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 60

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 60

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Admirably fortified in his opinions con- cerning economic and governmental policies, Mr. McKissick is a staunch advocate of the principles of the Democratic party and has been an influential figure in the party coun- cils in Nebraska. He served from 1911 to 1915 as representative of Gage county in the lower house of the Nebraska legislature, and here made an excellent record in the further- ance of wise legislation and the forwarding of the interests of his constituency. He is prominently affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he is serving in 1918 as deputy grand master of the Nebraska grand lodge. He has passed the official chairs also in the Modern Woodmen of America.

On the 26th of February, 1895, was sol- emnized the marriage of Mr. McKissick to Miss Della E. Swan, who was born in Polk county, Nebraska, January 8, 1876, and who is a daughter of William H. and Ida (Blow- ers) Swan, the former a native of Iowa and the latter of Indiana. Concerning the brothers and sisters of Mrs. McKissick the following brief data may consistently be given: Wil- liam H. and Clara reside in the city of Beatrice and the latter is the wife of Rudolph R. Woelke; Harry is a resident of Shelby, Polk county, this state; Jennie is the wife of Edward Clobes, of the same place; Minnie is the wife of Andrew Peterson and they like- wise reside at Shelby, as do also the younger children - Perry, Pearl, Vernal, and Floyd. The names and respective dates of birth of the children of Mr. and Mrs. McKissick are here noted: William A., March 26, 1896;

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Ida Ruth, December 5, 1897; Bertha June, June 24, 1901; Frances Gertrude, December 19, 1903; and Woodrow Wilson, July 26, 1913.

REV. WILLIAM T. McKENNA. - The life work of a priest of the Holy Roman Catholic church is essentially one of self- sacrificing devotion to the needs of his peo- ple, his church, and the Divine Master whom he serves. The work demands years of pre- liminary study and preparation, for the high- est of intellectual standards and the broadest of practical humanitarianism are demanded, the while there can be in prospect no temporal rewards commensurate with the service to be rendered, save the satisfaction of having labored faithfully and well in behalf of Christ and humanity. Father McKenna has mea- sured up fully to the demands and exactions of his high calling and is one of the repre- sentative members of the Catholic priesthood in this section of Nebraska. He is pastor of St. Mary's church at Odell, and commands the high esteem and affectionate regard of the members of his parish, as well as the confi- dence and good will of the entire community.

Father McKenna was born on Prince Ed- ward Island, Canada, on the 21st of Septem- ber, 1873, and he received his preliminary educational discipline in the rural schools of his native province. He remained with his parents on the home farm until he was a lad of twelve years, and was then sent to a Can- adian college in which he prosecuted his studies of preparatory order as well as along higher academic lines. In 1893 he entered St. Mary's Seminary at Baltimore, Maryland, and in this institution he completed the philo- sophical and ecclesiastical studies that pre- pared him for the priesthood. In this cele- brated theological seminary he was graduated in 1896, and in the same year he was or- dained to the priesthood. Shortly afterward he was assigned to a pastoral charge at Fair- bury, Nebraska, but after three months of service at that place he was transferred to Nebraska City, where he remained six years and gave effective pastoral service, in the

parish of St. Mary's church. In July, 1916, Father McKenna came to Gage county and assumed his present charge, as pastor of St. Mary's church at Odell. He has been since that time the zealous and devoted shepherd of this fold and has given earnestly of his time and talents to the furtherance of the spiritual and temporal wellbeing of his parish.

CHARLES D. KNOX has the best of mod- ern facilities in the conducting of his success- ful livery and transfer business in the city of Beatrice, and is one of the wide-awake and progressive citizens of the Gage county metro- polis. He was born in Belmont county, Ohio, November 23, 1855, and is a son of Isaac and Jane (Foster) Knox, who were born and reared in West Virginia, where their marriage was solemnized, and who removed thence to Belmont county, Ohio, where the father en- gaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1865 Isaac Knox removed with his family to Illinois, and later he became a pioneer settler in eastern Kansas, where he entered claim to a quarter section of land near the present town of Erie. There both he and his wife passed the re- mainder of their lives. Of their ten children the subject of this sketch was the sixth in order of birth and of the number six are now living. Isaac Knox was a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, his service cover- ing a period of about three years ; his political allegiance was given to the Republican party and both he and his wife were earnest mem- bers of the Christian church. James Knox, father of Isaac, was a native of Ireland and was a resident of West Virginia at the time of his death.

