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 77

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 77

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

cess in lite has been gained by sheer force of character, learning and ability of a very high order. It is characteristic of him that he has the power, without conscious effort on his part, of inspiring confidence in the breasts of others, a confidence founded on a belief in his honesty and integrity of character.

To have been well born is always a desir- able factor in a human life. While pride of ancestry is not as a rule characteristic of the American citizen, it is but natural, and highly commendable, that one should feel a just pride in the fact that his ancestors were in their day and generation people of consequence, of character and influence. As respects his par- ents, as well as his more remote ancestry, Judge Pemberton was well born. The family of which he is a scion is of English origin and was founded in America at an early day. John Pemberton, his great-grandfather was a Vir- ginian. In the decisive battle of King's Mountain, October 7, 1780, where a body of state militia almost annihilated Lieutenant Colonel Ferguson's army of British regulars, and thereby practically destroyed England's power in the southern colonies, he com- manded a regiment in Colonel Shelby's regi- ment of volunteers. At the same time and in his company, under his command, were William King and John Sharp, the former a paternal great-grandfather and the latter a maternal great-grandfather of Judge Pember- ton. Thus in one of the most important and decisive battles of the Revolutionary war, we find serving together in one company of vol- unteers three men who were destined to oc- cupy the same relation as forbears to Judge Leander Munsell Pemberton. Judge Pem- berton's paternal grandfather, Stanton Pem- berton, also a Virginian, about the year 1804, married Sarah King, a descendant of William King, and in 1831 emigrated from Virginia to Coles county, Illinois. To this marriage there were born eleven children, the third of whom, Harvey Guilford Pemberton, became Judge Pemberton's father. In September, 1832, Harvey Guilford Pemberton returned to Vir- ginia and married Caroline Clarissa King, who was born in Sullivan county, Tennessee, in

March, 1811, the tenth child in a family of fourteen children. Her people, who were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, removed from Pennsylvania to Tennessee about the year 1760. Caroline Clarissa Pemberton, the mother of Judge Pemberton, was a woman of character and refinement ; though deprived in her youth of all but the most meager educa- tional advantages, she was a lover of good literature and possessed all the graces and vir- tues of a noble wife and mother. Several of her brothers were college graduates, but the education of a woman was deemed a needless extravagance in those days. She became the mother of nine children, of whom three sons and two daughters reached maturity.

One of these sons, Johnathan Columbus Pemberton was in the militia company that went to the rescue of the settlers in the Spirit Lake massacre, in March, 1857, and his name appears on the fine monument at Lake Oko- boji, Iowa, erected by the state of Iowa to the memory of the suffering and heroism of those militiamen. He died in March, 1860, aged twenty-seven years, from a disease caused largely by the hunger and exposure encoun- tered on that expedition. Another son, Wil- liam J. Pemberton, was an early settler of Beatrice, but he afterward removed to Jef- ferson county and became a member of the leg- islature from that county, in the session of 1887. He died suddenly, at Hebron, Ne- braska, in November, 1898, aged fifty years. The other son, Leander M. Pemberton, is the subject of this sketch. One daughter, Mrs. Emily C. Ross, died in December, 1881, at Stratford, Iowa, aged forty years; the other daughter, Mrs. Sarah A. Bascom, aged eighty- one years, is still (July, 1918), living, and re- sides at Spencer, Iowa.

Leander M. Pemberton was born on the 12th day of November, 1845, in a humble log cabin on a farm, near the town of Paris, in Edgar county, Illinois. His early childhood was spent in the place of his birth, but when he was nine years of age his parents, in the fall of 1854, moved to Iowa, and in the spring of 1855 settled in the village of Homer, in what afterward became the county of Hamilton.

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

LEANDER M. PEMBERTON

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

Here, on the 4th day of November, 1864, the wife and mother died, at the age of fifty-three years, and within a year her husband also passed away, his death occurring October 31, 1865, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. All that was mortal of this husband and wife lie side by side in the cemetery near Webster City, Iowa.

