History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 127

Author: Buechler, A. F. (August F.), 1869- editor
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Pub. and Engraving Co.
Number of Pages: 1011


USA > Nebraska > Hall County > History of Hall County, Nebraska > Part 127


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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In 1895 was solemnized the marriage of Frederick E. Mieth and Miss Eunice Siverly, who was born in 1876, and passed away


March 1, 1919, leaving two children: Ernest, who assists his father on the farm, and Carl, who is attending school.


Mr. Mieth and his family attend the Baptist church. He is an honest, upright citizen and independent in politics. He is now serving as justice of the peace.


ARTHUR COX HUTTON, whose valu- able, well improved farm of eighty acres is situated on section twelve, Cameron township, is a representative citizen and prosperous farmer of Hall County. He was born in Bartholomew County, Indiana, in 1854. His parents were George and Lydia (Beard) Hut- ton, the former of whom was born in Pennsyl- vania and the latter in Ohio. They had three sons and three daughters. Of the former Arthur Cox Hutton is the only survivor, both brothers dying in infancy. Of the latter, but one survives, Mrs. Mary Benafield, of Shelby- ville, Indiana. Anna Elizabeth died in Grand Island and Eliza Jane died in Clay County, Illinois, the former being the wife of Robert Heinzle. The father was a farmer and his death was occasioned by the kick of a horse, when he was but thirty-five years old, and the mother did not long survive him. They were members of the United Brethren church.


In 1879 Arthur C. Hutton came to Adams County, Nebraska, where he worked for a time at farm labor, then went on the Spring ranch in Clay County, then came to Hall County and worked for a time in the grain business for E. R. Wiseman & Co. After another period of farm work in Hall County he went to Blue Hill, Nebraska, and from there to Colorado, where he remained for eight years and during that time became one of the responsible men of his neighborhood and helped to organize its first school district. When Mr. Hutton came back to Hall County, he bought eighty acres of pleasantly situated land, and here he has made substantial im- provements and carries on general farming and raises a good grade of stock.


Mr. Hutton married in Clay County, Ne- braska, Miss Emma Kenworthy, who was born in 1862, in Clay County, Illinois, and the fol- lowing children were born to them: Sidney, conducts a ranch in South Dakota; Orville, a farmer in Hall County ; George, who served with an engineer corps in France with the American Expeditionary Force, one of the brave American boys who helped turn the tide of war, is still in Europe; Genevieve, the wife of M. E. Tennant, a druggist at Cairo; Ray, who served with the American army in France


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and saw action in the trenches, returned April 17, 1919; Roy on the home farm; and Hubert and Laverne, both of whom are at home. Mr. Hutton is a Republican in politics.


RAY ALBERT GREEN, a representative citizen of Hall County, in which part of Ne- braska almost his entire life has been spent, owns a well improved farm of one hundred and sixty acres situated in section thirty-four, South Loup township, and also is proprietor of what is known as the Greenville store.


Ray A. Green was born in Tuscola County, Michigan, October 14, 1869, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Smith) Green, who were born, reared and married in England. His brothers and sisters were as follows: Thomas, who died in Hall County ; Anna, deceased, the wife of P. R. Stradley, a retired farmer who lives in Broken Bow, Nebraska; Julia, the wife of Luther S. Trefern, a farmer and lumber man in Oregon; Mary, wife of William R. Goss, a farmer in Hall County; Nina, the wife of George F. Filsinger, living at Cairo, Nebraska, and William and Kitty, both of whom died in infancy. Joseph Green was a sawyer by trade in his native land, from which he came to the United States in early manhood. After locating at Pontiac, Michigan, he worked as. a painter but later became a farmer, in 1873 he came to Hall County, Nebraska, home- steaded and proved up and also bought a quarter section of railroad land in section twenty-seven, South Loup township, all of which remains a family inheritance. He im- proved his property and built the first frame house in this part of the country. Like other settlers he had many early hardships to con- tend with and during the grasshopper invasion practically lost all his crops. Both he and wife were members of the Baptist church. In his political views he was a Democrat. His death, which occured March 17, 1904, removed one of the sterling men of Hall County. His wife died March 31, 1908.


