USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 37
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 37
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66
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elected city clerk of Beardstown, an office of which he continued the incumbent for eight years, his acceptance of the position having been prompted by his desire to serve the city in the refunding of its bonds, in the building of a municipal bridge, in the installation of a waterworks system and in furthering other important public enterprises which the city was undertaking. Mr. Mathews continued his residence at Beardstown, Illinois, until 1892 when he came with his family to Nebraska and estab- lished his home at Fremont and the same year organized the Nebraska State Building and Loan Association and was elected secretary and man- ager, in 1901 he was elected president and manager and continues to be its active head. This association with its more than $3,000,000 assets is one of the leading financial institutions of the state. Mr. Mathews is also first vice president of the State League of Building and Loan Associa- tions. In 1899 Mr. Mathews was appointed by President Mckinley United States Marshal for the District of Nebraska and was reappointed in 1903 and continued his tenure of office until 1906.
In 1908 Mr. Mathews was elected cashier of the Fremont Trust and Savings Bank, of which he became president in 1913, as successor to the late R. B. Schneider. In 1914 he reorganized the savings bank as the Fremont State Bank, a commercial bank of which he was elected presi- dent. For several years he was a director of the First National Bank of Fremont, and for some time served as chairman of the finance committee, and his activities at Fremont have included also his service as a director of the Fidelity Trust Company and a member of the directorate and also the finance committee of the Fremont Hotel Company, which erected the fine Pathfinder Hotel.
For many years Mr. Mathews has been active and prominent in the work of the Nebraska Bankers Association and has held several positions of honor and at this time is the treasurer of the Nebraska State Bankers Protective Organization.
Always a stalwart in the ranks of the republican party and a forceful advocate of its principles and policies, Mr. Mathews has been influential in its councils and campaign activities, both in Illinois and Nebraska. He served several years as a charman of the Dodge County Republican Com- mittee and in 1899 he was asked to accept the post of chairman of the State Central Committee of his party in Nebraska, a preferment which he was constrained to decline, by reason of his appointment to the office of United States marshal. Mr. Mathews has canvassed the state a num- ber of times, as a campaign speaker under the direction of the Repub- lican State Central Committee. Concerning another phase of his political activity the following succinct record has been given: "In 1898, by unanimous vote of the Republican State Convention of Nebraska, Mr. Mathews was nominated for the office of state auditor. He accepted this nomination with the understanding that the late Senator Hayward would be nominated for governor. Senator Hayward and Mr. Mathews together made a vigorous and effective canvass of the state, with the result that the populist majority of the previous year was cut from 19,000 to about 2,500. It developed later that Hayward and Mathews would have been elected had they not be sacrificed by certain interests and influences, to secure the election of a legislature favorable to the election of a certain prominent aspirant to the United States Senate. Mr. Mathews is now a member of the Republican State Central Committee and treas- urer of that organization.
Mr. Mathews' Masonic affiliations are here briefly noted: Fremont Lodge No. 15, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; Signet Chapter No.
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8, Royal Arch Masons, of which he served one term as high priest, in 1898; Mount Tabor Commandery No. 9, Knights Templar, of which he was eminent commander one term in 1898, and of which he served ten terms as excellent prelate; and Arbor Vitae Chapter No. 92, Order of the Eastern Star, of which he was a worthy patron in 1897 and 1898.
Mr. Mathews holds membership in the Fremont Commercial Club, the Fremont Country Club, the Fremont Men's Club and the local Elks Club. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since 1872, and both he and his wife have been active and influential in the various departments of church activities. He served two terms as presi- dent of the Nebraska State Sunday School Association, and in 1894 was a delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
During the late World war, Mr. Mathews was zealous in all activities through which popular support was given to the Government, and ren- dered effective service as a speaker in all the Red Cross and loan drives, and was one of the dependable Four Minute men whose service proved of marked value.
At Beardstown, Illinois, September 26, 1871, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mathews to Miss Louise E. Thronsbury, and they became the parents of three children, all of whom were born in Illinois : Earl M., Reece L., and Florence ; the last named having died at the age of two years.