Judge Pemberton's education began in the primary department of a seminary at Paris, Illinois, when he was seven years of age. On the removal of his parents to Iowa it was con- tinned in the log school house, and later in the one-room, frame school house at the village of Homer, until he attained the age of sixteen, when he left the paternal roof and engaged in the battle of life single-handed and unaided. He journeyed on foot from Homer, in Hamil- ton county, to Mahaska county, Iowa, where he found employment on a farm near Leredo, doing with his might whatever he found to do, at the munificent wage of forty cents a day. He earned money enough in the farming sea- son to pay his way at Oskaloosa College dur- ing the winter of 1862-1863 and the fall of 1863. He then successfully passed an examin- ation for a teacher's certificate and began teaching school. His rise in the world might be described as rapid, since from a wage of twelve and fifteen dollars a month as a farm hand, he was now able to command a salary of twenty-five dollars a month as a country schoolmaster. By working on a farm in the growing seasons of the year and teaching fall and winter schools he managed to obtain enough money to cover his expenses through the sophomore year of the State University of Iowa. Reluctantly abandoning a collegiate course of study, Mr. Pemberton returned to Hamilton county, Iowa and resumed his oc- cupation as a school teacher, studying law dili- gently, as opportunity afforded, under the di- rection of Judge D. D. Chase, of Webster City. April 6, 1870, he was admitted to the bar at Boonesboro, Boone county, Iowa, and in June of the same year he began the practice of his profession at the town of Peterson, Clay county, Iowa. At the general election in 1871 he was elected to the office of anditor of Clay

county and took up his residence in Spencer, which then became the county seat. By suc- cessive elections he held this position six years, practising his profession in the meantime.

During the presidential campaign of 1872 Judge Pemberton directed the editorial policy of the Clay County News, advocating the elec- tion of Grant and Wilson. In the autumn of 1879-he left Iowa and located in Beatrice.

At the time of his arrival here both the city of Beatrice and the county of Gage were growing by leaps and bounds. The federal census of 1880 credited Beatrice with a popu- lation of 2,447 and the county with 13,164 in- habitants. Mr. Pemberton found a hospitable welcome in the community and his success was immediate, both as a lawyer and a citizen. From the first he took an active part in the affairs of the city, and he served six years as city attorney of Beatrice. For twelve years he was a member of the school board and for six years president of that body. He was at one time a member of the educational council of the state. When the free public library was established by the city council, in 1893, Judge Pemberton was selected as a member of the first board of directors and, by continuous re- appointment, he has held that position to the present time.

In 1902 Judge Pemberton was elected state senator from Gage county and from the mo- ment of its organization he became a useful, diligent and influential member of that body. Much of the important legislation of that ses- sion was due to his wisely directed energies. The legislature undertook to revise the revenue laws of the state and a joint committee of both houses was appointed to draft and report a revenue bill. Judge Pemberton was one of the senate members appointed to serve on this important committee and soon became one of its most influential members. It is largely to his training as a lawyer and his conscientious service as a legislator that the people of this state are indebted for their present complete and efficient revenue law, which is probably the best that can be made under our present constitution.

At the general election of 1907 Judge Pem -.

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berton was elected one of the judges of the old First judicial district of Nebraska, comprising the counties of Richardson, Nemaha, Pawnee, Johnson, Gage and Jefferson. The judicial business of this large district was then trans- acted by two judges, Hon. John B. Raper, of Pawnee City, who had served two years by appointment, and is still in the service as a judge of the First judicial district, having been elected at the time Judge Pemberton's election occurred. But before the next election of judges was had for the district, it was divided by the legislature and District Eighteen created, consisting of Gage and Jefferson coun- ties. At the general election of 1911 Judge Pemberton was elected judge of the Eighteenth judicial district, and he was re-elected in 1916. His present term will expire January 6, 1921. He has served more than ten years as a judge of this district court, a court which has both appellate and general original jurisdiction. Judge Pemberton is known far and wide as a careful and able trial judge. He commands not only the respect of the lawyers of his dis- trict, but is also universally esteemed by all who know him. The judicial ermine was never worn more worthily or its sanctity more care- fully guarded.

On the 30th day of April, 1879, at Spencer, Iowa, Judge Pemberton married Miss Ida M. Harris, a lady of amiable disposition and many accomplishments. Her mental faculties were of a high order and she was not afraid to exer- cise her judgment and follow its conclusions. In all the relations of life, and particularly as wife and mother, she was unusually capable. She was much esteemed in the community and was endowed with the graces that only a genuine, wholesome and lovely character can confer. On the 6th day of September, 1903, after an illness of some duration, she passed away, leaving her husband and children to mourn their irreparable loss.

