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 82
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Leroy Brugh was a lad of six years at the time of the family removal to Colorado, where he was reared to adult age and given the ad- vantages of the public schools. In 1898 he returned with his parents to his native state, and he has since been actively and success- fully identified with agricultural and live-stock industry in Gage county, his operations being carried on somewhat extensively, as he is farm- ing a well improved estate of three hundred and twenty acres, in Section 21, Midland township, and about three miles distant from Beatrice, on rural mail route No. 4. Mr. Brugh is an energetic and progressive expon- ent of farm enterprise, a good business man and a loyal young citizen. He is a Democrat in politics but has never been troubled with any desire for public office.
February 26, 1902, recorded the marriage
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MRS. STURMEUS PFEFFERMAN
STURMEUS PFEFFERMAN
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of Mr. Brugh to Miss May Warford, daugh- ter of Louis M. Warford, of Rockford town- ship, to whom is accorded individual mention on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Brugh have three children : Dwight, Viola and Hazel, all of whom are attending school.
CHARLES S. BOGGS, M. D., who is en- gaged in the active practice of his profession at Filley, is essentially one of the representa- tive physicians and surgeons of Gage county and is upholding in both a professional and civic way the high prestige of the name which he bears, his father, Hon. Lewis B. Boggs, M. D., having been one of the leading pioneer physicians and influential citizens of the county and being made the subject of a merited tribute on other pages of this publi- cation, so that further record concerning the family history is not here demanded.
Dr. Charles S. Boggs was born at North Manchester, Indiana, on the 19th of June, 1857, and he acquired his early education in the public schools of the old Hoosier state. He was a lad of fourteen years at the time of the family removal to Gage county, Ne- braska, in 1872, and here he continued his studies until he had completed the curriculum of the Beatrice high school, in which he made a splendid record as a student and was at the head of his class in scholarship. After leav- ing the high school Dr. Boggs gave four years of most effective service as a teacher in the schools of this part of Nebraska and he then followed the trend of ambition by beginning the work of preparation for the profession that has been significantly dignified and honored by the services of his father. He entered the medical department of the University of Iowa, at Iowa City, where he continued his technical studies one year. He then entered the medi- cal department of the University of Nebraska, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1884 and from which he received his well won degree of Doctor of Medicine. He forthwith became associated with his father in practice, with residence and profes- sional headquarters in the village of Filley, and here he has continued his earnest and ef-
fective labors during the intervening period of more than thirty years, his success and popularity showing the high estimate placed upon him and also giving assurance that he has kept closely in touch with the advances made in medical and surgical science. The Doctor has a large and representative prac- tice, is actively identified with the Gage County Medical Society, the Nebraska State Medi- cal Society and the American Medical Asso- ciation, and in connection with his profes- sional activities he conducts a well ordered drug store at Filley, he having recently erected a handsome new building for his store.
In 1882 was recorded the marriage of Dr. Boggs to Miss Mary C. Faulder, daughter of David S. Faulder, of whom individual men- tion is made on other pages of this work. Dr. and Mrs. Boggs became the parents of one daughter, Mabel, whose death occurred when she was twenty years of age.
In politics Dr. Boggs is found aligned with the Progressive party, and he has shown his civic loyalty by many years of service as a member of the school board of Filley, as well as by service as a member of the village coun- cil. He is affiliated with the Masonic frater- nity and his wife holds membership in the Christian church.
