USA > Nebraska > Gage County > History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time > Part 130
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Horace M. Miller acquired his earlier edu- cation in the schools of his native state and was thirteen years old at the time of the family removal to Nebraska. Here he continued his studies in the public schools at Rulo, Richard- son county, and at that place he was there- after employed several years as clerk in a mer- cantile establishment. Thereafter he there served six years as assistant postmaster of Rulo, after which he learned the trade of tel- egraphy and for a time served as an operator for the Burlington Railroad. He then turned his attention to the grain business, at Rulo, where he remained until 1898, when he came to Gage county and took charge of the grain elevator at Filley, as representative of the Cen- tral Granaries Company, of Lincoln. He has since retained this position and has made an admirable record, few of the agents of this representative Nebraska corporation having
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handled for it a larger amount of grain than has the popular agent at Filley.
On the 1st of November, 1891, Mr. Miller wedded Miss Laura A. Rickabaugh, who was born in the state of Ohio, a daughter of Henry Rickabaugh, who came to Nebraska in 1886, but who later returned to Ohio, where he still resides and where occurred the death of his wife. To Mr. and Mrs. Miller have been born nine children : Maude A. is the wife of Clif- ford Armstrong, who is, in 1918, a student in a leading medical college in the city of Chi- cago ; Helen is a popular teacher in the schools of Gotthenburg, Dawson county, Nebraska ; John is a student in the Nebraska State Nor- mal School at Peru; and Ruth, Frederick, Gertrude, Robert, Howard and Mildred re- main at the parental home. Mrs. Miller is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church and is a popular figure in the leading social activities of her home community.
Mr. Miller is past master of the local lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons and is affiliated also with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he has given loyal and characteristically efficient service as a member of the village council of Filley, of which he was president for several terms, be- sides which he has been a valued member of the school board, of which he is serving in 1918 as moderator. He has given to his chil- dren the best of educational advantages, two of the number having completed courses in the state normal school at Peru and another of them being there a student at the time of this writing, as noted previously. The same provision will be made for the higher educa- tion of the younger children, and in no one sense can paternal stewardship be shown more effectively than in this direction.
JOHN A. EPARD, a representative farmer of Logan township, is a well known citizen who can claim the fine old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity. He was born in Clark county. Ohio, on the 21st of December. 1857, and in the same county were born also
his parents, Simon and Jane ( Anderson) Ep- ard, representatives of pioneer families of that section of Ohio and now venerable citizens of Colby, Kansas, the father having celebrated in 1917 his eighty-second birthday and the mother her eighty-first. This sterling couple came to Gage county about 1877, and Simon Epard here farmed on rented land for a num- ber of years. He then removed to Thomas county, Kansas, and took up a homestead farm near Colby, the county seat, in which attrac- tive little city he and his wife have lived re- tired for a number of years. From Ohio Mr. Epard removed to Illinois, and from the latter state he came to number himself among the pioneers of Nebraska. He and his wife be- came the parents of five sons and two daugh- ters, all of whom are living except one son : John, of this review, is the eldest of the num- ber; Lon is a prosperous farmer in Logan township; Emma is the wife of John Gardi- ner, president of an insurance company in the city of Denver, Colorado; Samuel is a pros- perous farmer in Thomas county, Kansas; Darwin is engaged in the banking business at Colby, that county ; and Nancy is the wife of John Gillespie, a farmer of the same county. Simon Epard still owns his valuable farm of one hundred and sixty acres, in Thomas county, Kansas, as well as his residence prop- erty and other realty in Colby. He is a Dem- ocrat in politics and his wife is a member of the Christian church. His father, Samuel Ep- ard, was a native of Maryland, and became a pioneer settler in Ohio, and he passed the closing years of his life in Indiana.
