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 49
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On the old homestead he continued to reside until his death, which occurred July 3, 1911, and he was one of the honored pioneer citizens of the county when he was thus called from the stage of life's mortal endeavors. He be- came the owner of a fine landed estate of one thousand four hundred and sixty acres in Gage county, five hundred acres in Missouri and three hundred and twenty acres in Kan- sas. His sons utilize the various farms for their productive activities as agriculturalists and stock growers. He was a stalwart Re- publican in politics was loyal and progressive as a citizen and his ability and popularity gave him marked influence in community affairs. He served two terms as treasurer of Clatonia township and was a charter member of the German Methodist church that was organized by his father in Clatonia township, his widow likewise being an earnest member of this re- ligious body.
January 19, 1870, recorded the marriage of Mr. Steinmeyer to Miss Louisa Schlake, who was born in Prussia, February 12, 1851, a daughter of Henry and Mary (Tieman) Schlake, the former of whom passed his en- tire life in Germany and who was survived by five children, - Mary Ann, William, Char- lotte, Louisa and Caroline. The devoted mother came to America in 1870 and came with her daughter to Gage county, where she died four weeks later. Mrs. Steinmeyer was reared and educated in her native land and was about seventeen years of age when, in 1869, she came to the United States in com- pany with her sister. She remained for a time at Aurora, Illinois, and after a few months came to Gage county, Nebraska, where her marriage was shortly afterward solem- nized. After the death of her husband she removed to the village of Clatonia, where she and her eldest daughter have an attractive home, and she still retains ownership of the valuable farm property accumulated by her honored husband. All of her ten children, of whom mention has been made in an earlier paragraph, received good educational advan- tages, including those of the college at War- renton, Missouri.
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Benjamin F. Steinmeyer, the immediate subject of this review, was reared on the old home farm, and after completing the curricu- lum of the district schools he was for some time a student in the Central Wesleyan Col- lege, at Warrenton, Missouri. He has never found it expedient or a matter of desire to deflect his course from farm industry and he is now successfully carrying on progressive enterprise as an agriculturist and stock-grow- er in his native township, where he operates a part of the family estate, in Clatonia town- ship. His political support is given to the Re- publican party and at Beatrice he is affiliated with the lodge of the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks, besides which he is a member of Blue Valley Lodge, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, at Wilber, Saline county.
On the 2d of June, 1915, Mr. Steinmeyer wedded Miss Alice Balderson, who was born at Crete, Saline county, October 1, 1890, a daughter of Jacob and Carrie (Schnacker) Balderson, who removed eventually to Wilber, that county, where the father is living retired, Mrs. Balderson being now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Steinmeyer have a fine little son, George Benjamin, who was born August 6, 1916.
TAMME R. ZIMMERMAN, a venerable and highly honored citizen who is now living retired in the city of Beatrice, is a man who has proved one of the world's productive workers and one who has merited the distinc- tive prosperity that is his in the gracious evening of his long and useful life. He is the owner of two thousand acres of land in Texas, and in Nebraska he owns sixteen hundred and eighty acres in Gage county, four hundred and eighty in Red Willow county, three hundred and twenty in Cherry county, and one hundred and sixty in Franklin county. In his exten- sive operations as a farmer and ranchman he made a specialty of raising the best type of live stock, and his energy and good judgment made his success assured and cumulative.
Mr. Zimmerman was born in the province of Hanover, Germany, October 14, 1834, and is a son of Frank and Anna (Dorn) Zimmer- man, of whose family of two sons and three
daughters only the two sons are now living. Claus being a resident of the village of Pick- rell, this county, and having celebrated in 1918 his eighty-seventh birthday anniversary. The parents passed their entire lives in Ger- many.