Mrs. Mathews was a charter member of Arbor Vitae Chapter No. 92 of the Order of the Eastern Star, and served two terms as its worthy matron, in 1894 and 1895. She served as grand matron of the Grand Chapter of Nebraska in 1900 and 1901, and at the expiration of her second term she declined re-election. During the period of the nation's participation in the World war Mrs. Mathews served as chairman of the Woman's Liberty Loan Committee for the Ninth District comprising the counties of Dodge, Washington, Saunders, Thurston, Platte, Col- fax and Burt, besides which she was chairman of the knitting committee of the Dodge County Red Cross. She is an ex-president of the Fremont Woman's Club and has been especially active in church and club work. Mrs. Mathews was a delegate to the Republican State Convention in 1920 and served on the committee on resolutions, and is a member of the County Central Committee of Dodge County.
WILLIAM SCHUETT. Dodge and Washington counties have been the chosen home and scene of action for William Schuett for more than forty years. Coming here practically a stranger, a man of foreign birth, with no capital except his individual energy, he has nevertheless contrived to prosper and make his labor and character win him success. Visible evi- dence of his prosperity is found in the extensive and well-managed farm he owns in section 18 of Hooper Township.
Mr. Schuett was born in Germany December 29, 1851, and lived in his native land until he was about thirty-two years of age. In the month of November, 1883, he reached this country and a few days after landing reached Washington County, Nebraska. He lived in that county five years and then came to Dodge County where he bought some land and worked steadily in its improvement year after year until his possessions now aggregate 398 acres, with improvements of the very best. For sev- eral years past he has done no farming himself, but has a good income from his property which is operated through renters. Mr. Schuett is a republican in politics.
Vol. 11-17
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He married, September 14, 1883, Doris Dierks, who was born in Ger- many October 23, 1858, where she was reared and married. They are the parents of three daughters, Lizzie, Ida and Dorothy. Lizzie married Henry L. Krohn, of Washington County ; Ida married Louis W. Moll, of the same county; Dorothy is at home with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Schuett are members of the Lutheran Church.
CHARLES D. MARR, president of the Fremont Foundry & Machine Company, has secure standing as one of the representative figures in industrial and business circles in Dodge County and as one of the influen- tial citizens of Fremont, the judicial center and metropolis of the county. He was born at Sterling, Iowa, February 21, 1856, and is a son of Solo- mon and Bridget (Haney) Marr, the former a native of Ontario, Canada, and the latter of Ireland. The marriage of the parents was solemnized in the Province of Ontario, Canada, whence, in 1853, they immigrated to the West and became pioneer settlers in Iowa, where the father passed the remainder of his life and where for many years he followed the trade of cabinetmaker, his death having occurred, at Sterling, in 1882, and his widow having died about three years later, in 1885, at Fremont, Nebraska. David Marr, grandfather of Charles D., was long one of the leading cabinetmakers in Ontario, Canada, where he had a large shop and did an extensive business. The maternal grandparents of Mr. Marr passed their entire lives in Ireland. Solomon Marr was a republican in politics and his wife held membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of their six children only two are now living: William, a retired farmer, residing at Sabula, Iowa, and Charles D., of this sketch.
In the public schools of the Hawkeye State Charles D. Marr continued his studies until he had completed a course in the high school, and there also he learned the sturdy trade of blacksmith, in which he became a skilled workman, his apprenticeship having been partially served while he was still attending school. After leaving school he did not turn atten- tion to the work of his trade but became a clerk in a mercantile estab- lishment at Fremont, Nebraska, where he established his home on April 1, 1876. He continued to be thus employed until August 1st of the follow- ing year, when he established an independent mercantile enterprise at Schuyler, Colfax County, where he continued in business until he removed to Blair, Washington County. In the latter place he conducted a general store until January, '1879, when he returned to Fremont and took charge of the new general store of Z. Shedd. He continued as active manager of this store until the business was sold, in 1881, and he then purchased the fire-insurance business of L. D. Richards. In connection with this enterprise he served six months as local agent of the American Express Company, and from 1883 he held the post of local editor of the Fre- mont Tribune. His versatility was later shown by his having charge of the coal and lumber office of D. Crowell at Fremont, and finally, on September 1, 1886, he found the true initiative point in his successful business career, for he was then elected manager of the Fremont Foundry & Machine Company, to the business of which his able supervision and progressive policies gave distinct impetus, with the result that the corpora- tion has long represented one of the substantial and important industrial enterprises of Dodge County. He has been president of the company since 1895, and its operations are based on a capital stock of $50,000. The plant is modern in its equipment and general facilities, with boiler shop and foundry and with facilities for the prompt execution of struc- tural and ornamental steel and iron work of the best type. The estab-
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lishment retains an average corps of fifty men in its various departments, and the business is one of substantial and prosperous order.
