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 76

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 76

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

ship to the trade of harnessmaker, and event- ually he became a partner in the business, this effective fraternal alliance continuing twelve years. Impaired health finally required that Mr. Parker should find less sedentary occu- pation and in 1878 he came to Gage county, Nebraska, and purchased a tract of one hun- dred and sixty acres of land in Elm township. He returned to Illinois, but in 1879 he re- moved with his family to the new home in Nebraska. He reclaimed this farm and de- veloped the same into one of the valuable properties of Gage county, his activities as a farmer having there continued until 1885, when he removed to Beatrice and resumed the work of his trade. Here he became as- sociated with his brother Samuel J. in estab- lishing the harness and saddlery business which they conducted until 1888, when he as- sumed full ownership of the substantial busi- ness, which he has since carried on most suc- cessfully in an individual way. A skilled artisan at his trade, Mr. Parker gives approval only to high-grade work, and thus the major part of the harness sold in his establishment is there manufactured according to the old- time methods, but with the aid of modern ma- chinery and accessories. The establishment has the largest and most complete stock of harness and saddlery goods in Gage county, and its reputation constitutes a most valuable asset, for here is given fair and square dealing and most efficient service.

A citizen of worth and of distinct public spirit, Mr. Parker has always taken lively in- terest in local affairs and he is found aligned in the ranks of the Republican party. He served six years as a member of the Beatrice board of education and five years as a mem- ber of the city council. He has been an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church since 1862 and has been at various times an official of the same. He is now the earnest and valued teacher of the senior men's class in the Sunday school of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Beatrice, his wife having given equally effective service as a teacher of a class of senior ladies and being also active in the missionary work of the church.

October 14, 1873, recorded the marriage of Mr. Parker to Miss Mary E. Clute, of Elgin, Illinois. She was born in the central part of the state of New York and is a daughter of Rev. Martin V. and Nancy (Fairbanks) Clute, her father having given many years of con- secrated service as a clergyman of the Free Methodist church. Mr. and Mrs. Parker have three children: Nellie May remains at the parental home; Alice Irene is the wife of Ray W. Weaverling, of Beatrice; and William M. is now a resident of Pryor, Oklahoma.

JOHN G. HERETH. - Thrift and pros- perity are clearly shown in the general ap- pearance of the fine farm estate owned and operated by Mr. Hereth, who is the owner of two hundred acres of the admirable land of Gage county, his homestead place, of one hun- dred and twenty acres, being situated in Sec- tion 8, Clatonia township, and the remaining eighty acres in Section 5, that township. He is known as one of the vigorous and substantial agriculturists and stock-growers of the county and is a representative of that fine German element of citizenship that has played important part in the social and industrial de- velopment and progress of this section of the state.

Mr. Hereth was born in Bavaria, Germany, January 17, 1867, and is a son of John and Margaret (Lauterbach) Hereth, of whose four children he is the youngest; Margaret is the wife of George Mitzell, of Campbell, Franklin county, this state; Henrietta, who became the wife of Simon Hartmann, is de- ceased ; and Anna is the wife of J. M. Betz, of Lincoln, the fair capital city of Nebraska.

John Hereth, father of the subject of this review, was born in Bavaria, in April, 1840, and there he continued to reside until 1883, when he came with his family to the United States and settled in Clatonia township, Gage county, Nebraska. He became the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land in Section 12, and after having here been actively en- gaged in general farm industry for thirteen years he removed to the western part of the state and settled in Red Willow county. After

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

having there continued his activities as a far- mer for a period of seven years he removed to the state of Washington, where he passed the remainder of his life, his death having oc- curred at Snohomish, that state, in September, 1900, and his earnest religious faith having been that of the German Lutheran church. After the death of his first wife he wedded Anna Rocholz, prior to coming to America, and she still maintains her home in the state of Washington. Of their union were born nine children, Michael and Martin being resi- dents of Washington; Katherine being the wife of John Hunke, of Lyndon, Osage county, Kansas; Margaret being the wife of John Riechers, who is individually men- tioned on other pages of this volume; Rena being the wife of George Stocker, a resident of the state of Washington, where Frederick, next in order of birth, also maintains his home ; Conrad being a resident of Oregon and George of Washington ; and the youngest of the num- ber being Lisette, who is the wife of J. Con- rad, of Washington.

