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 50

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company
Number of Pages: 1120

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 50

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CHARLES R. HITE, president and gen- eral manager of the Blue Valley Mercantile Company, of Beatrice, has the securest of status as one of the representative business men and progressive citizens of the fine me-

tropolis and judicial center of Gage county. He was born at Marion, Iowa, February 2, 1862, and is a son of Eli and Elizabeth (Run- ner) Hite, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of West Virginia, their marriage having been solemnized in Iowa, where the parents of Mrs. Hite established a home in the early '50s. Eli Hite was reared and edu- cated in Ohio and became a pioneer settler near Marion, Linn county, Iowa, where he owned land and reclaimed a good farm. Later he was thirty years engaged in the ex- press and transfer business at Shenandoah, Page county, Iowa, where he died when about seventy-seven years of age and where his widow still resides, the subject of this review being the eldest of the three children; Addie became the wife of Marshall Morgan, who is now deceased, and she maintains her home in the city of Beatrice, Nebraska; and Frances is the wife of Michael Gauss, who is engaged in the drug business at Sheridan, Iowa. Eli Hite was a Democrat in politics and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his venerable widow. His father, John Hite, passed his entire life in Ohio, where the family was founded in an early day. and he was a farmer by vocation. John Run- ner, maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a pioneer in Iowa, where both he and his wife died.

In the public schools of Shenandoah, Iowa, C. R. Hite continued his studies until he had attained to the age of fifteen years, and thereafter he served a three years' appren- ticeship to the baker's trade, at Shenandoah. In the same town he then clerked five years in the grocery department of a general store, and in 1887, as an ambitious young man of twenty-five years, he came to Nebraska and settled at Giltner, Hamilton county, where he was employed three years in a general mer- chandise establishment. He then became associated with James Sherard in purchasing the store and business, and Mr. Hite contin- ued as a member of the firm for the ensuing three years. For several years thereafter he was a successful traveling salesman for the wholesale grocery house of Hargreves Broth-

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

ers, of Lincoln. Upon severing this alliance he assumed a similar position with the whole- sale grocery house of Groneweg, Schotgen & Company, of Lincoln, with which concern he was connected in this capacity until 1904. In the meanwhile he had established and main- tained his home in Beatrice, and in the year last mentioned he here became associated with three partners in establishing a fruit and vege- table business. Two years later the business was incorporated under the present title of the Blue Valley Mercantile Company, and the scope of operations was extended to include a wholesale grocery and confectionery busi- ness, the operations of the company being now based on a capital stock of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and its trade being ex- tended and well established throughout Ne- braska and Kansas, so that the concern has contributed much to the commercial prece- dence of Beatrice, where is maintained the large and well ordered wholesale house. It has already been noted that Mr. Hite is presi- dent and general manager of the company ; Gilbert L. Griffith is vice-president; and Harry S. Ahlquist is secretary and treasurer. Besides these executive officers the directorate of the company includes also William E. Rife and Joseph Bouske. When the principals in the company established the original enter- prise each made an investment of only two thousand dollars, and at the time of incorpora- tion the capital stock was placed at thirteen thousand dollars. No better evidence of the splendid growth of the enterprise can be of- fered than the statement that the capitalistic investment is now two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and that the annual business averages fully seven hundred and fifty thous- and dollars, a corps of seven efficient travel- ing salesmen being retained and the number of employes at headquarters being about fif- teen. It is an admirable record of achieve- ment that has been made by Mr. Hite in the business world and his success has been won entirely through his own ability and efforts. He is liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude, as behooves one who has been thus greatly prospered in business, and his politi-

cal allegiance is given to the Republican party. He holds membership in the United Commer- cial Travelers' Association, is a member of the Congregational church, and his wife holds membership in the Episcopal church.

December 31, 1891, recorded the marriage of Mr. Hite to Miss Jemima Armstrong, who was born in Scotland, and who was a child at the time when her parents came to the United States and settled in Illinois, where her father engaged in farm enterprise. Mr. and Mrs. Hite have two daughters, both of whom re- main at the parental home and are popular figures in the social life of Beatrice: Ethel received the advantages of the public schools of Beatrice and also completed a four years' course in the Nebraska Agricultural College ; the younger daughter, Hazel, has been gradu- ated in the Beatrice high school.