STURMEUS PFEFFERMAN owns and occupies, at 1301 Ella street, one of the pleas- ant homes in the city of Beatrice, where he is now living retired, after many years of earnest and productive endeavor in connec- tion with farm enterprise. He was born in Germany, December 21, 1834, a son of Mich- ael Hefferman, who passed his entire life in Germany and who was engaged in the mer- cantile business for many years. The subject of this review was reared and educated in his native land, where also he learned the tailor's trade in his youth, but he never gave any con- siderable attention to his trade after having acquired the same. In 1861 he immigrated to America and settled in Livingston county, Illinois, where he was employed at farm work until the spring of 1862. He then gave evi- dence of his earnest loyalty to the land of his
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adoption by tendering his aid in defense of the Union. He enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Illinois Volun- teer Infantry, with which gallant command he took part in numerous engagements and with which he accompanied General Sher- man's forces on the historic march from At- lanta to the sea. He was fortunate in escap- ing wounds, but it is worthy of note that on one occasion, while in a dense brush, he felt an impact which he believed to have been made by a twig or bush, but upon later in- vestigation he found a bullet hole in his belt, showing that his escape had been narrow. After the close of the war Mr. Pfefferman continued his residence in Livingston county, Illinois, until 1870, when he came to Ne- braska and numbered himself among the pio- neers of Gage county. He purchased land in Lincoln township and with the passing years reclaimed and developed one of the fine farm properties of the county. He still owns this valuable landed estate, of six hundred and forty acres, and his sons have active manage- ment of its operation.
Mr. Pfefferman remained on his farm until 1897, when he removed to Beatrice, where he has since lived retired and where he is most fully enjoying the gracious rewards that are so justly his due. In politics Mr. Pfefferman supports the Republican party and he was reared in the faith of the Catholic church.
In December, 1866, Mr. Pfefferman wedded Miss Sarah A. Thomas. She was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1837, a daughter of John and Mary Thomas, who passed their entire lives in the old Keystone state, Mr. Thomas having been a miller by trade and vocation. Of the ten children Mrs. Pfefferman and her twin brother, Emanuel, were the youngest. Mrs. Pfefferman passed to the life eternal on the 21st of January, 1917.
Mr. and Mrs. Pfefferman became the par- ents of five sons and one daughter and con- cerning them brief record is here entered : George, who was born December 12, 1867, is a successful farmer in Gage county ; Lewis,
who was born November 14, 1869, died in 1908; Edward C. was born February 17, 1871; Albert C. was born January 7, 1873; Jennie B., the only daughter, was the next in order of birth; and Sturmeus, Jr., was born April 24, 1877.
FRANK J. CHITTENDEN. - Under the modern system of agricultural and live-stock industry the application of energy and good business policies insures success, and this is being significantly demonstrated in the activi- ties of Mr. Chittenden, who is a young man of progressiveness and utmost diligence and who is being prospered in his enterprise as a farmer. He is operating a farm of two hun- dred acres in Clatonia township, - a prop- erty which he rents from Henry Albert, a sub- stantial citizen individually mentioned on other pages. The success of Mr. Chittenden is the more pleasing to record by reason of his being a native of Gage county. He was born in Highland township, on the 28th of Decem- ber, 1881, and is a son of Warren E. and Emma (Pitman) Chittenden, concerning whom more specific mention is made else- where in this publication.
Frank J. Chittenden supplemented the dis- cipline of the district schools by attending the high school in the village of Clatonia and by a course in the Northwestern Business Col- lege, at Beatrice. Reared to the sturdy train- ing of the farm, Mr. Chittenden has found the industries of agriculture and stock-growing well worthy of his continued allegiance, but he held for three years a clerical position in the office of the treasurer of Gage county. He resigned this position in 1908, and thereafter rented a farm in Highland township until 1910, in May of which latter year he effected the lease of the large and well improved farm which now receives his supervision and in connection with which he is meeting with sub- stantial success. In politics he is unswerving in his allegiance to the Republican party and he takes loyal interest in community affairs, as a liberal and public-spirited citizen.
November 18, 1908, recorded the marriage of Mr. Chittenden to Miss Effie J. Albert, who
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was born and reared in Clatonia township, a daughter of Henry Albert. Mr. and Mrs. Chittenden delight in extending to their many friends the hospitality of their pleasant home, which is brightened further by the presence of their winsome little daughter, Ger- trude E. They are active members of the Methodist Episcopal church in the village of Clatonia.
