History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 130

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 130

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At Wood River, Nebraska, May 16, 1882, Mr. Ewing was united in marriage to Miss Laura B. Dubbs. Her parents were William W. and Mary E. (Coy) Dubbs, who had chil- dren as follows: Mrs. Laura B. Ewing, Mrs. Etta May Rinderer, Ralph E., John H., Mrs. Elizabeth Holden, Mrs. Mary M. Turney, Willard, Walter, George, Marion F., Raymond B., Emmett C., Mrs. Inez Frazell and Daniel. Mrs. Ewing came to Wood River in the spring of 1872. She is an active worker in the Chris- tian church.

To Mr. and Mrs. Ewing five children have been born: Mary G., William R., John A., James A. and Theophilus H. The last named is the military member of the family and in the soldier section of this work will be found the photograph and service record of this young hero. Miss Mary G. Ewing was grad- uated from the Wood River high school. For

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fifteen years she served most acceptably as a teacher, but at present fills a responsible posi- tion in the Quartermaster's Department, at Washington, D. C. William R., the eldest son, who was graduated in the class of 1904 from the college at Fremont, is an electrician. He spent one year in the State University and has taught school for three years. John A., who . assists his father, lives on the home farm. James A., who is farming a part of his father's land,married Florence Ooley, and they have three children : Beulah, and Laura and Lawrence, twins.

Having spent so many years in Hall County, Mr. and Mrs. Ewing have a wide acquaint- ance. The entire family has reflected credit on the community and friendly interest is felt for all. Mr. Ewing was reared in the Presby- terian faith. He is a member of the fraternal order of United Workmen, and for ten years Mrs. Ewing was financial secretary of the Degree of Honor while she resided in Cam- eron township.

THOMAS H. CONNOR, a representative citizen of Hall County, is a substantial farmer and stock raiser in Jackson township, where he owns a large body of highly developed land. Mr. Connor came to Hall County with his par- ents, more than forty years ago and he has been a continuous resident in the neighbor- hood of Wood River ever since.

Thomas H. Connor was born at Holmesburg, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1861. His parents were William and Catherine (Welch) Connor, who had the following children: Thomas H., Francis P., Mrs. Mary Billert, William A., and Mrs. Catherine Tallmire. In the spring of 1878, the father came with his family to Hall County and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land situated two miles west of Wood River. Thomas H. attended school be- fore the family removed to Nebraska, and while yet a boy was able to help with the family income by working in a calico print factory at Holmesburg, where he received a wage of $4 a week, and occasionally had twenty- five cents of this salary to devote to his own entertainment. After coming to Hall County he assisted his father and afterward embarked in general farming and stockraising on his own account. His valuable farm of two hundred acres is located three and a half miles west of Wood River and all of it is under a fine state of cultivation His excellent improvements include a handsome modern res- idence equipped with comforts and con- veniences.

On March 2, 1886, Mr. Connor married Miss Elizabeth Quinlan, the ceremony taking place at Omaha. Mrs. Connor was born at Iowa City, Iowa, a daughter of Patrick and Mary (Carney) Quinlan, natives of Ireland, who had children as follows: Mrs. Margaret Shanahan, Mrs. Catherine Dennis, Michael, Mrs. Ellen Henley, Mrs. Mary Power, Wil- liam, Mrs. Jennie Baldwin, Mrs. Elizabeth Connor, and Mrs. Alice Reardon.

To Mr. and Mrs. Connor six children have been born: William P., in the drug business at Wood River, is a graduate of Creighton College of Pharmacy in Omaha, married Ellen Maughan and is a Fourth degree Knight of Columbus ; Charles F., who is deceased; Leo T. and Charles V., both of whom have hon- ored Hall County through military service, have extended mention in the soldier section of this work ; Bernard F., assisting his father on the farm, and Alice M., in school at Hast- ings, Nebraska. Mr. Connor and family are all faithful members of the Roman Catholic church, and in that connection and every other, are held in the highest esteem. Mr. Connor is a Knight of Columbus and has been a tireless worker in its war activities, also for the Red Cross and for the success of the Liberty loans, in all these movements earnestly working for what true American citizenship means. He has been moderately active in pol- itics, but the only public office he has ever accepted is that of road overseer, which office he has held for the last twelve years. He be- longs to the order of Modern Woodmen.