FRANK T. SCHOWENGERDT, M. D., whose character and professional attainments have given him secure vantage-ground as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Gage county, is established in the general practice of his profession at Cortland, where he has maintained his residence since 1911. He is a valued member of the Gage County Medical Society, and is identified also with the Nebraska State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.

Dr. Schowengerdt was born in Warren county, Missouri, December 2, 1875, and is the younger of the two surviving children of John and Amelia (Schaake) Schowengerdt, the former of whom was born in Franklin county, Missouri, in 1846, a member of a sterling pio- neer family of that state, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Schowengerdt, having come from Germany to America about the opening of the nineteenth century and having estab- lished their home in Missouri, their acquain- tanceship having been formed and their mar- riage solemnized after they had come to the United States. John Schowengerdt, a farmer by vocation, passed his entire life in Missouri, where he died on the 11th of October, 1888. His first wife, mother of the Doctor, was born in Germany, in 1854, and her death occurred

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

in 1882. For his second wife John Schowen- gerdt married Emma Niemeyer, who was born in Warren county, Missouri, and of the three children of this union the two survivors still reside in Missouri. Emma, the other surviv- ing child of the first marriage, is the wife of William Dorsett and they reside at Alton, Illinois.

Dr. Schowengerdt passed the period of his childhood and early youth on the home farm and as a lad of thirteen years began working on the farm of his uncle, Frederick Schowen- gerdt, of Osage county, Missouri. In the meanwhile he had made good use of the ad- vantages of the public schools and in 1894 he entered Central Wesleyan College, at War- renton, Missouri, in which institution he pur- sued a general academic course during a period of three years. In 1897 he was matriculated in the Marion Sims Medical College, in the city of St. Louis, which institution is now the medical department of St. Louis University, and in this celebrated institution he was gradu- ated as a member of the class of 1902, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He gained most valuable clinical experience by serving eleven months as an interne in the Alexian Brothers' Hospital, St. Louis, and three months in the St. Louis Female Hospital. In 1903 he engaged in the practice of his pro- fession at Morrison, Missouri, whence, three years later, he removed to Brownsville, Texas, in which place he continued in the active prac- tice of medicine until 1911, when he came to Gage county and established his home at Cortland. Here he has built up a substantial and representative practice that attests alike his professional ability and his personal popu- larity. The Doctor gives unswerving alle- giance to the Republican party, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. When the United States entered the European war, in 1917, Dr. Schowengerdt made application for appointment as medical officer in the Medical Reserve Corps of the army, but physical inability caused his appli- cation to be rejected.

July 8, 1903, Dr. Schowengerdt wedded Miss Mary E. Smith, who was born and reared in Osage county, Missouri, a daughter of George and Henrietta Smith. Mr. Smith was born in Germany, came to America when young, and was a loyal soldier of the Union in the Civil war, he having thereafter become one of the prosperous farmers of Osage county, Missouri. Dr. and Mrs. Schowen- gerdt became the parents of five children - Irene, Waldo, Grace, Gladys, and Frances. Waldo and Gladys died in early childhood and the other children remain at the parental home.

HOMER J. MERRICK .- If a man comes of a good family he ought to be proud of it and he performs an immeasurable duty when he employs the best means to preserve the family record in enduring form, that future generations may receive instruction through principles and influences, personality and ca- reers of the ancestors.

The subject of this biography can trace his ancestry from the same source that gave the world such persons as John Greenleaf Whit- tier, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Frances Mer- iam Whitcher. The Merricks are descended from the Welsh Royal family and King El- wood I of England, and the first representa- tive of the family in this country, came over in 1636.

The parents of our subject were Austin and Sylvia (Whitcher) Merrick, natives re- spectively of Connecticut and Vermont. The paternal grandfather was accidentally killed on the Erie canal while making a trip to west- ern Pennsylvania. His wife was named Alden, and was a direct descendant of John Alden, whom Longfellow made famous in his poem entitled "The Courtship of Miles Standish." The maternal grandparents were Stephen and Esther (Emerson) Whitcher, who were prob- ably uncle and aunt of the poet, John Green- leaf Whittier, and Grandmother Whitcher was closely related to that other distinguished author, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Frances Mer- iam Whitcher, author of the "Widow Bedott

st. J. Merrick

Lucy A Merrick

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

Papers," was a sister of the mother of Homer J. Merrick, of this review.

