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 53

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 53

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HON. LEWIS B. BOGGS, M. D., a man of distinguished intellectual and professional ability and high ideals, came with his family

to Gage county in 1872, and it was given him to wield a large and benignant influence not only as a pioneer physician and surgeon of this section of the state, but also as a man of affairs and a citizen whose civic loyalty and exceptional talents made him a most influen- tial factor in public affairs in the county and state of his adoption. Now venerable in years, he and his wife maintain their residence in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to which state they removed from Gage county in 1894. As sterling pioneers who represented the best in civic life in Gage county for many years, it is fitting that they be accorded recognition in this history.

Dr. Lewis Bowen Boggs was born at New- castle, Indiana, September 3, 1828, the fourth in order of birth in a family of seven children. His paternal grandfather, Andrew Boggs, was born and reared in Ireland and upon coming to America established his residence in Vir- ginia, in which historic old commonwealth he passed the remainder of his life. James Boggs, father of the Doctor, was born in Vir- ginia, where he was reared and educated, and as a young man of twenty years he went to Indiana and settled in the pioneer town of Newcastle. There was solemnized his mar- riage to Miss Martha Stinson, who was born in eastern Tennessee, October 26, 1806, her parents having removed from Tennessee to Indiana and having become pioneer settlers in Henry county, where they passed the rest of their lives, the father, John Stinson, having there become a prosperous farmer. James Boggs continued his residence in Henry county, Indiana, until his death, November 7, 1842, and he there reclaimed and improved a valuable farm, his status having been that of a substantial and influential citizen of that section of the old Hoosier state. His widow survived him by nearly a decade and was summoned to the life eternal on the 6th of March, 1852.

Dr. Lewis B. Boggs was but fourteen years of age at the time of his father's death and was thus early thrown upon his own re- sources. For a time he worked for his board and clothing, in the meanwhile finding it pos-

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sible to attend school during the winter terms. His alert mentality was on a parity with his ambition, and he determined to obtain a liberal education. He continued to be associated with farm enterprise until he had attained to the age of twenty years, when he entered Wabash College. In this institution he com- pleted the full classical course, and after leav- ing college he was employed for one year in a grain elevator at Michigan City, Indiana. At Leesburg, that state, he then took up the study of medicine, under effective private pre- ceptorship, and he applied himself with such characteristic diligence and receptivity that three years later he was able to engage in active general practice, at North Manchester, Indiana. There he remained until 1858, when he removed to Neponset, Illinois, which lo- cality continued to be the stage of his effective professional labors until 1865, when he re- turned to Indiana and established himself in practice at Argos, Marshall county. There he retained a large and representative general practice until 1870, when, on account of his impaired health, he turned over his practice to his younger brother. In 1872 he came with his family to Gage county, Nebraska, where he purchased one hundred and eighty-five acres of land in what is now Filley township. For this property he paid only four and one- half dollars an acre and with the passing years he reclaimed it into one of the fine farm properties of the county. Here he gave his attention primarily to the raising of live stock, and when it became known throughout the pioneer community that he was a skilled physician and surgeon he was prevailed upon to resume here the practice of his profession, in the meanwhile continuing his farm enter- prise with the effective assistance of his sons. Within a short time he built up a large prac- tice, the same extending over a radius of twenty miles, and he devoted himself earnest- ly and unselfishly to the alleviation of human suffering under conditions that involved ardu- ous work and many hardships. This pioneer physician thus gained the affectionate regard of the entire community and his name is re-

vered in the county where he thus lived and labored to goodly ends.

In 1887 Dr. Boggs retired from the active practice of his profession, but he still retained most vital interest in community affairs and those of governmental and general public order. He became deeply interested in the cause of prohibition and was associated with others in establishing a prohibition publica- tion to which was given the name of the New Republic. He was actively associated with the management of this periodical, which was made an influential organ of the cause. Dr. Boggs was reared in the faith of the Demo- cratic party but prior to the Civil war he had become a staunch abolitionist, doing all in his power to remove the institution of human slavery from the nation.