To this marriage there were born five chil- dren, three daughters and two sons. The daughters are Zula L. Pemberton, for several years a successful teacher in the Beatrice schools and now a highly respected teacher in the public schools of Seattle, Washington ;

Pauline, wife of Wylie B. Mayer ; and Louise, wife of Lee W. Johnson, both of Beatrice. Mr. Mayer is a successful business man and Mr. Johnson for several years has been the official reporter for the Eighteenth judicial district of Nebraska ; since the entry of the United States into the great world war he has acted also as head clerk of the local draft board. The sons of Judge Pemberton are Frederick K. Pember- ton, a young business man of Beatrice, and Guilford Pemberton, a cadet in the signal corps of the aviation service now preparing for ser- vice in France, at Ellington Field, Texas.

Politically Judge Pemberton has always af- filiated with the Republican party, and to the honors bestowed upon him by this great na- tional organization he has faithfully endeav- ored to respond by honoring it in the character of his public services as a representative of his party.

While not directly connected with any re- ligious organization, Judge Pemberton is by nature a religious man. He accepts without reservation the general teachings of Christian- ity as lived and taught by its great founder, Jesus of Nazareth.

Having gained and, through long years of association, held the esteem of an entire com- munity ; having so discharged the duties of an advocate and a lawyer as to dignify and en- noble the great and learned profession ; having through long years so administered justice as judge of an important court as to command the respect of both the bench and bar of a great state, Judge Leander M. Pemberton can await without trepidation or fear the hour when it shall be said of him "the silver cord has been loosed, the golden bowl broken, the pitcher broken at the fountain."

EDGAR ROTHROCK-The story is told that on a Dutch sailing vessel in the year 1716 there was a man who wore a reddish- brown coat and whom the passengers named "Rot-Rock." Anyhow it is an established fact that Gottlieb Rothrock, the first and pos- sibly the only Rothrock to come to America, arrived in the year 1716 and settled in York county, Pennsylvania.

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In 1746 twin sons were born to one Philip Rothrock (probably a son of Gottlieb Roth- rock), who lived in Manchester township, York county, Pennsylvania. These sons, Philip named Valentine and Peter. The former remained in Pennsylvania while the latted emigrated to North Carolina and set- tled four miles south of Winston-Salem, where on April 19, 1785, was born to him a son whom he named Joseph.

Joseph Rothrock was a farmer and black- smith, and spent his life in the vicinity of his birth. He died in 1868 and was buried in the cemetery beside the Freiburg Moravian church, seven miles south of Winston-Salem, of which church he was a devout member. Joseph was twice married - first to Magda- lena Knaup, who bore to him six children, and after whose death he married Sarah Spach, six children being born of this second union. For this sketch our interest centers in Martin, who was born April 24. 1814, the second son, by the first marriage.

Martin Rothrock left his childhood home and immigrated to the new west in 1838, settling in Edwards county, Illinois, where he followed the occupations .of his father. Among the people whom he learned to know in the vicinity of his new home was an orphan girl, Elizabeth Rothrock, who was born January 22, 1822, and who lived with a family of another name. Their acquaintance ripen- ed into love and they were united in holy matrimony June 22, 1842. To this union were born five sons and three daughters. The second child, Eli Sanford, was born August 5, 1849.

Eli S. Rothrock grew to manhood in the vicinity of his birth and on August 4, 1870, he married Susannah Forney. To this union were born ten children, the seventh of whom is the subject of this sketch. Eli S. Roth- rock and his good wife left their childhood home early in 1876, with three horses and a covered wagon, and drove to Pawnee county, Nebraska, where they lived until the spring of 1878, when they removed to what is now Carlisle, Fillmore county, Nebraska. By oc- stipation he was a farmer, but he also served

the Bethel Church of the Brethren accept- ably as a minister. On March 11, 1883 a son was born to them, whom they named Edgar Eli.

