USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 51
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 51
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SAMUEL I. BLOCK. The commercial enterprise of Fremont owes a great deal to the progressive spirit and energy of Samuel I. Block, who came to this Nebraska city twelve years ago and began on a modest scale the merchandising career which has steadily expanded until it
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is one of the best stores in Dodge County. He specializes in women's ready-to-wear garments and his success has been due to his correct estimate of the tastes and demands of the people of Dodge County who have given him a splendid patronage.
Mr. Block was born in Poland in 1886, coming to America at the age of twenty, and has shown great ability in adapting himself and assimilating himself with American life and customs. His parents were C. H. and Bertha (Yorckshire) Block who spent all their lives in Poland and were of the Jewish faith. Three of their eight children came to the United States. Harry I., a prominent merchant of North Platte, Nebraska; Samuel I .; and Edith, wife of a merchant at St. Joseph, Missouri. On account of the World war the children in America did not receive news of the death of their parents during the influenza epidemic in 1917 until nearly two years later.
Samuel I. Block was educated in the schools of his native country, and came to America with neither capital nor any knowledge of American ways and customs. His first location was at Gouverneur, New York, and he sold goods from a pack until he had accumulated the capital necessary to bring him to the West. In August, 1908, he arrived at Fremont and on the third of that month opened his first store with a modest stock of merchandise valued at $1,500. He worked, studied the local situation, and proved his ability to adapt himself to changing circumstances. Consequently he saw his business steadily grow and expand, and his store now meets the exclusive demands of a large part of the population for ready-to-wear garments and furnishings.
In 1912 Mr. Block married Libbie Brown who was born at Nebraska City and was educated in Omaha. Her parents were Henry and Mollie Brown. Her father was a furniture man and died at St. Louis, while her mother is still living at Omaha. Mr. and Mrs. Block have two children, Milton, a schoolboy, and Florence, who was born in 1918. The family are members of the Jewish Church. Mr. Block is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with the Elks, is a member of the Fremont Commercial Club and the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation. Since coming to Dodge County his prosperity has been repre- sented not only by a steady growth of his mercantile enterprise, but he has been enabled to purchase, and still owns, two farms and one of the comfortable residences of the Town of Fremont.
CHARLES J. ROBINSON. Among the essentials which contribute to the enjoyment of mankind, not the least is that which caters to our entertainment. In this connection the motion picture industry, com- paratively a new enterprise, has come to occupy an important place. As one of the pioneers in this field at Blair, Charles J. Robinson has won his way to success and position, and his Home Theater is one of the most popular and best patronized family amusement places of the city. Mr. Robinson's career has been one in which poverty and affluence have both had a part and in which success has come only after much discouragement and the overcoming of numerous obstacles.
Born January 7, 1861, in York County, Pennsylvania, Mr. Robinson is a son of James W. and Catherine (Overlander) Robinson, natives of Pennsylvania. His father entered the Union army at the outbreak of the Civil war, and fought with bravery and fidelity until stricken by typhoid fever, subsequently passing away in a Southern hospital, in 1865. Mrs. Robinson, a member of the Presbyterian Church, survived her husband until 1870. They were the parents of four children :
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Catherine, who married Elijah Heffner of York County, Pennsylvania; Charles J .; George W., a farmer of Moorfield, Nebraska; and A. M., a railroad man of Arlington, this state.