The subject of this review was but two years old at the time of his mother's death and only six years of age when his father died. Thus he was early thrown on his own re- sources, and how effectively he has lived up to the responsibilities devolving upon him is shown in the unqualified success which he has won through his own efforts. As a boy and youth in his native land he was able to attend school only one month each year, and there he continued to be employed at farm work until 1856, when he came to America and found employment on a farm in Menard county. Illinois. In 1859 he there took unto himself a wife, and in the following year he and his young wife came to Nebraska Territory and numbered themselves among the early pio- neer settlers of Richardson county. In Frank- lin precinct of that county he purchased forty acres of raw prairie land, upon which he built a primitive log house, and there he continued his farming activities two years. In 1862 he came to Gage county and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in Logan township. Here he began vigorously the agricultural and live-stock enterprise that brought to him ever- increasing success with the passing years, and as his financial resources were augmented he added gradually to his landed estate, while eventually he accumulated valuable property in other counties of Nebraska, as well as his extensive land holdings in Texas. He con- tinued as one of the representative exponents of farm enterprise in Logan township until 1904, since which time he has lived in well earned retirement, with a comfortable and at- tractive home in Beatrice.
In 1859 Mr. Zimmerman married Miss Catherine Miller, who was born in Germany and who came with her father to the United States in 1855, the family home being estab- lished in Illinois. Mrs. Zimmerman passed to the life eternal on the 11th of July, 1910, a
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devout communicant of the German Lutheran church. Of this union were born eight chil- dren: Mrs. Anna Dorn lives in Franklin county ; Mrs. Abbie Meints is a resident of Logan township, Gage county; Mrs. Fannie Baughman lives near Pickrell, this county; Eilert is living on his father's old homestead farm, in Logan township; Rachel and Renken are deceased; Mrs. Tillie Frerichs resides in Logan township ; and Mrs. Mary Huttenmaier lives on a farm five miles east of Beatrice.
On the 6th of December, 1911, Mr. Zimmer- man wedded Mrs. Julia (Matthews) Ayers, widow of Jonathan Ayers. By her first mar- riage Mrs. Zimmerman has three children: William is a resident of Dodge City, Kansas, where he holds the position of inspector in the service of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad; Harry is superintendent of the plant of the great packing house of Swift & Company in the city of St. Paul, Minnesota ; and Mrs. Effie Grace resides at Downs, Os- borne county, Kansas. Mrs. Zimmerman was born in Warren county, Pennsylvania, and was five years old when her parents, Ansel and Barbara (Dias) Matthews, became pioneer settlers in Iowa, her father having been a native of Massachusetts and her mother of In- diana. After her marriage to Jonathan Ayers, Mrs. Zimmerman came with her husband to Gage county and made settlement on the Otoe Indian reservation, in 1878, their elder son having been the first white child born on this reservation. Mr. Zimmerman is a Democrat in politics and is a member of the Lutheran church, Mrs. Zimmerman being a member of the Methodist church.
REV. LEONARD POEVERLEIN, the honored pastor of the parish of St. John's German Lutheran church in the city of Be- atrice, has retained this incumbency since the 13th of December, 1883, and is one of the re- vered pioneer clergymen of the Lutheran faith in this section of the state- the devoted shepherd of his flock, the friend of all human- ity, and the earnest vicar of the Divine Master whom he has served with all of consecrated zeal.
Mr. Poeverlein was born in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, December 25, 1848, a son of George and Maria (Fakelmeier) Poever- lein, who passed their entire lives in that part of the German empire. In his native land Mr. Poeverlein was given excellent education- al advantages in his youth and in preparation for the responsible work of the ministry he completed a most thorough academic and theological education in the Lutheran seminary at Neuen Dettelsau, Germany, his ordination to the ministry having occurred in 1873. Prompted by faith that in America he would find a field for effective service in his chosen calling, Mr. Poeverlein came to this country in the autumn of 1873, arriving in New York city on the 25th of September, and a few weeks later continuing his westward journey to Dubuque, Iowa. Soon afterward he be- came pastor of a small church organization at Iowa City, where he remained until the spring of 1874, when he came to Nebraska and, on the 18th of April, entered upon pas- toral duties in Nemaha county. One year later he went to Rockport, Missouri, where he held a pastoral charge until December 13, 1883, since which time he has been pastor of St. John's church in the city of Beatrice. Under his faithful pastoral and executive di- rection this parish has prospered both spiritu- ally and temporally, and the congregation now includes fifty families or more, with a roll of one hundred and fifty communicants. Mr. Poeverlein has been earnest not only in his church activities but also as a loyal and public- spirited citizen interested in furthering the communal welfare along all lines, and he has the high esteem of the people among whom he has so long lived and labored.
