USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 34
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 34
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He was born at St. Louis, Missouri, November 19, 1893, son of William and Anna (Connelly) Beyersdorfer. His father was also born at St. Louis and his mother at Bunker Hill, Illinois. They were married at St. Louis and lived there for many years. William Beyersdorfer for a number of years conducted a shoe business and since then has been a traveling salesman for a shoe house. He has been quite successful in business. He votes independently, and he and his wife are devout Catho- lics. They have two sons, Edward William and C. A. The former is employed in a St. Louis bank.
Father Beyersdorfer was educated in Holy Name Parochial School at St. Louis, also attended a seminary in that city and the Kenrick Semi- nary at Webster Grove, Missouri, and on September 15, 1917, was ordained a priest in the Good Shepherd Convent at Omaha, Nebraska. Following that he spent a year in post graduate study in the Catholic
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University of America at Washington, and on July 6, 1918, was assigned to duty as assistant at St. Patrick's Church at Omaha. On Thanksgiving Day of the same year he was appointed priest of the Church of St. Francis Borgia at Blair, Nebraska, and has now rounded out two years of faithful and fruitful labors in this community. His parish comprises about fifty Catholic families. He has done much to upbuild and strengthen the church and is earnestly working to establish a parochial school. Father Beyersdorfer is a member of the Knights of Columbus.
ERNEST HAHN was a lad of fourteen years at the time the family home was established in Dodge County, and that in the passing years he has commended himself effectively to the confidence and good will of the people of the county is indicated in his incumbency of the office of registrar of deeds, as well as by his former tenure of the position of county treas- urer. Mr. Hahn was born in Germany, where he received his preliminary school discipline, which was supplemented by his attending the public schools of Fremont after his parents here established their residence, the family immigration to America having occurred in 1881 and the same year having recorded their arrival in Dodge County. Mr. Hahn is a son of Ludwig and Martha (Looschen) Hahn, and the father died within a few years after coming to Fremont, where he became a clerk in one of the county offices and where he was serving as deputy county treasurer at the time of his death, in 1889, when fifty-five years of age. He was a man of sterling character and superior mentality, was deeply appre- ciative of the land of his adoption, became aligned in the ranks of the republican party and took much interest in community affairs. He was a consistent communicant of the Lutheran Church, as was also his wife, who survived him by nearly a score of years and who passed to the life eternal in December, 1918, her memory being revered by her children and by all others who came within the sphere of her gentle and kindly influence. Of the nine children seven are living: Carl is engaged in the banking business at Twin Falls, Idaho; Ernest, of this review, was the next in order of birth; Julia is the wife of Harry B. Dodge, their home being at Fremont and Mr. Dodge being an engineer on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad; Fred is bookkeeper in the office of a leading business corporation at Fremont ; Miss Lena remains at Fremont and is a popular clerk in a local mercantile establishment ; Henrietta is the effi- cient housekeeper for her brother Fred and sister Lena; and Emil is secretary of the Nye, Schneider & Fowler Company, of Fremont.
After leaving school Ernest Hahn became a clerk in the offices of the Nye, Schneider & Fowler Company. Later he was appointed deputy county treasurer, and after retaining this position five years he was elected county treasurer, an office of which he retained the incumbency four years, with careful and effective administration of the fiscal affairs of the county. In 1918 he was elected county register of deeds, and here his administrative ability again comes into play for the benefit of the people of the county. He is a stalwart in the camp of the republican party and has been influential in its councils and campaign activities in Dodge County, especially during his service as chairman of the County Central Committee of the party.
The year 1913 recorded the marriage of Mr. Hahn to Miss Effie Haverfield, of North Bend, Dodge County, she being a daughter of Wilson and Hannah ( Griffith) Haverfield, the former being a native of Ohio and the latter of Illinois, in which state their marriage was solemn- ized and whence they came to Dodge County, Nebraska, in the early '70s.
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Mr. Haverfield is a carpenter by trade and he became one of the leading contractors and builders at North Bend, where he still maintains his home and where occurred the death of his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Hahn have no children.
MARION E. SHIPLEY. Among the foremost men of Dodge County, no one has been more prominent for years past than Marion E. Shipley, a former member of the Nebraska State Legislature, a capitalist, news- paper man and captain of industry. He comes of English ancestry, the well-known Town of Shipley, England, having been named in honor of the family, the first American representative of which came very early to the Colonies. His great-great-grandfather served under Washington in the Revolutionary war.
