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 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135 | Part 136 | Part 137 | Part 138 | Part 139 | Part 140 | Part 141 | Part 142 | Part 143 | Part 144 | Part 145 | Part 146 | Part 147 | Part 148
BENNETT PIKE
Perhaps no man was more active in the af- fairs of the Nebraska Association while identi- fied with it than Bennett Pike. The minutes of the organization show that much of its early success was due to his clear, logical and vigor- ous intellect. He was a member of the int-
portant "Locating Committee," and with Jef- ferson B. Weston and M. W. Ross selected the townsite for Beatrice. He prepared the re- port of the committee and presented it at the meeting of the organization in Omaha, May 20, 1857, in which the advantages of the site se- lected by the committee were set forth in de- tail and with great clearness. While in Omaha the company selected him as the mill agent to transport to the proposed townsite the steam saw mill which had previously been purchased and which formed practically the only asset of the association.
Mr. Pike answered to his name when the roll was called on the Beatrice townsite July 27, 1857. He took a very active part in the preliminary work of founding Beatrice. With Weston, Reynolds, Towle, Townsend, and Loomis, he remained on the townsite until late in the fall of 1858, over fifteen months. In the meantime he preempted and purchased of the government the northeast quarter of Section 33, township 4, range 6 east, joining the townsite, north of Grant and west of Sixth street. On leaving the territory he seems to have gone to Rockport, Missouri, and during the year 1859 he engaged in the practice of law at that point, but later he removed to Saint Joseph.
Mr. Pike was the son of John and Elvira (Check) Pike. He was born in the town of Cornish, state of Maine, January 6, 1829, and died at Arcadia, Missouri, July 15, 1892. He was educated at Bowdoin College, Bruns- wick, Maine. He was colonel of the Fifty-eighth Regiment of Missouri State Mil- itia during 1863 and 1864, at the same time representing his district in the house of rep- resentatives of the state legislature; he was also appointed brigadier general of militia. About the time the Civil war closed he was appointed federal district attorney for the Northern District of Missouri, and he served several years in that office. He was elected to congress from the Saint Joseph, Missouri, district in 1870, but was counted out ; he was elected district judge for the Buchanan coun- ty district and afterward became the general attorney for the Iron Mountain Railroad Company, with headquarters at Saint Louis,
141
HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
Missouri. Five days after his death the Saint Louis bar held a memorial meeting in which a preamble and resolutions in regard to Judge Pike were unanimously adopted.
disposition that marked him as an important influence in his community. Personally and socially he was genial and full of sympathy, with a great heart full of love; he stooped to kiss the wounds of the sorrowing, and, with
BENNETT PIKE
Amongst other things are the following re- citals respecting him :
Judge Bennett Pike died July 25, A. D. 1892. He ran his mortal course, and at the end bowed unmurmuringly to the arbiter of all human destines.
His was a race of varied experiences. Na- ture had endowed him with talents and a
manly generosity, rejoiced with those who deservingly won life's laurels. He was a helper of his fellow kind. Distinctions came to him and he bore them with modesty, dig- nity and honor.
He was a member of the house of repre- sentatives of this state, and his efforts were (as in all his other walks) to the upbuilding
142
HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
of the public welfare and happiness, upon a broad, strong and intelligent basis.
He served as federal district attorney in this state at a time when passion ran high and prosecution was prone to take the form of persecution, but with a heart incapable of embitterment, an impartial and scrupulous mind, he stood, at once, the protector of rights and the just defender of violated law.
As a judge upon the state circuit bench he challenged the deference and confidence of the lawyers and people, neither fawning to the leadership of the one nor cringing to the impulse of the other. He was just, discrim- inating, learned and courageous.
For many years he was with us as a prac- titioner at the bar. His integrity was im- pregnable, his demeanor calm, gentle and dignified. His humor in conversation sprang freely as from a fountain of good nature, and if weakness he had it was his admiration and veneration for his chosen and constantly pur- sued profession.
JEFFERSON BURNS WESTON
No other man connected with the Nebraska Association became as thoroughly identified with the history of the state of Nebraska as Jefferson Burns Weston. From the moment of arriving in the new territory of Nebraska to the end of his long career he was a loyal and useful citizen of our state. He was wide- ly known and was universally honored and respected throughout our commonwealth.