John Epard acquired his youthful education in the schools of Ohio and Illinois and at the age of twenty-one years he came to Gage county, Nebraska, where for a number of years thereafter he farmed on rented land. He purchased forty acres in Logan township in the second year of his residence in the county, his profits from his farm operations the first season having been four hundred dollars. He is now the owner of a well improved and pro- ductive farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Logan township, as well as a half-section of land in Thomas county, Kansas, near Col-
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by. He is a Democrat in politics and takes loyal interest in community affairs, though never an aspirant for public office of any kind. Mr. Epard still permits his name to remain enrolled on the list of eligible bachelors in Gage county.
FRANK H. BROWN, who is a stockholder of the Farmers' Grain & Coal Company of Cortland and who has active management of this representative industrial corporation, has the distinction not only of being a native son of Nebraska but also of being a scion of a family that was here founded in the early ter- ritorial era - nearly ten years prior to the ad- mission of the state to the Union. He was born at Cook, Johnson county, Nebraska, March 13, 1868, and is a son of Robert S. and Rachel (Bentz) Brown. Robert S. Brown was born on a farm near Thompson, Windham county, Connecticut, on the 2nd of November, 1836, a son of James and Sarah (Shelly) Brown, who were representatives of families that were founded in New England in the colonial epoch of our national history and who were venerable citizens of Tecumseh, Johnson county, Nebraska, at the time of theit death. Reared on a farm and given the ad- vantages of the common schools of Connecti- cut, Robert S. Brown was seventeen years of age when he began his apprenticeship to the trade of blacksmith, in which he became a skilled artisan. In April, 1858, a few months after attaining to his legal majority, he ac- companied his parents on their removal to Nebraska Territory. From Brownville, Nema- la county, they eventually removed to Johnson county, and there, in 1863, Robert S. Brown ook up a homestead claim one and one-half niles northwest of the present village of Cook. He began the reclamation of his frontier farm out as a means of support continued to follow the work of his trade. He built a little log shop on the route of the old-time freighting ine between Nebraska City and Beatrice, and here he did valuable service in shoeing the horses and doing repair work for the over- and freighters. In 1865 he hauled from St. Joseph, Missouri, with horse teams one of the
first threshing machines brought into south- eastern Nebraska. His hearing became im- paired when he was a youth and this fact ren- dered him ineligible for service as a soldier in the Civil war, but as a workman at this trade he was able to do his part in furtherance of the Union cause, as he did much repair work and horseshoeing for the military forces operating in this section of the country. Robert S. Brown developed his homestead of one hundred and sixty acres into one of the valuable farms of Johnson county and he continued to give to the same his active supervision until 1900, when he removed to the village of Cook, that county, where he is now living virtually re- tired, as one of the venerable and hon- ored pioneers of Nebraska and as one of the oldest exponents of the sturdy trade of blacksmith in the entire state, his work at his trade having been continued to a greater or less extent during his entire active career. His wife, who has been his devoted companion and helpmeet for more than half a century, was born in Ohio, August 12, 1843, and was a child at the time of the family removal to Nebraska territory, her father, John Bentz, having become one of the early settlers near Sterling, Johnson county, where he reclaimed a farm from the prairie wilds and where he passed the residue of his life.
Robert S. and Rachel (Bentz) Brown be- came the parents of six children, all of whom were born on the old homestead farm in John- son county : Gustie is the wife of J. Y. Hunt, of Cook, that county ; Thaddeus B. died when about twenty four years of age; Frank H., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Lucy is the wife of Daniel Vliet, of Cook, this state: William S. is engaged in the black- smithing business at Cortland, Gage county ; and Bert B. follows the vocation of electrician at Cook, Johnson county.
Reared to the sturdy discipline of the fron- tier farm, Frank H. Brown grew strong of mind and physical powers, his early educa- tion having been gained in the district schools of Johnson county. He continued to be asso- ciated in the work of the home farm until his
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marriage, in 1888, and thereafter he was en- gaged in independent farm enterprise in his native county until 1900, when he became as- sociated with the conducting of a lumber busi- ness at Cook. In November, 1906, he came to Gage county and established his residence at Cortland, and here he has had since 1910 the management of the well equipped lumber yards of the Farmers' Grain & Coal Com- pany. A substantial and progressive business man and valued citizen, he commands unqual- ified popular confidence and esteem.
