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 72

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 72

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dicial center, the fair city of Beatrice. His character was the positive expression of a strong and loyal nature, his mentality was of high order and he was well equipped for leadership in popular sentiment and action when he numbered himself among the earliest settlers of Gage county. He was the true apostle of civic and material progress and made his life count for good in its every re- lation.

Oliver Townsend was born in Ulster county, New York, October 4, 1834, the youngest son in the family of nine children and a member of one of the sterling pioneer families of that section of the old Empire state, and likewise of one that was founded in America in the early colonial era of our national history, the lineage of the Townsend family tracing back to staunch English origin. The subject of this memoir was a son of Jos- eph and Nancy (Tompkins) Townsend, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of the state of New York. Joseph Townsend was a very early settler in Ulster county, New York, where he reclaimed from the wilds a productive farm and held secure status as an honored and influential citizen. His wife there passed away in 1847, and he survived her by twenty years. Oliver Townsend was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and in his native county acquired his prelim- inary education in the common schools. As a youth he became clerk in a hotel in Knights- town, New York, and later he was similarly engaged at Hudson, that state. Later he am- plified his educational training by attending school both at Claverack and Ellenville, New York.

In 1856, as a young man of twenty-two years, Mr. Townsend went to Huron county, Ohio, and in January of the following year he made his way to the little frontier town of Sioux City, Iowa, where he remained until the following autumn, when he came to southern Nebraska and here determined to establish his permanent residence - a full decade prior to the admission of the territory to statehood. He entered claim to a homestead of one hun- dred and sixty acres, a portion of which is

now included within the city of Beatrice, and for the ensuing four years he devoted him- self strenuously to the reclaiming and im- proving of his land, which is now a very valuable property and which he held in his possession many years.

In 1865 Mr. Townsend became associated with the late H. M. Reynolds in establishing a general merchandise store at the corner of Court and Third streets in the little town of Beatrice, and in 1867 Hon. Nathan Blakely was admitted to the firm, the title of which then became Blakely, Reynolds & Company. Four years later Mr. Blakely sold his interest in the business, which was thereafter contin- ued under the firm name of Reynolds & Town- send until 1872, when Mr. Townsend retired, selling his interest to Mr. Reynolds. In 1874 Mr. Townsend engaged in the clothing busi- ness, and to the same he gave the major part of his time and attention from 1877 until 1893, when he retired from active business, after a long and honorable record as one of the most successful and popular merchants of Gage county.

Unswerving in his allegiance to the Repub- lican party and well fortified in his convic- tions concerning matters of economic and gov- ernmental import, Mr. Townsend was influ- ential in political affairs in this section of the state. In 1858 he was elected county clerk, and of this office he continued the efficient and valued incumbent for ten years, or until the admission of Nebraska to statehood, be- sides which he was ex officio register of deeds for the county during the same period. In 1867 he had the distinction of being elected a representative of Gage county in the first legislature of the new state, and in this office he made a characteristically admirable record of faithful and effective service during his term of two years, his influence being given earnestly to the furtherance of the movement that resulted in the establishing of the state capital at Lincoln. He was at all times liberal and progressive in his civic attitude, loyally supported measures and enterprises tending to advance the social and material advance- ment of his home city and county, and none

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had more secure place in popular confidence and esteem. His religious faith was that of the Unitarian church, of which his widow likewise is a devoted adherent, and he passed the closing period of his life on his beautiful farm, just to the east of the city of Beatrice, where his death occurred April 31, 1914, and where his widow still resides -one of the loved pioneer women of Gage county.

On April 21, 1880, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Townsend to Miss Kate Monce, who was born in the state of Ohio, July 6, 1859, and whose father, the late Sam- uel Monce, was one of the early settlers of Nebraska City. Mr. Townsend is survived by three children : Jeane Beatrice is the wife of Dr. Irwin A. Port, a successful physician and surgeon engaged in practice in the city of Chicago; Ruth, who is a graduate of the Beatrice high school and a popular factor in the social life of the community, remains with her widowed mother; and Catherine Ann is a member of the class of 1918 in the great University of Chicago.