Mr. Marr is now one of the veterans in the business circles of Fre- mont and has always been liberal and progressive in his civic attitude. He has served twenty years as a member of the Fremont Board of Edu- cation, and in this connection was a member of the building committee that had control of the erection of the present high-grade public school buildings of the city. He is serving at the present time as president of the Fremont Commercial Club and is an enthusiast in the furtherance of its progressive civic and business policies. He is also president of the Board of Trustees of the Fremont Public Library, and no citizen is more liberal and public-spirited in connection with community affairs in gen- eral. Mr. Marr is a republican in his political proclivities and is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World and the Fremont Lodge of the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he was the second exalted ruler.
In 1880 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Marr to Miss Mary E. Monroe, who was born in the City of Chicago, and of this union have been born six children : Zach, who is superintendent of the foundry of the Fremont Foundry & Machine Company, completed a high-school course at Golden, Colorado, and thereafter took a course in the celebrated Armour Institute of Technology. in the City of Chicago. Charles James is one of the principals of the Marr-Hein Candy Company, a prosperous manufacturing concern, and also of the Fremont Bottling Works. He completed a course in the Fremont High School. Jennie is the wife of Frank Blum, a farmer near Akron, Iowa. Miss Helen, who remains at the parental home, was afforded the advantages of the Nebraska State Normal School at Fremont and also of those of a Catholic convent in the City of Lincoln. She is now a successful and popular teacher in the Fremont High School. Miss Madeline likewise attended the normal school at Fremont, as well as the University of Nebraska and she is now an efficient teacher in the public schools of Omaha. Lewis K., who is now on a ranch in Wyoming, completed a course in the Fremont High School, and was one of the gallant young men who represented Dodge County in the nation's military service in the World war. He entered service in July, 1916, and was with his command on the Mexican border until he was sent to Camp Cody, where he remained until August, 1918, when he crossed the Atlantic and became a part of the American Expedi- tionary Forces in France. He there continued in active service until the close of the war and he returned home in May. 1919, having been dis- ยท charged with the rank of second lieutenant.
HENRY C. DAHL. An active, prominent, and valued citizen of Fre- mont, Henry C. Dahl, a widely known real estate dealer, came to this country from a land beyond the sea when a lad in his teens, and by means of earnest labor, keen foresight, and wise management has accumulated a fair share of this world's goods, and acquired a position of note among the self-made men of today. He was born February 13, 1863, in Hol- stein, Germany, where his parents, Henry and Antje (Suhl) Dahl, were life-long residents, the father having been successfully engaged in busi- ness as an architect. He is one of a family of four children, three of whom are living in the United States, as follows: Henry C., with whom this sketch is chiefly concerned ; Mrs. George Basler, of Santa Ana, Cali- fornia : and Mrs. Hettie Mason, of North Bend, Nebraska.
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Obtaining a practical education in his native land, Henry C. Dahl came to the United States as a youth of fourteen summers, locating in 1877 in Dodge County, Nebraska. Energetic, enterprising, and not at all afraid of work, he had no trouble in securing a position on a farm, and soon became familiar with the various branches of agriculture. Laboring diligently, and prudently saving his wages, he was enabled to buy land from time to time, and is now the owner of 560 acres of finely improved land, a large part of which lies in Dodge County, and yields him a hand- some annual income. Moving to Fremont in 1910, Mr. Dahl lived retired from active pursuits until 1913, when, in partnership with George F. Staats, he opened a real estate office, and has since built up an extensive and remunerative business, handling farm property and loans. Greatly interested in educational matters, Mr. Dahl was instrumental in having the college moved from Atchison to Fremont, and as one of its trustees, and as treasurer of the Ways and Means Committee, devotes much of his time and attention to the affairs of the institution, having himself collected $220,000 of the half million dollar drive that is now in progress.