The Forneys came to America from Switzerland and settled in Pennsylvania in colonial days. John Forney, Salisbury, Som- erset county, Pennsylvania was born Novem- ber 15, 1777. He married Susannah Buechley, and to them, were born nine sons and three daughters. By trade John Forney was a car- penter and cooper, and from the year 1830 he served the Berlin congregation of what is now the Church of the Brethren (Dunkard) as minister. He died August 31, 1846, and his wife departed this life July 27, 1862, at the age of seventy-five years.

Michael Forney, son of John and Susannah Forney, was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, January 14, 1811. February 16, 1834 he married Rachel Horner, who was a daughter of John Horner. To this union ten children were born. The seventh was Susannah, who married Eli Sanford Roth- rock. The Forneys were Dunkards, and many of them preachers. Michael and two of his brothers, two of his sons, and several grandsons were ministers. The Rothrocks were Moravians. Elizabeth Rothrock chang- ed her church relationship and united with the Church of the Brethren when she was in middle life.

Edgar Eli Rothrock grew up on his father's homstead at Carlisle, Nebraska. Having completed their studies in the country school he and his brothers and youngest sister drove to Davenport, Nebraska, and finished in the high school. Then Edgar attended Mount Morris College, Mount Morris, Illinois, nearly two years, and finished the Latin-Scientific course. The following year was spent in the school of agriculture at Lincoln, Nebraska. February 14, 1907, he and Bertha Evora Sweitzer were united in marriage, at the bride's home, near Waterloo, Iowa. Mrs. Edgar Rothrock, daughter of Amos D. and Harriet (Engle) Sweitzer was born Septem- ber 11, 1886, being the seventh in a family of eight children. Both her parents were born

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and reared in Pennsylvania, as were their parents before them, being of the sturdy Pennsylvania-German pioneer stock of that great commonwealth. After their marriage Edgar and Bertha Rothrock, settled on a farm near Carlisle, Nebraska. The Bethel congre- gation of the Church of the Brethren elected

him to the ministry in November, 1907. At once he entered upon his duties and preached his first sermon the first Sunday of January, 1908. The following winters were spent in study at home, in McPherson College, Kansas, and Bethany Bible School, Chicago, Illinois. March 1, 1910, the Bethel church invited him to accept the pastorate, which he did, and he served his home congregation in a very ac- ceptable manner for seven and one-half years. . He resigned this position to accept a similar one in the South Beatrice church, near Holmesville, Gage county, Nebraska, in Sep- tember, 1917. In this new field he is active not only in the things pertaining directly to the church but also in those for the general development of the community life. He help- ed to plan the campaign which resulted in the forming of the consolidated school at Holmes- ville. He knows and loves country people and he believes in the future of the rural com- munity.

Into this home six children have been born, all of whom are living. They are: Kathryn Bernita, born February 6, 1908; Aileen May, born May 1, 1909; Kevin Monroe, born De- cember 23, 1910; Ruth Elizabeth, born De- cember 1, 1912; Samuel Amos, born March 26, 1914; and Edgar Spurgeon, born, July 27, 1918.

JAMES W. MARPLES, the subject of this sketch, was born in Faribault county, Minnesota, May 19, 1864. He is the son of Charles Marples and Hannah Jane (Isley) Marples. In 1868 his parents migrated from Minnesota to the then new state of Nebraska, and located in Saline county, on a farm near the present city of Wilber. His father served four years as county clerk of that county during its early history, the county seat at

that time being Swan City, located on Swan creek, a short distance southwest of DeWitt. It was afterwards moved to Pleasant Hill, and when Wilber was laid out, in 1872, it became, and still is, the county seat of Saline county.

In 1875 Mr. Marples' parents moved to Gage county and located on a farm southeast of Blue Springs, where the head of the fam- ily died within the following winter. In 1877 the mother married N. Norris, an early settler in Saline county, and they still live on the old Marples homestead, three miles east of Wymore.

Mr. Marples obtained a good, usable edu- cation in the country schools of Island Grove township, Gage county, and looks back with much satisfaction to those happy days of his early life,-days when the old-fashioned spelling school and the A, B, C method of instruction had not gone entirely out of style, and the Three R's still constituted the prin- cipal source of learning in the common schools. Having completed an eighth-grade course in the district school, he spent some time in Campbell University, at Holton, Kansas, entering that institution in 1884.

