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 80
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Isaac Jamison was the son of Jackson Jamison, who named Kentucky as his natal
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state and in the early part of the nineteenth century moved to the wooded lands of In- diana, where he became a very well-to-do man. He was active in the logging business and the clearing of the forests for the tilling of the rich soil which gave of its treasures of wheat and corn. In 1884 Jackson Jamison came to Gage county and until 1894 he was here en- gaged in farming. He then removed to Okla- homa, where his death occurred.
Andrew Jackson Jamison, with whom this review deals, received his education in the district schools of Greene county, Indiana, and in the meantime was helping with the farming operations of the old homestead. In the '80s he came to Jefferson county, Nebraska, where for a number of years he rented land and worked as a farm hand. In 1885 he came to Gage county, where he rented land until he was able, in 1907, to purchase the land which is his home, in Section 10, Elm township. He has added eighty acres to the original and also one hundred and sixty acres, in Section 9, which was received by his wife as her share of her father's estate. Mr. Jamison is now employed in the tilling of two hundred and forty acres of land and is also raising Duroc-Jersey hogs and Red Polled cattle.
On October 18, 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Andrew J. Jamison and Miss Dora L. Hood (for the family history see John C. Hood sketch in this volume). To this marriage have been born six children : Ethel, the wife of Archie Carpenter, of Har- bine, Nebraska; Gertrude, attending the high school at Beatrice ; and Austin, Frances, Ina, and Grace, who are under the parental roof. Mrs. Jamison was born in Mason county, Illinois, in 1872, and came to Gage county in 1884.
Mr. Jamison allies himself with the Demo- cratic party, although he has sought no politi- cal honors. He is now serving on the school board of district No. 132. Coming to the state of Nebraska in his early manhood, Mr. Jamison has labored for all that he owns, realizes the worth of all that he has acquired,
and is now giving his children educational ad- vantages which will fit them for useful lives.
EDWARD W. DOLE is president of the Dole Floral Company, of Beatrice, this being an important corporation that has developed to large volume the floriculture enterprise es- tablished in a modest way by the mother of Mr. Dole, full data concerning the company and its honored founder being given on other pages of this work. Mr. Dole resides on his model little farm of thirty-six acres, which lies within the city limits of Beatrice, at the south, and he is one of the progressive and representative business men of Gage county and its fine capital city.
The lineage of the Dole family traces back to sterling English origin and the American progenitor of the branch represented by the Doles of Nebraska was Richard Dole, who was born in Bristol, England, in 1624. The founders of the family in England came from the ancient province of Brittany, France. It is to be presumed that Richard Dole accompan- ied his parents to the new world in the autumn of 1639, though records extant give no specific information in this respect. Rich- ard Dole was thrice married and of his ten childen Joseph, born August 5, 1657, was next in line of direct genealogical line to him whose name introduces this review. Richard Dole settled at Amboy, Massachusetts, and he was eighty-one years of age at the time of his death. In a circumscribed article of this order there is no possibility of entering into details concerning the genealogical history of the Dole family, but it may consistently be said that in each successive generation the family has given to the nation men and women of worthy character and worthy achievement, while representatives of the name have been prominent not only in New England, that gracious cradle of much of our national history, but also in divers other states of the Union.
Edward W. Dole was born in Seward county, Nebraska, February 15, 1870, and is a son of Josiah G. and Sophia (Hooker) Dole, adequate review of whose lives is given
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on other pages. At this juncture, however, ward W. Dole included a year of study in it may be stated that Josiah G. Dole, who was the Beatrice high school, and thereafter he was for a time identified with the newspaper business -with the Beatrice Daily Express. In 1891 he and his brother Walter A. became associated with their mother in establishing a small greenhouse in Beatrice and initiating the enterprise that has since been developed into the extensive and well ordered business now conducted under the title of the Dole Floral Company, of which Edward W. Dole has been president from the time of its incor- poration. Mr. Dole has been vital and pro- gressive as a business man and loyal and pub- lic-spirited as a citizen, though he has never sought or held public office of any description. His political allegiance is given to the Repub- lican party and he and his wife are active members of the Christian church in Beatrice. born at Cincinnati, Ohio, December 25, 1825, joined the military police, or home guard, at the outbreak of the Civil war, was made first lieutenant and continued in active service until the close of the war. He came to Ne- braska in 1867, the year that marked the ad- mission of the state to the Union, and he set- tled in Seward county. In 1868-1869 he was there engaged in the manufacturing of brick, and some of the brick was used in the con- struction of the first brick chimneys in the city of Lincoln. In 1869 Mr. Dole wedded Miss Sophia Hooker, and they became the parents of five children, of whom the subject of this review is the eldest; Walter is now a resident of Bainbridge, Georgia ; Anna is the wife of George M. Johnston, individually mentioned elsewhere in this volume; Ella S. is the wife of Frederick Van Boskirk, like- wise specifically represented in this publica- tion ; and Elbert J. is a leading photographist in the city of Lincoln, this state.