DALE P. STOUGH, District Court Re- porter for the Eleventh Judicial District, with District Judge Bayard H. Paine, is the Asso- ciate Editor of the Hall County History. Mr. Stough has compiled the greater part of the statistical matter used in this work, and has written a number of the chapters in the history. His industry and initiative have been of invaluable assistance to the editors of the work.

Mr. Stough was born June 29, 1888, at Bigelow, Holt County, Missouri. His father. Charlie Bion Stough, at that time was a rail- road brakeman on the St. Joseph-Villisca branch of the Burlington railroad system. For a short time his father worked on the St. Joseph and Grand Island road. After a ven- ture in the grocery business in St. Joseph, Mis- souri, the father of the subject of this sketch returned to railroad work, residing for a time at Villisca, Iowa, and moved on Dale's fourth birthday to Creston, Iowa. Charlie B. Stough

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DALE P. STOUGH

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came from a family that had lived in Ohio and Pennsylvania since early in the eighteenth century, when the first Stough to come to America fled from Germany with a refugee German princess. His mother's family, the Greenwalts, were a Holland-Dutch family. Mr. Stough's mother was Mina Bigelow Stough, a descendant of the old English family of Bigelows.

It was in the public schools of Creston, Iowa, that Dale received his education. He was graduated from the Creston high school in June, 1905. A year later he finished a com- mercial course from the Crest City Business College. For the next two years and three months he was engaged as a local reporter for the Creston Daily Morning American, and as a clerk in the division railroad offices of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad at Creston and timekeeper of construction work on the Western Iowa division of that road. In September, 1908, he came to Nebraska and entered the law school of the State University of Nebraska. During his freshman year in college he served as reporter for the law school on the Daily Nebraskan.

In the summer of 1909, Dale went to Omaha and worked as a stenographer in the general offices of the Union Pacific Railroad, until later in the summer when he became registrar and librarian of the Creighton Law College, and clerk to the secretary (now dean) Paul L. Martin, and in that capacity was enabled to complete his law course. He received his LL. B. degree in May 1911.

After considering many tentative points of location for the practice of his profession, Mr. Stough came to Grand Island in June, 1911, and prepared to open a law office in the Ryan Building. In a few weeks, upon consultation with a number of Grand Island lawyers, he deciced to go to Ravenna, where there was then no law office open for general practice, and practiced there that summer. But in the fall of that year, 1911, he became associated with Former Supreme Judge James R. Dean of Broken Bow, returned to the Supreme Bench in 1917. For the next three years and a half he practiced law in Custer and adjoin- ing counties.

During his residence in Ravenna and Broken Bow, Mr. Stough served at both places as secretary of the Retail Merchants Federa- tion. At Broken Bow, Mr. Stough served as superintendent of the Sabbath school and as clerk of the church of his affiliation, St. John's Episcopal. In political circles he served as secretary of Democratic County Central Com-

mittee and secretary of the Sixth District Con- gressional Committee in 1912.

In January, 1915, Mr. Stough went to Lin- coln to become secretary to Chief Justice Conrad Hollenbeck of the Nebraska Supreme Court. Upon Judge Hollenbeck's death, which occurred two weeks after his inaugura- tion, Mr. Stough remained with Chief Justice Andrew M. Morrissey for three years. Dur- ing that time Mr. Stough was author of the History of the Nebraska Supreme Court, which was published in December, 1917, by the Lawyers' Cooperative Publishing Com- pany of Rochester, New York, the leading monthly law magazine, "Case and Comment."

In December, 1917, Mr. Stough returned to Grand Island, as District Court Reporter, and took up his residence once more in the city of his choice.

On his twenty-fifth birthday anniversary, June 29, 1913, Mr. Stough was united in mar- riage to Miss Cassie Mary Beeler, of Daven- port, Iowa. At the time of her marriage, Miss Beeler was Dietitian and Assistant Superin- tendent of the St. Luke's Hospital of Daven- port. They have one child, a daughter, Ida Mildred Stough, five years of age. Mrs. Stough is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Beeler, and was born at Perry, Iowa. She was educated in Worthington, Minnesota, Harris, and Des Moines, Iowa. Her father was a native of Wurtemberg province, and son of a high court judge in that state. Her mother was born in Alsace-Lorraine of French and German parentage, and educated in Zurich, Switzerland. Mrs. Stough has three brothers and six sisters, liying in Iowa and Minnestota. She is an accomplished musician, being both a piano and violin player, and contralto singer. With the spread of the influenza epidemic during the past year, she temporarily gave up her musical studies, over- came the difficulty of leaving home duties and the care of her little daughter and spent con- siderable portion of her time nursing the afflicted, and enrolled in the Red Cross Home Defense. In December, 1918, she took charge of the City Emergency Influenza Hospital, which was then conducted in the old Brewster Hotel property and superintended it during the last weeks of its career.