John G. Hereth acquired his early education in the excellent schools of his native land and was a youth of seventeen years at the time of the family immigration to the United States. After his arrival in Gage county he worked three years as a farm hand, at a compensation averaging eighteen dollars a month. There- after he farmed rented land about five years, and in 1895 he purchased a tract of one hun- dred and twenty-seven acres near Waverly, Lancaster county. He brought forty acres of this raw prairie land under effective cultiva- tion and erected a house and other buildings on the place, besides setting out trees and mak- ing other excellent improvements of a per- manent order. In 1902 Mr. Hereth sold this farnı and returned to Gage county, where he purchased his present homestead, about the only notworthy improvement on which was a well. He first erected a small house, and this sufficed as the family home until 1904, when he built his present modern and attractive house of eight rooms, besides which he has improved the farm with a barn that is fifty- two by fifty-four feet in dimensions. His pro-

gressiveness and good judgment have so come into play as to make his one of the model farms of Clatonia township. In politics he is a staunch Democrat and he served con- tinuously from 1911 to 1917 as assessor of Clatonia township. For the past fourteen years he has been a director of school district No. 47. Both he and his wife are zealous communicants of the German Lutheran church and he is secretary of the church organization of this denomination in his home community. Mr. Hereth is a stockholder of the farmers' co-operative elevator at Clatonia and also that at Wilber, Saline county, from which latter place his home receives service on rural mail route No. 2. He is likewise a stockholder of the German Supply Company, of Lincoln.

On the 17th of April, 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hereth to Miss Minnie Heller, who was born in Germany and who came with her parents to the United States in 1888. Mrs. Hereth is a daughter of William and Anna (Britt) Heller, who are now resi- dents of Otterndorf, province of Hanover, Germany, they having returned to their na- tive land in 1901 and Mrs. Hereth being their only child. Mr. Heller became one of the sub- stantial farmers of Clatonia township, Gage county, where he and his wife continued to re- side until their return to their fatherland. Mr. and Mrs. Hereth have nine children, all of whom remain at the parential home except the eldest two, - Edwin, who is a successful far- mer of Clatonia township and Anna, who is the wife of William Lueders, of Highland township. Those who are members of the ideal home circle are William, Frederick, Ben- jamin O., Lisette, Amelia, Alice and Loretta, and the parents have taken pride in giving to all of the children excellent educational ad- vantages.

GEORGE M. JOHNSTON. - As man- ager of the office and sales departments of the well established business of the Dole Floral Company, Mr. Johnston has been a valued factor in the development of this substantial enterprise in the city of Beatrice and takes satisfaction in his association with a concern

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

that bases its operations upon the best of mod- ern facilities, the company's conservatories and propagating grounds being such as to make possible the rendering of a metropolitan service to patrons.

Mr. Johnston was born in the city of Peoria, Illinois, on the 13th of February, 1876, and was thirteen years of age at the time of the family removal to Gage county, Nebraska, where he was reared to adult age and profited fully by the advantages of the public schools. He has been manager of the Dole Floral Com- pany since 1912, and under his supervision the business has been doubled in volume within the intervening period. He is one of the vital and progressive factors in the business circles of Beatrice and here his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances. Twice each year Mr. Johnston makes extended trips throughout the company's extended trade territory, these trips being mainly for the pur- pose of personal conference with the various agents of the company and other persons handling products from the extensive Bea- trice greenhouses of this progressive business corporation.

In the year 1900 Mr. Johnston wedded Miss Anna Dole, of Beatrice, daughter of J. G. and Sophia H. ( Hooker) Dole, and they have one child, Marjorie.

Concerning the Dole family full record is made on other pages, in the sketches of Mrs. Sophia H. Dole and Edward W. Dole, with additional data in the review of the Dole Floral Company.