Charles J. Robinson was but four years of age at the time of his father's death and as his mother possessed no resources he was placed in an institution at Mount Joy, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he received his education and remained until he was sixteen years of age. At that time he left the Soldiers' Orphans Home and walked a distance of twenty-seven miles to the farm of his uncle. He had been promised the sum of $100 for a year's work, but after he had faithfully fulfilled his part of the contract, his relative refused to pay him for his work. Chafing under a spirit of injustice, the youth left his uncle's farm and accepted employment with a Mr. Gamble, for whom he worked three years and seven months at a wage varying from $4 to $8 per month. At this time many ambitious young men were turning their faces toward the West, and in 1882 Mr. Robinson gave up his Pennsylvania farm work for the uncertainties of a new country. His first settlement was in Henderson County, Illinois, where he secured employment on a farm, but after working for three months was stricken with fever and ague, and at one time his case was so serious that all hope was given up for his recovery. However, he managed to pull throughi, and in September, 1882, again took up his journey, eventually arriving in Seward County, Nebraska, with the sum of $4, borrowed capital. Here he found employment putting up windmills in the country districts, working three weeks at a wage of $9 per week, and during the next period of his training had various experiences, in which were included work in a restaurant and a clerkship in a dry goods store for one year. He was also employed by George W. Gibbs, a wholesale boot and shoe dealer, after leaving whom he went to Holt County, Nebraska, with the intention of taking up a homestead. Upon his arrival, however, the proposition did not look attractive, and after he had spent all of the money he had made he went to Albion, Nebraska, and worked on a farm for one month, securing in this manner the sum of $19. Later he went to Grand Island and then to Ord, Nebraska, where he worked in the general store of Perry & Cover for one year, being later with R. Harris & Company. He first came to Blair in 1886, but subse- quently removed to Herman, where he was engaged in farming for a year. He also worked for five years in a general store at Spiker, Nebraska, and a peddling outfit was his next means of income, he traveling through the country districts around Arizona, Burt County, Nebraska, and also conducted a store in Burt County.
Selling out his Arizona interests, Mr. Robinson came to Washing- ton County, where he was married August 13, 1894, to Miss Marrilla J. Newkirk, a daughter of Clifton and Mary Katherine (Ray) Newkirk, the former a native of Lawrence County, Indiana, and the latter of Jackson County, that state. The parents of Mrs. Robinson were married in Indiana and came to Washington County, Nebraska, in 1869, home- steading a farm on which they spent the balance of their lives. Of the eight Newkirk children, six are living: A. B., who lives on his farm in Washington County ; Mrs. Robinson; Edward, a farmer of Washington County ; Henry C., a farmer of Revinna, South Dakota; Vernon, of Montrose, Minnesota ; and Elizabeth, the wife of Dr. W. H. Pruner, a surgeon of Omaha. Mr. Newkirk was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war from October, 1861, until February, 1862, when he was wounded and secured his honorable discharge because of disability. He carried the bullet in his body until his death.
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Three sons have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Robinson: Raymond Harold, born May 9, 1895, who was in the Sandstorm Division of the United States Expeditionary Forces during the World war for twenty- two months and went to France, although he did not reach the front lines before the signing of the armistice; Edward James, born August 27, 1897, who was an aerial gunner during the World war and had training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and at Pensacola, Florida ; and Clifton N., born November 25, 1902, who enlisted for four years in the United States Navy as an aerial photographer, and is now attend- ing the United States Government School at Washington, D. C.
Following his marriage, Mr. Robinson located at Arlington, Nebraska, where he was engaged in the hotel business for one year, after which he purchased a farm and engaged in agricultural pursuits for eight years. Returning to Blair at that time he established himself in business as the proprietor of a grocery, but after one and one-half years disposed of his interest therein to take advantage of the larger opportunities offered by the motion picture industry. Buying the Home Theater in 1907, he has since built up a large and profitable patronage which appre- ciates his efforts to give it wholesome, clean and enjoyable entertainment at popular prices. Mr. Robinson has made himself a recognized fixture in business circles of Blair, not alone through his theater, but through his transactions in real estate. Some years ago he began to engineer transactions in the realty field and each year has seen the further increase and development of his operations in this line. He occupies a place high in the esteem of his associates and in the confidence of his fellow citizens.
F. W. ARNDT. A prosperous hardware merchant of Blair, and one of its substantial and prominent business men, F. W. Arndt has built up a large and lucrative trade, his upright and honorable transactions, and his ready willingness to oblige all patrons, having won him an extensive business. A son of the late Bernard Arndt, he was born, May 4, 1862, in Cincinnati, Ohio, of German parentage.