Ray Albert Green obtained his education in the public schools and remained at home assist- ing his father. He carries on a general agri- cultural line and his industries prove profit- able because they are intelligently and system- aticallly directed. For eighteen months he has operated what is known as the Greenville store, an enterprise connected to some extent with the Farmers' Grange movement, with which he is in full sympathy and for some years has been a member of the organization, which includes the most progressive farmers in the state.


Mr. Green has a pleasant and hospitable family circle, including, wife, two sons and one daughter. He married Mary L. Balcom, who was born in 1872, in Macon County, Illinois, and their children are: Albert, who assists his father on the home place; Julia, attends school at Cairo; and Joseph, attending the district school. Mr. Green and family are members of the Baptist church at Bluff Cen- ter. He keeps well posted on all that is going on in the world, and when it comes to cast- ing his vote does so with the discretion his own good judgment justifies. In addition to his Grange membership he also belongs to the Odd Fellows.


JOHN WARREN MAHAFFEY, a prac- tical printer and for years closely identified with newspaper work over the country as publisher, owner and editor of different jour- nals bought the Cairo Record in June, 1918, and has developed it into an influential news- paper and a paying property. Few men in or out of the profession are better known in several states, for Mr. Mahaffey has been likewise concerned in other business enter- prises.


The Mahaffey family probably originated in Ireland. It is known to have settled early in the New England states and later to have lived in Kentucky and still later in Iowa, in which state the grandfather of John Warren Mahaffey lived to the age of ninety-three years. His own birth took place near Fairfield, in Jeffer- son County, Iowa, February 27, 1863, the youngest of a family of four children born to his parents, John and Lucinda Frances (Mahaffey) Mahaffey, who were very distant- ly related. Their other children were : Belle, who was for many years a teacher in govern- ment Indian schools, resides at Broken Bow, Nebraska, the widow of Joseph M. Steele, formerly under-sheriff of Washington County, Kansas; Luella, who died in Henry County, Iowa, at the age of four years; and Laura, who is the wife of J. D. Fell, who has been manager of the Chicago Lumber & Coal Com- pany at Concordia, Kansas, for thirty years.


John Mahaffey, father of John W. Ma- haffey, was born in Kentucky and accom- panied his father to Iowa where he afterward bought a quarter section of land and engaged in farming and stockraising until 1862, when he enlisted for service in the Civil War. be- coming a member of Company C Thirtieth Iowa Infantry. He was a brave soldier and did his duty but in the summer of 1863 was captured by the enemy and was incarcerated in


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the infamous Libbey Prison. At one time he succeeded with others in making his escape through a tunnel the wretched men evcavated but he was recaptured and transferred to the prison on Belle Isle, where he died, his age be- ing only thirty-three years.


In a reminiscent mood, Editor Mahaffey sometimes recalls early boyhood days when he earned his board and twenty-five cents for every day that he drove the lead team attached to a self-raking reaper on the farm of John Hoefer and afterward the same munificent salary from Farmer Lilly in the home neigh- borhood in Washington County, Kansas. The family then moved to Washington, Kansas, and there he had a chance to attend the high school. He kept busily employed, chopping wood, herding cattle and breaking horses un- til he was seventeen years old and about that time made a trip with three hundred head of cattle from Witchita, Kansas, to the Otoe res- ervation in Nebraska and was there at the time the Otoe Indians were removed to Indian Territory. This vigorous out-door life had built up his health, for Mr. Mahaffey like an illustrious American lately deceased, had suf- fered serious illness and for nine months, when about thirteen years old, had been near to death from an attack of lockjaw and spinal meningitis.


Under Wesley E. Wilkinson, on the Seneca Courier, Seneca, Kansas, Mr. Mahaffey served a three years' apprenticeship to the printing trade after which he became a school teacher, taught seven terms in Washington and Riley counties. His first active connection with a newspaper was manager for one year of a paper at Burr Oak, Kansas. In 1892 he es- tablished the Esbon Leader, and later owned the Miltondale leader, the Green County Moni- tor and the Vermillion Times, which last named paper he sold in 1900 and then located in Concordia, Kansas, and went in- to the auction business, from which he retired for a time because of throat trouble. He then became a traveling salesman for two years for the Topeka Paper Company ; then went with the Shaw Novelty Adver- tising Company of Kansas City, Missouri, and after that bought the Linn (Kansas) Digest, operating it for eighteen months before disposing of the paper. Mr. Mahaffey then permitted himself three months of leisurely travel during which he visited the exposition at Seattle and the coast states. Following this he accepted a position with the Grand Island Business College, being occupied thus four years before establishing the Doniphan (Nebraska) Enterprise, printing his first paper


May 18, 1916. He sold this journal in March, 1918, and invested in what, at the time, was considered a "dead" newspaper proposition, the Cairo Record. He started out with his first issue, June 13, 1918, with no business, while, by January, 1919, every department of the office is so overcrowded that the entire force cannot handle it, and Mr. Mahaffey is enlarging his plant. He has always been a Republican, even during the period when this section of the country was given over to the populist party theories.