JACOB S. RUTHERFORD. -- The ulti- mate and consistent reward that should prove the crown of years of earnest and effective toil and endeavor is the gracious retirement and compassing prosperity that may be had by men and women who have arrived at the stage on life's journey when the shadows be- gin to lengthen from the crimson west, where the sunset gates are open wide. Such reward has been granted to the sterling and honored Gage county pioneer whose name initiates this paragraph, and his name and achievement have been of distinctive influence in connection with the civic and material development and progress of Gage county and especially of its judicial center, the fair city of Beatrice, where he is now living virtually retired. He has held various local positions of public trust, includ- ing that of mayor of Beatrice, and further honor attaches to him for the service which he gave in his youth as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war. As a venerable pioneer and also as a citizen who has been prominent and in- fluential in the communal affairs of Gage county, Mr. Rutherford merits a definite tribute in this history.
Jacob S. Rutherford was born in Sauk county, Wisconsin, on the 6th of April, 1846, a date that gives assurance that his parents were numbered among the pioneer settlers of that section of the Badger state. He is a son of James B. and Blanche (Slentz) Ruther- ford, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Ohio. their marriage having been solemnized at Mount Carmel, Illinois. From the latter state they went to Wisconsin and became pioneers of Sauk county, the father having there engaged in the development of a farm and having also operated a grist mill.
In 1853 he became one of the argonauts in California, where he engaged in the mining of gold and other lines of enterprise, with a fair degree of success, and where he remained until 1856, when he returned to Wisconsin. In the latter state he continued his residence until the spring of 1866, when he came to Gage county, Nebraska, and, in April of that year, established his residence on a pioneer farm which he had purchased the preceding year, this old homestead being one mile north of the present village of Pickrell. He insti- tuted the development of his farm, besides eventually adding to his landed property by taking up a homestead claim. He continued as one of the prosperous farmers and valued citizens of the county until his death, at the age of seventy-two years, his wife having been fifty-six years of age at the time of her de- mise.
Jacob S. Rutherford, the immediate subject of this review, acquired his early education in the pioneer schools of Wisconsin and was fifteen years of age at the outbreak of the Civil war, so that he was ineligible for enlist- ment at that stage. His youthful patriotism, however, was not long to be curbed, for on the 3d of July, 1864, as a sturdy youth of eigh- teen years, he enlisted as a private in Com- pany H, Eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infan- try, with which gallant command he continued in active service until victory had crowned the Union arms, in the spring of the following year. He took part in various engagements, including the battle of Nashville, where he re- ceived a flesh wound in the side. While with his regiment participating in the seige of Vicks- burg Mr. Rutheford fell a victim to an ignoble foe, as he was attacked so severely with measles as to become delirious, the result be- ing that when he resumed normal control of his mental faculties he found himself in a bar- racks hospital in the city of New Orleans. He had not yet recovered his wonted vigor when the war came to a close, and he received his honorable discharge while stationed at De- mopolis, Alabama.
After the close of the war Mr. Rutherford returned to Wisconsin and the next spring he
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accompanied his parents on their removal to Gage county, Nebraska. For a few years there- after he gave his attention principally to op- erating saw mills at Beatrice and to freighting from Gage county to Kearney, this state, and also into Colorado. Finally his mechanical ability gained to him prestige as a skilled artisan at the carpenter's trade, and eventually he developed a substantial and successful busi- ness as a contractor and builder. He was concerned in the erection of many buildings in this county and certain of the important buildings in Beatrice stand as enduring monu- ments to his skill - notably those of the Be- atrice National Bank and the public library, besides which he was the contractor for the larger part of the excellent street paving of this city. He continued his successful activi- ties as a contractor until 1915, since which time he has lived practically retired, owing to de- fective eyesight.