FORD LEWIS. - There is a full measure of consistency in according in this history a tribute of honor to the late Ford Lewis, though he never established his home in Gage county. He was a man of distinctive ability and his mature judgment was significantly shown when he made large investments in Ne- braska lands in the year which marked the admission of the state to the Union. His op- erations in the handling of real estate in other sections of the Union had already been large and important, and thus his knowledge of land values was essentially authoritative. Not mere speculative venturing attended his in- vestment in land in the new commonwealth of Nebraska, for he had the prescience to dis- cern the wonderful future possible for the state and was prepared to do an active part in furthering its civic and material development and upbuilding. He thus early became the owner of Gage county land and he not only developed and improved his various holdings here and elsewhere in the state but he also gave vital and liberal support to important

undertakings and enterprises that proved of inestimable value in fostering the march of progress in the new state. Mr. Lewis became well and favorably known in southeastern Ne- braska, where he passed much time at inter- vals, in the supervision of his landed interests, and such was the benignant influence which attached to his activities as touching Gage county that, as before stated, it is most con- sistent that representation be accorded him in this publication. Mr. Lewis was a man of fine constructive powers, much initiative and administrative ability, and noble character - a man who did much for Nebraska and es- pecially for Gage county, where his only daughter, Mrs. Dwight S. Dalbey now main- tains her home.

Ford Lewis was born at Deckertown, New Jersey, on the 25th of July, 1829, and for many years he maintained his home at Jersey- ville, Illinois, where his death occurred on the 30th of November, 1901, after he had passed. by about two years, the psalmist's span of three score years and ten. Mr. Lewis was a scion of a family that was founded in America in the colonial period of our national history and his father became a prosperous merchant at Deckertown, New Jersey. In his youth Mr. Lewis was afforded good educational ad- vantages, as ganged by the standards of the locality and period. Thus it may be noted that he was a student at Mount Retermet Sem- inary, that he later attended William Rankin's classical school, and that finally he took a practical business course under the tutorship of Christopher Marsh, widely known as the man who devised and perfected the double- entry system of bookkeeping, his school having been at the corner of Reade street and Broad- way, New York city. After finishing school work Mr. Lewis found employment as a book- keeper in business establishments, and he was thus engaged first at Hamburg and later at Hackettstown, New Jersey. His vigorous am- bition was not, however, to be satisfied with such occupation, for in his youth, as through- out his entire life, he was essentially a forward- looking man. After he had gained due prelim- inary experience in connection with the real-

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

estate business Mr. Lewis determined to identify himself with the progressive west, but after proceeding as far as Syracuse, New York, he was induced to become a member of the firm of Chapman & Lewis, which there engaged in the manufacturing of watch cases and in the importing of high-grade watch movements. The firm supplied watches of standard type to railway officials, including conductors and engineers on the New York Central and other railways, and with this pros- perous enterprise Mr. Lewis continued his al- liance until 1856, when he sold his interest in the business and accepted the general agency of the large Morse publishing house of New York City, with headquarters at Charleston, South Carolina, during the winter season and at Cleveland, Ohio, during the intervening summer months. This connection he main- tained until 1859, when he accompanied his parents and his sister on their removal to Jerseyville, Illinois, - a place that was to rep- resent his home during the remainder of his long and useful life. There he engaged in the real-estate business, handling both town and farm property, and his success in this impor- tant line of productive enterprise led him to extend his operations into Nebraska when the territory assumed the dignity of statehood, in 1867. In company with Hon. Robert M. Knapp, Mr. Lewis made in that year his in- itial visit to Nebraska, where he also made his first investinent in government land in the new commonwealth. In Gage, Johnson, Pawnee, Otoe, and Lancaster counties, as now consti- tuted, he became the owner of about eighteen thousand acres of land, and much of this he retained in his possession until the close of his life, the appreciation in its value under his well ordered policies of improvement and in- cidental to the rapid settlement and develop- ment of the state in general, having added largely to the value of his estate, which was a large and substantial one at the time of his death. The various deeds to the land which he thus obtained in Nebraska bore the signa- tures of Presidents Johnson, Lincoln, and Grant, and the documents are now in the pos- session of Mr. Lewis's only surviving child,