Marion E. Shipley was born July 16, 1868, in Knox County, Ohio, a son of Benedict F. and Mary C. (Anderson) Shipley. His father was a lumberman and mill man, operating a water-power mill in Ohio and later a steam mill sawing hardwood lumber. He disposed of his mill interests in 1879 and came to Nebraska, buying 140 acres of land near Fremont, in 1881 coming to Dodge County, trading his 140 acres for a tract of eighty acres near North Bend, where he engaged in farming. Later he moved into North Bend in order to give his children better educational advantages than they could have in the country. Still later he went to Wyoming and followed ranching there for some years and finally lived retired at McMinnville, Oregon, until his death August 22, 1920. The mother of Mr. Shipley died October 4, 1902, at Green Forest, Arkansas, where both are buried. During President Cleveland's adminis- tration Mrs. Shipley was appointed postmistress of Manville, Wyoming, but failing health caused her to resign and her husband served in her place. Of the five children in the family Marion E. is the eldest, the others being as follows: Price M., who is pastor of a Free Methodist Church at Oklahoma City; William B., who lives at Lusk, Wyoming, is county road engineer of Niobrara County ; Lydia Ora, who is the wife of Monroe Dunlap, a farmer near Green Forest, Arkansas; and Guy R. who is a farmer and telephone man at McMinnville, Oregon. The parents reared their children in the Methodist faith. The father was a democrat in politics and a Royal Arch Mason and member of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Marion E. Shipley accompanied his parents to North Bend, Nebraska, where he completed his school attendance, and then went to work in the printing and publishing office of the North Bend Flail, then conducted by C. W. Hyatt. From there he went to the North Bend Eagle, under Charles Fowler. In 1887, in partnership with his father, he bought the Brainard Journal, which he sold three years later and then returned to North Bend and remained until 1894, when he went to work as a printer on the Schuyler Herald, going from there to Cedar County, Iowa, where he bought the Stanwood Herald and conducted it for four years. Mr. Shipley desired to return to Dodge County, however, so he once more disposed of his newspaper interests and came back to Fremont, worked on the Tribune until 1899, when he came to the Hooper Sentinel, which he purchased in partnership with W. G. Thompson and conducted two years and then sold to Mr. Thompson in order to take up an entirely different line of business.
Mr. Shipley was one of the organizers of the Hooper Telephone Company, in 1901, of which he has been general manager ever since and is a heavy stockholder. This company was incorporated with a capital
M. E. Shipley.
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of $50,000, and paid in capital of $37,000, the officers being the follow- ing capitalists : W. G. J. Dau, president ; Herman Meyer, vice president ; Norman E. Shaffer, secretary ; and Henry Windhusen, treasurer.
Since 1901 Mr. Shipley has devoted the greater part of his time to telephone and electric light business. For three and a half years he owned the Hooper Electric Light & Power system, which he sold in 1911, and built the telephone system at Lusk, Wyoming, which he owned and operated until 1914. He has large interests at Rushville, owning the electric light company there, known as the Sherida Electric Service Com- pany, of which his son is in charge; owns the Opera House at Rushville and also a picture playhouse there, having a large amount of capital invested there and in other profitable enterprises, being a now heavy stockholder and a director in the Hooper Electric Light & Power Com- pany of Hooper, Nebraska.
On September 15, 1895, Mr. Shipley was united in marriage at North Bend, Nebraska, to Miss Lessie A. Thompson, and they have one son, Trajan C., who manages his father's interests at Rushville. Mrs. Ship- ley is a lady very highly esteemed at Hooper and is a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Shipley is a thirty-second degree Mason and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows and the Knights of the Maccabees, Modern Woodmen of America, and by virtue of his long and honorable American ancestry is a member of the Sons of the Ameri- can Revolution.
From early manhood he has been interested in politics and in political affiliations followed in his father's footsteps. In 1913 he was elected on the democratic ticket a member of the State Legislature from Dodge County, and throughout the Thirty-third Session proved himself a worthy and useful member of that body, punctual and attentive as to his duties and watchful over the best interests of his constituents.