In 1876 Dr. Boggs was elected representa- tive of Gage county in the Nebraska legisla- ture, and he made a characteristically effective record in the promotion of wise legislation. He was assigned to important committees of the house of representatives, including the judiciary committee, and his loyal activities as a legislator were of that exalted order which was to be expected of a man of his temperament and ability. The Doctor has for many years been affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and he was one of the founders and a director of the first banking institution established in the village of Filley. He was loyal and liberal in the support of measures and movements tending to advance the gen- eral well-being of his home county. He was one of the most influential representatives of the Prohibition party in Gage county and in 1884 was a presidential elector on the party ticket. He acquired a large landed estate in Gage county and was the true apostle of civic and industrial progress.

In LaPorte county, Indiana, on the 26th of October, 1854, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Boggs to Miss Virginia R. Fraser, a daughter of James and Sarah (Campbell) Fraser, the former of whom was born at Alexandria, Virginia, July 3, 1798, and the latter in the city of Washington, D. C., in the year 1808. The parents were married in

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

the city of Washington and in 1834 became pioneer settlers in LaPorte county, Indiana, in which state they passed the remainder of their lives. Mrs. Boggs was born in LaPorte county, March 28, 1836, and was there reared and educated, she having been the third in a family of eight children .. Dr. and Mrs. Boggs became the parents of a fine family of thirteen children, and of the nine now living the names and respective dates of birth are here noted: James F., January 7, 1856; Charles S., June 19, 1857 (individually men- tioned on other pages of this work) ; Eva L. (wife of P. E. Plumb), November 19, 1858; Mary Ellen (wife of William H. Andrew), August 5, 1860; Luther A., April 16, 1862; Thomas W., March 8, 1864; Benjamin F., March 16, 1866; Alice C. (wife of H. H. Halliday), March 4, 1868; and Minnie (wife of George Scott), February 11, 1881.

GUSTAVUS A. ERICKSON merits con- sideration in this work by reason of his secure status as one of the representative farmers and citizens of Sherman township. He was born in Mercer county, Illinois, on the 2d of August, 1871, and is a son of Peter and Susan Erickson, both natives of Sweden. Peter Erickson was reared and educated in his na- tive land and was a sturdy and ambitious youth of twenty years when he came to the United States. For some time thereafter he was employed at Galesburg, Illinois, where his marriage was solemnized, and in 1876 he removed with his family to Iowa, where he remained until 1884, as a farmer, and whence he then came to Gage county, Nebraska. Here he became the owner of a half-section of land, in Sherman township, and he developed this into one of the well improved and valuable farm properties of the county. He finally sold one hundred and sixty acres, but the re- mainder of the place he retained in his posses- sion until his death, in 1901, his widow being now (1918) seventy-eight years of age. Of their four children three are living and of that number the subject of this sketch is the eld- est ; Minnie is the wife of E. G. Crook ; Frank is deceased; and Ida is the wife of William

Kresbaugh, who has charge of the old home- stead farm of Peter Erickson. Mr. Erickson was a Republican in politics and was an earn- est member of the Luthern church, as is also his venerable widow. He came to the United States without other reinforcement than his individual energy and determined purpose, and he achieved worthy success through his association with farm enterprise.

Gustavus A. Erickson was a lad of five years at the time of the family removal from Illinois to Iowa, and in the latter state he re- ceived his early education in the public schools. He was thirteen years old when his parents came to Gage county, and here he con- tinued to attend school at intervals, the while he assisted materially in the work of the home farm. After beginning independent oper- ations as a farmer he utilized rented land for five years, and he then purchased eighty acres of his present farm, the place now com- prising one hundred and sixty acres. In ad- dition to this homestead he owns other Gage county land of such amount as to make the area of his estate in the county four hundred acres, besides which he is the owner of four hundred acres in the state of Kansas. He has made excellent improvements on his homestead farm and in addition to carrying on well ordered operations as an agriculturist he raises each year a large number of cattle and swine of good type.

