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 98
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the community he serves, has profited by his ability in his chosen field. The finest automo- bile hearse in Gage county is the one owned by Mrs. Kasparek, and it is called to serve a wide territory in the southwest part of Gage county.
Mr. Brainard was united in marriage to Miss Jeanette Atherton, of Winfield, Kansas. She lived at Wilber, Nebraska, at the time of her marriage. She and her husband are mem- bers of the Methodist church and he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.
CHARLES HUGHES is a member of that sterling contingent of retired farmers living in the city of Beatrice and has been a resident of Gage county for nearly thirty years,- a state- ment that indicates clearly that he is entitled to pioneer honors.
Mr. Hughes was born in New York city, September 18, 1857, a son of Henry and Isa- bella (Sutters) Hughes, the former a native of the old Empire state and the latter of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The subject of this review was a child when his parents re- moved to Illinois and settled in Will county, where he was reared to adult age and where he was afforded the advantages of the public schools. In 1879 he came to Gage county, Nebraska, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Filley township, not the least improvement having been made on the place and the survey of the township having not yet been completed. Applying himself with characteristic energy and nerve, Mr. Hughes made each successive year count in the improving of his farm property and in making his well ordered farm enterprise pro- ductive of returns. He developed one of the valuable farms of Filley township, and in later years gave much attention to stock-raising in connection with his agricultural activities. When he came to the county, Filley township was traversed by no railroad and the present city of Beatrice was but a small village. Mr. Hughes remained on his farm until 1912, since which time he has lived practically retired in the city of Beatrice, where he and his wife have an attractive home, at 601 Eleventh
street. He is the owner of two farms,-two hundred acres in Logan township and two hundred and forty in Filley township. He is a stockholder of the Beatrice State Bank and is one of the substantial citizens of the county, a man who has achieved success through his own well directed endeavors. His political support is given to the Republican party and he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks.
In 1886 Mr. Hughes wedded Miss Ada Cowen, who was born in Illinois, a daughter of the late John and Ruth Cowan. She came to Gage county in 1876, with her mother, and settled in Filley township. The venerable mother now lives in Johnson county. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes have but one child, Frank D., who is serving as deputy clerk of the district . court of Gage county : he married Miss Inez Sloneger and they have one child, Ruth Eliza- beth.
JOHN LE POIDEVIN, retired farmer, of Odell, Nebraska, is one of the old pioneers of Nebraska and Gage county. The present generation is enjoying the fruits of the labors of the early men and women who came to till the soil and build the villages and cities. These men struggled and labored with nature, to wrest from her the treasures of wheat and corn and to give to their posterity broad and fertile lands to till. One of these men who braved the hardships of pioneer days is John Le Poidevin. He was born April 19, 1842, on the island of Guernsey, in the English Channel, England, and is the son of Job and Rachel (Cohn) Le Poidevin. (See Thomas Le Poidevin sketch in this volume for the family history.)
The early years of Mr. Le Poidevin's life were spent on a farm, where he was con- tinuously learning the art and industry of agriculture, thus fortifying himself for the duties and responsibilities of later life. In 1868 he came to Beatrice, Nebraska, where he worked as a laborer. It was here, March 19, 1873, he married Ophelia A. Martin. After their marriage, these two young persons, with
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hearts full of hope and courage, took a home- stead in Saline county and began to develop this tract of unbroken prairie. They remained on this homestead fifteen years, and then, in 1888, they purchased from the government one hundred and sixty acres of land on the Otoe Indian reservation, later buying an ad- ditional forty acres and bringing the total area up to two hundred acres. They improv- ed this land, building their house, barns, fences and outbuildings, and soon had the pleasure of seeing acres of waving grain where formerly wide stretches of prairie had been. Mr. Le
Poidevin specialized in Chester White hogs. They retired from active farming in 1913 and moved to Odell, where Mr. Le Poidevin owns a pleasant home. Mrs. Le Poidevin shared in all of the labors of her husband and her untiring energy and helpfulness at all times made it possible for him to be successful in his work. She was born in Essex, New York, December 3, 1855, and came to Beatrice in 1870. Here she lived with her brother until she married John Le Poidevin. Her death occurred September 11, 1916. Ten children were born to this union as follows: Lillie B. and Alfred, both deceased; Clem, who married Nellie Zugmier and lives in Glenwood town- ship; Mrs. Minnie M. Showers, of Odell; Phoebe A., wife of W. Zugmier, of Odell; Etta, who died in infancy; Bertha R., who is deceased; Herbert, who is farming in Glen- wood township; Job E. who married Hazel Edington, and is farming the old homestead of his father; and Grace, who is the wife of O. Martin, of Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Democratic party receives the support of Mr. Le Poidevin. He has sought no politi- cal honors, but devoted his entire time to his farm and family. He is a shareholder in grain-elevator and lumber company of Odell and is a citizen who has given of his life to the creation of a great agricultural community.