PHILIP BINDERNAGEL. - The activi- ties of this sterling pioneer citizen of Gage county have been the positive expression of a strong, vigorous and self-reliant personality, and he is one of the resourceful men who came to Nebraska in the territorial epoch of the history of this now favored commonwealth and who numbered himself among the pio- neer settlers of Gage county, which was vir- tually on the frontier at the time when he here established his home. He proved himself well equipped for coping with the adverse forces that ever come into evidence in the opening of

a new country to civilization and progress. Now venerable in years, Mr. Bindernagel is living retired in the city of Beatrice, but as tangible evidence of the prosperity that has attended his former years of earnest endeavor is his ownership of a valuable landed estate of four hundred and eighty acres in Gage county, the same being situated in Blakely and Lin- coln townships, besides which he owns an estate of equal area in Sherman county, Kan- sas.

Mr. Bindernagel is a representative of that fine element of German citizenship that has played so large and worthy a part in connec- tion with the development and upbuilding of Gage county, and his civic loyalty has ever been on a parity with his deep appreciation of the advantages and opportunities afforded him in the land of his adoption. He was born in Prussia, on the 28th of January, 1838, and thus will have celebrated his eightieth birth- day anniversary ere this history is issued from the press. He is a son of Philip and Marie (Friend) Bindernagel, both of whom passed their entire lives in Germany, where the father devoted the major part of his active career to the vocation of butcher. Philip Bindernagel. Sr., was born December 6, 1806, and his death occurred in June, 1844. His wife was born January 6, 1810, and was summoned to the life eternal in September, 1867, both having been devoted members of the Lutheran church. They became the parents of five children and the first two Mrs. Elizabeth Haen and Andrew are deceased : Philip, Jr., of this review. was the third child ; and as the younger two, Fred- erick and Katherline, likewise are deceased, he is now the only one of the children living.

In his native land Mr. Bindernagel duly profited by the advantages of the national schools and there also he served a thorough apprenticeship to the trade of baker, in which he became a skilled workman. In 1857, as an ambitious young man of nineteen years, he removed from his native land to England, where he continued his residence until 1863, and where he gained an excellent command of the English language, so that he had this knowledge as a valuable reinforcement when

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

he came to the United States. He landed in the port of New York city on the 4th of Aug- ust, 1863, and for the ensuing three years he was employed at his trade, in the national metropolis. His vital energy then led him to come to the west, the progressive spirit of which section of the Union made special ap- peal to him. In the year 1866, about one year prior to the admission of Nebraska to state- hood, Mr. Bindernagel established his resi- dence near Cottonwood Springs, to which lo- .cality he proceeded from Nebraska City by means of the plodding ox team and a wagon. He located at Cottonwood Springs where he brought his trade into effective play by asso- ciating himself with his cousin, Frederick Kees, in the conducting of a little restaurant and bakery of primitive facilities. Twelve months later - very soon after the admission of Nebraska to the Union - Mr. Bindernagel obtained from the government a homestead of hundred and sixty acres of land near the site of the present village of Filley, Gage county, this original homestead having been in the township that now bears the name of Filley. He utilized an ox team in breaking the virgin prairie, showed his enterprise and good judg- ment by setting out a goodly number of trees on his claim, and otherwise made good im- provements of a permanent order. He con- tinued activities as a farmer and stock-grower on his original homestead until 1873, when he exchanged the property for a farm of 160 acres in Blakely township, four miles west of Beatrice. He judiciously made further in- vestment in Gage county farm property, and, as previously noted in this context he is now the owner of a specially well improved and valuable landed estate of four hundred and eighty acres in this county, besides which he has shown equal progressiveness in improving his large landed property in Sherman county, Kansas. He continued to reside upon his home farm until December 13, 1915, when, about three years after the death of his de- voted wife, he removed to the city of Bea- trice. Here he has since lived retired from active business, save that he continues to give a general supervision to his extensive real- estate interests and incidental farm enter-

prise, his eldest daughter presiding over the pleasant home which he has provided at 815 Lincoln street in the capital city of Gage county.

