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 44
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Mr. Yule was born in Northumberland county, England, on the 20th of October, 1832, and his death occurred at his home in Beatrice, Nebraska, on the 21st of June, 1907. He was a son of George and Elizabeth (Huggett) Yule, his father having been a civil engineer by profession and having for some time held a responsible position with the London & North- eastern Railway Company. Thomas Yule re- ceived excellent educational advantages in his native land and there continued to reside until 1853, when, accompanied by his parents and his young wife, he came to the United States, the family home being established in Columbia county, Wisconsin, where the father and son became pioneer exponents of agricultural in- dustry. The honored father died in 1871, at the age of sixty-seven years, and his wife sur- vived him by six years, she having been seventy-three years of age at the time of her demise. Four of their six children attained to maturity and became well established in life before the death of the parents.
On the 15th of March, 1853, was solemnized the marriage of Thomas Yule to Miss Mary
Todd, who likewise was born in Northumber- landshire, a daughter of John and Mary Todd. The voyage to America on a sailing vessel of the type common to that day virtually consti- tuted the bridal tour of the young couple, and after having been for some time associated with his father in farm enterprise in Columbia county, Wisconsin, Thomas Yule removed with his wife to the village of Lodi, that county, where he was engaged in contracting and building at the time of the inception of the Civil war. His loyalty to the land of his adoption soon found significant exposition, for on the 15th of August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in the Twenty-third Wisconsin Volun- teer Infantry, with which he entered service in the Army of the West, under General A. J. Smith, and in the Fourteenth Army Corps, commanded by General Sherman. Relative to the gallant military career of Mr. Yule the fol- lowing interesting record has been given : "Mr. Yule, with his comrades, in active campaign service, traveled through Kentucky, Missis- sippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas, and with his command participated in the first battle of Vicksburg, in the summer of 1862. He con- tinued to take part in the various engagements in which his regiment was involved until the 11th of January, 1863, when, in the engage- ment at Arkansas Post, he received a wound which resulted in the loss of his right leg. The grievously wounded man was removed to the Lawson hospital, in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, where he remained until the follow- ing March, when he was honorably discharged and returned to his home, at Lodi, Wisconsin. Afterward, in recognition of his service as a soldier and the sacrifice which he had made in the cause of the Union, Mr. Yule was appoint- ed provost marshal for his Wisconsin district. He was elected also to the offices of justice of the peace and township treasurer, both of which he retained until 1867, when he was elected register of deeds of Columbia county, an office of which he continued the incumbent eight successive years." It may further be said that in later years Mr. Yule vitalized the memories and association of his military career as a soldier of the Union by maintaining
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active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, in which great patriotic organization he was one of the most popular and influential members of Rawlins Post, at Beatrice, Ne- braska, in which he passed the various official chairs and with which he continued to be actively identified until the close of his life.
Mr. Yule never permitted himself to view his physical infirmity as a definite handicap, and it is certain that it did not interfere with his productive usefulness and service. After his retirement from the office of register of deeds for Columbia county, Wisconsin, he continued to be there associated with Miles T. Alverson in the abstract and loan business until April, 1879. He then sold his interest in the business and came with his family to Beatrice, Nebraska, where he engaged in the loaning of money on real-estate security and where he forthwith put his previous experience to effective use by turning his attention to the preparation of a set of abstracts of realty titles from the original records of the county. In this commendable and important work he had as his efficient coadjutor his son John T., and they continued to be actively associated in the conducting of the well ordered abstract business until his death, since which time the son has individually continued the enterprise, as noted in the review of his career, on other pages of this volume.