Mrs. Dwight S. Dalbey, of Beatrice. Mr. Lewis had unfaltering faith and confidence in Nebraska, and during the successive summers he here passed considerable time in supervis- ing the development and other improvement work in connection with his landed interests. He was essentially the apostle of progress and gave freely of his influence and cooperation in the support of measures and enterprises that tended to advance the social and material de- velopment and prosperity of Nebraska. He was specially influential in promoting the en- terprise which eventuated in the construction of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Rail- road line through southeastern Nebraska, also the Kansas City & Northwestern, which ter- minated at Virginia, and these lines traversed lands owned by him. The now fine little town of Virginia, Gage county, was founded by Mr. Lewis and was named in honor of his only daughter, Virginia. He contributed most liberally to the development and upbuilding of this town, as did he also to that of Lewiston, Pawnce county, which likewise was founded by him and which perpetuates his name. Fur- ther incidental data relative to the life and achievement of Mr. Lewis appear on other pages, in the sketch dedicated to Dwight S. Dalbey, of Beatrice, husband of Mr. Lewis's only surviving child. Mr. Lewis was the owner of valuable properties in his home city of Jerseyville, Illinois, as well as in other parts of the country, and his success was large in connection with the various enterprises with which he identified himself. He was not, how- ever, self-centered, but was appreciative of the responsibilities which success involves and had a high sense of personal stewardship. He lived an earnest, honorable and useful life and upon its record there rests no shadow now that he has passed from the stage of his mor- tal endeavors.

Mr. Lewis was essentially a man of though and action and though he was well fortified in his convictions concerning economic and gov- ernmental policies and was a staunch sup- porter of the principles of the Democratic party, he had no desire for public office of

C. by Es . ilhams & Br- VY

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any kind. Both he and his wife were active members of the Presbyterian church.

On the 24th of July, 1864, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lewis to Miss Elizabeth Davis, of Jerseyville, Illinois, and this gra- cious companion survived him by about fifteen years. From the year 1097 until her death she passed a portion of each year with her only remainder at her old home in Jerseyville, Illi- daughter, in Beatrice, Gage county, and the nois. She was summoned to the life eternal on the 9th of August, 1916, her memory being evered by all who came within the compass of her gracious influence. Of the only daugh- ter of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis more specific men- tion is made on other pages of this volume, as already intimated.

HARM D. HARMS gives his effective ser- vice in the management and operations of a well improved farm of one hundred and sixty icres which he and his wife own in Section 23, Hanover township, and he is known as one of the representative agriculturists and stock- growers of this township. He was born in Atchison county, Missouri, December 4, 1878 and has been a resident of Nebraska since he was a child of three years. He is a son of Dirk and Ellen Harms, the former a native of Germany and the latter of the state of Mis- souri, where their marriage occurred. Dirk Harms was a young man when he came to the United States and prior to coming to Ne- braska he had been actively engaged in farm enterprise in Illinois and Missouri. In 1881 he came with his family to Gage county, where he engaged in farm operations for the ensuing thirteen years. He then removed to Franklin county, where he became a prosperous farmer and where he passed the remainder of his life, his death having occurred about the year 1912 and his widow being still a resident of that county.

Harm D. Harms acquired his early educa- tion in the district schools of Gage county and later attended school for a time after the family removal to Franklin county. He there- after found employment at farm work and was thus engaged after he returned to Gage

county. Here, in the year 1905, he married Miss Mary Remmers, who was born and reared on their present farm, which she in- herited from the estate of her father, Thomas Remmers, of whom mention is made on other pages of this publication. The old homestead farm occupied and owned by Mr. and Mrs. Harms is one of the well improved and at- tractive places of Hanover township, and here he is successfully carrying on his operations as a general farmer. He and his wife have four children,-Sophia, Emma, Dirk, and Carrie.