JOSEPH SHALLA .- The farmers of our nation are the men who constitute the basic element in our industrial and commercial life. Joseph Shalla, a farmer of Barneston town- ship, owns five hundred and eighty acres of
land, well improved and in a high state of cultivation, and is bearing his share of the re- sponsibilities incidental to providing the neces- sities of life. He has a farm that is well im- proved with a comfortable house and the vari- ous buildings requisite for the care of his live- stock and agricultural products. Mr. Shalla was born December 28, 1866, in Iowa county, Iowa, the son of Vencil and Barbara Shalla. For a complete history of this farmily see John Shalla sketch in another portion of this volume.
In 1876 Joseph Shalla's parents established their home in Gage county and in this locality they reared their children. Joseph attended the district school and when he reached man- hood he continued his alliance with farm in- dustry. In 1890 he purchased eighty acres of land, and, in consonance with his means and opportunities, he has since added to his land until he is now the owner of five hundred and eighty acres of land in Barneston township.
In 1888 Joseph Shalla married Miss Emma Roch, a daughter of John Roch, who was an early settler of Saline county and who later, in 1887, took up his residence upon a farm in Gage county. His daughter Emma was born in Saline county, and continued her education in Gage county, where was solemnized her marriage to Mr. Shalla and they are the par- ents of four children : Bessie, the first born, is now the wife of William Phlhal, who is a farmer in Liberty township. Next in order is Emma, who is the wife of Fred Wier, a farmer of Liberty township. Elsie and Mabel are still under the parental roof and doing their share of the home duties.
Mr. Shalla was brought up in the Catholic church, in which he has been a communicant all these years, and his children attend the Baptist Sunday school. The Republican party receives the vote of Mr. Shalla and he is a progressive farmer who has won success in life by dint of hard labor and faithfulness to work.
CHARLES C. GAFFORD, M. D., was the first physician to locate in what is now the city of Wymore, Gage county. Dr. Gafford
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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
was born at Des Moines, Iowa, February 23, 1860, a son of James and Dorcas (Sherwood) Gafford, natives of Maryland and New York, respectively. The marriage of the parents was solemnized in Ohio, and the father there- after was engaged in the furniture and under- taking business in Des Moines, Iowa; Indian- apolis, Indiana; and Hiawatha, Kansas. He died in Kansas, at the age of eighty-four years, and his wife was seventy-two years of age when she was called to her final rest. Dr. Charles C. Gafford was one of a family of eleven children and his boyhood days were spent largely at Hiawatha, Kansas, where he attended the public schools. He prepared for his profession at the Keokuk Medical Col- lege, Keokuk, Iowa, in which institution he was graduated in 1881. In that year he came to Wymore, then a new town, and here he had the distinction of becoming the first physi- cian and surgeon of the vital little village, which has been developed into a fine commun- ity.
Dr. Gafford has taken a keen interest in all civic affairs of the community and has served as mayor of Wymore. In 1887-1888 he repre- sented Gage county in the lower house of the state legislature, in which he served as chair- man of the committee on asylums. Along strictly professional lines he is a member of the American Medical Association, the Gage County Medical Society and the International Association of Railroad Surgeons. For thir- ty-six years Dr. Gafford has been division surgeon for the Burlington Railroad, and this is a longer continuous service than that of any other Burlington surgeon west of the Missouri river.
Dr. Gafford married Miss Mary Fenton, a native of New York. They have one child, Miss Grace.
