and also meeting with success in the raising of Shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs, but eventually
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disposed of his Nance County holdings and returned to Dodge County in 1917. Here he has duplicated and even bettered, the record for agri- cultural achievement which he had made in the other community, and today he is numbered among the most progressive and prosperous of the agriculturists of his part of the county. His farm is modern in every respect, and includes in its appointments all the latest machinery and equipment, while the buildings are commodious and substantial and the farm bears a general air of prosperity that evidences the managerial ability of its owner.
Mr. Brown was married in 1901 to Miss Theo D. Taylor, who was born in Illinois, daughter of Alfred J. Taylor, one of the early settlers of Dodge County, and to this union there have been born four children : Clara, Alta F., Ruth G. and Margaret. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are faithful members of the Presbyterian Church, which they attend at Fremont, and are liberal contributors to its movements. Mr. Brown is a stalwart pro- hibitionist and a man of sound integrity and probity of character. His only fraternal affiliation is with the local lodge of the Royal Highlanders.
G. G. HINES. Besides its importance as a county seat and commer- cial center of Washington County, Blair is the home of some business institutions and business men whose relations are broadly extended beyond the limits of Washington County. One of these is G. G. Hines, a contractor and builder whose material achievements are represented in the prominent architecture of both Washington and Dodge counties and in many other sections of the state. He has been a resident of Blair for many years, his father was a successful contractor in the west for a long period, and the present firm of Struve & Hines enjoys the highest rating all over the west.
G. G. Hines was born at Avoca in Shelby County, Iowa, December 10, 1876, son of T. J. and Elizabeth (Carmen) Hines. His paternal grandfather, Thomas J. Hines, was a native of Pennsylvania and in the early '60s came west with his family traveling in a wagon drawn by ox team to Iowa. He homesteaded in Iowa and spent the rest of his life there. The maternal grandfather of G. G. Hines was Doctor Carmen a physician who practiced in Iowa for many years. Elizabeth Carmen was born in Quincy, Illinois, and T. J. Hines was born in Warren County, Pennsylvania. They were married at Avoca, Iowa. T. J. Hines took up railroad contracting at a pioneer period in the construction of western railroads. He did a large amount of contracting for the Union Pacific, and built the stone arch over Green River in Wyoming, and also the depots in Ogden and Logan, Utah, these being the more conspicuous among the many important contracts he handled. He also built the school building at one of the large Indian agencies in the State of Wyoming, and in this contract used a million and a half bricks, having established the kilns and supervised the manufacture of the brick. He was in the business on a large scale until he lost his life in a cyclone at Herman, Nebraska, in 1900. T. J. Hines was a Methodist, was affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of Pythias, was a republican, and took considerable interest in politics and served two terms as sheriff of Shelby County, Iowa. He and his wife had nine children, seven daughters and two sons. G. G. Hines was the third in age and is the only one now living in Nebraska. His brother, Driscoll, is a successful con- tractor at Denver.
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G. G. Hines finished his early education in the Omaha High School, and subsequently took technical correspondence courses to aid him in his profession. He learned the building trades with his father, and for over twenty years has been engaged in contracting. Many of the principal buildings of Blair are monuments to his enterprise, including the Public Library, the State Bank Building, and he also erected the first bank at Kennard, a large garage in Fremont, and the firm of Struve & Hines now has a contract for building a large bank building at Neeley, Nebraska.
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