In 1876 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Poeverlein to Miss Louisa Hemperer. who was born and reared in Clayton county, Iowa, and of the four children of this union, the firstborn, Charles, died at the age of seventeen months; Matilda, who remains at the parental home,' was graduated in the Beatrice high school, and is now a popular teacher in the public schools of her home city ; Heade, likewise a graduate of the Beatrice
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high school, is now an efficient teacher in the public schools at Columbus, Platte county ; and Freda, who remains with her parents, was graduated in the local high school and also the Beatrice Business College.
ALFRED HAZLETT. - Judge Hazlett was born and reared in Indiana county, Penn- sylvania. To the country public schools of his native commonwealth he is indebted for his preliminary educational discipline, which was supplemented by a course of higher studies in Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. In preparing himself for his chosen profession, he prosecuted his studies under the tutorship of former United States Senator Edgar Cowan, of Greensburg, Penn- sylvania, and in June, 1871, he was admitted to the bar of his native state.
In the fall of 1871, having just arrived at the age of his majority, with all of his vital and youthful ambition, he came to Nebraska, and established his residence in Beatrice, where he has since continuously resided.
In the year 1876, at Omaha, Nebraska, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Hazlett to Miss Sibbie Cotton. They have no living children. Those of the early pioneers now liv- ing, and who knew him from the time of his location in Nebraska, were impressed with his tall, manly, dignified figure, and pronounced him the man that he was subsequently found to be. He was strong in mind and still at his present age is maintaining a fine, shapely physique. Of Scotch-Irish descent he was born strong for decision, judgment, and with pronounced self-independence. During all of his life he has had a dislike for the affected or pretentious, and despised hypocrisy, deceit, and dishonesty. Perhaps, on account of this one permanent feature in his character, he has always refrained from entering into what he has termed the tainted cesspool of politics, although his friends many times have urged and beseeched him to run not only for state, but for national office.
Within a period of some forty years of his professional activity, in Gage county, Judge Hazlett won, and still maintains, for himself
a reputation for being one of the strongest, and most resourceful trial lawyers in south- eastern Nebraska. No member of the Gage county bar has participated in so many con- tested cases, both of a civil and criminal na- ture as he, and with so great a success. His whole aim in his work was not so much for the money he could obtain from his clients but to win their cases. His judgment of men is recognized by all, and this attribute alone has never failed him in selecting the jury, and in questioning the witness. The make-up of his machinery is grand, in this : He is honest ; he is keen, with a bright mind stored with legal lore ; in appearance he is somewhat austere - and yet no one is more gentle in spirit - and retiring ; he stands as one of our central fig- ures; he has a liberal education, and is an able advocate. Those who have seen him in our different courts, in important cases, and have heard him address a jury, say that for forensic eloquence and convincing argument few, if any, surpass him. He is indeed a strong man, by reason of his force of char- acter and his ability as a lawyer, and he has been and is a potent factor in the affairs of men. In all of his active professional life it is to be said that he is possessed only of a modest estate in worldly goods, and this fact is a genuine testimonial to his honesty and self-sacrifice. He has often said that there is no grander type of manhood on earth than an able, cultured, honest lawyer.
MRS. SOPHIA H. DOLE. - More than casual distinction attaches to the personality and record of this venerable and revered pio- neer woman, for not only has she been a resi- dent of Nebraska since the territorial period of its history and endured her share of the hardships and vicissitudes that marked the early stages of development and progress in this now favored commonwealth, but it has also been within her province to found and upbuild in her home city of Beatrice a most prosperous and representative business enter- prise - that conducted under the corporate title of the Dole Floral Company. Though this gracious gentlewoman celebrated in 1917,
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the eighty-first anniversary of her birth, she still takes vital and earnest interest in the world's work and fortunes, and incidental to the activities of preparation for the nation's participation in the stupendous war in Europe she has been found busily applying herself in skillful knitting of garments and supplies for the Red Cross service and otherwise "doing her bit" to exemplify the ardent patriotism of American womanhood.