Mr. Yule entered most heartily and help- fully into the communal life of Beatrice and Gage county and his ability and sterling in- tegrity marked him as specially eligible for service in offices of local trust. It has already been noted in this memoir that he served one term as mayor of Beatrice, a position in which he gave most progressive and efficient admin- istration, and that he held for one term the office of city treasurer. In the late '80s he was elected representative of Beatrice town- ship on the county board of supervisors, in which office he served three consecutive terms, during the last two of which he was chairman of the board. He was one of those interested in the establishing of the canning factory at Beatrice and became a member of the board of directors of the company operating the same.
besides which he was a director of the Beatrice Street Railway Company. In politics Mr. Yule, with consummate strength of convic- tion, never wavered in his allegiance to the Republican party and he gave in a local way yeoman service in behalf of its cause. He became affiliated with the Masonic fraternity in 1858 and was actively identified with the various Masonic bodies in Beatrice at the time of his death.
The wife of the young manhood of Mr. Yule continued as his gracious and loved com- panion and helpmeet until she was summoned to eternal rest, her death having occurred April 11, 1881. They became the parents of four children, concerning whom the follow- ing brief data are available: Bessie J. be- came the wife of Louis E. Walker and is now deceased; John T. is individually mentioned on other pages of this publication; Albert G. was a boy at the time of his death, in 1866; and Mary Grace, who completed her educa- tion by attending Brownell Hall, in the city of Omaha, is now the wife of John Gray, living in Los Angeles, California.
In 1884 Mr. Yule contracted a second mar- riage, when Miss Mary H. Burke became his wife. She was born in the Dominion of Can- ada, but was a resident of Beatrice at the time of her marriage. No children were born of this union and Mrs. Yule survived her hus- band, she being now a resident of Los An- geles, California.
CLARENCE W. GRAFF. - The vice- president of the representative mercantile corporation conducting business in the city of Beatrice under the title of The John H. von Steen Company, is recognized as one of the vital and representative business men of the younger generation in his native county and is further entitled to recognition by reason of being a scion of one of the well known and honored pioneer families of the county, within whose limits his paternal grandfather, Joseph Graff, established his residence at an early period in the history of development in Ne- braska. Joseph Graff became one of the pio- neer exponents of agricultural and live-stock
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industry in Gage county and here he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. On the old homestead farm was born Henry Graff, father of him whose name initiates this paragraph, and he was reared under the con- ditions and influences of the pioneer days - an environment that made for the develop- ment of self-reliance, ambition, and apprecia- tion of the true values in the scheme of human thought and action. Henry Graff received the advantages of the common schools of the locality and period and after having achieved independent success through his association with agricultural industry he was for a long term of years engaged in the agricultural im- plement business in the fine little town of Wymore, this county. He developed a large and prosperous enterprise in this line and con- tinued his activities in the same until his death, in 1907. He was influential in civic affairs in his community, was a stalwart sup- porter of the cause of the Republican party, and though not ambitious for public office he showed his loyalty by consenting to become the candidate of his party for the office of treasurer of the city of Wymore, his service in this capacity continuing for one term. He was a communicant of the Protestant Episco- pal church, as is also his widow, who still maintains her home at Wymore. Of the two children, Clarence W., immediate subject of this sketch, is the elder, and the younger, Hazel, remains with her widowed mother. Mrs. Susan (Myers) Graff, widow of Henry Graff, was born in the state of Wisconsin and accompanied her parents on their removal to Gage county, Nebraska, where her marriage to Mr. Graff was later solemnized and where she has since maintained her home, her gra- cious personality having won to her a specially wide circle of friends. Her father, the late Valentine Myers, likewise was one of the pio- neers of this county, and became one of its substantial farmers and highly esteemed citi- zens.
Clarence W. Graff continued his studies in the public schools until he had completed the curriculum of the high school at Wymore, his birth having occurred in the village of Blue
Springs, this county, on the 8th of October, 1889. In further preparation for the active responsibilities of life he took an effective course in the business college at Beatrice. For five months thereafter he held a clerical position in a telegraph office in this city, and he then became associated with the John H. von Steen Company, in which he is now one of the interested principals and of which he has been the vice-president since 1917. His popularity in his native county is on a parity with his recognized ability and progressive- ness as a business man and he takes most loyal interest in all things touching the civic and ma- terial welfare of his home city and county. His political allegiance is given to the Repub- lican party and he is affiliated with Beatrice Lodge, No. 619, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks.