Born and bred in Germany, Bernard Arndt immigrated to this country soon after his marriage, and with his bride settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained as a cigar manufacturer until 1871. Coming in that year with his family to Blair, Nebraska, he continued the manu- facture of cigars during the remainder of his active life, and subse- quently continued a resident of the city until his death, at the advanced age of ninety-four years. He was a republican in politics, and a mem- ber of the Lutheran Church, which, at his death in December, 1919, lost one of its most respected and valued members. His wife, whose maiden name was Dorothea Albrecht, was born in Germany, and died in 1910, in Blair, Nebraska. Eight children were born of their marriage, three of whom are living, as follows: F. W., the special subject of this sketch; Mrs. Londelius, living in Spokane, Washington, where her husband owns a fruit ranch; and Mrs. Fred Michael, Tekamah, Nebraska.
Attending first the public schools of Cincinnati, F. W. Arndt com- pleted his early education in the public schools of Blair. His first salaried occupation was that of a clerk in a mercantile establishment. Giving up that position, he learned the sheet metal trade, which he followed for nine years. Embarking then in the hardware business, he was in partnership with G. G. Lundt for fifteen years, when, in 1903, he bought his partner's interest in the firm, and has since conducted
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the business alone. Enterprising and progressive, he has enlarged his operations, having added an auto salesroom and shop, in which he handles the Dodge and Nash cars, having a large salesroom and a ware- room. He has three floors in the hardware department, and carries an extensive and varied line of hardware and electric supplies, endeavoring to keep in stock everything required in his line in an up-to-date establish- ment. Mr. Arndt is a member of the Blair Commercial Club, and of the State Hardware Association, in each of which he takes much interest.
In 1886 Mr. Arndt was united in marriage with Sophie E. Riddler, who was born in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. Her father, the late James S. Riddler, served in the Regular Army during his earlier life, being stationed at Fort Calhoun at an early day. He served in the cavalry, a military branch in which he was ever interested. After leaving the army, Mr. Riddler engaged in contracting and building, and in addition to erecting many of the church edifices in Blair put up many of the Government buildings in the Indian Agency near Sioux City, lowa. Mr. and Mrs. Arndt are the parents of three children, namely: Wilfred B., in business with his father; Mrs. Josephine Bunting, whose husband is a jeweler in Akron, Iowa ; and Dorrette, wife of H. H. Struve, a book- keeper in Omaha. Mr. Arndt is a sound republican in politics, and has rendered acceptable service as councilman. Serving as director on the board of the Columbia Life Insurance Company of Fremont. Nebraska, also Nebraska Retail Hardware Mutual Insurance Company. Aggres- sive pusher in any enterprise tending to upbuilding of his home city.
JOHN H. WARNER. The retired farmer of ample means is very often the most useful citizen of a community in which he takes up his resi- dence. Very often he will be found to be a stockholder in the town's soundest business concerns, and these are apt to prosper, for the farmer, in transferring his interests from rural to urban life, does not lose his personality. If he has been able to make his undertakings along agri- cultural lines profitable, the same good judgment will make him careful, observing and prudent in relation to the town's affairs and enterprises. One of the well-known retired farmers and useful, highly respected citizens of Hooper, Nebraska, is John H. Warner, who has been a resi- dent of Dodge County since he was eleven years of age.
John H. Warner was born at Henderson, in Knox County, Illinois, May 13, 1855, the eldest of six children born to Lewis and Mahala (McCoy) Warner, natives of Indiana. Lewis Warner was a farmer in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. During the Civil war he served in the Missouri State Militia, and afterward moved with his family to Dakota, and from there, in 1866, came with their household goods in a covered wagon to Dodge County. Here he secured land which, in the course of time, and after many family hardships, became of some value, and he carried on general farming and raised stock as did his neighbors. He was a man of sterling character, was a member of the Christian Church, was a justice of the peace for many years and as a republican was elected several terms as a county commissioner. On account of failing health he finally sold his farm and moved to Brownsville, Oregon, where he died March 28, 1900, aged sixty-eight years. In Illinois he married Mahala McCoy, who survived him, her death occurring February 28, 1911, at the age of seventy-six years. Besides John H. they had the following children: William, who is deceased; Mary Jane, who is the wife of Frank Watson, a farmer near Brownsville, Oregon ; Robert E., who is a rancher and lumberman in Oregon; and Myra and Sarah, both of whom died in infancy.