Mr. Weston was born March 23, 1821, in the little town of Bremen, Lincoln county, Maine. He was the son of Eliphaz and Eliz- abeth Longfellow Weston, natives of the Pine Tree state and both highly respected mem- bers of old New England families who traced their ancestry back to Puritan days in this country. Mr. Weston obtained his elemen- tary education in the common schools of Maine and, having prepared himself for a collegiate course of study, he, about 1852, en- tered Union College, now Union University, at Schenectady, New York, which under the presidency of Dr. Eliphalet Knott (1804-1866) had become one of the foremost educational institutions in the western world and drew bright, capable young men from every por- tion of the country. Mr. Weston graduated
in the classical course from the college in 1856, and lending ear to the call of the great west, he came first to Chicago, and, still fol- lowing the Star of Empire to the cry "West- ward Ho," he went, in the spring of 1857, to St. Louis, where on a soft April morning, in 1857, he joined Judge John Fitch Kinney, John McConihe (a fellow alumnus of his alma mater), Albert Towle, Herman M. Reynolds, Bennett Pike, and the rest on board the "Hannibal" in her memorable voyage to the upper Missouri. He became a leader in that band of intrepid spirits who, on the 23d day of April, entered into a written compact to remain together and found a city somewhere in the new territory of Nebraska. From the moment of its organization Mr. Weston was most active in furthering this venture into what was, in fact, little more than a prairie waste. He was member of the locating com- mittee, and with Bennett Pike, M. W. Ross, and Harrison F. Cook, reported to the or- ganization at Omaha, May 20, 1857, their selection of the original townsite of Beatrice as the most eligible site for the prospective city. He never for a single moment waver- ed in his loyalty to this enterprise and throughout his life he was an efficient force in the upbuilding of Beatrice -child of his courage and brain. From May 29, 1857, when the first stake was driven on the town- site of Beatrice, with the exception of about nine years spent in Lincoln during and im- mediately following his six years' service as a state official, this city was his home. He retained his distributive share in the original townsite of Beatrice until it became valuable and he, more than any other of the Nebraska Association, profited from this venture.
Mr. Weston remained with Townsend, Towle, Pike, and Loomis, throughout the summer and fall of 1857 and the following winter, as a component part of the guard left behind to protect the interests of the Townsite Company. Some time in 1858, or possibly as late as 1859, he returned to Chicago and took a course in the study of the law. He was admitted to the bar and on his return to Beatrice he engaged for a brief time in the
143
HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
practice of his profession. But he soon turned to a more adventurous, a more profitable and (to him at that period of life) a more con- genial field of activity. About 1860 he en- gaged in the business of freighting across the plains along the old Military Highway from Beatrice to Denver and other western points. Later he engaged in mining and other enter- prises about the gold fields of Colorado, but, returning to Beatrice in 1868, he resumed the practice of the law. His professional card appears in Volume I, No. 8 of the Blue Val- ley Record, the first newspaper published in Gage county. It reads as follows :
J. B. WESTON.
Notary Public and Conveyancing.
Real Estate Agency and Law Office. Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska.
He continued in the practice of law at Beatrice till 1873, when, having been elected auditor of public accounts for the state of Nebraska, he removed his family to Lincoln. He served the people as their auditor from January 1, 1873 to January 1, 1879,- six years.
On the 18th day of November, 1883, Mr. Weston, having with Daniel W. Cook and others purchased the stock of the Gage County Bank, organized the Beatrice National Bank, of Beatrice, Nebraska. He was chosen the president of this institution by the first board of directors, a position which he held for over twenty years, and until his death. Of those who were associated with him at the time, namely, Daniel W. Cook, Hiram W. Parker, Cyrus Alden, Silas P. Wheeler, Nathan Blake- ly, and William Lamb, of Beatrice, and Na- than S. Harwood, of Lincoln, all have passed away, Mr. Cook, the last survivor, dying in March, 1916.
On the 30th of April, 1860, Mr. Weston married Miss Helen Towle, the eldest daugh- ter of Albert Towle. To this union four children were born, namely Ralph A., Eliza- beth L., Katherine, and Herbert T. Weston. Mr. Weston died September 15, 1905, in the seventieth year of his age, and in 1917 his wife followed him to the grave. Their remains rest in the beautiful Evergreen Home Ceme-
tery, as do also those of their younger daugh- ter, Katherine. To every loyal citizen of our county, and to every man who values worth of character, the turf that wraps their clay should be hallowed mold.
