USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 63
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 63
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In 1894 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hall to Miss Sarah J. McCracken, who was born in the State of Virginia, a daughter of Frank McCracken, who settled in Washington County, Nebraska, in 1883. A great-uncle of Mrs. Hall married a daughter of the famous Indian chief, Blackhawk. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have three children : Angie, who remains at the parental home and has active charge of her father's store; Wilbur, a painter by trade and vocation and now at home in Washington County, was in the aviation service of the Govern- ment during the World war and was stationed in Texas the greater part of the time, he having made a trip across the continent on a motorcycle ; and Elsie, in 1920, a student in the Kennard High School.
GEORGE MENKING owns and conducts a modern garage which gives to the Village of Kennard, Washington County, the most approved facilities in connection with the automobile business, and in addition to carrying a full line of supplies and accessories and maintaining a well- equipped repair department Mr. Menking is also local agent for the celebrated Buick and Chevrolet automobiles.
Mr. Menking was born in the immediate vicinity of the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 1, 1871, and is a son of Frederick and Dora Menking, who came to Nebraska and established their residence in Washington County in 1872, the father here taking up a homestead
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and developing one of the excellent farms of the county, where both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, his death occurring in 1908 and his widow having passed away in 1912. They were honored pioneer citizens of the county, were earnest communicants of the Luth- eran Church, and Mr. Menking was affiliated with the lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Arlington, his political support having been given to the republican party. Of the six children the first born, Sophia is deceased; Frederick C. conducts a garage at Arlington, this county ; William is engaged in the same line of enterprise at Geneva, Fillmore County ; Lena is deceased ; George, of this review, was the next in order of birth; Edward is engaged in farming near Fort Morgan, Colorado.
George Menking was not yet one year old at the time of the family removal to Washington County, where he was reared on his father's farm and where he gained his early education in the rural school of Dis- trict No. 10. His initial activities of independent order were in con- nection with farm enterprise, with which he here continued his active association until 1909, when he engaged in the agricultural implement business at Kennard. Later he turned his attention to the automobile business, and his garage is now one of the representative business estab- lishments in this thriving village, he having sold his implement business.
Mr. Menking is a loyal supporter of the cause of the republican party, is serving as a member of the Kennard Board of Education and is affiliated with the local organizations of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Modern Woodmen of America.
In the year 1892 Mr. Menking was united in marriage to Miss Eliza- beth French, who was born and reared in Washington County, and they have four children : Bertha is the wife of Harry Edward, a farmer near Herman, this county; Ethel is the wife of Arthur Andressen, who is engaged in farming near Lyons, Bert County ; Lola is the wife of Frank Vibrial, assistant cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank at Ken- nard; and Keith is attending the public schools of Kennard.
HOMER A. WRIGHT, who is now engaged in business at Kennard, Washington County, has been a resident of this place since 1896 and has been here identified with varied lines of business enterprise. He was born in New York in 1862, a son of Thomas and Phoebe (Rogers) Wright, both of whom passed their entire lives in the old Empire State, where the father was engaged in farm enterprise during the greater part of his active career. His political allegiance was given to the democratic party, and both he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church.
The public schools of his native state afforded Homer A. Wright his youthful education, and upon coming to Nebraska in 1896 he became associated with his brother, Charles L., in the general merchandise busi- ness at Kennard, his brother having later returned to the State of New York, where he is still giving his attention to this line of business. The store at Kennard was conducted under the firm name of Wright Brothers for eight years, and after his retirement from this business Mr. Wright served one year as mail carrier on a rural route. For five years there- after he was in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, and he then established himself in the draying business at Kennard, in which line of enterprise he developed a prosperous business and continued the same for five years. He is now one of the well known business men and popular citizens of Kennard. He is independent in politics, is a mem-
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ber of the Christian Church, and his wife holds membership in the Church of God. His marriage to Miss Mary Jane Jones occurred in 1908, but no children were born of this union.
EMIL GOTTSCH. A resident of Washington County for thirty years, Emil Gottsch discovered some real opportunities in this Nebraska coun- try, though almost entirely through the avenue of hard work and his own initiative, and has attained a position as one of the prominent farm- ers and citizens of Richland Township. His farm is in section 35 and his home a half mile north and three miles east of the Town of Washington.