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John H. Warner was eleven years old when the family came to Dodge County and he has a very vivid recollection of early days here. He assisted his father after his period of school attendance was over, then bought land for himself and for many years was one of the busy and prosperous farmers and stock raisers of the county. In 1910 he decided to give up the hard duties that had engaged him so long and take life a little easier, a resolution that met with the approval of his family.
Mr. Warner was married in 1879 to Miss Clara Mitchell, who was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of Jeremiah and Amelia (Boyer) Mitchell, who came to Dodge County in 1877. Both are deceased. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Warner: Maude, who is the wife of Charles Hansen, a farmer near Dickson, Nebraska; Lewis, who is a farmer near North Bend: Harvey E., who is a farmer in Dodge County ; Mabel, who is the wife of William Van Horn, a farmer near Haxtum, Colorado ; Ray, who is a farmer near North Bend ; Myrtle, who is the wife of John Schmela, a veterinary surgeon at Spencer, Nebraska ; and Merle, who is a student in the Hooper High School.
Mr. Warner has always voted the republican ticket. He has never desired political honors and has never accepted any office except that of school director of District No. 75, in which he served many years before coming to Hooper. He is a stockholder in the Farmers Union Elevator at Hooper. This is one of the fine, typical families of Dodge County.
DAVID BROWN. As the woodman in clearing his land leaves here and there some stalwart maple or cedar, which long years after stands alone in the midst of some green and fertile field, a solitary remembrance of the past, so the relentless Reaper, in his grim harvest of men. has spared here and there a pioneer who forms a connecting link between the past and the present. David Brown, now retired from active affairs, is one of the surviving pioners of Dodge County, where he came in 1871 and where for many years he was engaged in successful farming operations.
Mr. Brown was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1839, a son of John and Ellen Brown, the former a native of Ireland, who emigrated to Canada and died there at the age of seventy-two years. David Brown was given a common school education in Canada, where for nine years he was engaged in teaching school. Coming to the United States in 1866, he first located in Benton County, Iowa, where he was engaged in farming for one year. Following this, he was unsettled for a time, mov- ing from place to place in search of a location that would satisfy him, and in 1871 decided upon Dodge County. For a short time he lived at Fremont, but eventually moved to a farm fifteen miles northwest of that city, which he at first rented. Later he became the owner thereof through purchase, and as the years passed not only improved his own land and kept pace with the ever-changing developments of his county's history, but also played his own part well in assisting the advancement of the forces of education and religion and serving for a number of years as a member of the School Board. He is a Presbyterian in his religious affiliation, his wife having passed away in that faith in 1917, at the age of seventy-two years. In the evening of life, Mr. Brown stepped aside from the path of active labor, to allow younger men to assume the burdens and exercise their ambitions. Although he has passed the Psalmist's threescore and ten by a large margin, he still maintains an interest in the work of the property, as well as in other matters of importance occurring about him.
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Mr. Brown was married in Ontario, Canada, to Catherine Raycraft, and to this union there were born six sons and three daughters: Alfred D., William J., Emma V., Agnes S., who is deceased ; Helen M., George S., Earl R., Owen D. and Ernest H. These children have all been given excellent educational advantages and have been reared to habits of indus- try, integrity and sobriety, their father having always been a stanch adherent of prohibition, not only personally but as a national measure. .
Owen D. Brown, son of David Brown, was born on his father's farm in Dodge County, Nebraska, in 1885, and received his education in the public schools. Reared as an agriculturist, he adopted that vocation upon attaining years of maturity, and for the past six years has been operating successfully a highly productive farm in section 4, Maple Township. Mr. Brown is accounted one of the progressive agriculturists of the younger generation in his community, where he has been a repre- sentative of the highest type of agricultural citizenship. He is frater- nally affiliated with the Masons, holds membership in the Presbyterian Church, and as a voter maintains an independent attitude.