Mention has been made above of the throat trouble that caused Mr. Mahaffey to retire for a time from the auction business, but it fortunately yielded to treatment and by 1904 was well enough for him to resume a line of business in which he has been interested and in which he has been remarkably successful. He has embarked in the auction business at Cairo, and as an example of his ability in this direction it may be mentioned that in two hours and twenty minutes, on December 14. 1918, he sold stock and other property worth $2,160.


Mr. Mahaffey married in Greenleaf, Kansas, Miss Evelyn J. Dunn, who was born at Wilkes- barre, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Mahaffey has been identified with many fraternal and social organizations at different times but has retired from activity in many because of lack of time. still maintaining however. his Masonic and Woodmen connections.


GEORGE LEWIS RAVENS, a substantial and representative citizen of Cairo, Nebraska. has been a resident of the United States since he was fifteen years of age. He was born in Germany in 1840, one of a family of three children born to his parents, George Jacob and Adaline Ravens. Mr. Ravens had one brother. the late George W. Ravens, who was in the banking and insurance business at Ottawa, Illinois. He also had one sister, Mrs. Amalia Stanch, who is now deceased. The father of Mr. Ravens was a millwright by trade. After coming to the United States he settled at Kansas City in 1857, here he worked as a car- penter until his death there at fifty-five years of age and Mr. Ravens's mother passed away also there at the age of fifty-three years. She was a member of the Lutheran church but the father was a Free Thinker.


George Lewis Ravens attended school in Germany but was apprenticed to no trade. He was an office boy for a lawyer before coming to America, and though only a lad of fifteen


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he made the trip across the ocean alone. He left Bremen on a sailing vessel spending six weeks on the ocean before landing at the port of New York. It required considerable cour- age to leave the old country for America as the only relative he had here was a brother. For three years after reaching St. Louis, Mis- souri, he worked as a general laborer. In search of employment he went to New Orleans, becoming a clerk in a hardware store there for six months and then returned to St. Louis as that city seemed more homelike and he re- mained there one year longer. He then secured a position in Memphis, Tennessee, but as sec- tional feeling was strong at that time and he did not want to enter the Confederate army, he came as far north as Illinois. There he found ready employment learning a fine trade and for the next thirteen years he remained at Ottawa, working in a bakery. By this time Mr. Ravens was prepared to go into busi- ness for himself and opened a bakery at Mor- ris, Illinois, which he conducted prosperously for six and a half years, but like so many fine men of German descent he felt the call of the land and during the next two years he followed farming in Kansas. In 1883 he came to Hall County and bought one hundred and sixty acres of railroad land, put substantial improvements on it and sold advantageously. He then returned to Kansas and invested in land which he sold in the next three years, be- fore coming back to Hall County to take up. his residence in Cairo.


Mr. Ravens married Miss Amanda Warner, who was born in West Virginia in 1845 and died in 1914. They had the following chil- dren: George, who died in Illinois; Frank, who also died in Illinois six weeks later; Amelia, the wife of E. E. Bellamy, died on her husband's farm in Michigan ; Rose, the wife of Mr. Jessen, a gardener in California ; Jennie, the wife of Fred Willis, a farmer in Hall County ; Lewis David, a farmer; Mable, the wife of John Cady, an undertaker at Beatrice, Nebraska ; and Rena, the wife of C. A. Clark, a farmer in Hall County. Mr. Ravens is a member of the Lutheran church. He has never been active in politics but has held minor offices in the order of Odd Fellows, with which organization he has been connected for many years.


GROVER CLEVELAND RAVEN, cash- ier of the Farmers State Bank of Cairo, Ne- braska, has been identified with banking insti- tutions ever since he entered business life, hav- ing been connected with the above financial


institution since its organization. He has won ness methods, while at the same time his per- sonality is such as to make friends for any business house with which he may be asso- ciated ; as a result he has a wide circle of these at Cairo.