In 1875, when Mr. Marples first came to Gage county, there was still much unbroken prairie throughout the county, where wild game common to prairie solitudes could be found - the quail, prairie chicken, and now and then a deer. A few miles south of his father's farm lay the Otoe Indian reservation, an unbroken stretch of prairie reaching from three miles in Jefferson county to within two miles of the east line of Gage county, and ex- tending ten miles south, two of which were in Marshall and Washington counties, Kansas. By a short ride or drive from Mr. Marples' boyhood home, a person could be in the midst of primeval conditions,- overhead the blue sky like a great hollow dome; on every hand the wide, rolling prairie, stretching to the far horizon ; a landscape unbroken by a single sign of civilized life, and a silence which had brooded over Nebraska from the dawn of time. Mr. Marples' boyhood and youth were not infrequently enlivened by the presence of

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blanketed Indians and he recalls these experi- etery. The children of this marriage were ences with the keenest interest.

Mr. Marples has until recently led the life of a farmer. In 1909 he was elected a mem- ber of the Gage county board of supervisors, from the Fifth supervisors' district, which in- cludes Rockford, Blue Springs, Sherman, Island Grove and Liberty townships. By successive re-elections he held this office until January, 1918, when he resigned to accept the position of deputy county clerk of Gage county. During his connection with county affairs, the entire indebtedness of Gage county has been liquidated, leaving the county for the first time since 1870 entirely free of debt. To Mr. Marples much of the credit is due for this very satisfactory state of affairs.

MARION TAYLOR CUMMINGS was born in Van Buren county, Iowa, June 21, 1862. He is a son of A. M. Cummings and Frances B. Cummings. When he was one year old his parents moved from Iowa to the state of Kansas and located near Gardner. He obtained the rudiments of an education in the common schools of that state and, having prepared for university work, he, in 1883, went to the State University at Lawrence, Kansas, quitting in his junior year. For one year he was engaged in a clerical position at Lawrence.

While attending the University of Kansas he made the acquaintance of Miss Marianna Griffin, a native of that state, born June 23, 1869. In the delightful intimacy of college life was formed between these two students a friendship which led to romantic love, and on the 1st day of May, 1888, at Lawrence. Kansas, they became husband and wife. Both were independent thinkers, both well educat- ed, both ambitious, and the marriage that was broken by death was an ideal one. In August, 1890, they moved from Kansas to Beatrice, Nebraska, and soon became factors in the social and business life of the community. Here on the 30th day of November, 1899, Mr. Cummings' beloved wife, Marianna,, died, and she was laid to rest in Evergreen Home cem-

Luella, Edith Eleanor and Gale Taylor Cum- mings.

On the 5th day of January, 1901 Mr. Cum- mings married Almida Marie Longtin, of Beatrice, a good and noble woman, and from this marriage have sprung Marianna Marie, Francis Marion and Emerie Sextus Cum- mings. These children are all living. Mr. Cummings' eldest child, Luella, is serving the government at Washington as clerk in the geological survey ; Edith Eleanor is fellowship assistant in astronomy at Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California, while Gale Tay- lor Cummings is in the marine service of his country, at present stationed at Mare Island, California. The children of the second mar- riage are at home, the eldest, Marianna, hav- ing just graduated from the Lincoln high school.

Mr. Cummings, with his family, came to Beatrice from Lawrence, Kansas, in August, 1890. His first act was to buy a cup of water, for five cents, on the old Chautauqua grounds, on the day when the Rev. Thomas De Witt Talmage preached to the multitude. His first meal in Gage county was eaten on the open prairie, east of the tile works, near where the Country Club now has golf links.

His prairie schooner stopped at 722 South Sixth Street, and he unloaded his wife and baby and took root there. His assets were a blind horse and eight hundred and sixty- four dollars in cash; his bills payable were one thousand dollars, for which his mother was security. But Mr. Cummings was young, ardent, and active. He worked hard, and pros- pered. After a year in the coal business, he put up an ice crop, and from this he paid his debts and bought a home for his family. This venture also started his father-in-law in the ice business, from which he grew wealthy. To his coal and ice business Mr. Cummings then added a grain business, and "went over the top." He was the first man in Nebraska to handle a wet harvest by use of a drying kiln. The venture paid, and out of it he coined the aphorism, "The Lord loves the valorous." This has been his motto ever

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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 77

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