Edward W. Dole was reared and educated in Seward county and in his youth gained familiarity with the conditions and influences of the pioneer era in the history of south- eastern Nebraska. His father was associated with brick manufacturing about two years and then obtained a homestead in Seward county and turned his attention to farm en- terprise. Eventually, after having developed a productive farm, he came to Gage county, and he passed the closing years of his life in the city of Beatrice, where his death occurred April 19, 1903. His wife was born in the state of New York, October 6, 1836, a daugh- ter of Philip J. and Mary Ann (Derbyshire) Hooker, who came to Nebraska Territory in 1866 and established their residence in Se- ward county, as sterling pioneers, the father, two of the sons and two of the daughters, in- cluding Mrs. Dole, having each taken up a homestead claim in that county. Mr. Hooker died many years ago, when well advanced in years, and his widow was ninety-two years of age at the time of her death, in January, 1906.
The early educational advantages of Ed-
April 26, 1890, recorded the marriage of Mr. Dole to Miss Ellen E. McCrea, daughter of Edgar and Julia (Dearsdorf) McCrea, who were early settlers in Seward county, Mr. McCrea having died at Milford, that county, November 23, 1917, and his widow being still a resident of that village. Mrs. Dole has two brothers and three sisters :. John W. and Thomas W. are residents of Beatrice; Lydia E. is the wife of Christopher M. Miller, of this city ; Florence D. is the wife of Jesse W. Dubbins, of Beatrice; and Fannie B. is the wife of S. D. Newman, of Milford, Seward county. Mr. and Mrs. Dole have an adopted daughter, Gladys Thelma, who is a member of their gracious home circle.
JAMES F. BOGGS, postmaster of the vil- lage of Filley, has been a resident of Gage county since he was a lad of fifteen years and is a son of that honored pioneer, Hon. Lewis B. Boggs, M. D., to whom a merited tribute is paid on other pages of this work, so that fur- ther reference to the family record is not de- manded in the present connection. Mr. Boggs was born at North Manchester, Indiana, Jan- uary 7, 1856, and he acquired his early educa- tion in the schools of Indiana and Gage county, Nebraska, to which latter state he came with his parents in the year 1871. In
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this county he became closely and effectively associated with his father in farm enterprise and in 1888 he assumed a position as clerk in a hardware establishment in the village of Filley. Later he here became associated with his brother, Dr. Charles S. Boggs, in the ownership of a well equipped drug store, and this alliance has since continued, the firm hav- ing recently erected a new building for the store and having an establishment of attrac- tive order and the best of facilities and ser- vice.
Mr. Boggs identified himself with the Pro- gressive party at the time of its organization and has been influential in its local councils in Gage county. He has held various munic- ipal offices in the village of Filley and is now serving his second term as postmaster, his original appointment to this office having been made in 1911. He is one of the loyal and pro- gressive citizens of his home village and county and his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances. He is af- filliated with the Masonic fraternity and he and his wife are active members of the Chris- tian church at Filley.
The year 1882 recorded the marriage of Mr. Boggs to Miss Laura E. Faulder, daugh- ter of the late David S. Faulder, to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Boggs have two chil- dren : Ethel L. is the wife of Glenn W. Hild- reth, who is ( 1918) superintendent of the pub- lic schools at Roseland, Adams county, Mrs. Hildreth being principal of the schools and both being teachers of distinctive talent and popularity ; Edgar D. Boggs, who was born October 29, 1893, is a skilled machinist and is employed in the shops of the Burlington Railroad lines at Plattsmouth, Nebraska; the maiden name of his wife having been Ruby Mc Pherson.