Austin Merrick located at Pleasantville, Venango county, Pennsylvania, and was a merchant and farmer who resided there until his death, in 1875, at the age of seventy-five years. He was married three times, the mother of our subject being his second wife. She passed away in Pennsylvania in 1849, at the age of forty years.

Homer J. Merrick was born at Pleasant- ville, Pennsylvania, November 18, 1846. He was reared on a farm and attended village school until the outbreak of the Civil war. When just past his seventeenth birthday he enlisted, in December, 1863, in Company B, One Hundred and Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, for three years, or dur- ing the war. His regiment was detailed to Bridgeport, Alabama, where it arrived in time to join the Atlanta campaign and par- ticipate in the battles of Resaca, Dallas, Kene- saw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, and the Siege of Atlanta, and thereafter it was with General Sherman on the historic march from Atlanta to the Sea. Subsequently the com- mand went up through the Carolinas and was present at the Grand Review at Washington, the greatest military pageant ever seen on the western hemisphere.

Returning home, Mr. Merrick attended the State Normal School at Edinboro, Pennsyl- vania, two years, and later was a student in a commercial college at Cleveland, Ohio. In 1869 he came to Gage county, Nebraska, and took a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, in Section 22, Adams township. He purchased a wagon, team of horses and some implements and began farming. His first home was a dug-out in which he lived and kept bachelor's hall the first year. He board- ed then with neighbors, breaking prairie for them. He would haul grain to Nebraska City and bring back to Beatrice a load of lumber, the trip requiring five days. As time passed he prospered. In 1875 Mr. Merrick bought land in Section 16, Adams township. This he improved with good buildings, and there he continued his operations as an agri-

culturist, meeting with the success which al- ways comes as the reward of industry and in- telligently directed effort.

On the 21st of December, 1870, Mr. Mer- rick was united in marriage to Miss Lucy A. Lyons, a native of Kenosha county, Wis- consin. Her parents, John and Almira (Shaw) Lyons, became residents of Gage county in 1857, settling in Adams township, where they spent the remainder of their lives. The father was a native of Litchfield county, Connecticut, and the mother was born in Dutchess county, New York. The ancestors of Mrs. Merrick were of English descent. Her grandfather, John Lyons, was born in England. On the maternal side is shown a direct descent from Richard Hicks, who came to America from England on the ship "For- tune," in 1621, this being the second vessel to arrive after the "Mayflower." Mr. and Mrs. Merrick became the parents of seven children, as follows: Frank A. and John H. are deceased; Julia, is the wife of Dr. Tur- ner, of Sterling, Nebraska; Dell, is the wife of J. M. Burnham, of Adams township; Olive R. is the wife of R. B. Winter, of Adams township; Homer C. resides in Adams ; and Sylvia is deceased.

Mr. Merrick contributed his full share to the agricultural development of Gage county, and until 1907 was engaged in general farm- ing and the raising of Shorthorn cattle, both branches of his business yielding him a sub- stantial income. He made judicious invest- ments in farm lands and is today the owner of thirteen hundred acres. In 1893 his neigh- bors, recognizing his ability and worth, elected him to represent them in the lower house of the state legislature. He was re- elected, and served two terms, to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. Among the many measures which he introduced and which have found place on the statute books of this commonwealth was a bill authorizing the building of the Soldiers' Home at Mil- ford. His community has been benefited by his wise council and he has efficiently filled all of the offices of his township. In 1898 he received an injury which necessitated his

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

leaving the farm, and he was appointed and served as postmaster of Adams for five years. He was one of the organizers of the First State Bank of Adams, which is now the First National Bank, and he has since helped to shape its policy by serving as a director. He is now vice-president of the institution, of which he was cashier for one year. Mr. Merrick is president of the Farm- ers' Elevator Company of Adams and was at one time interested in a hardware busi- ness. His religious belief coincides with the doctrines of the Methodist church, of which he and his wife are members. In politics Mr. Merrick is a Republican, and fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons and several of the other Ma- sonic bodies. He maintains pleasant rela- tions with old army comrades by membership in Sargeant Cox Post, No. 100, Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Merrick is an honor- able representative of a noble family, and while he has achieved success which places him among the men of affluence in his county and state, he has not been remiss in any duty and enjoys the respect and confidence of all with whom he has come in contact.