April 25, 1917, recorded the marriage of Mr. Graff to Miss Augusta R. Kilpatrick, daughter of Joseph M. Kilpatrick, of Beatrice, Nebraska, and they are popular factors in the representative social life of the Gage county metropolis. They hold membership in the parish of Christ Church, Protestant Episcopal, of which both are communicants.
C. C. JOHNSON, who is now living re- tired in the village of Filley, has proved him- self a man of might, like Tubal Cain of old, and for many years he followed the sturdy trade of blacksmith, through the medium of which he achieved the prosperity that enables him to pass the gracious evening of his life in well earned peace and comfort.
Mr. Johnson was born in Denmark, on the 26th of February, 1844, and is a son of John Christ and Anna Christina (Christiansen) Anderson, the latter of whom passed her en- tire life in Denmark and the former of whom came to the United States in 1884, settling first in Illinois, but a few months later coming to Nebraska, where he passed the remainder of his life. Of the ten children only two are now living, the subject of this review being the elder and Nels being a resident of the city of Chicago. The father was a blacksmith by trade and after coming to the United States
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he lived retired until his death, the closing period of his life having been passed in the home of his son C. C., subject of this sketch. Both he and his wife were earnest communi- cants of the Danish Lutheran church.
C. C. Johnson acquired his early education in his native land and there learned the trade of blacksmith under the effective direction of his father. He was twenty-eight years of age when he came to the United States and estab- lished his residence in the city of Kankakee, Illinois, where he was employed three years in one blacksmith shop. He continued to fol- low his trade in that state for seven years and then, in 1879, he came to Gage county, Ne- braska, where he opened a little blacksmith shop four miles north of the present village of Filley. When this village was platted he here established its first blacksmith shop, and he was not only the first citizen to erect a house in the village but also the first to buy a lot in the newly established cemetery, in which the remains of his stepmother were the first interred. He continued actively and suc- cessfully in the work of his trade, with a large and representative patronage, until 1902, since which time he has lived virtually re- tired. Mr. Johnson has gained and retained the unqualified confidence and esteem of the community in which he has long maintained his home. He has a little farm of nine acres and finds recreation in giving to the same his personal supervision. He is independent in politics and is an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his wife.
In 1873 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Johnson to Miss Anna Nelson, who like -. wise was born in Denmark. She is the daugh- ter of Christ Nelson, whose entire life was passed in Denmark, his widow having finally come to the United States and having been a resident of Iowa at the time of her death, in 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson became the par- ents of six children, of whom three are liv- ing: Lars Jansen is now a resident of Iowa ; Sena Peterson maintains his home in the state of Texas; and Mrs. Johnson is the old- est of the number. To Mr. and Mrs. Johnson
have been born five children : Fritz owns and operates a farm of eighty acres, four miles northeast of Filley; Nels is a farm employe in this county, as is also Louis; Lena is the wife of Chester Hill, of Filley, and they have one son, Lloyd Everett ; and Clara remains at the parental home.
JOHN O. ADAMS. - The chance travel- er who might have found his way in the spring of 1857 into what is now the beautiful Ne- maha valley would have seen in what is now Adams township, Gage county, something that looked like the beginning of a home, but, knowing that no settlers were in the neigh- borhood, he would have been at a loss to understand the meaning thereof until he chanced to notice, stretched between two sap- lings, a tablet of bark, upon which was writ- ten, "John O. Adams claims this tract of land, this 30th day of March, 1857."