Mr. Stough was a member of the Lancaster County Council of Defense in 1917, resigning when he came to Grand Island. During 1918 he served as a four-minute man and in such other ways as he could. He is a close student of transportation and traffic matters with a view of specializing upon that phase of legal

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matters upon his return to the practice in the future.

WILSON H. FULMER, successfully ope- rating a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, situated four and a half miles west of Wood River, in section 22, Jackson township, is one of Hall County's good farmers and patriotic citizens. He was born in Pennsylvania, March 10, 1862, the only child born to L. B. and Elizabeth Fulmer. His father fell on the battlefield at Gettysburg, in the Civil War.

Wilson H. Fulmer attended the public schools and made his own way from youth, working as a farmer and also in a grist mill. In 1900 he came to Nebraska and two years later settled in Valley County, where he en- gaged in farming for four years. The next four years .he spent in Ohio but returned to Valley County, from which section, in March, 1918, he came to Hall County and rented the farm in Jackson township.

On September 17, 1889, Mr. Fulmer mar- ried at Lockhaven, Pennsylvania, Miss Emma J. Allen. Her parents were Christopher and Lydia M. (Horner) Allen. She had one sister, Catherine, who is deceased. Six chil- dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Fulmer: Gertrude, the wife of William Christiansen, of Wood River; James A., who died January 20, 1919, formerly assisted his father on the farm; Raymond D., a soldier in the Army of Occupation, in Germany, is particularly men- tioned in the soldier section of this work; Zeola H., who resides at home, is a graduate of Davis Creek Academy, in Valley County ; Harvey G., a student in the Wood River high school, and Ava O., attending school. Mr. Fulmer and his family are members of the Presbyterian church. Beside parting with his son for service in the World War, Mr. Fulmer has many times testified to his good American citizenship, taking an interest in all necessary war work and investing in Liberty bonds to the limit of his means.

MICHAEL P. HANNON, owner of the Evergreen Farm and one of the leading stock- men in Hall County, has spent almost his entire life on Wood River, and has been in the cattle business since boyhood. He was born March 19, 1865, in Kentucky. His par- enter were Daniel and Mary (Francis) Han- non, who had the following children: Mich- ael, Sarah, John, Patrick, Maria and Winnie. During the Civil War the father was a fireman on a gunboat, and shortly after its close came

as a pioneer to Hall County, settling near the present site of Wood River.

Michael P. Hannon was four years old when his parents came to this county, their neighbors in 1869 being: Patrick Neville, F. C. Dodge, the Lamberson brothers, James and Patsy Crane, Thomas Francis, Patrick Dugan, John Mullen and Lawrence Kilkeney. There were many Pawnee and Omaha Indians in this vicinity and, while they were never considered dangerous, their thievish ways made them a great nuisance. On one occasion as Mr. Hannon relates, the family dinner was much delayed because his mother had trust- ingly hung her cooking utensils on the outside of the log cabin over night, only to find them gone in the morning and never returned. This was a calamity for in those times it was not very easy to replace domestic articles of any kind. Mr. Hannon was eight years old when the Wood River settlement experienced the greatest storm that has ever swept over Hall County, in which hundreds of cattle perished in the Platte River.

From boyhood Mr. Hannon has devoted himself to agricultural pursuits and has made Evergreen Farm notable because of its fine products. With the first money he earned he bought a calf ; that was the beginning of a business in cattle that has made him the fore- most factor in the cattle industry in the county. He feeds and ships from three to seven car loads annually. His beautiful estate consisting of four hundred and eighty acres, is situated in Jackson township, four miles west of Wood River, and he is said to have some of the finest alfalfa land in the state. a reputation for keen, careful, accurate busi- He would not consider less than $250 an acre for any of his land, which is quite an advance over the price his father paid in 1869 when he settled one and one-half miles east of Shelton.