On the 21st of September, 1888, Mr. Brown wedded Miss Flora Godfrey, a daughter of John W. and Sarah (Woods) Godfrey, who were born in Ohio and came from Illinois to Johnson county, Nebraska, in 1879, establish- ing their home near Vesta. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Brown is a daughter, Elsie M., who was graduated in the high school at Cook and who remains at the parental home, as a popular factor in the social life of the com. munity.
In politics Mr. Brown accords allegiance to the Republican party, and he is serving in 1917-1918 as master of Highland Lodge, No. 194, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, be- sides maintaining affiliation with the Modern Woodmen of America.
HARRY E. SACKETT. - Gage county is signally favored in the personnel of its bar, and the representative lawyers here engaged in active practice are well upholding the pres- tige of their profession, both in character and achievement. He whose name initiates this paragraph has been engaged in the active gen- eral practice of his profession at Beatrice, judicial center of the county, since 1898, and is a member of the firm of Sackett & Brew- ster, which controls a large and important law business, retains a representative clientage and has had to do with much important litigation in the various courts of this section of the state. This history properly accords recog- nition to Mr. Sackett as one of the able and in- fluential members of the Gage county bar and as a loyal and progressive citizen of the city of Beatrice.
Mr. Sackett was born on the parental home- stead farm near Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, on the 10th of October, 1874, and is a son of Oliver P. and Mary (Evans) Sackett. the former of whom passed the closing years of his life at Beatrice, Nebraska, where he died in 1913, his loved and devoted wife hav- ing preceded him to the life eternal, and the family home having been at Cameron, Mis- souri, at the time of her demise. The late Oliver P. Sackett was born in Connecticut and was a scion of one of the sterling English families that was founded in New England in the early colonial epoch of our national history, his grandfather, Benjamin Sackett, having been a patriot soldier in the war of the Revolution. During the greater part of his long and useful life Oliver P. Sackett con- tinued his allegiance to the great fundamental industry of agriculture, and he was a success - ful farmer in Ohio, whence he finally removed with his family to Clinton county, Missouri, where he continued his residence until 1903. In that year he came to Gage county, Ne. braska, here passing the residue of his life, as previously noted. The original American progenitors of the Sackett family came to this country in 1630, and in the early and later generations members of the family have stood exponent of sterling worth and lofty pa- triotism, the subject of this review being eligi- ble for membership in the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Harry E. Sackett acquired his preliminary educational discipline in the public schools of Missouri, Ohio and Nebraska. With deep ap- preciation of the exacting demands in pre- paring himself for the legal profession, Mr. Sackett did not falter in his application to technical study and finally was matriculated in the law department of the University of Nebraska, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1898, his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws being virtually coincident with his admission to the Nebraska bar. After his graduation Mr. Sackett began his professional novitiate at Beatrice, where he has continued in the practice of law during the intervening years and where he has de-
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HARRY E. SACKETT
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veloped a substantial practice of essentially representative order, the character of his clientele giving the best assurance of his abil- ity as a trial lawyer and well fortified coun- selor. He is senior member of the law firm of Sackett & Brewster, in which his confrere is Captain Charles L. Brewster.
Mr. Sackett is a prominent figure in the local camp of the Republican party but has only once appeared as a candidate for public office not directly in line with his profession, he having given four years of specially effect- ive administration in the office of prosecuting attorney of Gage county. His secure place in popular confidence and good will was shown in his election to the Nebraska state senate, in 1907, and he proved one of the influential working members of the upper house during the legislative term for which he was elected. He was assigned to membership on important senate standing committees and introduced a number of bills that came to enactment as representative of wise legislation in behalf of his constituent district and the state at large. He has been influential in the councils and campaign activities of the Republican party in Nebraska, and in 1912 he was a delegate at large from this state to the Republican Na- tional Convention, held in Chicago. Mr. Sackett is a member of the directorate of the Beatrice Building & Loan Association. He and his wife are members of the Christian church in their home city, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, including the local commandery of Knights Templars, as well as with the Modern Woodmen of Amer- ica and the Royal Highlanders.