Mrs. Dole was born in the state of New York, on the 6th of October, 1836, and is a daughter of P. J. and Mary (Derbyshire) Hooker, who were pioneer settlers of Seward county, Nebraska, and whose names merit enduring place on the roster of those who aided in the civic and industrial development of the territory and state. Mrs. Dole was reared and educated in her native state and after two of her brothers had returned home after valiant service as soldiers of the Union in the Civil war, the entire family came to the Territory of Nebraska, in 1866, settlement be- ing made in Seward county, the father, two sons, and two daughters taking homesteads. The comparative isolation and the primitive conditions that marked the life of Mrs. Dole during the pioneer period of her residence in Nebraska, could not in the least curb her in- tellectual activity or her ambitions, and she has grown in mental stature with the passing years, has shown abiding human sympathy and tolerance and has manifested her steward- ship in kindly words and kindly deeds. Mrs. Dole has been a member of the Congrega- tional church since she was fourteen years of age, and has exemplified her Christian faith in her daily life. Her marriage to J. G. Dole was solemnized in the year 1869, and her hus- band devoted the major part of his active career to brick manufacturing, he having been a resident of Beatrice at the time of his death, April 19, 1903.
Mrs. Dole has maintained her home at Beatrice, judicial center of Gage county, since 1889, and in establishing and developing the now extensive business of the Dole Floral Company she has demonstrated not only her executive ability and mature judgment, but
also exemplified her desire to provide for hu- manity the gracious natural products that make for beauty and good cheer. Of this company specific mention is made on other pages. In her venerable years she is sus- tained and comforted by the filial devotion of her five children, concerning whom the fol- lowing brief data are available: Edward W. is engaged in farming and is the subject of an individual record on other pages of this volume ; Walter A., who was long and active- ly associated with the Dole Floral Company, has sold his property interests at Beatrice and is at the time of this writing, in the winter of 1917, making provisions to establish his home in the state of Georgia; Anna D. is the wife of George M. Johnston, who is manager of the Dole Floral Company, and who is indi- vidually mentioned on other pages of this publication ; Ella S. is the wife of Frederick von Boskirk, who is a successful farmer of Gage county and whose life work is portrayed elsewhere in this volume; and Elbert J. is en- gaged in the photographic business in the city of Lincoln, this state.
JAMES B. McLAUGHLIN was a gallant young veteran of the Civil war when he made his first visit to Nebraska, in the year that marked the admission of the state to the Union, and in the autumn of the same year he returned to Illinois, where he wedded the gracious young woman who was to prove his devoted companion and helpmate during the remainder of his long and useful life and who is still living. In the spring of 1868 they set- tled in Sherman township. James Brady Mc- Laughlin was a man of sterling character and high ideals, and he bore his full share of the burdens and responsibilities incidental to the march of progress in a pioneer locality, as proved by his civic loyalty and influence dur- ing the many years of his residence in Gage county and by the success which attended his activities as an exponent of agricultural and live-stock industry. He was one of the hon- ored and venerable pioneer citizens of Rock- ford township at the time of his death, which occurred September 12, 1914, and it is fitting
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that in this history be entered a tribute to his memory.
Mr. McLaughlin was born at McKeysport, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, on the 5th of January, 1841, and was a son of David and Hannah (Brady) Mclaughlin, both na- tives of Westmoreland county, that state. The paternal grandfather of the subject of this memoir was John Mclaughlin, who came from Scotland to America when he was a youth of sixteen years and who passed the residue of his life in Pennsylvania. The ma- ternal grandfather was a cousin of Samuel Brady, who achieved historic reputation as an Indian hunter. For fully a quarter of a cen- tury David McLaughlin served as a pilot on boats plying the Ohio river, and in 1857 he removed with his family from Pennsylvania to Rock Island county, Illinois, where he be- came a prosperous farmer and where he died in 1870, at the age of fifty-seven years, his widow having survived him by a number of years. They became the parents of eight sons and one daughter and all save one, the daugh- ter, are deceased.