Charles D. Knox acquired his early educa- tion in the schools of Illinois and Kansas, and he has just claim to pioneer distinction in Ne- braska, to which state he came in 1873. He settled in Seward county and later took up land and engaged in farm enterprise in the south- western part of the state. Still later he en- gaged in the stage and livery business at Grant, Perkins county, where he continued oper- ations in this line of enterprise for ten years. He then returned to the eastern part of the

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state and engaged in the livery business at Seward, judicial center of the county of that name. Several years later he established him- self in the same business at College View, a suburb of the city of Lincoln, and in 1913 he came to Beatrice and purchased the livery and transfer business which he has since conducted with marked success. That his establishment is thoroughly modern in its equipment needs no further voucher than the statement that he now operates a number of taxicabs and other motor vehicles, his business being the most im- portant one of the kind in the city. In poli- tics Mr. Knox gives his allegiance to the Re- publican party, he is affiliated with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and his wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

In 1879 Mr. Knox wedded Miss Arpha Hickman, who was born at Newton, Iowa, and they have four children: Clarence B. is now engaged in buying and shipping horses at Beatrice; Clara is the wife of Chas. B. Hand, of Seward, this state; Fern remains at the parental home; and Eva is the wife of Frank R. Shelley, of whom mention is made on other pages of this volume.

HARVEY O. MASON, owner of an ex- cellent farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Section 1, Lincoln township, was born in Ontario county, New York, March 21, 1841, and has been a resident of Nebraska since 1867, the year that marked the admission of the state to the Union. His life has been one of varied experiences and consecutive pro- ductiveness, and he stands forth as one of the sterling pioneer citizens of Gage county.

In a little log house of one room, in Farm- ington township, Ontario county, New York, Harvey O. Mason was born March 21, 1841, a son of Robinson and Mary (Brandt) Mason, of whose six children he was the fourth in order of birth ; Hannah E. and Sam- uel are deceased ; George is a resident of Fort Dodge, Iowa ; and Franklin and Byron are de- ceased. Robinson Mason was a representative of one of the pioneer families of Ontario county, New York, where he was born, in

Farmington township, in August, 1813. He continued his alliance with farm enterprise in the old Empire state until 1848, when he re- moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois, the future metropolis having then been little more than a straggling village. It was his in- tention to buy land in Illinois, but his wife found so little appeal in the west that he con- sented to return to New York. At Church- ville, that state, he engaged in the general merchandise business, but about a year later he removed with his family to- Wisconsin and engaged in the same line of business at Port- age City. Two years later he became identi- fied with lumbering operation near Grand Rapids, that state, and in 1856 he became a pioneer in the same line of enterprise at Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, in which locality he became the owner of three thousand acres of valuable timber land. In his lumbering camps he gave employment to sixty men, and work was continued night and day, with con- sistent shifting of the working forces. In 1864 Mr. Mason returned to the state of New York and purchased a large farm, besides which he became concerned in the oil develop- ment business in Pennsylvania. Finally he established the home of his family in Monroe county, New York, after which he went to South Pass, Wyoming, and engaged in mining for gold. He shipped in from Chicago, via the Union Pacific Railroad, his ten-stamp quartz mill, and from Bryan, Wyoming, he hauled the mill across the desert to South Pass - one hundred and ten miles distant. John C. Fremont, the great "pathfinder," had visited South Pass in 1848 and the name was given to the point in honor of the expedition which he led through this newly discovered pass to the Pacific coast. Mr. Mason failed to develop gold in vein quality, and finally abandoned his undertaking. The government then employed him to saw lumber for use at Fort Stambaugh, besides finally purchasing his power plant. Mr. Mason eventually re- turned to his family and he was a resident of Monroe county, New York, at the time of his death, in 1885. His wife was born in On-

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tario county, New York, in 1815, and her death occurred in September, 1890.