Mr. Bindernagel entered with utmost loyalty into the communal activities making for de- velopment and progress after he had estab- lished his residence on his original homestead, and in this connection it may be noted that he gave effective assistance in establishing the first school in what is now Filley township and that his lively interest in educational af- fairs met with such popular appreciation that he was retained for fully thirty-five years as a member of the school board of his district. He assisted also in the organizing of the Lutheran church in Blakely township, of which he and his wife became influential mem- bers. While he has had no ambition for po- litical office he has accorded a loyal support to the cause of the Republican party and has taken deep interest in public affairs, especially those of local order.

On the 25th of August, 1872, was solemn- ized the marriage of Mr. Bindernagel to Miss Margaret Marschall, who was born in Ger- many, October 22, 1850, and who was there reared and educated. She came to America in the autumn of 1870, and within less than two years thereafter became the wife of Mr. Bindernagel, to whom she proved a devoted companion and helpmeet during the remain- der of her earnest and kindly life. She was called to the life eternal, on the 23d of Feb- ruary, 1913. Of their union were born six children, concerning whom brief record is made in conclusion of this review: Miss Rosa remains with her venerable father and is the popular chatelaine of their pleasant home in the city of Beatrice ; Philip A. is one of the representative exponents of farm industry in Blakely township, where he operates one of his father's farms ; David is similarly engaged in Lincoln township; Elizabeth is the wife of George Stevens, of Lincoln township; Caro- line died August 24, 1909, at the age of twenty- eight years; and Emma is the wife of L. K. Stevens, who has the active charge of the old homestead farm of her father, in Blakely township.

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

HUGH J. DOBBS, the author of the his- torical part of this volume, was born in Taney county, state of Missouri, on the 28th day of September, 1849. He is the second son and the second of eleven children born to Fidillo Hunter and Mary Jane Dobbs. His ancestry and family history are set forth with some de- tail in the biography of his parents which ap- pears elsewhere in this work.

Hugh J. Dobbs attained the rudiments of an education in the first crude schools taught in Beatrice, Blue Springs, and in his home dis- trict, in Rockford township. In 1871, after leaving the first Beatrice high school, he ob- tained a third-grade certificate as a teacher and taught his first school, beginning May 10th of that year, in the Hillman school district, Hook- er township, for which he received one hun- dred dollars and board. In September. 1871, with thirty-five dollars borrowed money, he entered the state normal school at Peru, Ne- braska. At the close of the fall term he took charge of the Holmesville district school, and by teaching on Saturday and in vacations he was able to put four months' teaching into three, and return to the normal school at the opening of the spring term. In April, 1873, he took charge of the public schools of Bellevue and taught one term. Thereafter he was able to complete his course of study in the state normal school, from which institution he gra- duated in June, 1875. In September of that year he took charge of the public schools at Ashland, Nebraska, and he remained at the head of these schools till January 1, 1878, when he accepted a similar position in the public schools of Beatrice. He remained in charge of the Beatrice schools till the close of the school year of 1880. In both the Ashland and the Beatrice schools he was the first to introduce systematic graduation, install a course of study and graduate a class.

In September, 1880, Mr. Dobbs entered the law department of Union College (now Uni- versity), of Schenectady, New York, this de- partment being located at Albany. He receiv- ed his degree of Bachelor of Laws from Union College May 27, 1881, and on the 28th day of May was admitted to the bar of the state of

New York. On the 11th day of July, 1881, he began the practice of his profession at Beat- rice, and he has been continuously and active- ly engaged in the practice of the law in this city since that date. His practice extends to all the courts of Nebraska and the federal courts. In the thirty-seven years of his practice he has transacted a large volume of legal business, both civil and criminal, and is an able and successful lawyer.

Hugh J. Dobbs always takes an active inter- est in public affairs. In politics he has always . been affiliated with the great national Republi- can party, to which party he has never wavered in loyalty. In 1884 he was appointed register of the United States government land office at Beatrice, by President Arthur. He took office April 1st of that year and held the same until September 15, 1887, when the Beatrice land district was consolidated with the Lincoln land district, and the records of the old Beatrice- Brownville office removed to Lincoln. In 1888 he was nominated by his party as a candidate for the office of county attorney and was elected by the highest vote of any candi- date on the ticket, his majority in the county exceeding that of Benjamin Harrison, candi- date for president of the United States. When, in 1893, the Beatrice Free Public Library was established, he was selected as one of the first board of trustees of that important and useful institution and he served in that capacity eight- een years. He was two years president of the board and sixteen years at the head of the book committee, one of the most important com- mittees connected with the library.