Mr. Gottsch was born in Germany in 1870 and acquired most of his education in that country. He had only the advantages of the common schools. At the age of fifteen he came to America and for four years lived in and around Davenport, Iowa, and from there came to Wash- ington County. His parents, Frederick and Anna Gottsch, followed their son to America seven years later, and the mother died in 1916. Frederick Gottsch now lives with his daughter. Emil Gottsch, after coming to Washington County made his work available to others as a farm hand for many years. With a modest equipment and capital he rented farms for seven years, and since then has been on the way to independence as a land owner and agriculturist. He has 160 acres in his farm, practically all well improved and highly cultivated. The cyclone of 1913 destroyed all the buildings on the farm, but these have been replaced with structures of a most substantial character. He. raises a good deal of stock and carries on diversified operations.
For nine years Mr. Gottsch served as a member of his local school board. He is a republican, is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and is a member of the Christian Church of Bennington.
He married Hattie Dornacker, a native of Washington County and daughter of the late Nick Dornacker, who was born in Germany and was an early settler in Washington County. Mr. and Mrs. Gottsch had eleven children, one of whom died in infancy. The others, all at home. are Theresa, Louis, Lillie, Fredie, Helen, Irene, Francis, Herbert, Earline and Henrietta.
A. J. CAMERON, M. D. Twenty years of effort to maintain the health of a large part of the population of Herman and community have drawn the career of Dr. A. J. Cameron within the fold of a large and emphatic need, giving him an increasing outlet for a wealth of professional and general usefulness.
He was born at Watford, Ontario, Canada, May 17, 1875, a son of Donald and Mary (Kline) Cameron. His father, a native of Scotland, went to Canada in young manhood and there passed the rest of his life in agricultural pursuits, dying at the age of seventy-five years. Mrs. Cameron still survives. Doctor Cameron is the third youngest in a family of four sons and six daughters. One daughter died at the age of thirty, seven of the children live in Canada, and Doctor Cameron and his sister, Mrs. Spears of Detroit, are the only ones in the United States.
A. J. Cameron attended the public schools of his native place and began teaching school at the age of seventeen years. After three years as an educator 'he again attended high school for one year, and then entered the University of Toronto, where he pursued a four-year course and graduated in 1900, with the degree of M. D., C. M. On September 25th of the same year he embarked upon the practice of his profession
allan & Cameron
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1
at Herman. The doctor has a well-equipped office and appliances for the most delicate and exacting demands of his profession. He has been deservedly successful, is thorough, and energy and enthusiasm enable him to carry a heavy burden of indispensable service to the community. During the period of the World war Doctor Cameron was a member of the Medical Advisory Board of Washington County, and later volun- teered and was commissioned a captain in the Medical Corps, United States Army, and had a regular assignment of duty for six months. He was in New York on his way overseas when the armistice was signed. Doctor Cameron is a member of the County, State and American Medi- cal Associations, and the Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Medical Associa- tion. He is a past master of Landmark Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, a Knight Templar and a Shriner, and also a member of Omaha Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
September 18, 1901, Doctor Cameron married Miss Mamie B. Eccles of Watford, Ontario, where she was reared and educated. They have one daughter, M. Evelyn, now in high school. Mrs. Cameron is a mem- ber of the Order of Eastern Star.
Doctor Cameron has filled various public offices with efficiency and conscientiousness and has been a member of the village board for six years and of the Board of School Directors for a like period. As a voter, he maintains an independent stand. Personally he is a man of rare discretion, tact and helpfulness, an earnest and painstaking expo- nent of the best tenets of medical science, and an indefatigable seeker after those things which produce health and therefore happiness to the human race.