Harvey O. Mason attended school in Farm- ington and Churchville, New York, and also at Portage, Wisconsin. One of his school- mates at Churchville was that noble and re- vered woman, Miss Frances E. Willard, founder and president of the Woman's Chris- tian Temperance Union, and their friendship endured until this gracious gentlewoman passed to eternal rest, in 1898. Mr. Mason was associated with his father's business activi- ties until 1865, when he engaged in the meat business in the city of Chicago, where also he became a member of the Board of Trade. In 1866 he sold his interests in Chicago and re- turned to the state of New York, but in the following year he came to the new state of Ne- braska and purchased land in Douglas county, three miles south of Omaha. In 1870 he sold this property, and thereafter he remained in the state of New York until 1874, on the 9th of May of which year he arrived at Beatrice, the judicial center of Gage county. The fol- lowing day he went by stage to Plymouth, Jef- ferson county, in which locality he purchased land and engaged in farming on an extensive scale. In 1887 he sold his property in that county and settled on his present attractive homestead in Gage county. For eighteen years, while continuing his association with the management of his farm, Mr. Mason was a traveling representative of the Beatrice Cream- ery Company, one of the foremost concerns of the kind in the west. He has stood exponent of broad-gauged and progressive citizenship, has achieved independence and prosperity through his own efforts and is one of the well known and highly esteem citizens of Gage county. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church.

In February, 1869, Mr. Mason wedded Miss Jennie Shindoll, who was born in Racine county, Wisconsin, in 1857, a daughter of John G. and Mary (Nelson) Shindoll. In conclu- sion is given brief record concerning the chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. Mason: Luella is a popular teacher in the schools of Long Beach,

California ; Byron, who is engaged in the drug business at Riverton, Wyoming, married Miss Mary Griffeth of Chicago, and they have one child; George is a successful ranchman near Blackfoot, Idaho; Gertrude is the wife of D. M. Bendernagel, of Lincoln township, Gage county; Harvey is a successful farmer in Riverside township; Roy is a resident of Dead- wood, South Dakota; Elmer resides at River- ton, Wyoming ; Esther is a trained nurse at the Green Gables Institute, Lincoln, Nebraska ; Marjorie remains at the parental home; and two children died in infancy.

HENRY ALBERT. - The attractive vil- lage of Clatonia claims as one of its honored citizens this venerable and revered pioneer, whose has been a large and beneficent part in connection with the development and upbuild- ing of Gage county along both civic and in- dustrial lines. Mr. Albert is president of the Clatonia Bank and is the owner of a valuable landed estate of eight hundred acres in Sec- tions 23, 25, 26, and 27, Clatonia township, besides which he has six hundred and forty acres in Hand county, South Dakota, and a fine farm of one hundred and thirty acres in Allen county, Kansas. As an extensive land- holder he has done most effective service in connection with the march of progress in the nation's great empire of the west.

Mr. Albert was born in the province of Hanover, Gerinany, on the 24th of April, 1837, and while he has attained to the age of four score years he exemplifies in his sound mental and physical powers the effectiveness of right living and right thinking during the course of a signally active and useful career. Mr. Albert is a son of David and Katherine (Kinker) Albert, of whose four children he is the firstborn; Mrs. Elizabeth Shaffer, the next in order of birth, remains a resident of Hanover, Germany ; Eberhart has been a resi- dent of Gage county since 1874 and is now living retired in the village of Clatonia; and Katherine, who is the widow of August Struckmeier, likewise maintains her home in this village, her husband having been another

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HENRY ALBERT

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of the honored pioneer setters of Clatonia township.

David Albert continued his residence in the Hanovarian fatherland until 1874, when, in company with his wife, he came to America, to which country three of their children had preceded them, and they gained likewise a pioneer distinction by joining their two sons and one daughter in Gage county, the closing years of their earnest and upright lives hav- ing here been passed in the home of their daughter, Mrs. Stuckmeier.