Grover Cleveland Raven was born in 1884, in Linn, Kansas, the son of Herman and Theresa (Loop) Raven, natives of Germany. They had five children, of whom Grover C. is the eldest, the others being: Jacob, who lives in Portland, Oregon, is a ship builder ; George and Marvin, who are bankers; and Anna, a clerk in a store, in Linn, Kansas. The parents of Mr. Raven came to the United States in the sixties and directly after landing came west to locate in Linn, Kansas, later purchasing a farm in Washington County. For some years the father operated an elevator at Linn and was considered a successful busi- ness man. He gave political support to the Democratic party and held so high a place in the community that he was elected a justice of the peace, serving many years in that capa- city.


Mr. Raven obtained his education in Linn and because of inclination and natural gifts early entered business life, soon becoming assistant cashier of the Exchange State Bank of Linn. He also served as bookkepper of the National Bank of Commerce, of Kansas City, Missouri, for two years. In 1910, on the organization of the Farmers State Bank of Cairo, he came to the institution as cashier, an association which has continued to the pres- ent time. This bank is capitalized at $15,000, with a surplus of $3,000 and deposits of $230,000. Its officials are: C. C. Hansen, president ; Fred Voss, vice-president ; Grover C. Raven, cashier ; and T. M. Sorensen, now a soldier in France, assistant cashier.


Mr. Reven married, in 1905, Miss Mertie Jones, who was born in Linn, Kansas. Politic- ally he is a Democrat and served as chairman of the village board for one year, while frater- nally he belongs to the Odd Fellows and the Woodmen.


CHARLES HENRY DE SOE, for many years a well known farmer and orchardist in Hall County, was born near Sandusky, Ohio, in 1846, and died in Cairo, Nebraska, Jan- uary 25, 1898. He was one of a family of five children, being one of the three sons who came to Hall County. His brother George De Soe was a Civil War veteran who em- barked in business for a time in Wood River as also did Orrin De Soe, a second brother,


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both of whom dealt in agricultural implements. They subsequently returned to Ohio.


Charles Henry De Soe was reared and edu- cated in Ohio and followed farming until he enlisted in the First Ohio Heavy Artillery for service in the army during the Civil War. He served one year and to the end of his life was interested in the Grand Army of the Re- public, belonging to Simon Cameron Post. On account of failing health he went to Colorado and while there purchased mining stock which proved a good investment and which he later traded for two hundred and eighty acres of land in Cameron township, Hall County. He resided on this farm for about twenty years, in the meanwhile greatly improving it, setting out and caring for one of the finest orchards in the county at that time. He also carried on general farming and took pride in raising fine stock. After retiring from his farm he moved to Concordia, Kansas, where he remained four years before coming to Cairo, where his last days were spent.


Mr. De Soe married Miss Hannah Cole, who was born in Ohio in 1855. One son, James A. De Soe, carries on the farm indus- tries and is a well known livestock dealer. Mrs. De Soe is a member of the Baptist church. Mr. De Soe was a Republican in his political views, was an honest, straightfor- ward man, strict in the fulfillment of every obligation, and all the acquaintances he made in his own and in other neighborhoods held him in the highest possible esteem, so that his sunset years were passed in prosperity and happiness.


JAMES HENRY HULETT, one of the best known citizens of Mayfield township, Hall County, came here as its first permanent settler, and he still owns the land that he bought forty-five years ago. He may truly be called a pioneer of the county and perhaps no resident of the township is more highly respected. His reminiscences of old days cover the sod house period, the dry years and the grasshopper invasion, and he can tell also of the brave struggles that he and his neigh- bors made before they were able to break the barriers that nature seemed to place in their way. At the present time Mr. Hulett is one of the county's most substantial retired farm- ers and stockmen, and is a justice of the peace.


James Henry Hulett was born in 1841, in Preble County, Ohio. His parents were Amos and Sarah (White) Hulett, the former of whom was born in 1812, in Vermont, and died in 1896, and the latter born in Rutland, Ver-


mont in 1818 and died in 1898. She was the eight generation, a direct descendant of John and Priscilla Alden. They were married in Ohio and then moved to Illinois to establish their pioneer home, the father of Mr. Hulett se- curing the last pre-emption claim of eighty acres in Whiteside County, for which he paid $1.25 an acre. He was a cabinetmaker by trade and a skilled mechanic, was early a Whig in his political leaning but later a Republican and held local offices, and both he and wife were fervent members of the Methodist Epis- copal church. Of their children James was the eldest, the others being: William, who lives retired at Ames, Iowa; Robert, a re- tired farmer at Morrison, Whiteside County, Illinois; and John W., who owns a ranch in Montana.