FIDILLO HUNTER DOBBS - The fam- ily from which Fidillo Hunter Dobbs was derived, as far as its history is known, begins with Sir Richards Dobbs, a Yorkshireman, who during the reign of Edward VI was Lord Mayor of London, and, according to Froude,
a pillar of state. For his services to the young king he was knighted. In 1596 his nephew, John Dobbs, accompanied Sir Henry Dockwra, Lord-Treasurer of Ireland, to that island, and served as his deputy for the Pro- vince of Ulster. In 1603 he married Mar- garet, only child of John Dalway, of Ballyhill, County Antrim, a lady of distinction and for- tune, and through this marriage was founded the well known Dobbs family of Irish his- tory. The ancient seat of this family is Dobbs Castle, County Antrim, Ulster Province. Its present master and the present head of the family in Ireland is Montague William Edward Dobbs, Esquire, born September 28, 1844.
In America the family history begins with Governor Arthur Dobbs, born April 2, 1689, who was high sheriff of County Antrim and for many years member of parliament for Garrickfergus. He was appointed engineer and surveyor general of Ireland by Sir Robert Walpole, and in 1753 was sent out by George II as governor of the colony of North Caro- lina. He took office, at Newbern, November 1, 1754, and immediately adopted measures to conciliate the Indians. Treaties were made with the Catawabas and Cherokees, and, to pro- tect western North Carolina from Indian de- predations, he erected, armed and manned Fort Dobbs, on the south fork of the Yadkin. He established courts of justice in a number of districts where none had been before, and, himself a man of letters, he encouraged learn- ing in the colony. In a book entitled "Lives of Distinguished Men of North Carolina," by J. W. Peele, (Raleigh, 1898,) is the fol- lowing reference to his administration: "Pro- gress of the style which marked the period of the American Revolution can be traced in North Carolina from the administration of Governor Dobbs". This has reference to the exalted style and purity of expression which characterizes the writings of the heroes of the Revolution. Governor Dobbs governed his colony wisely and well, raising it from a wretched state of poverty to a position of financial independence. Amongst other things he was remarkable as a colonizer. When he
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FIDILLO HUNTER DOBBS Pioneer resident of Gage County
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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
MARY JANE DOBBS Wife of Fidillo Hunter Dobbs
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came to North Carolina the colony contained nine thousand inhabitants, but at the close of his eleven years' service as governor it had forty-five thousand.
Amongst the immigrants whom he induced to come to North Carolina were many of his immediate relatives, who came with the hope and expectation of appointment to office and other preferments. The Governor amassed large possessions and by a high-toned defense of the royal perogatives, against the rising tide of democratic resistance to royal claims, made many powerful enemies .. Charges were pre- ferred against him to the crown, including amongst other things nepotism, the unjust ac- cumulation of wealth and a fixed determina- tion on his part to locate' the capital of the colony on his own land. In 1765, nearly ten years prior to the beginning of the Revolution- ary war, he resigned his office to return to England and defend himself in the court of George III, his friend and patron, the learned George II, having died in 1760. Before he was able to adjust his affairs and take ship, he died, at the age of eighty-two years.
Governor Dobbs left numerous relatives in North Carolina, amongst them his sons Con- way Richard and Edward Brice Dobbs, the latter being a member of his council. He also left a brother, described in his will as Rev. Dr. Richard Dobbs ; also Richard Spaight, likewise a member of his council, and presumably the father of Richard Dobbs Spaight, a nephew of the Governor, who was afterward distin- guished as a delegate from North Carolina to the convention which framed the federal con- stitution, and who afterward became the eighth governor of the state of North Carolina.
According to Gruppy, a recognized author- ity on Irish genealogy, a son Chesley was born to Governor Arthur Dobbs by his marriage with Ann, daughter and heir of Captain Os- borne, of Timahoe, County of Kildare, relict of Captain Norbury. Burke, in the Irish Landed Gentry, states that there was issue of this marriage and that Conway Richard Dobbs took the inheritance, but fails to give the names of the other sons.