Mr. Dobbs has been engaged over a year in the preparation of the History of Gage County. His work has been almost wholly confined to the historical part of this volume. His com- pensation consists not in the few dollars he re- ceives for his labor, but in the satisfaction of having performed a service of lasting benefit to his day and generation. In common with many, he felt that before the last of the pioneers had passed away the history of Gage county should be written by one who was familiar with it from the beginning to the pres- ent time and whose acquaintance was exten-

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sive amongst the early settlers. He has ful- filled this duty as forcefully as circumstances would permit. A portrait of Mr. Dobbs ap- pears as frontispiece of this volume.

While attending the state normal school at Peru, the subject of this sketch made the ac- quaintance of Louisa A. Piper, who also was attending school there. In 1876 and 1877, they taught school together in Ashland, and on Christmas eve, 1877, they became engaged to be married. On the first day of January, 1884, their marriage was solemnized, at Alma, Harlan county, Nebraska, and they have ever since resided in Beatrice. Five children are the fruit of this marriage. They are: Flor- ence M., who lives at home with her par- ents ; Stuart Piper, a graduate of the Beatrice high school and of the literary and law cours- es of the University of Nebraska, now prac- ticing his profession at Ogden, Utah, where he is district attorney of the judicial district which includes Weber county, where Ogden is located, and three other counties; Edith Evelyn, who is a teacher of history in the public schools of Ogden; Louise Josephine, a student in the state University of Colorado, at Boulder ; and Hugh J. Dobbs, Jr., of Colo- rado University, now serving in an officers' reserve training camp at Presidio, and sub- ject to the call of his country.

THOMAS FRANCIS DOBBS is the sixth son and the ninth child of Fidillo Hunter and Mary Jane Dobbs, whose biographical sketch with family genealogy is found elsewhere in this volume. He was born on the old home- stead, in Rockford township, on August 6, 1866. He received the rudiments of an edu- cation in the old school house across the road from his father's homestead, and for a while taught district school in the county. Finally he entered the state normal school at Peru, and in this institution he was duly graduated. For three years he was principal of the public schools at Wahoo, and for about the same length of time principal of the public schools at Auburn. He then entered the hardware business at Peru, where he built up a fine trade, but on account of his wife's

health he was forced to move to Colorado, where, with the exception of a single year spent in Oregon, he has since made his home. For several years he was engaged in business at Rocky Ford, and was very prosperous. He sold out there and went to Oregon with a view to entering the banking business, but after a year he returned to Colorado and settled at LaSalle, six miles west of Greeley, where he bought the controlling interest in the LaSalle State Bank. He is now president of this bank and is doing a satisfactory bank- ing business.

While attending the state normal school at Peru, he made the acquaintance of Miss Vina Cannon, a classmate, and shortly after their graduation they were married. Two children have been born to them - Herbert, twenty-two years of age, cashier of the State bank of LaSalle, Colorado; and Mary, a student in the conservatory of music at Den- ver.

Thomas F. Dobbs is the object of the deep fraternal affection of his brothers and sisters. He is without enemies and his friends are legion.

LEANDER M. PEMBERTON. - No man in Gage county is better known or more highly esteemed than Leander M. Pemberton. For nearly two score years he has made his home in the city of Beatrice and he has gained dis- tinction not only in his profession as an able, scholarly lawyer, a legislator and a learned, wise and just judge, but also as a gentleman, a friend and a true and loyal citizen in all the walks of life. He came to Beatrice from Iowa in the fall of 1879 and gained immediate recog- nition as a careful, discriminating, conscien- tious lawyer, and until his merits marked him for an exalted judicial position he had been professionally connected with a large volume of important legal business in the courts of the country, federal as well as state. Perhaps no man of his profession while practicing at the bar in Gage county was so often called into cases by other counsel as Judge Pemberton, and no lawyer ever more deserved the confi- dence of his professional associates. His suc-

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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 76

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