No sketch of the life of Mr. Weston would be complete which failed to take account of the remarkable influence which, without con- scious effort on his part, he exercised over others. From first to last he was an important factor in the affairs of the territory and state. He was a just man, kind and sympathetic. He was remarkably deliberate and conservative in judgment, and was accustomed to take an ac- curate and comprehensive view of human af- fairs. His clear, inclusive way of looking at things made him one of the most useful citi- zens the state of Nebraska has ever possessed.
In his habits and association, Jefferson Burns Weston was the most democratic of men. His charity was large, his integrity above question. With a generous, open-hearted faith in human- ity and a deep-rooted faith in Almighty God, he reached the end of his long journey in an atmosphere of hope, courage, and cheer that was infectious to all who came under his in- fluence.
WILLIAM H. BRODHEAD
Though not a member of the Beatrice Townsite Association, William H. Brodhead was so intimately connected with the enterprise as to deserve a place amongst the founders of our city. In 1857 he was the best known and perhaps the most competent surveyor and topographical engineer in the territory of Nebraska, and for this reason he was employ- ed by the directors of the Beatrice Association to survey and make plats of the original town of Beatrice. During his entire life Mr. Brod- head took a keen interest in Beatrice, and to friends here he frequently expressed an ap- preciation of the fact that he had been in- strumental in the founding of the city.
Mr. Brodhead was born near Milford, Pike county, Pennsylvania, August 25, 1832. He died at Hailey, Idaho, October 21, 1898. At Honesdale, Wayne county, Pennsylvania, June 11, 1867, he married Eliza Avery. Surviving
144
HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
him are his widow and their son, W. A. Brod- head, who is a prominent lawyer of Mackay, Idaho, and the chairman of the Idaho state highway commission.
his professions, having been admitted to prac- tice before the courts of the territory June 4, 1857. In 1859 he was elected a member of the house of representatives of the territory,
WILLIAM H. BRODHEAD Surveyor original townsite of Beatrice, 1857
William H. Brodhead, in addition to a very accurate and useful education in civil engineer- ing, was a lawyer of ability, having been ad- mitted to the bar of Pennsylvania November 21, 1856. The same year he came to the ter- ritory of Nebraska, where he practised both of
from Otoe county, and he served during that session. His friend, the distinguished Ne- braskan, J. Sterling Morton, also was a mem- ber of that legislature. In 1861 Mr. Brod- head went to Utah territory to live ; there he served for a while as the federal district at-
145
HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
torney. Althoughi a non-Mormon in belief and practice, he was a warm personal friend of Brigham Young and was frequently the recipient of the Prophet's favor. In 1863 he located at Carson City, Nevada, where he practiced law for a few years, but, being drawn into the maelstrom of the mining excitement then rife in Carson City, he dropped the law and sought wealth as a miner. He followed this business until the fall of 1879, when he moved to Hailey, Idaho. In 1894 he was ap- pointed register of the United States land of- fice at Hailey, and he died just after he had completed his four years' term of office.
Mr. Brodhead was six feet four inches in height and was proportionately a large man.
As a surveyor, Mr. Brodhead was required to make three plats of the original town of Beatrice, one of which was filed in the local land office at Brownville on the 12th day of August, 1859, and one was forwarded to the General Land Office at Washington to be kept as a part of its files. The third was, of course, delivered to Herman M. Reynolds, as mayor of the city. Some dissatisfaction ex- isted for a while over Brodhead's survey, and about the year 1875 Anselmo B. Smith was employed to resurvey the original town of Beatrice. These surveys differ slightly; the Smith survey showing a deviation from the true lines of less than three feet in some parts of the city. When we take into account the crudeness of the time and the probable haste with which the original survey was made by Mr. Brodhead, it is evident, assuming that the error did exist, that his work was well done. A careless chain carrier might easily account for this error.