From some branch of this colonial family
came Chesley Dobbs, the grandfather of Fi- dillo Hunter Dobbs. It is stated of him that he served seven years in the Revolutionary army under a Colonel William Washington, and afterward settled in Claiborne county, Tennessee. His son Joel, father of Fidillo Hunter Dobbs, was born in Buncombe county, North Carolina. He married Sallie Morgan, also a native of North Carolina, and a member of the well known southern family of that name. She was closely related to General John Morgan, the "Raider" of Civil war fame. Their marriage took place in Claiborne county, Tennessee, in 1815. Shortly afterward the family removed to Casey county, Kentucky, where Fidillo Hunter Dobbs was born on the 4th day of March, 1823. The other children of this marriage were Hugh H., Russell L., Bethene, Anderson, Orlean, William C., Arch- ibald and Sallie. In 1828, the mother died, and in 1829 Joel Dobbs contracted a second marriage, with Elizabeth Langville. From this union there were born seven children, of whom five reached maturity: some attained wealth and prominence in eastern Illinois.
In 1830 Joel Dobbs removed his family from Kentucky to Putman county, Indiana, where he located near Greencastle, on the great na- tional highway then being constructed across the state from Terre Haute to Cincinnati. In 1837 the family, except Hugh, Russell, Bethene and Anderson, all of whom remained in Indiana, removed to the Ozark country in southwestern Missouri and located in the val- ley of the White river, in Taney county, where, in 1842, the father, Joel Dobbs, died.
Fidillo Hunter Dobbs acquired in the com- mon schools of Indiana and Missouri, a good, unable education for those times, and when twenty-one years of age he became a schoolmaster, pursuing this useful occupation five years. On August 1, 1847, at Forsyth, Taney county, Missouri, he married Mary Jane Schullenbarger, the eldest daughter of Jacob and Susan (Simeon) Schullenbarger ; she was one of his pupils in a district school in the Ozark mountains. They became the parents of eleven children, William Jacob, Hugh Jackson, Susan Catherine, Russell Lane,
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PIONEER RESIDENCE OF FIDILLO HUNTER DOBBS
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Sarah Jane, Louisa Florizelle, Joel Bracken, Josephine, John Abram, Thomas Francis and Lucy Ann. All grew to maturity and are still living excepting Susan Catherine, who died in Andrew county, Missouri, of an infantile disease, in 1842, aged thirteen months.
In May, 1852, the family moved from south- western to northwestern Missouri, where Fidillo Hunter Dobbs purchased a farm of eighty-seven acres on the Nodaway river, ten miles southwest of Savannah, the county seat of Andrew county. In March, 1856, he sold his farm and moved to a farm on the Hundred and Two river, in the edge of Grand Prairie, eight miles northeast of Savannah.
In August, 1858, he came to the new terri- tory of Nebraska, and under the pre-emption law of the country he located a claim in Sec- tion twenty-three, Rockford township, Gage county. He built a round-log cabin on his claim, rived clapboards to cover it, mowed with a scythe and stacked five tons of prairie hay, and returned to Missouri to spend the winter of 1858-1859. He left Missouri on the first day of March with his family, consisting of his wife and six children, and arrived in Gage county March 12, 1859. The following May he sold his first claim and bought of George W. Stark his pre-emption rights to the northwest quarter of Section fourteen in Rockford township. On August 5, 1863, at Brownville, Nebraska, he made homestead entry of this tract of land at the government land office, he being the forty-seventh entry- man under the homestead law. This tract of land constituted the family homestead until 1906, when this pioneer husband and wife left their old home and came to Beatrice to spend the brief remnant of their days.
Fidillo Hunter Dobbs died at his home in Beatrice, from a stroke of paralysis, on the 16th day of July, 1907, aged eighty-four years, four months, twelve days.
His beloved wife, Mary Jane Dobbs, sur- vived him but a few months, dying at her home in Beatrice March 7, 1908, aged seventy- six years, six months, seventeen days. They lie side by side in Evergreen Home cemetery
and their resting place is marked by a monu- ment. As the fruit of their marriage, there were living at the time of their death, ten children, fifty-four grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren. Their living posterity now includes ten children, fifty-five grandchil- dren, fifty-one great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren,- a total of one hundred and twenty persons.