On the 27th of September, 1899, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sackett to Miss Hermina Reynolds, daughter of the late Dr. Herman M. Reynolds, to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work, the Doctor having been one of the most honored and influential pioneers of Beatrice and the first mayor of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Sack- ett have three children,-Dean R., Harry E., Jr., and Mary Louise.
GEORGE S. BURGER. - On his well im- proved farm of one hundred and sixty acres,
in Section 7, Grant township, Mr. Burger is proving specially successful and influential as a breeder of short-horn cattle of the best type, and through his activities he is doing much to raise the grade of cattle in the county that has represented his home since he was a lad of eleven years and in which he is a representa- tive of an honored pioneer family, a brief trib- ute to his father, John L. Burger, appearing elsewhere in this history and giving adequate data concerning the family. Mr. Burger is an active member of the Nebraska Short-horn Breeders' Association and from his fine herd of shorthorns he has made numerous sales for breeding purposes in Gage county. The lead- er of his herd is "Double Sultan," a son of the celebrated "Victor Sultan." He initiated his activities in the breeding of pure-bred short- horn cattle in 1907, has used the most careful methods and policies in the connection, and has become one of the leading exponents of this important phase of industrial enterprise in this section. He raises annually an average of about fifty head of the pure-bred short- horn stock and is known also as a successful grower of sheep.
Mr. Burger was born in Grundy county, Illi- nois, on the 22d of May, 1866, about one year after the immigration of his parents from Germany to America, and he is the first of the five children to have been born in the United States. He gained his early education in the schools of his native county and, as previously noted, was eleven years of age when the fam- ily came to Gage county, in 1877. Here he was reared to manhood on his father's pioneer farm, in Clatonia township, and in the mean- while he profited by the advantages afforded in the schools of the locality. He continued to be associated in the work and management of the home farm until 1894, when he rented- land from his father and initiated his inde- pendent activities as an agriculturist and stock- grower. About the year 1899 he purchased from his father his present farm of one hun- dred and sixty acres, and the improvements which he has since made on the property mark it as one of the model stock farms of the county,- an attractive rural home that can not fail to challenge admiration and that gives
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every indication of thrift and prosperity. His success has been the direct result of indefat- igable energy and perseverance and in addi- tion to his fine homestead farm he is the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of land in Lincoln county, this state. He is one of the stockholders of the farmers' cooperative ele- vator company at Dewitt and is always ready to lend his influence in the furtherance of measures advanced for the general good of the community. He is independent in poli- tics and has served continuously since 1901 as a member of the school board of District No. 149. Both he and his wife are communicants of the German Lutheran church.
On the 25th of February, 1891, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Burger to Miss Anna B. Ulrich, who was born in Illinois, July 9, 1864, a daughter of Charles G. Ulrich, a sterling Gage county pioneer of whom inci- dental mention is made on other pages, especi- ally in the sketch dedicated to his son Edward. Mr. and Mrs. Burger have four children,- Albert F., Emma, Elmer and Erna,- all of whom remain at the parental home except Albert F., who is engaged in a garage at De- witt, Saline county.
SAMUEL W. BEAM, a retired farmer and venerable citizen of Beatrice, has been a resi- dent of Nebraska for somewhat more than thirty years and the prosperity which attends him represents the results of his productive farm activities in former years. A scion of a family that was early founded in Pennsylvania and that traces lineage back to German origin, Mr. Beam was born in Franklin county, Penn- sylvania, April 20, 1836, and is a son of John and Nancy (Woolford) Beam, both likewise natives of the old Keystone state, where the father became a substantial farmer and where he passed his entire life, the mother having survived him and having been in the home of one of her daughters, in Ohio, when she passed to the life eternal. Of the eight chil- dren the subject of this sketch is the eldest of the three now living ; William is a farmer near Desler, Ohio; and Rebecca, a widow, resides in the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. John
Beam was a member of the German Reformed church and his wife a communicant of the Lutheran church. He was a son of Christian Beam, who passed his entire life in Pennsyl- vania and whose parents were natives of Ger- many.