VICTOR E. RYHD. - In another article appearing within the pages of this publication is given special mention of the Dole Floral Company, which is one of the leading concerns of its kind in this part of Nebraska and the operations of which contribute materially to the industrial prestige of the city of Beatrice. Of this important corporation Mr. Ryhd is the secretary, and his standing as a progressive business man and loyal and public-spirited citi- zen of Betarice clearly entitles him to recog- nition within these pages. He maintains his residence on the fine grounds of the large greenhouses of the company and has become a recognized authority in the practical details of floriculture and landscape gardening.

Mr.Ryhd was born in Bernshammar, Swe- den, on the 28th of May, 1872, and to the schools of his native land he is indebted for his early educational discipline, which was coupled with practical experience, as he was but ten years of age when he began working at otherwise leisure hours in greenhouses in his home city of Bernshammar. His youthful ambition to acquire a thorough technical knowledge of floriculture finally led him to enter a college in which special attention was given to teaching and practical work pertain- ing to floriculture and landscape gardening, and he continued his studies in this institution until his graduation. Mr. Ryhd continued his association with his chosen vocation in his na- tive land until 1905, when he came to the United States, as he felt assured of better op- portunities for here achieving independence and success along the line of his profession.

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Proceeding to the city of Chicago, he there found employment in the most extensive green- houses in the entire west,-those conducted by Pullman Brothers, the conservatories of this concern having fully two million square feet of glass. From Chicago Mr. Ryhd finally went to St. Joseph, Missouri, where for five years he held a responsible position with the large Stuppy greenhouses. He then came to Beatrice, where he has since continued in act- ive charge of the large and modern green houses of the Dole Floral Company and where his ability and progressive methods have aided much in conserving the splendid advancement and success of the company, he having been elected its secretary in the year 1917. He be- came one of the stockholders of the company at the time its reorganization was effected, in 1913, for commercial expediency, and as secre- tary he has shown marked circumspection in the directing of the business policies of this important concern. He takes loyal interest in all that touches the welfare of his adopted city and gives his political allegiance to the Democratic party, both he and his wife being communicants of the Lutheran church.

In his native land, in the year 1902, was re- corded the marriage of Mr. Ryhd to Miss Emma Hetland, and the two children of this gracious union are Louis and Tellef.

CHARLES C. LEPOIDEVIN was born on the farm which is now his place of resi- dence, in Section 13, Midland township, and is a son of that sterling territorial pioneer of Gage county, Thomas LePoidevin, of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this work. Charles C., who holds secure pres- tige as one of the representative farmers of the younger generation in his native county, was born July 27, 1882, and was reared to manhood under the influences of the home farm, the while he made good use of the edu- cational advantages afforded in the public schools of the locality. At the age of eighteen years he began working by the month as a farm hand, and two years later he rented land and engaged in farming in an independent way. Since 1911 he has had the active con-

trol and management of his father's fine farm estate of two hundred and forty acres, where he is bringing to bear the energy and good judgment that insure the maximum of success in well diversified agriculture and stock-rais- ing. In addition to the old homestead he gives supervision also to a well improved farm of one hundred and twenty acres which he in- dividually owns and which also is in Midland township. His political allegiance is given to the Democrat party and he and his wife hold membership in the Christian church at Bea- trice, from which city their home receives ser- vice on rural mail route No. 3.

On March 6, 1907, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. LePoidevin to Miss Mary Barn- ard, who was born in Clay county, Ken- tucky, and who is a daughter of George Barnard, her father being given individual recognition elsewhere in this publication. Mr. and Mrs. LePoidevin have three children - Velma, born January 16, 1908; Lucile, born December 14, 1914; and the third child, born February 4, 1918.

BARTLET ADEN was another of the sterling pioneers who gained through associ- ation with agricultural and live-stock industry in Gage county a generous measure of success, and though his financial resources when he came to Nebraska were of most limited order he so directed his activities that at the time of his death, January 16, 1910, he was the owner of a valuabled landed estate of three hundred and sixty acres, in Hanover town- ship.