Naturally his position in the community made him a leader in local patriotic activities at the time of the World war. He did not wait to be asked but pressed forward with all the influence at his command to build up the local organizations for raising funds and prosecuting other war matters. He was commissioned chairman of the Four Minute Men, an organization at Hooper that made a splendid record. He was also commissioned by the Governor Captain of the Home Guards and the Home Defense Guards, and employed his knowledge of military tactics to good advantage in drilling the company and maintaining its enthusiasm as long as the services were required.
HERMAN MEYER. The Township of Logan, Dodge County, has no more thoroughgoing, systematic and diligent agriculturist than Herman Meyer, who has resided on his present farm, on Hooper Rural Route No. 1, since 1889. Mr. Meyer was born in Germany, December 20, 1855, a son of John G. and Meta Meyer.
John G. Meyer was employed in his native land in work in caring for the government forest, at a wage of 25 cents per day, out of which he was expected to pay his own board. He had no prospects of bettering himself, and finally decided to come to the United States to seek his fortune. In 1868, accordingly, he immigrated to this country with his father, John Herman Meyer, the little party arriving in Dodge County April 11th. They homesteaded in section 26. Cuming Township, and the last of the little capital possessed by John G. Meyer went for the pur- chase of a cow. After many years of industrious labor, Mr. Meyer accumulated a property approximating 1,188 acres, which went to his
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sons at the time of his death, when he was seventy-five years of age. His widow survived him to the age of eighty-three years. They were the parents of two sons: Christoph and Herman.
Herman Meyer attended the public schools of Germany, and after coming to the United States gained some further education in the public schools of Dodge County. He was brought up as a farmer's son, and has passed his entire career in agricultural pursuits, in which he has achieved an unqualified success. In 1889 he moved to his present prop- erty, in Logan Township, where he has the best of improvements and the most up-to-date equipment. In addition to general farming, he is largely interested in hog raising and shipping, and this forms a large part of his work. He has holdings in the Farmers State Bank of Uehling and the Farmers Co-operative Association of Uehling and Hooper. As a citizen he has faithfully discharged all duties devolving upon him, and has served as township treasurer four years and as a member for many years of the school boards of districts Nos. 16 and 18. He is a non-partisan voter, and he and Mrs. Meyer belong to the Lutheran Church.
Mr. Meyer was first married to Miss Elise Brockshus, who was born and reared in Germany, and they became the parents of two children : George, who is engaged in farming near Wisner, Cuming County ; and Mrs. Martha Wobken, whose husband is a farmer near Scribner, Dodge County. Mr. Meyer's first wife died, and in April, 1897, he was united in marriage with Miss Sophie Wobken and they are the parents of ten children: Herbert, Christoph, Leona, Alma, Alice, Lawrence, Herman, Myra, Gerald and Laura. The Meyer home is a pleasant and hospitable one and is always open to the many friends of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer.
HENRY H. LUENINGHOENER. Until he recently retired Henry H. Lueninghoener, a prosperous farmer of Dodge County, was actively engaged in the prosecution of his calling and has been very successful in his operations, having made improvements of practical value on his estate, which is one of the most attractive and productive of any in Hooper Township. A son of the late Peter Lueninghoener, he was born May 30, 1860, in Quincy, Illinois.
Born and brought up in Germany, Peter Lueninghoener, impressed by the wonderful stories he had heard of the glorious opportunities afforded the poor man in America, immigrated to the United States at the age of eighteen years, and soon secured work as a farm laborer. He lived in Illinois until 1868, when, with his wife and children, he came to Nebraska, bringing with him the $800 he had accumulated by hard work. He came up the river as far as Omaha in a steamboat, and thence made his way to Dodge County, where he bought a tract of wild land. As his means increased, he bought other tracts, becoming owner of 800 acres of farm- ing land ere his death, which occurred when about seventy-eight. His wife, Anna Monke, was born in Germany, and as a lass of eighteen years came with her parents to this country. Nine children were born to their marriage, three sons and six daughters, a family of which they could well be proud.
Eight years old when he came with his parents to Washington County, Nebraska, Henry H. Lueninghoener well remembers the desolate aspect of the country roundabout, and the arduous toil required of the cour- ageous pioneer ranchmen. Familiar with argicultural work from his youthful days, Mr. Lueninghoener succeeded to the occupation in which he was reared, and at the age of twenty-three years bought the farm which he now owns. and in its management met with unquestioned suc-
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cess, it now being one of the best in regard to its improvements and appointments of any in the neighborhood. He recently turned over the management of the farm to his son, Irvin, and retired to Fremont to live.