JACOB TAYLOR. - The late Jacob Tay- lor was born in Lancashire, England, Septem- ber 3, 1827, a son of John and Ann (Green- halgh) Taylor, who spent their entire lives in their native land, as did all of their ten chil- dren except their son Jacob, the honored sub- ject of this memoir. Jacob Taylor acquired
his education in the schools of his native land and as a young man he there learned the car- penter's trade, under the instruction of his father. Later he became a machinist and as such he was employed until he came to America. He sailed from Liverpool on the 15th of October, 1858, and after a voyage of six weeks he landed at New Orleans. Going from there to Peoria, Illinois, he stayed for a time with an uncle, John Greenhalgh, and then proceeded to Wyoming, Stark county, Illinois. His financial resources at the time were summed up in the amount of about sixty dol- lars. He became a successful farmer and the owner of a valuable Illinois farm. In 1876 he came to Gage county, Nebraska, where he invested in land, his older son coming here and taking charge of the property. In 1882 Mr. Taylor came with his family to this county and engaged in agricultural pursuits in Sicily township. Later he retired to Wymore. There he built the large house, opposite the old Tonzalin Hotel, and in this pleasant home he and his wife spent the remaining years of their lives.
In England was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Taylor to Miss Alice Howarth, and they became the parents of seven children - Mrs. John L. Dawson, of Wymore; Mrs. J. E. Kelly, of University Place, Nebraska ; Edwin, residing in Elk county, Kansas; Albert, of Kansas City, Missouri ; Sherman, of Wymore; John, of Lincoln, Nebraska ; and James, de- ceased.
Mr. Taylor possessed those sterling quali- ties of character that won for him many friends, all of whom held him in the highest esteem. He displayed keen discrimination in business, and became a man of affluence, own- ing over one thousand acres of land in Gage county. He voted the Republican ticket and took an active interest in the political, social, and educational welfare of the county, where members of his family still reside and are up- holding the honors of the name.
GEORGE W. REIFF .- The day of the unskilled farmer has passed and the day of the educated farmer has dawned. The farm-
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JACOB TAYLOR
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er of to-day and of the future must be familiar with the latest and most improved methods of intensive cultivation and animal husbandry, besides giving a businesslike management of his debits and credits. Such a one, who has received the education necessary to carry on his farming operations in a businesslike man- ner, is George Reiff, of Section 26, Rockford township.
Mr. Reiff was born in Woodford county, Illinois, December 28, 1882, and is the son of Andrew and Catherine (Mast ) Reiff. Andrew Reiff was born August 4, 1855, and died June 11, 1911. His wife was born January 1, 1860, and is a daughter of Abraham and Barbara (Apple) Mast.
Andrew Reiff was a son of Joseph Reiff, who was a farmer in Illinois and Gage county, as well. He owned considerable land in Gage county and died at Beatrice. Andrew Reiff was married in Illinois to Catherine Mast and for a number of years farmed eighty acres of land there. After selling this proper - ty, in 1884, he came to Gage county and pur- chased two hundred acres of land in Rockford township, from Esquire Alberts. From time to time he purchased more of the fertile land, until he owned one thousand acres. On the farm where he resided he built a beautiful home and it is surrounded with evergreens, making the cool shade in summer and break- ing the "northwester" of the winter. His widow, at the present time, lives in Beatrice. They were the parents of five children, as fol- lows: Frank was killed December 11, 1912 by a tree which he was felling : his widow, Maude (Shock) Reiff and their two children, Eunice and Andrew, reside in Beatrice; George W. is the subject of this sketch; William lives north of Holmesville; Alice, is the wife of Joseph Nickey, living in Monticello, Minne- sota, a farmer, also a graduate of an agri- cultural college; Pearl is at home with her mother, in Beatrice.
Andrew Reiff had started life with prac- tically nothing and at his death was a man of wealth, gained through his industry and carefulness in every detail. His religious faith
was that of the Dunkard church and in politics he was a Republican.
George Reiff was educated in the education- al institutions of Gage county, graduating in the district school and also the Northwestern Business College at Beatrice. His education was rounded out by his attending the Ne- braska Agricultural College, at Lincoln.
February 5, 1908, Mr. Reiff was married to Clara Lewis, who was born March 26, 1885, in Richardson county, Nebraska. She is a daughter of John and Anna ( Williams) Lewis, who are farming in Blue Springs township, where they located after coming from Yates Center, Kansas.