LESLIE T. BERRY now owns the controlling interest in the Kennard Co-operative Store, a well-equipped general merchandise establishment in his native Village of Kennard, and is one of the popular and progres- ' sive young business men of Washington County. He was born at Kennard on October 8, 1898, and is a son of Charles and Elizabeth (Leasburg) Berry, the former a native of the State of Virginia and the latter of Denmark, their marriage having been solemnized in Washington County. The father was reared and educated in the historic Old Dominion State and was a young man when he came to Nebraska and settled in Wash- ington County. He was one of the early business men of Kennard, where he developed a substantial and prosperous enterprise as a dealer in agricultural implements and machinery and where he became a stock- holder in the Farmers and Merchants Bank. He was one of the honored and representative citizens of Kennard at the time of his death, in 1900, and his widow still resides in this village, she being a communicant of the Lutheran Church and he having held membership in the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. Mr. Berry was a stanch democrat, was affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and was a loyal and public- spirited citizen who commanded unqualified popular esteem. Of the four children, the eldest is Charlotte, who is now serving as postmistress at Kennard; Ellen is a clerk in the Kennard Co-operative Store, as is also Charles; and Leslie T., of this review, is the youngest of the number.
The public schools of Kennard afforded Leslie T. Berry his earlier education, which was supplemented by his completing a business course in the Nebraska State Normal School at Fremont. For a time thereafter he was in the employ of A. Kroigard, a merchant at Kennard, and he then took a clerical position in the Farmers and Merchants Bank of this
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village, in which institution he continued his effective service until February, 1919, when he purchased the controlling interest in the Ken- nard Co-operative Store, to the management of which he has since devoted his attention with characteristic energy and good judgment. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, and he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America.
GUSTAVE E. KRONBERG is distinctively one of the representative busi- ness men of the younger generation in his native county and is the efficient and popular cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Kennard, Washington County, where he is also a stockholder in the Farmers Co-operative Company's general merchandise store.
Mr. Kronberg was born on his father's farm near Blair, judicial center of Washington County, on January 31, 1882, and is a son of Olaf and Matilda Kronberg, both natives of Sweden. Upon coming to Nebraska the father first located in the vicinity of Florence, Douglas County, and within a comparatively short time thereafter he came to Washington County and purchased land near Blair, where he reclaimed a productive farm and achieved substantial and well merited prosperity. He is now living retired at Blair, is independent in politics and is a zealous communicant of the Lutheran Church, as was also his wife, who died in 1911, at the age of sixty-two years.
Gustave E. Kronberg was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and gained his early education in the public schools of Washington County. He remained on the home farm until 1906, when he took a position in the employ of R. E. Roberts, operator of the grain elevator at Kennard. He was thus engaged about one year, and in 1907 he assumed the position of bookkeeper in the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Ken- nard, of which institution he was made assistant cashier in 1909 and of which he has been the cashier since 1915. This substantial bank bases its operation upon a capital stock of $30,000, its surplus fund is $7,000, and its deposits at the time of this writing, in 1920, are somewhat in excess of $290,000. Mr. Kronberg is a member of the American Bankers Association, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is independent in his political attitude, and is one of the wide-awake and progressive young men of Washington County. He and his wife hold membership in the Lutheran Church.
In 1910 Mr. Kronberg was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Kempcke, who was born in Douglas County, this state, where her father is a representative farmer, and the two children of this union are Lester and Twila.
FRED E. JUNGBLUTH. For twenty years Fred E. Jungbluth has carried some of the heavy burdens of farm enterprise in his particular section of Washington County. Nearly all his undertakings have pros- pered and his net experience constitutes a fine farm home and a position among the capable men of affairs of Washington County. His farm is a mile and a half south of Dale in section 35 of Arlington Township.
Mr. Jungbluth was born in Washington County in 1881, a son of Joseph and Nellie (Renard) Jungbluth. While his father was born in Germany his mother was born in Wisconsin. Joseph Jungbluth came to Washington County in May, 1871, was an early settler and went through all the trials and hardships of pioneering. He was a farmer and stock raiser, and was actively affiliated with the Catholic Church. In his
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family were five children: Della, wife of Clayton Beck, a stockman at Harold, South Dakota; Fred E .; Minnie, wife of Otto Siesch, a farmer of Washington County ; Alfonso; and Gus, deceased. Alfonso for two years was with the colors during the late war. He was trained at Camp Cody, and was honorably discharged at Camp Dodge. He was both in the machine gun and cavalry branches of the service, being a member of Company H of the One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Machine Gun Battalion. While he went overseas he was never in action on the front line. He is now completing his education in Midland College at Fremont.