Mr. Aden was born in Hanover, Germany, August 18, 1853, and was there reared and educated. As an ambitious youth of eighteen years he immigrated to America and made his way to the state of Illinois, where he was em- ployed by the month at farm work for some time and where he continued his residence until 1872, when he came to Gage county, Ne- braska, where, after having been for three years identified with farm enterprise as an em- ploye, he purchased eighty acres of unimproved land in Hanover township. His first house was a rude dug-out of the true pioneer type

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and with increasing prosperity he later con- structed a substantial frame house, which since his death has been notably remodeled and en- larged by his widow and his only son, who re- main on the old homestead. Indefatigable in energy and careful and methodical in his busi- ness policies, Mr. Aden achieved unequivocal success through his farm enterprise, and he was one of the representative citizens of Han- over township at the time of his death.

After coming to Gage county Mr. Aden wedded Miss Annie Carstens, a member of an influential pioneer family of this county, and she passed to eternal rest in 1890, a zealous communicant of the Lutheran church. Of the three children of this union two died in in- fancy and the one surviving is Heye B., a pro- gressive and resourceful young man who is most efficiently managing the family farm es- tate, in Section 35, Hanover township, save for a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, in Section 32, which latter property is rented to a good tenant. As his second wife Mr. Aden married Miss Rachel Schone, who was born in Adams county, Illinois and who remains on the old homestead, as do also her two children, Elsabe and Annie, who are popular factors in the social life of the community. The family hold to the faith of the Lutheran church and the attractive home is known for its gracious hospitality and good cheer.

Heye B. Aden, only son of the honored sub- ject of this memoir, was born on the old home farm of which he now has the active super- vision and the date of his nativity was Decem- ber 26, 1883. Here he has constantly main- tained his residence and here he early learned the vital lessons of productive industry, the while he made good use of the advantages af- forded in the public schools. He shows great energy and discrimination in his activities as an agriculturist and stock-grower and is a rep- resentative exponent of farm enterprise in his native county. He brings to bear modern policies in all departments of his farm indus- try and is committed firmly to the use of the automobile. He holds membership in the Lutheran church. He has under his supervis- ion a fine farm estate of two hundred acres.

On June 23, 1917, was solemnized the mar- riage of Heye B. Aden to Miss Margaret Rohlfs, a daughter of Herman and Mary (Schone) Rohlfs, natives respectively of Ger- many and Adams county, Illinois. They are now living on their fine farm of eighty acres, in Filley township, Gage county.

JOHN NELSON FULLER was born February 22, 1831, at Paris, Maine, but soon afterward his parents removed to Livermore, Maine, where he grew to manhood. He was a scion of a sterling family that was founded in New England in the colonial period. The original Fuller came to this country in 1644, and settled on the winding banks of the Charles river, at Newton, now a part of the city of Boston.

As Newton is on the direct road to Con- cord and Lexington, it is not surprising that Mr. Fuller's grandfather Aaron Fuller, and his two great-grandfathers, Elisha Fuller and Simeon Pond, are known to have been in the Revolutionary war, the first mentioned having fought in the battle of Bunker Hill. John N. Fuller was graduated in Hebron Academy and in 1857 in the historic Bowdoin College, which has given to the country so many illustrious sons. His schooling was gained by dint of hard work and perseverance, which is the common story of the country boy without influential friends but ambitious for an education. Prior to and during his college course he taught school with such success that immediately on graduation he received appointment to conduct teachers' institutes under the direction of the state superintendent of Maine. The following year he became principal of Lewiston Falls Academy, which position he later resigned to study law. In due time he was admitted to the bar, but only for a short period was he actively engaged in the practice of law. Upon coming west to Illinois, in the early '60s, he again engaged in educational work, as princi- pal of schools, and county superintendent, and in 1867, he was professor of chemistry and natural sciences in Marshall College, at Henry, Illinois.

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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 72

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