Mr. Rutherford has been notably loyal and public-spirited as a citizen and has been in- fluential in the local councils and campaign activities of the Democratic party. In the early days he served as assessor of Beatrice and adjoining townships, for two years he he'd the office of street commissioner of Beat- rice, and his ability and popularity were fur- ther indicated by his having been retained for fourteen years as a member of the city coun- cil, of which municipal body he was president four years. His progressive policies were en- grafted strongly upon the administration of city affairs and finally, in 1909 he had the further distinction of being elected mayor of Beatrice, an office of which he continued the incumbent two years and in which he did much to further the civic and material ad- vancement of the city which he has seen de- velop from an insignificant village of true frontier type. Mr. Rutherford has been for many years affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, he is one of the hon- ored members of Rawlins Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and his religious faith is that of spiritualism.
In the year 1869 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Rutherford to Miss Mary Brick,
who was born in Wisconsin and who came with her father, the late Henry Brick, to Gage county, Nebraska in 1867, the year that marked the admission of the state to the Union. Mrs. Rutherford passed to the life eternal in the year 1908, and her memory is revered by all who came within the compass of her kindly and gracious influence. Though Mr. and Mrs. Rutherford became the parents of ten children none of the number attained to adult age.
FRANCIS M. PETHOUD, whose death occurred at his home farm, in Section 2, Mid- land township, on the 7th of April, 1906, was about twenty-one years of age when his par- ents settled in Gage county, in 1858, nearly ten years prior to the admission of Nebraska to statehood, and it was given him not only to experience his full quota of the hardships and trials incidental to life on the frontier but also to do well his part in developing the fun- damental resources of the county which con- tinued to be his home until his death and in which he lived and labored to goodly ends.
Francis Marion Pethoud was born at Iron- ton, Lawrence county, Ohio, July 7, 1837, a son of John Pethoud, a territorial pioneer whose name merits enduring place of honor on the pages of Gage county history and to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work. The subject of this review ac- quired his early education in the common schools of the old Buckeye state and came with his parents to the Territory of Nebraska at a time when this section was still on the fron- tier. In Gage county he entered claim soon afterward to a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, in what is now Section 2, Midland township, and with characteristic energy he girded himself to the arduous work of re- claiming from the virgin prairie a productive farm. His first house was a snug but rude structure of sod and boards, and in this primi- tive domicile all of his children were born, the same having continued as the family home for a period of fifteen years. Mr. Pethoud met his full share of hardships through drought and grasshopper scourge in the early days but
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he was not to be discouraged and had pre- science of the gracious returns that the soil of the county would ultimately yield. He ap- plied himself with unremitting diligence, was prospered in his progressive activities as an agriculturist and stock-grower and at the time of his death he was the owner of a valuable landed estate of two hundred and forty acres, clear of all indebtedness and constituting one of the highly improved farm properties of Midland township. Mr. Pethoud was a pro- ductive worker and while always ready to do his part in the support of measures and enter- prises advanced for the general good of the community he was entirely free of ambition for political activity or public office of any order.
As a young man Mr. Pethoud married Miss Emily Maloney, who was born in Stark county, Ohio, August 28, 1839, and she en- dured with him the vicissitudes of pioneer life, even as she enjoyed with him the prosperity of later years. After his death she remained on the old homestead until she too was sum- moned to the life eternal, -on the 12th of December, 1912. In the concluding paragraph of this memoir is given brief record concern- ing their children.
Fordyce Myron, who has remained a bachelor, remains on the old homestead, as does also his bachelor brother, Darwin Con- nor, and their maiden sister, Clara B, pre- sides over the domestic economies of as well as being the popular chatelaine of the home, the two brothers being actively associated in the management of the fine farm property and being representative exponents of agricultural and live-stock enterprise in their native county. Darwin C. Pethoud was the fourth in order of birth of the eight children. Charles F. the second child, lives upon and has control of forty acres of his father's estate, and is one of the prosperous farmers of his native town- slip. IIe married Miss Stella Richardson, and they have three children, - Chester, Dwight and Percy. The eldest son, Chester, is married. Mary A. is the wife of Eli D. McCune, of Riverside, California. Florence E. is the wife of I. M. Hadley, of Lincoln,
Nebraska. Carrie and Clara are twins, the latter remaining with her brothers at the old home, as previously noted, and Carrie being the wife of August Guenther, a prosperous farmer in Riverside township. Martha died in early childhood.