ROBERT H. STEINMEYER, cashier of the State Bank of Holmesville, of which his father, John H. Steinmeyer, is president, is a member of a prominent and influential Gage county family, concerning which adequate mention is made on other pages of this work. Mr. Steinmeyer was born in Saline county, Nebraska, August 25, 1889, and in his youth he attended the public schools of Clatonia, Gage county, besides having taken a higher course in an academy in the city of Lincoln. His active career as a business man has been marked by his close association with banking enterprise, and he is giving most efficient ser- vice as cashier of the State Bank of Holmes- ville, which bases operations upon a capital stock of ten thousand dollars, and which now has in surplus and undivided profits a fund of more than one hundred thousand dollars, the substantial institution proving an im- portant adjunct to the industrial and commer-

cial facilities of this section of the county. In addition to his executive service at the bank Mr. Steinmeyer has developed a pros- perous business in the buying and shipping of 'live-stock.

In politics Mr. Steinmeyer is found aligned as a loyal supporter of the cause of the Republican party and he has served as township clerk, as has he also as a member of the school board of Holmesville. He is an appreciative and popular member of Beatrice Lodge, No. 619, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, of which he is serving, in 1918, as esteemed lecturing knight. His wife holds membership in the Brethren church.

October 15, 1913, recorded the marriage of Mr. Steinmeyer to Miss Mabel Gish, who was born and reared in this county and who is a daughter of James W. Gish, a representative farmer of Rockford township. Mr. and Mrs. Steinmeyer have one child, Phyllis, who was born in 1917.

JOSEPH C. DELL merits consideration in this history as one of the representative far- mers and valued citizens of Rockford town- ship, and also by reason of being a member of one of the sterling pioneer families of the county, where the family home was estab- lished when he was a lad of twelve years.

Mr. Dell was born in Owen county, In- diana, October 8, 1863, and is a son of Isaac and Lydia (Summers) Dell, both natives of Ohio, where the former was born March 4, 1834, and the latter on the 5th of August, 1838, their marriage having been solemnized in Indiana. Isaac Dell was an honored pio- neer who passed the closing years of his life in Gage county, where he died June 1, 1904, and his widow now resides in Rockford town- ship. They became devout members of the Church of the Brethren, in which he gave earnest service as a minister for many years. Isaac Dell was a son of Peter Dell, who was born in Pennsylvania, of German ancestry, and who removed from that state to Ohio, whence he later went to Indiana, where he re- sided a number of years. He then returned with his family to Ohio, where he continued

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

to live until his death, he having been a cabi- net-maker by trade. Jacob Summers, ma- ternal grandfather of the subject of this re- view, removed from Ohio to Indiana, in which latter state he passed the remainder of his life, a farmer by vocation. Isaac Dell ac- quired in his youth the trade of carpenter and he followed the same in Owen county, In- diana, until 1869, when he removed with his family to Harrison county, Iowa, where he became a pioneer contractor and builder. In 1876 he came with his family to Gage county, where he purchased and improved a farm, besides continuing for many years in the active work of his trade, in which connection he erected many buildings of excellent order that still remain as evidences of his skill as a carpenter. He was a man of fine mind and fine character, ever commanding the unquali- fied respect of his fellow men, and he was one of the honored pioneer citizens of Gage county at the time of his death. He took loyal in- terest in community affairs and was a Repub- lican in politics. Of his family of two sons and six daughters all are living except one daughter : Ida is the wife of John G. Van Dyke, a farmer near Grand Junction, Col- orado; Julia is the wife of John A. Cullen, a farmer near McPherson, Kansas; Joseph C., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth ; Jacob is a prosperous farmer in Rockford township and is also a minister of the Church of the Brethren ; Mary, who became the wife of William H. Pair, is deceased; Martha is the wife of Irvin Frantz, of Sherman town- ship; Hattie is the wife of Henry J. Frantz, of the same township; and Susan is the wife of Alvah C. Heaston, who is engaged in the automobile business at Lincoln, Nebraska.