In 1914 Mr. Brown was united in marriage with Miss Arvida Maryott, who was born in Dodge County, and to this union there have been born two children : Oravetta and Dorathea.
EDWARD N. MORSE came to Nebraska almost immediately after the close of his loyal service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war, and nearly two years before Nebraska was admitted to the Union. He was one of the pioneer merchants of Fremont, and for over half a century until his death one of the city and county's ablest business men and most public spirited citizens, fully earning the high esteem paid him during his lifetime and the many tributes of honor given after his death.
He was born in 1846 in Knox County, Illinois, where he was reared and educated. His parents were Nelson D. and Amanda (Glass) Morse, the former a native of New York State and the latter of Ohio. They were married in Illinois. Nelson D. Morse was a stonemason by trade, and was a very prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, serving as grand master of the Grand Lodge of Illinois as well as lecturer of the Grand Lodge. In 1848 he went out to California and while on the Pacific Coast organized a number of pioneer Masonic lodges. He died when his son Edward was a boy. The only other child is Mrs. Emma J. Brown, a widow living in Iowa. The mother died in Iowa, and was a devout member of the Christian Church.
Edward N. Morse was about fifteen years old when the Civil war began. As soon as he became eligible in 1863 he enlisted in Battery H of the Second Illinois Light Artillery. He served two years until the close of the war, and was in a number of campaigns including the great battle of Franklin, Tennessee. After his honorable discharge he returned to Illinois, but two weeks later came to Nebraska Territory in 1865. The work that brought him to the territory was employment during the con- struction of the Union Pacific Railroad. He was practically without financial resources when he came here, and his individual earning power, his prestige as a loyal citizen, and his great capacity for friendship gave him the advantages that made him successful when he established one of the pioneer mercantile enterprises at Fremont. For several years he continued his business as a merchant at the little village, but in 1868 began supplying in a modest way the local demands for ice. Probably no other business man of the state had a longer continuous connection with the ice business than Mr. Morse, who founded and until his death
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was nominally head of the Fremont Ice and Sand Company. He was its principal owner, as well as president and general manager. The busi- ness is a corporation with capital of $18,000. He was also a director in the First National Bank of Fremont, a stockholder in the Pathfinder Hotel, and was owner of a large amount of valuable real estate in his home city.
By many years of hard work Mr. Morse thoroughly satisfied his modest and honorable ambition for material accumulations, and all the time he gave something of himself and his influence to the welfare of friends and community. He was an unfaltering democrat in politics, served several terms on the Municipal Council of Fremont, but his greatest hobby was education and for about thirty years he was a mem- ber of the Board of Education and its president at the time of his death. He was a valued member of the Fremont Commercial Club, serving at one time as president. In Masonry he was secretary of the local lodge several years, was active in various Masonic bodies, and a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. He was also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and for fifteen years commander of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic and for an equal time a member of the Soldiers' Relief Committee of Dodge County.
His prominence as a business man and a citizen can be well under- stood even from this brief outline of his activities. He was at once one of the oldest and best known men of Fremont, and the community felt a large sense of loss when the news came of his death at San Diego, California, June 30, 1920.
In October, 1870, he married Miss Emma J. Goodman, who died in 1886. She was the mother of five children, but only one is now living, Edna, wife of William S. Balduff of Fremont. In 1887 Mr. Morse married Miss Lillian L. Green, who keeps her home at 320 West Mili- tary Avenue in Fremont. She became the mother of six children, five of whom are living, as follows: Harry S., who was the active associate of his father in business, and for several years executive manager of the Fremont Ice and Sand Company : Jennie C., formerly a popular teacher in the Fremont schools, is the wife of Alfred Carstens of Fremont ; May, who gave much of her time to her father's business until his death; Edith M., who is secretary for the Fremont superintendent of schools ; and Robert S. Robert S. enlisted in July, 1917, for service in the World war and was with the colors twenty-three months, though an attack of influenza prevented him from accompanying his regiment over- seas. He has a soldier's land claim near Baggs, Wyoming. He is now married and living in Fremont and connected with the Fremont Ice and Sand Company.
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