Mr. and Mrs. Reiff are the parents of one child, Grace, born in 1912. They are mem- bers of the Methodist church and attend the services in Holmesvile. Mr. Reiff votes the Republican ticket. His farming operations, in Section 26, Rockford township, are along general lines with the exception of the full blooded Rhode Island Red poultry which he raises and of which he is justly proud.
L. L. McKEEVER, who is engaged in general farming in Sicily township, was born in Woodford county, Illinois, May 22, 1874, and is a son of J. H. and Harriet (Burley) Mckeever.
J. H. Mckeever was born in Kirkville, Ohio, and removed to Woodford county, Illinois, in 1866, in company with his wife and their two children. At the outbreak of the Civil war Mr. Mckeever enlisted in an Ohio regiment of volunteers and served four years, leaving his wife and two children at home while he was thus gallantly serving in de- fense of the nation's integrity. After the war Mr. Mckeever was engaged in farming in Woodford county, Illinois, until 1882, when he came to Nebraska with team and covered wagon and settled on one hundred and twenty acres of land which he had purchased, in what is now Section 33, Sicily township. This land he bought from a Mr. McGinnis, who had homesteaded it. Later he bought additional land, and at one time he owned four hundred and twenty acres in this county. In 1893
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Mr. and Mrs. McKeever retired and moved to Wymore, Nebraska, where they lived until the death of Mrs. McKeever, which occurred iti 1915. Afterward Mr. Mckeever, not car- ing to live alone, went to the National military home at Leavenworth, Kansas, where he now resides. He was one of Gage county's early settlers and highly respected citizens. Mr. and Mrs. McKeever were the parents of six children, the first two having been born in Ohio and the others in Illinois: Charles is living in Arkansas; Ida resides in Colorado; Mary died September 2, 1894; L. L. is the subject of this review; and Laura is the wife of Thomas Sipe, of Colorado.
L. L. Mckeever came to Nebraska with his parents as a child and has passed most of his life on the farm which is now his home. He received his early education in the public schools of Gage county and has always fol- lowed farming. Mr. Mckeever chose as his wife Miss Lettie Clarridge, of Fairfield, Iowa. Mrs. McKeever is a daughter of Mace and Louise Clarridge, who were born in Ohio and passed the closing years of their lives in Iowa, where the father was a successful farmer and honored pioneer. Mr. and Mrs. McKeever have had five children, of whom those living are : Helen, Lester, Ross, and Raymond.
Eighteen years ago Mr. Mckeever came into possession of the home farm, on which he has since lived. This is one of the finest farms in Sicily township, well improved and equipped with a good house and other excel- lent farm buildings. Mr. Mckeever is a Republican, but holds no political office, de- voting his entire time to his farm, on which he is making a success. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and both he and his wife are members of the adjunct organization, the Daughters of Re- bekah.
LENHARD KOENIG .- One of the fine landed estates of Blakely township is that owned by Mr. Koenig, the same comprising two hundred acres and being eligibly situated in Section 15, about six miles distant from the city of Beatrice. He is one of the energetic
and successful agriculturists of Gage county and is a substantial and popular citizen special- ly entitled to recognition in this work. The fifth in order of birth of the nine children of Theodore and Margaret Koenig, Lenhard Koenig was born in Maryland, on the 12th of September, 1870. His father was born in Germany and came to America when fourteen years of age. He became a skilled workman at the cooper's trade and followed the same in Maryland for a long term of years. In 1877 he came with his family to Gage county and here he purchased a pioneer farm in Blakely township. He reclaimed his land to cultiva- tion, made good improvements on the place and there continued his activities until 1890, when he removed to Montana. There he con- tinued operations as a farmer until his death, in 1907, at the age of seventy-nine years. His widow still resides in Montana and is a devout communicant of the Lutheran church, as was also Mr. Koenig himself, both having aided in organizing the church of this denomination in Blakely township-
Lenhard Koenig was a lad of about seven years at the time of the family removal to Gage county, where he was reared on the pioneer farm and where his early educational advantages were those afforded in the district schools. He gained first knowledge of all details of farm work and thus fortified himself well for his independent activities of later years. At the age of twenty-eight years Mr. Koenig married Miss Hannah Buss, who was born in Adams county, Illinois, and who is a daughter of Henry G. Buss, a sterling Gage county pioneer of whom mention is made elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Koenig purchased his present farm in 1905 and upon the same he has made extensive improvements, so that it con- stitutes one of the model places of Blakely township. He has been one of the world's vigorous and indefatigable workers and through his well directed energies has achiev- ed definite and well merited prosperity, the while he has so ordered his course as to re- tain the unqualified confidence and respect of his fellow men, his wife having been his de- voted helpmeet in all that this gracious scrip-
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tural term implies. He is one of the leading stockholders of the farmers co-operative ele- vator company at Hoag and is serving as a director of the same. Though he has mani- fested no ambition for political office of any kind he gives loyal support to the cause of the Democratic party and as a citizen shows a true sense of the stewardship that personal success involves. He and his wife have seven children, all of whom remain at the parental home, namely: Lydia, Dora, Martha, Theo- dore, Albert, Lenhard, Jr., and Helen.