On June 7, 1893, Mr. Hannon married Miss Bridget O'Brien, a daughter of Patrick and Mary (McCue) O'Brien, and they have had a family of nine sturdy sons born to them: Daniel, a farmer and in the stock business near Shelton, was educated at Wood River and in the Grand Island Business college, is an Elk and a Knight of Columbus; Edward F., about completing his law course in Creigh- ton College, belongs to the Knights of Colum- bus; Earl, preparing to enter the agricultural school of the State University; Howard, a high school student in Wood River, and Mich- ael P., William M., Charles R., Walter J. and Gordon, all of whom are at home. Mr. and Mrs. Hannon may well be proud of this fine family, all of whom have been carefully reared

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in the Roman Catholic church. Mr. Hannon has always taken an active part in township affairs and has been particularly useful in the matter of the public schools. Largely owing to his earnest efforts Jackson township has its first class school with two competent teach- ers that carry the pupils as far as the tenth grade. He has been assessor of Jackson town- ship continuously since 1898, with the excep- tion of four years. In all war work, he has proved untiringly patriotic, and is chairman of the Council of Defense.

T. H. FRITTS. - Long before the world had any conception of the mighty uses to which electricity might sometime be applied, there were scientific investigators who gave close study to everything pertaining to this force as then known, and thereby made the discoveries that have been so revolutionary in almost every line of activity. It was about a quarter of a century ago that T. H. Fritts, who is so well known in Grand Island became inter- ested in the electrical business, which interest has continued to the present day. He is vice- president of the Central Power Company of Grand Island.

T. H. Fritts was born in Lyons, Burt County, Nebraska, November 3, 1872, a son of Gideon and Martha A. (Cockrell) Fritts. They were born and married in Ohio and moved from there to Burt County in the early sixties. The father acquired land on which he lived until his death in 1914, at the age of seventy- nine years. Mr. Fritts' mother still lives on the old home place. Of their seven children the following survive: W. J., who lives on the old homestead in Burt County ; a daughter, now Mrs. Eckleen, lives in Lyons ; the subject of this review who has lived at Grand Island for the past thirteen years, and Arcelia, who lives with her mother in Burt County.

Gideon Fritts was one of the founders of the Presbyterian church in Burt County and the first organized meeting of the congrega- tion was in his house. He gave liberally to church purposes and was the largest donator to the church, which yet stands on the main street in Lyons. In his political convictions he was a Democrat. Before coming to Nebraska as a permanent resident he had been a soldier in the army during the Civil War and as long as he lived was a rigid supporter of temper- ance, law and order.

Mr. Fritts had the educational advantages afforded by the elementary and high schools of his community and then became employed

as an apprentice in the electrical business in South Omaha, being engaged in various branches of this industry for seven years. For two years he was otherwise occupied, before returning to the business in which he was trained, taking charge of an electrical plant at Wayne, Nebraska, for five years. In June, 1906, he came to Grand Island to become manager and vice-president of the Central Power Company, in which he is financially interested. His time is largely taken up with the duties of this position as he has charge of all the company property in seventeen towns in Nebraska, to which electric power is supplied.

Mr. Fritts was married in March, 1892, to Miss Josephine Higley, who was born in Decatur, Nebraska, a daughter of Lewis D. Higley, who settled in the early eighties in Burt County. Mr. and Mrs. Fritts have two children : Victor, who is connected with the Western Electric Company of Chicago, and Bernadine, the wife of Robert E. Pfeiffer. who is manager of the Central Power Com- pany's plant at Kearney. Mr. Fritts is an earnest and public spirited citizen but is not unduly active in politics, being an independent voter. Fraternally he is identified with Lodge No. 604 Elks, Grand Island.

JESSE C. BURKERD, a highly esteemed retired citizen of Wood River, has been identi- fied with the development of Hall County for almost fifty years. He is the owner of a large amount of valuable property in the county and of choice real estate in Wood River. He was born in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. August 7, 1849. His parents were John and Hannah (Siverly) Burkerd. Of their fourteen children but three are living: Mrs. Theresa Wise, Jesse C. and Julius W. The parents were natives of Germany. They settled in Milwaukee after reaching the United States, where the father was a carpenter and ship builder, and in 1852 removed to Appleton. Wisconsin, where he engaged in farming until his death in 1862.