Mr. Dahl married, in 1885, Henrietta Schlueter, who was born in Germany, and in 1884 came to Nebraska with her parents, locating on a farm in Dodge County, where both .her father and mother spent their remaining years. Mr. and Mrs. Dahl have four children, namely : Harry, engaged in farming in Dodge County; Elsie, wife of Carl Carson, a farmer in Sidney, Nebraska; Nora, wife of Henry Wagner, who is engaged in farming at Hooper, Nebraska ; and Clarence, employed in the First National Bank of Hooper. True to the religious faith in which they were reared, Mr. and Mrs. Dahl are active members of the Lutheran Church. Politically Mr. Dahl is influential in demorcatic ranks, and is now representing the third ward in the City Council. Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
RICHARD T. VAN METRE, M. D., has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession in the City of Fremont, judicial center of Dodge County, since 1911, save for an interim of six months, during which, with the rank of captain, he was in service as a member of the medical corps of the United States army, in the late World war, his service having been rendered at Fort Riley, Kansas, and Camp Pike, Arkansas, and his discharge having been received January 2, 1919. He then returned to his home and resumed the interrupted work of his profession. Doctor Van Metre is a young man of distinctive professional ambition and spares himself no effort or expense in keeping in touch with the advances made in medical and surgical science, with the result that his technical equip- ment is always at the highest standard, with resultant success in his well-ordered and representative practice in Dodge County. Though his practice is of general order, he specializes in obstetrics and diseases of children. He is a loyal and popular member of the Dodge County Medi- cal Society, and is identified also with the Elkhorn Valley Medical Society, the Missouri Valley Medical Society, the Nebraska State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
Doctor Van Metre was born at Cedar Falls, Iowa, July 25, 1879, and is a son of Isaiah and Elizabeth (Thompson) Van Metre, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Massachusetts, so that there was con- summated effective representation of the south, the east and the west when their marriage was solemnized at States Center, Iowa. The ability and important activities of Isaiah Van Metre marked him as one of the
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honored and influential citizens of the Hawkeye State, where, in 1879, he founded the Waterloo Tribune, of which representative newspaper, in one of the most thriving cities of Iowa, he continued the editor and publisher until 1904. He was a leader in the councils of the democratic party in Iowa, and served for several years as state oil inspector. Mr. Van Metre continued his residence at Waterloo, that state, until his death, July 5, 1914, at the age of seventy-eight years, and his widow, who was born in 1856, still maintains her home in that city. Mr. Van Metre was affiliated with the Masonic Fraternity and was a zealous communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as is also his widow. Of their eight children six are living: Margaret is the wife of Edward L. Carton, city editor of the Waterloo Courier, at Waterloo, Iowa; Doctor Van Metre, of this review, was the next in order of birth; Ricker is vice president of the Joyce-Watkins Company, lumber dealers and dealers in railway ties, in the City of Chicago; Virginia is the wife of John Lund, who is engaged in the jewelry business at Kingsley, Iowa; and Horace and Morris are twins, the former being engaged in the abstract business at Waterloo and the latter being a student in the department of journalism of the Uni- versity of Iowa.
In the public schools of Waterloo, Iowa, Dr. Richard T. Van Metre continued his studies until his graduation in the high school, as a mem- ber of the class of 1896. Thereafter he was for some time a student in the University of Iowa, in the academic department, and he then entered the medical department of the institution, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1905, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He had early gained varied experience in connection with his father's newspaper business, and from 1896 until 1901, he was actively and suc- cessfully identified with newspaper work, in connection with which he indulged itinerant propensities, as shown by his having been an attache of the old Chicago Herald, in the western metropolis, and by his association with newspapers in various other places in the western field.