ELMER E. CHAMBERLIN was born in New York state, February 8, 1861, and is a son of William and Nancy Maria (Carswell) Chamberlin. William Chamberlin was born January 10, 1824 in New York state, his father, Andrew Chamberlin, having been born in New Jersey and having eventually settled in New York, where he followed agricultural pursuits until his death. His son William was reared and educated in the old Empire state and took unto himself as his wife Nancy Maria Carswell, a daughter of David and Martha Carswell, natives of New York state, where they spent their lives, as representatives of agricultural enterprise. William Chamber- lin and his wife were well-to-do farming folk and gave their sons and daughters good edu- cational advantages. William passed away January 23, 1890, and his wife, born April 21, 1828, was laid to rest January 30, 1892. Seven children were born to them, five of whom are living, as follows: Mary is the wife of H. R. Cleveland, a retired farmer living in Minne- apolis, Minnesota; Elmer E. is the immediate subject of this sketch; James married May Terry and is farming in Blue Springs township : they have two children Marguerite and Fran- cis ; Francis, next in order of birth of the chil- dren, is unmarried and is a school teacher at Phoenix, Arizona ; Charles is a wealthy retired farmer living at Salem, New York.
Elmer Chamberlin was reared and educated in New York state, attending the rural schools and supplementing this discipline by attending Washington Academy, at Salem, New York. In 1885 he came to Gage county, Nebraska,
and rented land, having practically no finan- cial reserve but unbounded faith in himself and the land he was tilling. For ten years he continued renting and then, in 1895, he pur- chased the nucleus around which his further acquisitions of land have gathered, until he is now the owner of nine hundred and sixty acres in Blue Springs township, one hundred and sixty acres in Rockford township and a section of land in Canada.
July 11, 1888, Mr. Chamberlin married Anna I. Tobyne, who was born in Gage county, a daughter of James Tobyne.
In the years that Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlin have been increasing their land holdings, sons and daughters have grown up around them and they have given all of them the best of educations. Two have graduated from Nebraska University and the three younger are now at- tending the same institution. They are as fol- lcws: Warren E., born in April, 1889, is farm- ing some of his father's land in Blue Springs township; William, born in 1891, is teller of the City National Bank, Lincoln, Nebraska ; Guy is athletic coach at Lexington, Nebraska ; Francis and Ramona (twins) and Truman are attending the University of Nebraska at the time of this writing.
Mr. Chamberlin has devoted his time and energies to farm enterprise and has never sought any political office. He is an independ- ent Republican in politics and he and his wife are members of the Methodist church at Blue Springs; they are valued members of their community.
LLOYD L. STROUGH is one of the enter- prising farmers of the younger generation in Holt township, where he is giving his atten- tion to agricultural and live-stock industry on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, of which he owns eighty acres, in Section 33. He was born in Holt township, this county, on the 26th of February, 1883, and is a son of John and Sarah ( Bowers) Strough, of whom mention is made on other pages of this work.
Lloyd L. Strough was reared on the old homestead farm which is his present place of residence and progressive activities as a farm-
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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
er, and in addition to having received the ad- vantages of the district schools and the public schools at Beatrice he also completed an ef- fective course in the Beatrice Business College. He initiated his independent career as a farmer shortly after attaining his legal ma- jority. He rented land from his father and in 1917 he purchased from the latter eighty acres of his present well improved farm. In addition to his successful agricultural enter- prise, he is proving very successful also as a breeder and grower of Poland-China swine. His political allegiance is given to the Repub- lican party and he and his wife hold member- ship in the Methodist church.
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