Jesse C. Burkerd was three years old when the family settled near Appleton and he re- mained at home until his father's death. when he joined his brother Nicholas, at Clinton. Illinois. While attending school near his brother's farm, he worked for board ant clothes for two and a half years, and worked for other farmers in De Witt County for seven years, until he came to Hall County and took an eighty acre homestead inside the railroad limits. This was in 1871. Later he

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bought two hundred and twenty acres of ad- joining railroad land, paying $5 an acre. This land Mr. Burkerd saill owns and it is at least worth $125 an acre today. He continued on the farm during many years but in 1888 secured a satisfactory tenant and moved into Wood River, where he owns the handsome residence in which he has lived since.

On March 18, 1873, Mr. Burkerd married Miss Achsah J. Guy, who was born at Me- chanicsburg, Ohio, a daughter of Samuel K. and Calista (Plummer) Guy, who had the following children: Wesley, Milton, Achsah, Aden and Mary. Mr. and Mrs. Burkerd have had three children: Nellie and Nettie, twins, and Frederick. Nellie, deceased, was the wife of C. W. Hooton. She is survived by three children : Erma A., the wife of Elmer Wiggin, of Wood River; and Alice and Law- rence Hooton, both of whom live with their grandparents in Wood River. Nettie is the wife of Edwin Rounds, in the furniture and undertaking business at Wood River. They have two daughters. Frederick Burkerd is a graduate of the Wood River high school, and is also a graduate pharmacist. He is con- ducting a drug store in Scotia, Nebraska. He married Emma Shimmerman. They are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Mr. and Mrs. Burkerd are active workers in the Methodist Episcopal church in Wood River and are interested in many worthy char- ities and public welfare movements. They have a wide social circle both in town and country. Mr. Burkerd has been a very suc- cessful man in his business undertakings, and in his time has handled money in large amounts, but he has never forgotten the first twelve cents he ever earned, by directing a stranger through a belt of pine timber .. To this first capital he kept gradually adding until it amounted to twenty-two cents and then he became the proud owner of what every boy longs for, a pocket knife. He relates a story of his early boyhood that has probably been retained in memory because of the impression a day of real enjoyment left to a little boy whose pleasures were neither varied nor numerous. It was on a memorable Fourth of July that his father gave Jesse and his brother Lewis five cents each, with which to celebrate the day in proper manner. The mere matter of walking four miles to the scene of patriotic goings on and with the certainty of having to walk the distance back, did not in the least interfere with their anticipations of pleasure. They sturdily trudged off and reached Bachelor's Hill warm and thirsty. Jesse immediately expended his fortune in a

glass of cooling liquid which the brothers divided, while Lewis saved his for fire crack- ers that had to be exploded before dark be- cause the lads remembered that the chores awaited their home coming, and they did not dare delay. At last two tired and happy boys reached the home farm and probably their day's adventures served them for conversation many months afterward. Mr. Burkerd laughs heartlly as he tells this story and its pathos will be echoed in the heart of many another who reads it, remembering a boyhood that had more serious tasks than opportunity for healthy "fun."

EDGAR SAMUEL LEAVENWORTH. - Some one has said, "Expect great things, attempt great things and great things will result." This may not be true in every case, but in the life of the subject of this record it most undoubtedly is.

Edgar Samuel Leavenworth is a native of the Green Mountain State, and was born at Hinesburg, Chittenden County, not far from Lake Champlain, March 6, 1859. His parents were Abel E. and Mary G. Leavenworth, both of whom are now deceased. Abel E. Leaven- worth was an honored veteran of the Civil War, serving as Captain of Company K, Ver- mont Volunteers. He was a finely educated man and for twenty years was principal of the Vermont State Normal School.

Edgar S. had exceptional educational ad- vantages and graduated from Beaman Academy, at New Haven, Vermont. His first business venture was when a young man of nineteen he engaged in a mercantile enterprise, on borrowed capital, with an experience of only three years as a clerk in a store in New Haven. He successfully conducted this business until 1880, when he disposed of the business and went to Dakota Territory, establishing himself in the same line of business at what is now Melville, North Daktota, becoming a pioneer in the community. When Foster County was organized he was elected its first treasurer and held the office two terms.

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History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 130

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

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