Henry Albert is indebted to the excellent schools of his native land for his early educa- tional discipline, and he was but fifteen years of age when his father provided him with sufficient funds to pay the cost of the ocean voyage. It was in the year 1852 that the United States thus gained this youthful immi- grant. Mr. Albert landed in the port of the national metropolis and soon afterward made his way to Ohio, where he turned his atten- tion to the vocation of teaming and where he continued his residence until he manifested his unbounded and insistent loyalty to the country of his adoption by going forth as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war. In re- sponse to President Lincoln's first call for vol- unteers, he enlisted, July 15, 1861, at Cincin- nati, as a private in Company M, Second United States Artillery, with which gallant command he saw wide and varied campaign service in Virginia, North Carolina and other sections on which were staged activities inci- dental to the great conflict between the north and the south. He was a member of the famous brigade commanded by General Cus- ter, who later sacrificed his life in conflict with the Indians in Montana, and he partici- pated in many engagements, including a good- ly number of the important and sanguinary battles marking the progress of the war. His military career in the field extended from July 15, 1861, until he received his honorable discharge at Light House Point, Virginia, on the 16th of July, 1864, at which time he was near the spot on which, about one year later, General Lee made his historic surrender. It may well be understood that Mr. Albert has

continued to feel vital interest in his old com- rades and that he signalizes the same through his active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, as a member of which he was one of the organizers of Rollins Post, No. 35, at Beatrice, Nebraska, of which he served as senior vice-commander, his present affiliation being with the post in the city of Lincoln.

After the close of his military career Mr. Albert continued his residence in Ohio until the spring of 1865, when he came to Nebras- ka Territory and numbered himself among the early pioneer settlers of Nebraska City, Otoe county. He arrived in Gage county on the 1st of April, 1866, and soon afterward entered claim to a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, in what is now Clatonia township. This ambitious young veteran of the Civil war was fertile in resources and ex- pedients, as befits one who essays the burdens and responsibilities of a pioneer, and in insti- tuting the improvement of his land he pur- chased four yoke of oxen at Nebraska City, from which point he drove them overland to his embryonic farm, fully seventy-five miles distant. With these faithful but plodding animals Mr. Albert broke about one hundred acres of his land, and in the meanwhile he constructed a rude "dugout" as a domicile for himself and his devoted young wife, who proved his true helpmeet in these days of struggle and hardship. It may be mentioned also that he assisted in the construction of the little dugout which was placed in commission as the first schoolhouse in Clatonia township. The passing years rewarded the earnest and indefatigable activities of Mr. Albert with cumulative success and prosperity and he finally developed his old homestead into one of the fine farms of this section of the state. He erected on the old homestead modern buildings, besides making other improvements of the best order, and there he continued to re- side for the long period of thirty-eight years, in the meanwhile having gained recognition as one of the most substantial and influential citizens of the county.

In 1912 Mr. Albert sundered the gracious associations of the old farm and removed to

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the village of Clatonia, where, in a commo- dious and modern home known for its gener- ous hospitality, he is now living in semi-retire- ment, though his important capitalistic and landed interests make imperative demands upon much of his time and attention. He owns one-third of the stock of the Clatonia Bank, of which he has been president since 1894, and his mature judgment and conserva- tive policies have made this institution a valu- able factor in the furtherance of the civic and material interests of this section of the county.

In 1876 Mr. Albert was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, and incidental to his effective service in this im- portant office he was a member of the com- mittee which had the supervision of matters pertaining to the erection of the county court house, as well as that in charge of the building of the bridge across the river on Court street. He served six years as county commissioner and did much to advance public improvements of an enduring order as well as to provide for the county effective governmental policies. In politics Mr. Albert has never wavered in his allegiance to the Repubican party, and he reverts with satisfaction to the fact that his first presidential vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln. In 1901-02 he represented Gage county in the state legislature, where he made his influence distinctly felt in the promotion of wise legislation, though he was of the mi- nority forces in that signally Populistic session of the legislature. He has served as mayor of Clatonia, was one of the organizers and original members of the school board of this village, and has given his service in other vil- lage offices. Mr. Albert is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Cla- tonia and contributes liberally to the support of the various departments of its work.