DR. HERMAN MYER REYNOLDS
It would be difficult for any one to speak the whole truth about Dr. Herman Myer Reynolds without appearing to be his panegyrist. But seven days past the age of twenty-five years when he joined with Kinney, McConihe, Towle, Weston, Wise, Pike, and the others to form the Nebraska Association, on board the old steamboat "Hannibal," he was already a man of affairs and for some time had been a
successful practicing physician. He was a native of Sullivan county, New York, and was a son of Andrew and Catherine Reynolds, both natives of the state of New York. The father was of English lineage, and the mother was the daughter of Garrett Van Benscoten, a Hollander and a soldier of the Revolution. Dr. Reynolds obtained his elementary education in the common schools of his native state, and in his youth entered an academy at Liberty, New York. He afterward pursued a course of study in the State Normal School at Albany, with the view of fitting himself for a teacher, and he did for a while engage in that occupa- tion. When still a very young man he began the study of medicine, at Pittsfield, Massachu- setts. His final course was taken in the great medical college at Albany, from which institu- tion he graduated May 31, 1853, and he at once entered upon the practice of his profes- sion at Barryville, in his native state. After- ward he removed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he remained two years, engaged in the practice of his profession. Dr. Reynolds was not the man to yield to the wanderlust, as his subsequent history clearly shows, but the call of the great west was in the air. The romance, the spirit of adventure and its excite- ment, proved to him as to many other young men, irresistible, and him too we find, on a soft April morning, in 1857, aboard the old steam- er "Hannibal," headed for the new territory of Nebraska.
With characteristic modesty, his name first appeared in the records of the townsite com- pany amongst those who signed the articles of association, following the names of Dr. Wilmans, Dr. Wise, and Albert Towle. It is next found when the membership roll was called by the scholarly secretary, John McConihe, in the office of the territorial sec- retary of state, in Omaha, May 20, 1857, and when the roll was again called on the townsite of Beatrice, July 27, 1857, Dr. Reynolds was one of the members who answered "Here." Prior to coming to Beatrice, it had been ar- ranged that the members of the association should observe some sort of order in locating claims on the public domain with respect to
146
HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
the townsite, so as to avoid rivalry and contests over the matter, and the first public service Dr. Reynolds was called upon to perform was to act as a member of a committee of three persons "to draft resolutions for a claim as- sociation," evidently to be given jurisdiction over this delicate subject. The importance at- tached by the members of the association to the subject of claims is evidenced by the fact that this committee was the first one appointed
HERMAN M. REYNOLDS
at Beatrice, July 27, 1857. At the adjourned session in the afternoon of that day, on the coming in of the report of this committee, Dr. Reynolds was chosen as secretary and treasur- er for this claims association, and the next day Bennett Pike was selected as president. the other members being David P. Taylor and H. F. Cook. Their duties were plainly out- lined by the proceeding of May 28, 1858, when it was resolved that "Each individual hold his own claim as at present staked out, regardless of the valuation of the same, but subject to the location of the town," and it was further "resolved that the claim club settle boundary
lines of claims and that the same be referred to them," and it was at this meeting also "resolved that no one individual be allowed to hold more than one hundred and sixty acres within one mile of town."
After these meetings, the name of Dr. Reynolds frequently occurs in the association's record. At a meeting of the association, held May 22, 1858, when sixty votes were cast for president of the Nebraska Association, he re- ceived fifty-seven, and was at the same time se- lected as a member of the board of directors. Under the federal townsite act, the govern- ment did not recognize individuals but required at least a semblance of a village or town organ- ization, the mayor of such body alone having authority to enter land for townsite purposes. Dr. Reynolds was chosen as the first mayor of Beatrice,- at a time when there was neither councilmen, clerk, treasurer, city attorney nor any semblance of civic organization,- in order that the law might be complied with and the land comprising the original townsite of Beatrice be purchased, pursuant to the above mentioned act of congress. An assessment was levied upon the members of the association and a thousand dollars was in some way gotten together to pay for the survey and the government price of one dollar and twenty- five cents per acre for the land and other necessary expeditures connected with the sur- vey and entry of the townsite. On the 12th day of August 1859, Dr. Reynolds, as the mayor of Beatrice, entered at the government land office at Brownville the half-section of land comprising the original townsite. Most of the mayor's deeds for lots in the original townsite were executed by him.