Mr. Lueninghoener married, in 1884, Helen Eisely, who was born in Omaha, where her father, Carl Eisely, was an early settler, while her mother was said to have been the first white woman to settle west of Fontanelle, Dodge County, Nebraska. Three children blessed their union, namely : Alma Marks, of Winslow; Irvin, operating the home farm; and Gilbert, living at home. Mr. and Mrs. Lueninghoener are valued mem- bers of the Evangelical Church. Politically an independent voter, Mr. Lueninghoener has served as a member of the local school board for ten years.
FRED WOLF. Occupying a position of note among the active and progressive farmers of Dodge County, Fred Wolf, of Hooper Township, shows decided ability and skill in the management of his agricultural interests, his farm being well improved, and furnished with good farm buildings, and plenty of machinery of the latest approved kinds, to suc- cessfully carry on his chosen work. A son of Frederick and Dora (Full- ham) Wolf, he was born May 9, 1865, in Dodge County, this state.
Frederick Wolf, Sr., his father, was born, reared and educated in Germany. Desirous of establishing a home in the land of bright promise, he immigrated to the United States, settling first in Wisconsin. Hearing good reports regarding Nebraska, he started westward with his family, making the journey thither, according to the custom of that day, with ox teams, taking all of their household effects, and driving two cows. Buying land at $11 an acre, he improved a good farm, on which he and his wife resided the remainder of their lives, his death occuring at the age of seventy-two years, and hers at the age of seventy-three years. Both, true to the religious faith in which they were reared, were devout members of the Emmanuel Lutheran Church.
Brought up in Dodge County, Fred Wolf obtained a practical knowl- edge of books in the district schools, and on the home farm was well drilled in the various branches of agriculture. Becoming a farmer from his inherited home farm where he was born, he bought land on section 7, Hooper Township, and immediately began its cultivation. Laboring dili- gently and intelligently, Mr. Wolf has been exceedingly prosperous in his undertakings, the rich and fertile soil, responding to his care, yielding abundant harvests each year, and well repaying him for his days of toil. In addition to carrying on mixed husbandry successfully, he pays con- siderable attention to the raising of stock, which he finds quite profitable. He has also other interests of value, being a stockholder in the Hooper Tile Company, and one of its organizers and directors since its organiza- tion also of the Winslow State Bank, and the Hooper Mill.
In 1890 Mr. Wolf was united in marriage to Emma Rabe, a native of Illinois, and into their home six children have been born, namely : Ida, wife of H. P. Bartling, a Washington County farmer ; Henry F., engaged in agricultural pursuits in Dodge County ; Frederick H .; Louis E .; George ; and Elma. Mr. Wolf is independent in politics, being bound by no party restrictions, and though not at all active in public affairs served for twenty-seven years as school moderator in district No. 14. He is a valued member of the Emmanuel Lutheran Church, of which he is a deacon, and to which Mrs. Wolf also belongs.
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HENRY G. KENDRICK. For many years engaged in the meat and live stock business in Fremont, the late Henry G. Kendrick was a typical representative of those eminently able and intelligent men of _Dodge County who brought to their respective callings good business methods and wise judgment, and whose labors were crowned with success. He was born February 6, 1861, in Pecatonica, Illinois, of honored New Eng- land ancestry, his parents having lived for many years in Boston. His paternal ancestors originated in England and Wales, while his mother's people emigrated from Ireland to the United States, settling in Boston.
Educated in Illinois, Henry G. Kendrick remained in his native state until after his marriage. Adventurous and enterprising, he came with his young wife to Nebraska, and having decided that the opportunities for improving his financial condition were as good in Fremont as could any- where be found, he established himself in the meat business, an industry that proved profitable, his specialty having been the buying and selling of live stock. Successful in his operations, he bought land and raised and fed stock, which he shipped to Omaha and Chicago, building up a very extensive and lucrative trade. He accumulated a fine property, and at his death, on June 2, 1919, left a valuable estate, including among other property a large farm in Saunders County. He was independent in his political relations, and was never an aspirant for official honors, his time having been devoted to his business interests.