ALFRED H. GRAY .- Since the year 1913 Mr. Gray has been general agent for the Bankers' Life Insurance Company, of Lincoln, Nebraska, with residence and official head- quarters in the city of Beatrice, and in the extended territory assigned to his jurisdiction he has developed a large and representative business that marks him as one of the able in- surance executives and underwriters of the state. The signal success that has attended his varied activities is the more pleasing to contemplate in view of the fact that from his youth he has depended entirely upon his own resources and has made advancement through his own ability and well directed endeavors.
A scion of a family whose name has been closely associated with pioneer life in various states of the west, Alfred H. Gray was born in Olmsted county, Minnesota, on the 22d of June, 1861, and he is a son of William and Malinda (Loehr) Gray, the former a native of Illinois, where he was born in the year 1828, and the latter of whom was born in the state of Indiana, in 1840, their marriage hav- ing been solemnized in Iowa. Alfred Gray, grandfather of the subject of this review, was a native of Ohio and thence removed to Illi- nois, where he remained for a number of years. He then went with his family to Iowa, where he became a pioneer farmer, though he had previously followed the trade of cabinetmaker, and in the Hawkeye state he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. James Loehr, maternal grandfather of him whose name initiates this sketch, was born in Pennsylvania, of staunch German line- age, and he likewise became one of the ster- ling pioneers of Iowa, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits and where he continued his residence until his death.
After his marriage William Gray continued his residence in Iowa until about the year
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1860, when he removed to Minnesota and set- tled on a pioneer farm in Olmsted county. Later he became one of the virtual founders of the village of Eyota, that county, where he erected the first house and where he was engaged in the hotel business five years. He then removed with his family from the south- eastern part of the state to the wilds of the southwestern section of that commonwealth. He entered a homestead claim and instituted the reclamation of a farm, his nearest neigh- bor at the time having resided at a point five miles distant and the nearest postoffice and trading point being twenty-six miles distant. He remained on his embroyonic farm and gave himself vigorously to aiding in the develop- ment and upbuilding of a new country, the construction of the railway eventually giving spur to the march of advancement. His wife, now venerable in years, maintains her home at Norton, Kansas. She was formerly a member of the Christian church but is now affiliated with the Church of Latter Day Saints.
Reared in a pioneer community in which educational advantages were notable more particularly for their absence, Alfred H. Gray had but little opportunity to attend school and his education has been mainly that gained through self-discipline and through associ- ation with the practical affairs of life. As a boy he attended a select school for three months and aside from this he had practi- cally no definite pedagogic instruction. An alert and receptive mind, however, refuses to recognize such handicaps and he has so profited by experience and service as to be a man of broad information and mature judgment. As a boy he gained fellowship with hard work and he has never since failed in appreciation of the dignity and value of honest toil. He as- sisted in the support of the family and his first independent work was initated when he ob- tained a position as railroad brakeman. He followed this occupation ten years and then became a traveling salesman, a vocation which he followed successfully for a long term of years, - in fact, until he turned his attention to the insurance business.
In June, 1913, Mr. Gray established his residence in Beatrice and here became general agent of the Bankers' Life Insurance Com- pany for the territory including Gage county and extending to Norton, Kansas and the southern tier of Nebraska counties as far to the west as Harlan county. He has shown marked finesse and ability in the directing of the work of a large number of agents and has made a splendid record as a successful and progressive exponent of the insurance busi- ness.
In politics Mr. Gray supports the Republican party cause in a general way but in local af- fairs he maintains an independent attitude and gives support to means and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, irrespective of partisan lines. He is affiliated with the local organizations of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Mod- ern Woodmen of America and the Royal Neighbors.
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