Soon after his graduation in medicine, Doctor Van Metre engaged in the practice of his profession at Dow City, Iowa, where he remained until May, 1911, when he established his residence at Fremont, Nebraska, where he now controls an excellent practice of representative order. He avails himself of the best standard and periodical literature of his profes- sion, and has further fortified himself by recent post-graduate work in the New York Lying-in Hospital and the New York Post-Graduate School of Medicine. As previously noted, his active professional work at Fremont has been interrupted only by the period of his professional serv- ice in connection with the nation's participation in the World war. The doctor maintains an independent attitude in politics, and he and his wife are active communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Fremont. He is affiliated with the Masonic Fraternity, in which he is past master of the Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Dow City, Iowa, and holds membership also in the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On January 17, 1906, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Van Metre to Miss Marie G. Murdock, who was born at Glendive, Wyoming, and the one child of this union is Richard T., Jr., who was born in 1908, and who maintains regal dominion in the pleasant home circle.
RAYMOND J. MIDDAUGH, whose home is in section 10 of Platte Town- ship, has been one of the leading farmers and stockmen of Dodge County for many years. He represents a pioneer family, the Middaughs having come to Nebraska in the early '70s and having gone through all the
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adversities of grasshoppers, drought, and other hardships that beset the early settlers.
His father, the late John C. Middaugh, was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in February, 1831, son of David and Elsie Middaugh, the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of Pennsylvania. The seven children of David Middaugh and wife were: Albert, Margaret, John, Eliza, Ella, Mary and David. John C. Middaugh lived in Pennsylvania until he was twenty-seven years of age. He then moved out to Mercer County, Illinois, and not being possessed of great capital he was a farm renter for eleven years. He was only eight years old when his parents died, and he had a limited education and had to mold his circumstances to suit his ambition. On June 10, 1862, he married Nancy Braucht, daughter of David and Johanna Braucht, natives of Pennsylvania, whose children were Mary, who died in infancy; Nancy, George, Phoebe, Addie and Henderson.
In 1873 John C. Middaugh brought his family to Dodge County and acquired 160 acres of partly improved land in Platte Township. Before he died he had the farm highly developed and recognized as one of the most productive tracts in the township. The lumber with which he built his first home was hauled all the way from Omaha. His widow is now living with her daughter, Mrs. Edith Kimmel, of North Bend, Nebraska. John C. Middaugh was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and a republican voter. A brief record of his children is as follows: George, born April 12, 1864, now deceased; Lyman, born August 19, 1866; Edith, born February 26, 1869; William, born July 11, 1872, of whom mention is found on other pages: Raymond J .; and Frank, born October 7, 1881.
Raymond J. Middaugh, who was born in Dodge County May 26. 1879, had a common school education and at the age of nineteen assumed entire responsibility for his future. Mr. Middaugh has had a successful career though for the most part he has been a renter of land owned by others. He acquired an increasing equipment of tools and stock, and farmed on rented land until 1918, when he bought 120 acres of the old home estate. Since then he has sold this property, and again lives on a rented farm. He also owns a large amount of land in Colorado, though he has never occupied it personally. Mr. Middaugh is an extensive stock breeder, breeding cattle and hogs chiefly, and he keeps a herd of thorough- bred red hogs.
February 12, 1901, Mr. Middaugh married Miss Bertha Frantz, who was born in Pennsylvania and was four years of age when she came with her parents, Wesley and Amanda Frantz, to Nebraska. Her family set- tled at David City. Mr. and Mrs. Middaugh are the parents of five children : Lucile, who died at the age of five years; Edith, Georgia, Julia and Jean. Mr. Middaugh is a republican voter and has served as road overseer of his district. He is a member of the Fremont Gun Club and during the World war was an active and vigilant member of the Council of Defense. He is affiliated with the orders of Knights of Pythias, Triumph Lodge No. 32, and Elks. Mrs. Middaugh is a member of the Baptist Church. Her parents lived in Dodge County for thirty-one years, and both of them are now deceased.
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