The late John O. Adams was born in New Jersey, July 17, 1808, and when a child was taken by his parents to Kentucky. In 1838 he moved to Dubois county, Indiana, and in 1840 he married Letitia Harris, a native of Ken- tucy, born January 4, 1812. Mr. Adams en- gaged in farming in Dubois county until the fall of 1856, when he started west. On Oc- tober 20th the family arrived at the home of a brother in Atchison county, Missouri. In the early spring Mr. Adams started to look over the country and find a suitable place to locate, and the result was his making a claim in Gage county, Nebraska, as above stated. This lo- cality was known as Clay county at that time. With two covered wagons drawn by oxen which he had driven from Indiana, he and his family came to that new home. Not a wagon track was to be seen or a habitation found for many miles from the spot where he located. They had to build a bridge to cross the Ne- maha river. On Section 26, Adams town- ship, half a mile east of where the town of Adams now stands, they unloaded their goods, Mr. Adams's wife and their seven children having accompanied him. They cut and hewed logs, and just one month from the day they arrived they moved into their new home.
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Here the family assiduously set about to de- velop a farm out of the wild and unbroken prairie. This was ten years before Nebraska became a state. No homestead laws were in existence, and Mr. Adams held squatter sov- ereignty over one hundred and sixty acres until he could file and prove up. Here he reared his family amid the pioneer conditions, and he prospered. Before his death he di- vided a section of land among his children and lived to see them all well established in life.
The township and village of Adams were named in his honor. Historians concede him
JOHN O. ADAMS
to be the first permanent white settler in Gage county. He was one of the founders of the Methodist church in the township and was a devoted member. He was a Republican in politics and represented old Clay county on the board of commissioners. He was a black- smith by trade and conducted a shop on his farm. This worthy pioneer passed from the scene of earthly activities December 24, 1887. His wife had preceded him to eternal rest many years previously, her death having oc- curred November 21, 1867.
They became the parents of eight children,
concerning whom the following data are avail- able: Nelson A. resides at Adams; Nancy became the wife of B. P. Zuver and is now de- ceased ; Isaac and Leander are deceased ; John Q. was the next and his whereabouts are un- known; Naomi became the wife of Thomas Davis Mosby and lives in Adams township; Anna is deceased; and one child died in in- fancy.
CALVIN STARR, M. D .- Dr. Calvin Starr, who was nearly ninety-four years of age at the time when he passed from the stage of life's mortal endeavors, came to Nebraska at the beginning of the decade following its admission as one of the sovereign states of the Union, and Gage county was favored in having eventually gained him as a citizen and as an able and distinguished representative of the noble profession to which he gave himself with all of earnestness and self-abnegation for more than sixty years. To his name and memory the county shall ever pay a tribute of veneration and affection, and this publication would stultify its consistency were there fail- ure to enter at least brief record concerning the singularly interesting and truly unassum- ing and exalted life record of this venerated citizen, who passed to eternal rest on the 25th of November, 1915, at his home in the city of Beatrice.
Dr. Starr was one of the favored mortals whom nature launches into the world with the heritage of sturdy ancestry, a splendid physique, a masterful mind and energy enough for many men. Added to these attributes were exceptional intellectual and professional attainments and the useful lessons of a wide and varied experience stored away. He was a type of the true gentleman and a repre- sentative of the best in the communal life. dignified and yet possessed of an affability and abiding human sympathy that won him warm friends among all classes and condi- tions of men.
Dr. Starr, a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of the old Buckeye state, was born on the old homestead farm of his par- ents, in Franklin county, Ohio, and the date
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of his nativity was April 2, 1822. It is worthy of special note that this ancestral homestead, now in part occupied by the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, was an integral portion of the original tract of land deeded by the government to an ancestor of Dr. Starr in recognition of his services as a patriot sol- dier in the war of the Revolution. An appre- ciable portion of the original allotment of land remained for several generations in the posses- sion of the Starr family, and Dr. Starr him- self owned at one time a part that now lies between the Ohio State University and the state capitol.