A country school provided Mr. Hulett with his education and he remained on the home farm until he entered the service of his country during the Civil War. He was ap- pointed as paymaster's steward and served one and one-half years in the United States Navy, cruising from the east coast of Florida to fifteen miles above Charleston, entering the service at Port Royal and discharged at Charleston. In 1874 he left Illinois for Ne- braska driving a "bunch" of cattle the entire distance. He brought capital with him and when he looked about for investment, found land that pleased him in Hall County and shortly afterward he owned the first claim taken in Mayfield township, which he has since owned. Like his neighbors Mr. Hulett and family lived at first in a sod house and were as comfortable and independent as any, although he had the advantage of having money with which to start putting up build- ings. In the course of time the present com- fortable and substantial structures took shape and proportion and other improvements fol- lowed, and additions were made to the original acreage. Mr. Hulett now owns two hundred and forty acres of valuable land. In the early days he did some freighting from Grand Is- land. Every one at the present time is familiar with the word "aid" but Mr. Hulett heard it many years ago when the settlers and their families and stock would have perished in Nebraska because of the devastations of the grasshoppers between 1874 and 1876, had not men like himself traveled over the ravaged fields with sustaining food. He was one of the Aid Society.


Judge Hulett married Anna Olds, who was born in 1846, at Bonn, Canada, and died in Hall County in 1913. They had the follow- ing children: Rexford E., an electrical engi-


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neer employed with the Canada Cement Com- pany, in the city of Winnipeg; Howard L., conducts the home farm, carrying on a general farm line and feeding hogs during the winter ; and Effie J., who died in 1901. At the time of her lamented death she was a student in the High School in Grand Island. In politics a sturdy Republican all his life, he has served as town clerk and as justice of the peace. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.


LEROY WELLINGTON GOSS. - In naming the early families which settled in Hall County in the neighborhood of Cairo that are still well represented here, that of Goss will quickly come to mind, Leroy W. Goss still possessing his farm of one hundred and sixty acres in the same township where he homesteaded in 1872. He has been a contin- uous resident here and has done his part in bringing about the fine agricultural develop- ment that marks this section.


Leroy Wellington Goss was born in 1850, in Oswego County, New York, the son of Oliver and Sophronia Goss, both natives of the Em- pire state. He was one of four children, the others being: Orsemous, who is deceased ; Ada, the wife of Albert Thomas, a dairyman in Jefferson County, New York, and Arleta, who also lives in New York.


Leroy W. Goss came to Hall County in 1872 and soon secured a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, situated six miles south of Cairo. Later he went to Wyoming to work on a railroad, but shortly returned and began the cultivation of his land, breaking the virgin sod with a yoke of oxen. It was not until his second year on this prairie farm that he owned a wagon. Today Mr. Goss has fine improve- ments on his place which include a comfort- able farm house, but when he first settled here he lived in a sod house, as did most of his neighbors. He engaged in general farming and raised cattle and stock until he retired in 1909.


Leroy W. Goss married Miss Laura L. Holly, who was born in Jefferson County, New York, in 1853, became the mother of the following children: Minnie, the wife of Henry Vierk, a mail carrier at Cairo; Leon II., assistant treasurer of the Cudahy Packing Company, Chicago; Bernice, the wife of Emory Herriman, a carpenter living in Ore- gon; Nora, the wife of L. E. Van Winkle, a farmer in Hall County; Mabel, the wife of George Mortimer, in the automobile business at Shelton; Blanche, the wife of C. C. Stahl


of Lincoln; and Ruth, who is the wife of Herman Vierk, a farmer of Buffalo County, Nebraska. All his children have been given educational advantages and all are well fixed in life. He has never been much of a politi- cian in the sense of following the dictates of any political party but he always casts his vote as a good citizen, giving support to the candidate who in his estimation is qualified for the office. Mr. Goss can relate many inter- esting stories of the early days in Hall County.




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