Mr. Erickson is a stalwart Republican and he is serving in 1918 as chairman of the town- ship board. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of America and his wife and children hold mem- bership in the Christian church.

In 1893 Mr. Erickson wedded Miss Mary Mangus, who was born in Illinois and who is a daughter of William Mangus, who came with his family to Gage county in 1883 and who was here the owner of a valuable farm estate of four hundred acres at the time of his death, he having been born in Virginia and his wife, who survives him, having been born in Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Erickson became the parents of five children, all of whom are living except the third, Nellie, who died at the

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

age of two years; Oliver is a sophomore in a leading dental college in the city of Omaha; Walter is now associated with his father in farm enterprise; and Edith and Alva are at- tending the local district school.

AMOS L. WRIGHT is one of the honored territorial pioneers of Gage county and has become one of the specially successful expo- nents of industrial and business enterprise in this section of the state - an influential citi- zen who now resides in the village of Vir- ginia, Sherman township, and who is properly given a tribute in this history of the county to whose development and progress he has contributed in generous measure.

Mr. Wright was born in Menard county, Illinois, on the 27th of February, 1844, and there he gained ample experience in connec- tion with the work of the piorneer farm, the while he made excellent use of the educa- tional advantages that were afforded him, as shown by the fact that he became a successful and popular representative of the pedagogic profession after he became a pioneer of Gage county, Nebraska, where he taught school three winter terms. He was an ambitious young man of twenty-two years when, in 1866, he came to Nebraska Territory, which was ad- mitted to statehood in the following year. Here he found work as a farm hand, at a compensation of ten dollars a month, and finally he began the breaking and improving of his homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, in Section 10 Blakely township. In 1868 he hauled from this pioneer farm to Ne- braska City three wagon-loads of wheat, rep- resenting his entire crop for that season, and for the same he received sixty cents a bushel. That the loads were not large in volume is vouched for by the fact that the sacks of grain were hauled on a wagon without side- boards. In 1867, with ox and horse teams, he broke up a part of his land, and in that year he was a member of a company, includ- ing Jacob Rutherford and seventeen other pioneers, who made their way to the west to assist in quelling insubordinate Indians, he and Mr. Rutherford being now the only sur-

viving members of this expedition against the Cheyenne Indians, but in the connection they failed to encounter a single Indian except one who was dead.

Mr. Wright reclaimed his farm into one of the productive tracts of Blakely township and there remained until 1886, when he removed with his family to Sherman township, where he purchased a tract of six hundred and forty acres - the south half of Section 14 and the north half of Section 23. On this fine estate he made the best improvements and engaged extensively in general farm industry, includ- ing diversified agriculture and the raising of live stock. Later he was engaged in the grain and lumber business in the village of Virginia, but he still retains possession of his land in Gage county. He passes a portion of each year with his children, in Gage county, where are many associations and memories that are hallowed to him and where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances, and the intervening periods he customarily utilizes in visiting his daughter in California.

In Gage county was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wright to Miss Clara Wickham, who was born in Holt county, Missouri, July 27, 1848, and they became the parents of three children : Frances A. is the widow of Joseph E. Penry and resides at Bostonia, California, she being the mother of three children ; Bessie is the wife of William Holm, a representative merchant at Virginia, Gage county, and they have two daughters ; and Fred A. is individu- ally mentioned in this publication.

Amos L. Wright is a son of James and Elizabeth (Offiel) Wright, natives respective- ly of Ohio and Kentucky. James Wright re- moved, in company with one of his brothers, to Illinois in the pioneer days, and there he remained until 1867, when he came with other members of his family to the new state of Nebraska, where his son Amos L. has lo- cated in the preceding year. Here he became a pioneer farmer, though in earlier years he had given much attention to work at the car- penter trade, he and his brother John having built an old-time box bridge across the Sanga- mon river at Springfield, Illinois, in the pio-

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

MR. AND MRS. AMOS L. WRIGHT

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

neer days. James Wright died on his farm in Saline county, Nebraska, at the age of seventy-one years, his wife having preceded him to eternal rest. His father, George Wright, was riding horseback along one of the narrow pioneer roads of Ohio when a falling tree killed both the rider and the horse.