The youngest in a family of eleven chil- dren, all of whom attained to years of ma- turity, Dr. Starr passed the period of his childhood and early youth under the sturdy and invigorating discipline of the home farm, his father, John Starr having become one of the substantial exponents of agricultural in- dustry in Franklin county, where he reclaimed a productive farm from the virtual forest wil- derness. John Starr was born in Nova Scotia, and as a young man he established his resi- dence in Connecticut, where was solemnized his marriage to Miss Betsey Havens, a native of Groton, that state. In 1812, John Starr and his wife removed to the wilds of Ohio and settled in Franklin county, the site of the present capital city of the state having at that time been marked by a single log house. Liv- ing up to the full tension of pioneer life, John Starr and his noble wife passed the residue of their lives in Franklin county. He was a man of strong mind and sterling character - a citizen who was influential in community af- fairs, he having been in his young manhood a successful teacher and the passing years hav- ing continuously widened his intellectual horizon. His death occurred in 1837, and his widow survived him by thirty years, she hav- ing passed to the life eternal in 1865. Both were devoted Christians in faith and service, and in politics Mr. Starr was to be found a staunch supporter of the cause of the old-line Whig party.
Dr. Calvin Starr acquired his preliminary education in the common schools of his native
county and later he completed a four years' course in Central College, at Blendon, Ohio, where his alert mind and distinctive ambition enabled him to make the best possible use of the higher academic advantages thus offered. In consonance with well formulated plans he finally began the study of medicine under private preceptorship, in accordance with the custom of the day, and in the furtherance of his technical education he took two full courses of lectures in historic old Starling Medical College, which is now a part of the University of Ohio. In completing his ad- mirable fortification for the work of his ex- acting profession Dr. Starr entered the Homeopathic Medical College at Cleveland, Ohio, one of the first and most important Homeopathic colleges in the west, and in this institution he was graduated February 21, 1851, with the well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. In this connection it may con- sistently be stated that at the time of his deatlı Dr. Starr was the oldest alumnus of this col- lege, which, about the year 1912, was removed from Cleveland to Columbus, where it became the constituent Homeopathic medical school of the University of Ohio. The Doctor, a pioneer of the benignant system of Homeo- pathy in the west, ever retained a deep affec- tion for his alma mater, and after his death his widow, Mrs. Julia C. Starr, M. D., re- ceived a letter from a member of the faculty of the college, the context of the communica- tion containing statements that are worthy of preservation in this connection : "In the death of Dr. Starr our college loses its oldest alum- nus, and one whose name was frequently men- tioned in faculty meetings, especially in con- nection with the oil painting of Hahnemann that Dr. Starr presented to the college. It is a privilege granted to but few men to be per- mitted to engage actively in the practice of medicine for more than sixty years, and to his family it is an occasion of just pride to know that the husband and father was permitted to accomplish so great an amount of good in the world." It may further be noted that the Hahnemann portrait thus presented by Dr. Starr now occupies a place of honor in the
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Homeopathic building of the University of Ohio and that since his death there has been attached thereto a metal plate with the fol- lowing inscription : "Calvin Starr, M. D., Class of 1851, Donor."
After having been graduated, with high honors, Dr. Starr began his professional no- vitiate by engaging in active general practice at Xenia, Ohio, but one year later he removed to Springfield, that state, where he remained five years. Becoming convinced that a greater field of usefulness lay open for him in connec- tion with the rapidly developing west, Dr. Starr removed to Iowa City, Iowa, in the year 1857, and as one of the most able and honored pioneer physicians of the Hawkeye state he continued in active practice at Iowa City for twenty years, within which he built up a large and representative professional business, be- sides contributing much to civic and material progress and prosperity in his home com- munity.
In 1877, ten years after Nebraska had gained the dignity of statehood, Dr. Starr came with his family to this now favored com- monwealth, and after successfully continu- ing in practice at Nebraska City for five years he came, in 1882, to Beatrice, judicial center of Gage county, which place remained the central stage of his earnest and able profes- sional activities during the remainder of his long and useful life, he having been a veritable patriarch of the community at the time of his death. In his profession and as a man he was ever one to remember and aid "those who were forgotten" and he bore optimistic cheer and encouragement as well as professional ministration to those in suffering or dis- tress, so that it may well be understood that he was loved in every community in which he had lived and labored. At this juncture may consistently be reproduced an appreciative estimate that was a part of an obituary article published in a Beatrice paper at the time of his demise:
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