Dr. Reynolds was also very active in the early affairs of Gage county. With Mr. Towle he served from January, 1858, to January 1, 1860, as a member of the first board of county commissioners, and after the county was divid- ed into three commissioner districts he served on the board till May, 1860, when he resigned, so that J. M. Summers of Blue Springs could be appointed to represent that part of the county on the board. He was county treas-
147
HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
urer in 1858 and 1859 and again in 1863; he was county judge in 1868-1869; clerk of the district court in 1866-1867; county superin- tendent of school in 1868-1869. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1866, from Gage county, and represented our county in the legislature of 1874 .
Dr. Reynolds was the first resident physi- cian of Gage county and one of the first in the state of Nebraska. In 1857 there was of course but little call for men of his profession. But, undeterred by the discouraging outlook, he took up his work as a physician amongst the settlers, and for several years he devoted his time, when called upon, simply to doing good, such compensation as he was willing to accept being usually in some sort of farm pro- duce - butter, eggs, poultry and the like. In the first issue of the Blue Valley Record, of August 1, 1868, is found this card :
H. M. REYNOLDS, M.D. Office Blakely, Reynolds & Co's. Store Beatrice, Neb.
Until the last moment of his life Dr. Reynolds treasured above his earthly posses- sions his ability to relieve the sick, minister to the afflicted, console the dying. Until pro- strated by disease, he was never known to fail, even in his busiest years, the demands up- on his professional skill and knowledge. Through cold and heat, across desolate prai- ries, this pioneer physician went about among the people ministering with all kindness to those who sought his aid.
The Doctor frequently engaged in business ventures outside of his profession. In 1864, he put up a considerable quantity of prairie hay, and in the fall and winter he bought a large number of cattle. Roughing the cattle through the winter, he herded them on the prairie until they became fit for market, then drove them to St. Joseph, Missouri, where they were sold. So many died during the winter that his profits, if any at all, were small. A number of times he engaged in mercantile business of some kind. As early as 1859 he had a small grocery and provision store, about
where the old First National Bank began busi- ness in 1872. His goods were kept in a small, round-log cabin, with the side next to Court street. Finally he and Oliver Townsend open- ed a general store here, later the firm be- came Blakely, Reynolds & Company, and still later Dr. Reynolds and Oliver Townsend erected the old part of the stone building now owned by the Kilpatrick Brothers at the corner of Fifth and Court streets, where the firm con- tinued in business until he died, in 1875. Mr. Blakely, however, was appointed receiver of the government land office at Beatrice, August 10, 1869, and retired from the firm, being suc- ceeded later by I. N. McConnell. This busi- ness made money for the various partners and was really the foundation of their fortunes.
Dr. Reynolds was of medium height and probably never weighed in excess of one hundred and forty pounds. When he was a young man his hair was thick, black, and curl- ed; his complexion was dark; his eyes gray, large, and very expressive; his nose Grecian, features regular, forehead broad and high, countenance frank and open. He was a most kindly, sympathetic man and wonderfully con- siderate of the feelings and wishes of others.
On October 20, 1861, Dr. Reynolds married Naomi Barcus, who at this writing survives him, and with her daughters, Josephine and Ruth, the wife of Corey C. Farlow, occupies the two-story, brick dwelling house, at the corner of Market and Eighth streets, which was erected by the Doctor as a home a few years prior to his death. His widowed daugh- ter is Mrs. Elsie Loeber, of Beatrice, and his other children are Mrs. Mollie Randall, the wife of George Randall, of Morrill county, Ne- braska, and Mrs. Hermina Sackett, the wife of Hon. Harry E. Sackett, of Beatrice.
To the last moment of conscious existence Dr. Reynolds was a most loyal citizen of the city which he was so instrumental in founding. He rarely left Gage county and his interest in its welfare was such as always to hasten his return. He died at Beatrice on the 26th day of April, 1875, after a lingering illness, and when but a few days past the forty-third year
.
148
HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
of his age. His remains lie in the Beatrice cemetery, near the city whose history is in- separably linked with his name. He was deep- ly loved and universally mourned. On the day of his burial, the business houses of the city closed out of respect for him. Some one has said "To live in hearts we leave behind is not
to die." If this is a true saying, then Dr. Reynolds is immortal, for he can never be for- gotten while the city of Beatrice lasts. As in the case of Albert Towle, Oliver Townsend, and Jefferson Burns Weston, the beautiful city of Beatrice stands as an enduring monument to the memory of Dr. Herman Myer Reynolds.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.