Mr. Kendrick married, in Illinois, Elizabeth Kenney, who was born in Stephenson County, that state, and is now living a quiet life in Fre- mont, where she has large property interests. Three children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Kendrick, namely: Verne, living with his mother, travels for the Cluette Peabody Company; Pauline, employed in an attorney's office in the courthouse ; and William, engaged in the render- ing business at Fremont. Mrs. Kendrick is a member of the Catholic Church, to which her husband also belonged.
CHARLES J. MARR, president of the Marr-Hein Candy Company, a well-established and prosperous manufacturing concern of Fremont, is fully entitled to designation as one of the prominent and progressive busi- ness men of the younger generation in his native city and is a member of a representative family of Dodge County, as may be seen by reference to the sketch of the career of his father, Charles D. Marr, on other pages of this volume.
Charles J. Marr was born at Fremont on September 15, 1883, and his early education was here acquired in the excellent public schools, besides which he pursued higher studies in the Nebraska State Normal School of this city. After leaving school he was for three years book- keeper in the office of the Fremont Foundry & Machine Company, of ' which his father is president, and he then purchased the bottling works of H. J. Archer, an enterprise which he still continues, under the title of the Fremont Bottling Works. In 1919 he became one of the organ- izers and incorporators of the Marr-Hein Candy Company, the majority of the capital stock being held by Mr. Hein and Mr. Marr, and, with a well-equipped establishment with the best modern facilities, this company now manufactures high-grade candies, with an output of about four tons daily and with a trade that extends throughout Nebraska, as well as into Wyoming and South Dakota. The business is constantly expanding in scope and constitutes one of the important industrial enterprises of Fre- mont. In addition to being president of this company Mr. Marr is also president of the Fremont Bottling Works, which likewise controls a sub-
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stantial business. He is a republican in politics, is affiliated with the local Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery of the Masonic Fraternity, and also with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Mrs. Marr is an active member of the Christian Science Church.
November 24, 1904, recorded the marriage of Mr. Marr to Miss Lillie Larson, who likewise claims Fremont as the place of nativity, her father, L. P. Larson, being one of the venerable pioneer citizens of this city, where he is now living retired, after a specially successful career as a prominent business man of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Marr have two chil- dren : Helen Althea, and Peter.
FRED E. PRATT. There are few residents of Dodge County who have turned business opportunities to better account in a comparatively short time, than Fred E. Pratt, president of the Golden Rod Creamery Com- pany of Fremont, and one of the most extensive hog raisers in this sec- tion of the state. He began with very small capital, and to close attention to business, excellent judgment and native thrift may be attributed the conspicuous success that has attended his various undertakings in Nebraska.
Fred E. Pratt was born at Woodstock, in Windsor County, Vermont, June 20, 1863. His parents were Carlos A. and Delphine (Rickard) Pratt, and his grandfathers were Laverne Pratt and Dr. Benjamin Rick- ard, both of whom were lifelong residents of Vermont. The father of Mr. Pratt died on his Vermont farm in 1865, when but thirty-eight years old, but his mother survived to be sixty-eight years of age and passed away in 1897. Of the family of four children but two survive, Fred E. and a daughter, Lilla D., who is the widow of F. H. Vaughn, who died at Cheyenne, Wyoming, in the fall of 1919.
Mr. Pratt obtained his education in the public schools of Windsor County and grew up on the home farm and continued interested in his native state in farming and dairying until 1897, when he came to Fre- mont. After working in a creamery plant for a short time he determined to go into the business on his own account and matured plans that enabled him to start the Golden Rod Creamery Company, in 1901, in rather small quarters and with a small force of helpers. The business prospered from the first as Mr. Pratt was experienced in this line, and soon enlarged quar- ters had to be secured and so much expansion has taken place that Mr. Pratt now has seventy-eight men on his pay roll. He carried it on as a private enterprise until 1919, when the business was incorporated with capital of $300,000, with $250,000 paid in. In the meanwhile he has invested in land in Dodge County and gone into the business of raising hogs on a large scale, keeping exclusively to thoroughbred Red Durocs, and averaging 1,500 head annually. He owns the large building on the corner of Broad and Military avenues, Fremont, which he erected in 1904, devoting it entirely to business purposes.
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