Throughout his long life Fidillo Hunter Dobbs was an active and a useful member of society. He was by occupation a farmer but found time to take an intelligent interest in public affairs. From 1862 to 1866, inclusive, he was a member of the board of county com- missioners of Gage county, and with William Tyler and Fordyce Roper, the other members of the county board at that time, and John W. Prey, one of the commissioners of Lancaster county, adjusted the affairs of old Clay county after its partition between Lancaster and Gage.
The home of Fidillo Hunter and Mary Jane Dobbs was always known far and wide for its open hospitality. All who came were welcome and for the entertainment of strangers it is doubtful if he ever accepted willingly a cent of compensation. In 1866 they erected a hewed- log, story-and-a-half house; though in a ruined condition, it still exists on the old homestead. Here for many years
The great fires up its chimney roared, The stranger feasted at its board.
This was their residence until 1885, when they erected, near the northeast corner of their homestead, a commodious frame house which formed their domicile while they remained on the farm. Both these homes were centers for the social, educational and religious life of the community, and, covering a radius of many miles, the spirit of this home was a potent influence for the best there is in humanity. By their simple, unostentatious and helpful lives, Fidillo Hunter and Mary Jane Dobbs endeared themselves to hundreds of the pioneers of Gage county, and if "to live in hearts we leave be- hind is not to die" they are assured of im- mortality.
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JOHN B. REIFF has resided since 1889 on his present farm, which comprises one hun- dred and sixty acres and is situated in Section 21, Rockford township. He was born in Wood- ford county, Illinois, February 10, 1863, and is a son of Joseph and Mary (Balley) Reiff, the former of who was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1828, and the latter of whom was born in Ohio, October 5, 1837. The death of the father occurred July 3, 1903, and that of the mother on the 22d of May, 1917.
Joseph Reiff was a son of Jacob Reiff, who passed his entire life in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and who was a farmer by vo- cation, he having been a descendant of one of three brothers who came from Germany and settled in the Old Keystone state in the pio- neer era of its history. The wife of Joseph Reiff was a daughter of Yost Balley, who came from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania, whence he later removed to Ohio, and finally he established his home in Illinois, in the pio- neer days, his death having there occurred in 1877. In 1848 Joseph Reiff became a resident of Woodford county, Illinois, and finally he purchased land and turned his attention to independent farm enterprise. He eventually accumulated four hundred and forty acres of land and he so improved the property that when he finally sold the same he was able to dispose of the land at a rate varying from eighty to eighty-five dollars an acre. In 1889 he came to Gage county, Nebraska, where he purchased five hundred and sixty acres of land, much of which he later gave to his chil- dren, who were five in number and three of whom are still living: Samuel is a retired car- penter and builder residing at McPherson, Kansas, in which state he established his home in 1888 and in which he owns valuable farm property ; John B., of this sketch, is the next younger ; and Elizabeth, who is the widow of Ezra P. Steel, resides at Kidder, Missouri. The parents were earnest members of the Church of the Brethren and in politics the father was an independent Republican during the later period of his life. He achieved a large measure of temporal prosperity and did
much to foster civic and industrial progress after he had initiated the development of his farm properties in Gage county.
John B. Reiff is indebted to the public schools of Illinois for his early educational discipline, which was supplemented by higher studies in Mount Morris College, that state. After having been for four years engaged in independent farming in his native common- wealth he came to Gage county and purchased his present well improved farm, a property that has been transferred but three times since it was a part of the government domain, the substantial and commodious house on the homestead having been erected in the '60s and showing the throughness which attended building operations in that pioneer period.
In 1885 Mr. Reiff married Miss Susan Gish, who likewise was a native of Woodford county, Illinois, and she passed to eternal rest January 16, 1897. Of this union were born five children : Carson is a farmer in Rockford township, as is also Charles; Ida is the wife of Lee Divine, a farmer near Blue Springs. this county; Oma is employed as a skilled stenographer in the city of Denver, Colorado; and Estella is the wife of Robert E. Harris, of Pleasanton, Buffalo county, Nebraska.
In 1899 Mr. Reiff contracted a second mar- riage, when Miss Martha Fink became his wife. She is a daughter of Samuel and Han- nah (Watenberger) Fink, both natives of Tennessee, where the father passed his entire life, Mrs. Fink having passed the closing years of her life in the home of her daughter Martha, Mrs. Reiff. Mr. and Mrs. Reiff have four children, - Hilda, Joseph, Elva and Ola.
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