At Portsmouth, Ohio, on the 9th of April, 1865, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Albert to Miss Emma Steinmeyer, who was born and reared in Germany and who became a resident of Ohio soon after coming to the United States. Mrs. Albert shared with her husband in the tension incidental to pioneer life in Nebraska and lived to enjoy the gra-

cious rewards that eventually attended their endeavors. She was summoned to the life eternal on the 14th of December, 1909, at the age of sixty-three years, secure in the affec- tionate regard of all who knew her. She was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church and exemplified her faith in her daily life and her association with others. Of the ten children born of this union brief record is here consistently given: Anna died when about twenty years of age; Ella is the wife of Frank W. Jones, of Clatonia, who is indi- vidually mentioned on other pages of this work; John died at the age of about thirty- three years; Frank resides upon and has ac- tive charge of the old homestead farm of his father and concerning him specific mention is made in this volume; Mrs. Minnie Lat- shaw and her husband reside at Chetek, Bar- ron county, Wisconsin; Benjamin is a resi- dent of Clatonia township and a sketch of his career appears on other pages; Augusta is the wife of J. W. Lydick, of Clatonia ; Daniel is a resident of Clatonia township and is repre- sented individually elsewhere in this publi- cation ; Alma became the wife of Roy Barker and is now deceased; and Clara is the wife of Edward Chittenden, who is an executive in the Clatonia Bank.

On the 12th of July, 1911, Mr. Albert con- tracted a second marriage, when Mrs. Au- gusta Kroff became his wife. She was born and reared in Lippe, Germany. By her first marriage she became the mother of six chil- dren, all of whom are living. She was a resi- dent of Lincoln, Nebraska, at the time of her marriage to Mr. Albert, and she is the gra- cious and popular chatelaine of their pleasant home at Clatonia.

ELMER L. HEVELONE. - The efficient and popular secretary of the State Savings & Loan Association of Beatrice became a resi- dent of Gage county when he was a lad of six years, and that in his character and achieve- ment he has proved fully equipped for keeping pace with the march of development and pro- gress in this favored commonwealth is attested by the fact that he has been called upon to

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serve in various positions of distinctive re- sponsibility and trust, including that of treas- urer of Gage county. He has been in the most significant sense the builder of the ladder on which he has risen to the plane of definite suc- cess and prestige, and his activities have been varied, though each stage of his career has been marked by his consecutive advancement, the while he has so ordered his course as to merit and retain the inviolable confidence and esteem of all with whom he has come in con- tact in the varied relations of life.

Mr. Hevelone, though imbued with the ut- most loyalty to Nebraska and fully appreci- ative of its manifold attractions and advant- ages, takes a due measure of satisfaction in re- verting to the old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity,-perhaps in consonance with the humorous paraphrase which Hon. Chaun- cey M. Depew once made of a familiar quota- tion, his version being as follows: "Some men are born great ; some achieve greatness, and some are born in Ohio." Mr. Hevelone was born in Seneca county, Ohio, on the 12th of May, 1874, and is a son of Sylvester and Cynthia C. (Wonder) Hevelone, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Ohio. Sylvester Hevelone was born on the 28th of December, 1847, and was young at the time of the family removal from Pennsylvania to Ohio, where his marriage was later solemnized. In the climacteric period of the Civil war he manifested his intrinsic pa- triotism by tendering his services in defense of the Union. In 1864 he enlisted as a mem- ber of Company A, Fifty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with this gallant command he continued in active service until the close of the war. Mr. Hevelone lived up to the full tension of the great conflict between the north and the south, participated in numerous en- gagements of important order and as a soldier made a record that shall ever reflect honor and distinction upon his name and memory. In later years he vitalized the more gracious associations of his military career by retaining active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. His political allegiance was given to the Republican party and both he and his

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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 60

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