James B. McLaughlin gained his youthful education in the schools of the old Keystone state and was sixteen years old at the time of the family removal to Illinois, where he supplemented his education by attending school during several winter terms, when his services were not in requisition in connection with the work of the home farm. Mr. Mc- Laughlin was twenty years of age at the out- break of the Civil war and in 1862 he en- listed, for a three months' term, as a pri- vate in Company F, Sixty-ninth Illinois Vol- unteer Infantry. He was assigned to guard duty over the great number of Confederate prisoners held at Camp Douglas, Chicago, and in the atuumn of 1862, he was an escort of such of these prisoners as were taken to Vicksburg, Mississippi, for exchange. He continued in service three months after the expiration of his term of enlistment and then received his honorable discharge, at Camp Douglas. In 1865 he again enlisted, for the duration of the war, and after being mustered in he was sent to New Orleans, whence he
was transferred to Mobile. Finally he was assigned to guard duty at Montgomery, Ala- bama, where he was taken ill with fever and confined in a hospital two months. He was finally discharged, on account of physical dis- ability, and he arrived at his home in Illinois in the autumn of 1865. There he remained until 1867, when he came to Nebraska, and after a tour of investigation he decided to establish his residence in Gage county. In Section 1, Sherman township, he entered claim to a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, and also made entry on an addi- tional two hundred acres in the same town- ship. He then returned to Illinois, and in March, 1868, he there wedded Miss Phoebe King, who was born in New York city, on the 30th of August, 1843. Her father was an expert in cotton manufacturing and as such was employed in various important cot- ton mills in the eastern states. Mrs. Mc- Laughlin is a daughter of James and Char- lotte (Allen) King, who were natives of Man- chester, England, where the father was over- seer in a large cotton factory until 1840, when he came with his wife and two children to the United States, Mrs. McLaughlin having been the sixth of the ten children born. Two of her brothers are deceased and three of her sisters are living in 1918. She received good advantages and developed her marked musical talent under most favorable auspices. . At the age of twenty-one years she went to Illinois and engaged in the teaching of music, which she there continued until her marriage. It may well be understood that her musical tal- ent came in for marked appreciation in the pioneer community after she came with her husband to Gage county, and both became zealous in church work, as members of the Methodist Episcopal church, as well as popu- lar factors in the representative social activi- ties of the county. In pioneer reminiscence Mrs. McLaughlin states that in early days she and her husband attended church services in the old Dobbs school house, where they also served in the sessions of the Sunday school On many an occasion Mr. and Mrs. Mc- Laughlin were dinner guests in the home of
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JAMES B. MCLAUGHLIN AND FAMILY
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Mr. and Mrs. F. H. Dobbs, and she states that no family in Gage county has been more benignant in influence than the Dobbs family, both in the pioneer days and in later genera- tions, her kindly mark of appreciation being one that will be specially appreciated by the editor of this history of the county. In the early days Mrs. McLaughlin often rode home on horseback after having visited at the resi- dence of "Father and Mother Dobbs," and frequently one of their young sons would be her escort.
Mr. and Mrs. McLaughlin remained on their farm in Sherman township until 1881, when they sold the property, with the inten- tion of removing to California. After a visit to the old home in Illinois, however, they de- cided to return to Gage county, and here Mr. Mclaughlin purchased the farm of one hun- dred and sixty acres on which he passed the remainder of his life and on which his widow still inaintains her home, near the village of Rockford. He made excellent improvements on the place and it is one of the attractive rural homes of Rockford township. No chil- dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. McLaughlin but they adopted and reared a boy and girl, the latter of whom is deceased. The home of Mrs. McLaughlin is endeared to her by the hallowed memories of the past, and in the association with friends who are tried and true she is passing the gracious evening of her life in peace and comfort, loved by all who have come under her gentle influence.
In politics Mr. McLaughlin was a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party, he was actively affiliated with Rawlins Post, No. 35, Grand Army of the Republic, at Beatrice, and was also a member of the Masonic fraternity. His life was guided and governed by the highest princpiles of integ- rity and honor, and naught better than this can be said of any man.
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