Fred E. Jungbluth was educated in Washington County and took a thorough business course in the Nebraska Business College at Omaha for two years. In 1901 he began farming, and has kept steadily at this occupation through subsequent years. He has his land well improved and handles much livestock, but for several years has featured mules. He is a members of the Farmers' Union and of Washington Hall.
In 1903 Mr. Jungbluth married Mellie Johnson, who was born in Denmark, a daughter of J. P. Johnson. To their marriage were born seven children: Chester, Frances and Lloyd, still at home; Erma, who died at the age of ten years ; Mildred, who died aged twenty-one months ; Allen, who died at the age of ten months; and Marjorie, the youngest of the children, is at home. The family are members of the Kountz Memorial Church of Omaha. Mr. Jungbluth is affiliated with the Wood- men of the World, votes independently, and is treasurer of his school district, No. 41.
AUSTIN W. BEALES. One of the first points to attract settlement in Washington County was historic old Fort Calhoun, a frontier post that prior to and during the Civil war period guarded this portion of the Missouri River Valley from Indian incursions. The site of that old Indian post is on the land now known as the Austin W. Beales farm, which adjoins the Village of Fort Calhoun on the east. At one time Fort Calhoun Village was a place of considerable population and trade.
This interesting and historic farm is now owned and occupied by Mrs. Hannah Beales, widow of the late Austin W. Beales. The latter was an old soldier and Nebraska pioneer. He was born in England in 1836 and at the age of ten years came to the United States. As early as 1856 he was in Nebraska, at Fort Calhoun, and later he went into the army and served as a Union soldier during the Civil war. During 1865- 66 he was engaged in freighting across the plains to Denver, but after his marriage he settled down on his land and continued the occupation of farming until his death in January, 1912. He was a highly esteemed citizen, a successful man in managing his affairs, left a well-improved property and had also given much of his time to public affairs. He was a school director for a number of years, also served as city clerk, and was a member of the Masonic Order. He had homesteaded 158 acres in 1864 and proved up on it in 1869, and continued to own it until 1885, when he traded it to the Newton Clark heirs as part pay- ment on his farm he owned at the time of his death.
In April, 1868, Austin W. Beales married Miss Hannah Hall, who is also a pioneer of Washington County. She was born at Springfield, Ohio, in 1849, and came to Nebraska June 7, 1857. Her father, John A. Hall, was born at Zanesville, Ohio, in 1816, was a saddler by trade, and on coming to Nebraska first settled at Florence and his later years were spent at farming near Herman. He died in February, 1874. John A. Hall married Catherine C. Mitchell, and they were the parents of two
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sons and four daughters. The oldest daughter is Mrs. Catherine Bailey of New York City.
Mrs. Beales for more than half a century has lived in the environ- ment of Fort Calhoun, and here she reared her children. To her mar- riage with Mr. Beales six children were born: Elizabeth, born in 1869 and died in 1870; Catherine C., born November 10, 1871, still at home; Sarah C., born October 29, 1874, wife of Fred H. Frahm, of Fort Calhoun ; Isabel C., born March 6, 1880, died in October, 1884; Park G., born April 23, 1883, at home with his mother on the farm; and J. Howard, born June 18, 1886, living near Fort Calhoun.
ELMER M. MILLER. Just a mile west of Kennard in Richland Town- ship appears the prosperous home and farm of Elmer M. Miller, one of the stanch and progressive citizens of Washington County. Mr. Miller has spent practically all the days of his life in one community, and has found here ample opportunity to busy him usefully and with a degree of credit to himself and to the community.
He was born near Kennard, son of Nels and Christena (Christensen) Miller. His parents were both natives of Denmark, though his father was born in the old German Province of Schleswig. Nels Miller came to this country from Denmark in 1872 and was an early arrival in Washington County, where he married and where he bought and improved a tract of railway land. He proved an industrious and capable citizen, and was frequently honored in his community, serving on the school board, as township assessor and as director of the local cemetery. He was a member of the Methodist Church at Kennard, and as a repub- lican attended several state conventions as a delegate. His widow is still living at Kennard at the age of sixty-three. There was one other son, Leonard N., who graduated in medicine from Creighton University of Omaha in 1908 and enjoyed an extensive and growing practice as a physician at Carthage, South Dakota, uritil his death.