JACOB KLEIN. - The career of this hon- ored pioneer merchant of the city of Beatrice has been significantly characterized by cour- age, confidence, progressiveness and impregn- able integrity of purpose. None has a more secure status as a representative citizen and business man of southeastern Nebraska, and to the people of Gage county his name and achievement are practically as familiar as the name of the county. Aside from being the executive head and the founder of one of the largest and best ordered department stores in this section of the state and having other capitalistic interests of important order, Mr. Klein has been signally loyal and helpful as a public-spirited citizen and as one who has been a force in the furtherance of the civic and ma- terial advancement and prosperity of the com- munity in which he has maintained his home for more than forty years and to which he came as an ambitious young man with very limited financial resources but with the fullest measure of determination and resourcefulness. He eminently deserves classification among those self-made men who have distinguished themselves for their ability to master the op- posing forces of life and to wrest from the hands of fate a large measure of success and an honorable name. Mr. Klein has not only been the dominating force in the upbuilding of the extensive mercantile business now con- ducted under the corporate title of Klein's Mercantile Company, but has identified himself also with the development and promotion of other business enterprises of importance, has been the loyal supporter of all measures tend- ing to conserve the general wellbeing of his home city, county and state, and has been called upon to serve in various positions of public trust, including that of member of the state senate.

In the Upper Palatinate of the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, and not far distant from the historic old city of Bingen, on the Rhine, Jacob Klein was born March 31, 1846, - a scion of old and honored families of that sec- tion of the German empire, where his paternal grandfather, John Klein, a weaver by trade and vocation, passed his entire life, as did also the maternal grandfather, Conrad Weiser, who gave his allegiance to the great funda- mental industry of agriculture. Mr. Klein is a son of Jacob and Margaret (Weiser) Klein, both likewise natives of Bavaria, where each was born in the year 1805. The parents passed the closing years of their lives in Liv- ingston county, Illinois, where the mother's death occurred in 1874 and that of the father in 1879, their marriage having been solemn- ized in 1832 and both having been earnest com- municants of the Lutheran church. Of their five children the subject of this review is the youngest and the other two now living are Charles, who is a resident of Montana, where he is a retired farmer, and Katherine, who is the widow of Louis Moschel and maintains her home in the city of Beatrice.

In the year 1855 Jacob Klein, Senior, immi- grated with his family to the United States, and soon after landing in the port of New York city he continued his westward journey and settled in Tazewell county, Illinois. He had incurred an indebtedness of six hundred dollars incidental to transporting the family to America, and thus a double responsibility rested upon him after he had established a home in this country. For the first year he was employed by others, and he then rented a farm from an Englishman who furnished him with all requisite tools and appliances, and he continued his operations on this farm, in Tazewell county, for a period of nine years. His energy and good judgment brought him a full measure of success as an agriculturist, though in his native land he had followed the trade of weaver. Through his operation in the control of the farm mentioned Mr. Klein accumulated a sufficient reserve of money to justify him in purchasing a farm of his own. Under these conditions he bought, at the rate

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of twenty-five dollars an acre, a tract of eighty acres in Livingston county, Illinois, and to the improving and cultivating of this homestead he continued to give his attention until the death of his loved and devoted wife, in 1874, when he sold the property to his son, Philip C., with whom he remained until he too passed to the life eternal, about five years later. The son Philip was a resident of Illinois at the time of his death and the other deceased mem- ber of the immediate family circle was John, who died when about seventy-nine years of age.