Samuel W. Beam was reared on his fath- er's farm and gained his youthful education in the common schools of his native county. He continued his association with farm indus- try in Pennsylvania until 1870 when he re- moved to Ogle county, Illinois, where he rent- ed land and was actively engaged in farming, near Polo, for eleven years. He then pur- chased a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in Illinois, where he continued his activ- ities six years, and in 1887 he came to Ne- braska and rented a farm in Gage county. This farm, owned at the time by Frederick Bachle, continued as the stage of his productive labors for five years, at the expiration of which he purchased a half-section of land in Jefferson county. This property he developed into one of the valuable farms of that county and there he continued his residence until 1898, since which year he has lived retired in the city of Beatrice.
The year 1861 recorded the marriage of Mr. Beam to Miss Ephia McKeefer, who likewise was born and reared in Pennsylvania, a daugh- ter of Jeremiah and Lydia (Rose) McKeefer, who were residents of that state during their entire lives. Of the remarkable and interest- ing family of fifteen children born to Mr. and Mrs. Beam all are living except two: Mrs. Laura Stauffer resides in the state of Illinois ; Mrs. Louisa Graybill is a resident of Polo, that state; Mrs. Lizzie Gilbert likewise lives in Illinois ; Mrs. Orpha Hamilton is a resident of San Diego, California ; Mrs. Annie Morris lives at Holmesville, Gage county, Nebraska ; Samuel is a successful farmer residing one-half mile south of Beatrice; Mrs. Ella Will lives near Holmesville, this county; Howard B. is a farmer near Holmesville; Mrs. Ida Elwood is the wife of a farmer in the same locality ; Frank likewise is a farmer near Holmesville; Harry is associated with farm enterprise near Beatrice ; Clara is the wife of H. E. Hill, of
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Beatrice; and Grant also remains in Gage county. The devoted wife and mother was summoned to eternal rest on the 6th of March, 1905, she having been an earnest member of the Christian church, as is also Mr. Beam.
Mr. Beam has been significantly loyal in all of the relations of life and has shown a high sense of personal stewardship. Lasting honor is his for the service which he rendered as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. In 1862 he enlisted in Company H, One Hun- dred and Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania Volun- teer Infantry, with which he served nine months,- until the expiration of his term of enlistment. In 1864 he again enlisted and his service from this time forward covered a peri- od of eight months. He took part in the sec- ond battle of Bull Run, in 1862, and also in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, as well as in various minor engagements. Under his second enlistment he participated in the battle of Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, and in the battle of Petersburg. He was cor- poral of his company during his first term of enlistment. He is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic and is a Republican in his political proclivities.
JACOB S. DELL is a popular member of a well known pioneer family concerning which adequate mention is made on other pages, in the sketch of the career of his brother, Joseph C. Dell, and he himself is numbered among the representative exponents of agricultural and live-stock industry in the county that has been his home since his boyhood. Mr. Dell is the owner of an excellent farm of one hun- dred and twenty acres, in Section 15, Rock- ford township, a property which was pur- chased by him in 1904 and upon which he has made many modren improvements. He and his wife are prominent and zealous members of the Church of the Brethren, commonly des- ignated as the Dunkard church, and he is assistant pastor of the South Beatrice church of this denomination.
Mr. Dell was born in Owen county, Indiana, May 11, 1868, and in the following year his parents removed to Iowa, where the family
home was maintained until 1876, when re- moval was made to Gage county, Jacob S. having been at the time a lad of six years. He was reared on his father's farm in Rockford township and after having profited by the ad- vantages of the old Rock school he was for two years a student in a school of higher aca- demic order at McPherson, Kansas. He has been an ordained clergyman of the Brethren church since 1897 and has given earnest and effective service in the ministry. He is a broad-minded and progressive citizen.
In 1905 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Dell to Miss Naomi Cullen, daughter of James K. Cullen, who was born in Virginia and who came with his family to Gage county in 1885. Mr. and Mrs. Dell have four chil- dren,- Pauline, Dwight, Dorothy and Violet.
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