Elmer M. Miller acquired his early education in the Kennard schools and since the age of twenty-one has been doing for himself and has been developing more and more extensive interests as a farmer. He is a dairyman, stock raiser and feeder and has a highly improved farm in section 6. Politically he gives his allegiance to the republican party, is a member of the Royal Arch Chapter of Masons, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he and his family attend the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1898 Mr. Miller married Elise Jahnel. Their three children are Leonard, Marvin and Bernice, all at home.
WILLIAM E. SWIHART, who is now living retired in the Village of Kennard, is one of the venerable and sturdy pioneer citizens of Wash- ington County, and was a lad of eleven years when his parents came to this county and became pioneers of Nebraska Territory, nearly a decade prior to the admission of the state to the Union. He has had broad and varied experience in connection with pioneer life in the west, and as a skilled artisan at the blacksmith's trade he for many years conducted a shop and worked mightily at his forge in the village in which he now maintains his home.
Mr. Swihart was born in Stark County, Ohio, March 24, 1847, and is a son of Israel and Mary (Brewster) Swihart, the latter a descendant of Nathaniel Brewster, one of the Pilgrim Fathers who came to America on the first voyage of this historic ship Mayflower. Israel Swihart was
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born in Pennsylvania, a representative of a sterling family, of German lineage, that was early found in the old Keystone State, and his wife was a native of Ohio, where their marriage was solemnized and whence they removed to Indiana when their son William E. of this review was a boy. In 1854 they numbered themselves among the pioneers of Dubuque County, Iowa, where the father followed the blacksmith trade and also operated a sawmill. In 1858 he came with his family to Nebraska and settled in the old Town of De Soto, Washington County, where he arrived on the 5th of May. He became a prominent and influential citi- zen of the pioneer community, where his versatility was shown in his following the blacksmith trade, in his serving several terms as sheriff of the county, and in his serving also as a minister of the Christian Church, of which both he and his wife were devout members. At the time of the discovery of gold in the Black Hills he joined in the stampede to the new field, where he erected the fourth house at Lead City, a place now known as Lead. He there engaged in mining with marked success, and also served as notary public. After selling his interests in that locality he went to Hot Springs, South Dakota, where he was engaged in the raising and feeding of cattle until "rustlers" stole so much of his stock as to make his operations unprofitable. He then returned to Lead City, and there his death occurred in 1896, when he was about eighty-seven years of age, his remains being brought back to Kennard, Nebraska, where they were laid to rest beside those of his wife, in the cemetery which he himself had laid out a number of years previously, his wife having died when about forty-eight years of age. They were numbered among the organizers and charter members of the Christian Church at De Soto, and in politics he was a stalwart republican. Of the three children William E. of this review is the eldest; Nancy E. is the wife of Ezra Spink of Council Bluffs, Iowa ; and John H. is now a farmer at La Junta.
William E. Swihart received the advantages of a good home, but, reared under pioneer conditions, his entire attendance in school in his youth did not exceed a year in duration, his broader education having been gained through self-discipline and in the stern school of experience. He learned the blacksmith trade under the direction of his father at De Soto, and as a young man he entered a claim to a homestead in Washington County two and one-half miles northeast of Kennard. After going to the Black Hills with his father he lost this property. He was but fourteen years old at the inception of the Civil war, but before its close he entered service in defense of the Union by enlisting in the First Nebraska Black Horse Battalion, which later became a part of the First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry. He participated in several skirmishes and continued in service, principally in Nebraska, until the close of the war. From what is now the State of South Dakota, after a varied experi- ence in the Black Hills district, Mr. Swihart returned to Washington County, Nebraska, and opened a blacksmith shop at Kennard, where he continued to work vigorously at his trade until 1902, when he retired. He has served as township assessor, as census enumerator and as justice of the peace, with secure place in the confidence and good will of the com- munity that has represented his home during the major part of his life. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, he holds mem- bership in the Christian Church, and he is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
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