Joseph C. Dell acquired his preliminary education in the public schools of Iowa and after the family removed to Gage county he continued his studies in the district schools and also in the select school of Professor Blake, at Beatrice. His entire mature life has been marked by active association with the basic industries of agriculture and stock- growing, and through the medium of the same he has achieved definite success and advance-

ment, his prosperity representing the direct result of his own efforts. His original inde- pendent farm operations were conducted on land which he rented, and finally he purchased eighty acres in Rockford township, to which he added, two years later, by the purchase of an adjoining tract of eighty acres. After making good improvements on this farm he traded the property for his present fine home- stead farm, which now comprises three hun- dred and sixty acres, with the best type of buildings, the handsome house having been erected by him, as have been also the other ex- cellent farm buildings which mark the place as a model farm. Mr. Dell is the owner also of a landed estate of twelve hundred and eighty acres in western Kansas.

In the year 1888 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Dell to Miss Mollie Cullen, daughter of James K. and Christena Cullen, who were born in Virginia and who came to Gage county in 1885. Concerning the chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. Dell the following brief record is offered: Claude has the supervision of his father's large landed estate in Kansas ; Ernest is associated in the management of the home farm; Lela is the wife of Earl Frantz and both are attending school at McPherson, Kansas, Mr. Frantz being a minister of the Brethren church; Carl Dell likewise is attend- ing school at McPherson ; and Milton, Joseph C., Jr., and Lois remain at the parental home.

Mr. Dell and his family are earnest mem- bers of the Church of the Brethren, and in politics he is aligned with the Republican party. As a progressive farmer he is giving special attention to the raising of pure-bred Short-horn cattle and Percheron horses, and at the time of this writing he has about fifty head of horses and an equal number of cattle on his farm. His progressiveness extends also to his status as a citizen and he takes deep interest in community affairs, though he has no ambition for public office.

SAMUEL MOWRY, to whom this me- moir is dedicated, was one of the honored pioneers of Gage county and more than thirty years ago he was summoned to "that undis-

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

MRS. SAMUEL MOWRY

SAMUEL MOWRY

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

covered country from whose bourne no trav- eler returns." To him, as a man of sterling character and worthy achievement, a tribute is due in this history of the county in which he established his home in the year following that in which the Territory of Nebraska was admitted to statehood.

Samuel Mowry was born in Darke county, Ohio, on the 19th of June, 1847, and was a son of Jacob and Susan Mowry, who were natives of Pennsylvania and who became early settlers in Ohio, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Samuel Mowry was reared on the farm of his father and gained his youthful education in the schools of his native county. In 1868, as an ambitious and resolute young man of twenty-one years, he severed the ties that bound him to the old Buckeye state and set forth to establish a home in the west. In that year he arrived in Gage county, Nebraska, and here he ob- tained a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, the same constituting the southwest quarter of Section 7, Blue Springs township. Not a furrow had been turned on the prairie land and on the same no improvement of any kind had been made. Mr. Mowry's first house on his homestead was a little and primi- tive shanty, ten by twelve feet in dimensions and constructed of lumber cut from the na- tive cottonwood trees, the logs having been hauled by him to Blue Springs, where they were sawed into rough boards. As he had learned in his native state the trade of stone mason, Mr. Mowry was able to provide some- what better foundation for his modest house than those commonly in evidence in the pio- neer community. He excavated a cellar and walled it up with stone, this being covered with a board roof. This embryonic house served as his place of abode several years. He set resolutely to work in subduing the vir- gin prairie and making it available for culti- vation, and as the years passed he developed a productive farm, besides making good im- provements on his farm. Here he continued his vigorous and productive activities as a farmer until the close of his earnest and useful life, his death having occurred on the 28th of

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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 50

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849- Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company Number of Pages: 1120

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company
Number of Pages: 1120