He whose name introduces this review ac- quired his rudimentary education in his native land and was a lad of about ten years at the time of the family immigration to the United States. He was reared to manhood under the sturdy discipline of the farm and in the mean- while he profited by the advantages afforded in the schools of Tazewell county, Illinois, his attendance in the same having continued at in- tervals during a period of three years, the while he was not denied a full quota of stren- uous and practical experience in connection with the work of the home farm. Like many another reared under similar conditions, he has rounded out his education through effec- tive self-discipline and through the lessons gained through his long and successful busi- ness career, so that he has become a man of broad mental ken and mature judgment. Mr. Klein initiated his independent career as a farmer when he was about twenty-three years of age, and he continued his active alliance with farm industry in Illinois until 1873, when, at the age of twenty-seven years, he came to Nebraska and numbered himself as one of the pioneers of Gage county. His marriage oc- curred about two years previously and upon coming to this county he established the fam- ily home in the small but aspiring little city of Beatrice. Here he forthwith formed a partnership with Charles Moschel and Emil Lang and they engaged in the retail grocery business, under the firm name of J. Klein & Company. Success attended the enterprise and within a few years its scope was enlarged by the addition of departments devoted to dry

goods and men's clothing. The partnership alliance continued until 1887, in January of which year the three principals made an equit- able division of the business and stock, Mr. Klein at this time taking control of the dry- goods and clothing department of the enter- prise. With characteristic energy and good judgment he made himself a leader in antici- pating the demands of the public incidental to the development and growth of the county and its judicial center, and finally he developed the large and important general merchandise busi- ness which marks the present department store of Klein's Mercantile Company as one of the most metropolitan and efficiently con- ducted institutions of the'kind in this part of the state. For the accommodation of the large and constantly increasing business Mr. Klein erected the large and substantial brick block which bears his name, the building being two stories in height, not including basement, and occupying a ground area twenty-five by one hundred and ten feet in dimensions. Here is conducted under most favorable conditions and arrangement the general department store, and every department is known for efficiency and acceptability of service, so that the sub- stantial enterprise has the firmest of founda- tions, even as the executive policies attest to the sterling integrity and the progressivness of Mr. Klein, as well as of his sons, who have become his valued coadjutors in the control and management of the important enterprise, - the reputation of the concern constituting its best commercial asset. In 1901 the busi- ness was incorporated under the present name, Klein's Mercantile Company, the charter given under the laws of Nebraska designating the capital stock at one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The honored founder, as president and general manager of the com- pany, continues as the executive head of the business, his eldest son, Jacob A., who is in- dividually mentioned on other pages, being vice-president of the company; the second son, Frederick K., being secretary and treasur- er, and the youngest son, Frank E., likewise being actively associated with the business.

In noting the financial and civic status of

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

Jacob Klein at the present time it is interest- ing to record that when he came to Beatrice his available capitalistic resources were sum- med up in about five hundred dollars. His success has not been an accident but rather the logical result of well applied energy and abil- ity, and his many friends in the community honor him the more for the fact that he has always been an earnest and productive worker. His communal loyalty has led him to make his liberality keep pace with his cumulative prosperity, and thus he has given capitalistic co-operation in the furtherance of other busi- ness enterprises. Among his other and note- worthy connections may be mentioned his ac- tive and prolific association with the Gage County Agricultural Society, he having been one of the twenty progressive citizens who organized this society.

Well fortified in his convictions pertaining to governmental and economic policies, Mr. Klein has always been found arrayed as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Demo- cratic party, and he has been influential in its councils and campaign activities in this part of the state. He served one term as treasurer of Gage county, has been a valued member of the Beatrice board of education, and the high popular estimate placed upon him was signifi- cantly shown when, in 1909, he was elected representative of the Fourteenth district in the state senate. He proved a well poised, sane and vigorous figure in the deliberations and work of the senate and those of the various committees to which he was assigned, and was given the best of popular commendation through his re-election in 1913. He and his family are communicants of the Lutheran church and he takes deep satisfaction in giv- ing to his gracious and popular wife a due mede of credit for the aid she has given him in the furtherance of his success, the while her gentle and kindly personality has gained to her the affectionate regard of all who have come within the sphere of her influence.

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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 53

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