History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 83

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 83

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).

J. Lue Sutherland attended the public schools of Marion County, Iowa, and the Central University of Iowa, being a student at Pella from 1872 to 1877, graduating in 1877. During the next two years while teach- ing school, he did preliminary reading in preparation for Rush Medical College, Chi- cago. From this institution he received his doctor's degree in 1882. Since then through post-garduate courses, personal study and scientific investigation, Dr. Sutherland has kept well abreast of the great wave of modern medical development. He is a specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, and was graduated, after special work in 1892 in the Chicago Post Graduate College, in 1900 from the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat College, and as recently as 1909 returned to Chicago for further course in his specialty. Dr. Sutherland began practice at Newell, Iowa, and then came to Nebraska and before settling permanently at Grand Island in 1887, practiced for short periods at Wayne and at Wisner. He has served Hall County six years in the office of coroner and is county physician for the insane.

In June, 1882, Dr. Sutherland married Mrs. Emily (Fessenden) Kleeberger, who was the widow of Herman Kleeberger, by which mar- riage she had four children, two of whom are yet living. Dr. and Mrs. Sutherland had no children of their own but they adopted and raised a child, who is now Mrs. Zoe Elizabeth Smith, the wife of George B. Smith, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, who is serving in France with the American Expeditionary Forces. Mrs.Sutherland died March 26, 1903. She was a woman of beautiful character and was a devoted member of the Congregational church. Dr. Sutherland is a Republican in his political views. He is identified with the fra- ternal order of Knights of Pythias, of which he is past chancellor and member of the

grand lodge. Dr. Sutherland has always been a good citizen, professionally and otherwise, and during the many years he has lived in Grand Island he has rightly used his influence to guide public tendencies for the general wel- fare.

LLOYD G. THOMPSON, who is engaged in the practice of law at Grand Island, his native city, is the son of William H. and Net- tie I. (Hutchinson) Thompson, a record of whom is found on other pages of this volume.

In the schools of Grand Island Mr. Thomp- son acquired his education, spending two years in high school after which he attended Su- wanee Military Academy of Tennessee, where he took preparatory work prior to entering the University of Colorado, remaining in col- lege but one year. Following this he devoted one year to the study of music in France and Italy, but upon his return to the United States entered the Creighton law school and after graduation from this institution located for the practice of his profession at Miami, Flor- ida, remaining there a year. Returning to Grand Island, he formed a partnership with his father, being engaged in the practice of law when the World War began. Responding to the call for men in October, 1917, Mr. Thomp- son entered the American Field service, soon seeing active service in France. From this branch he was transferred to the aviation sec- tion of the United States Army as a private, later becoming a cadet and then received a commission as second lieutenant. . For seven months he was instructor of aviation in France before being sent to Foggio, Italy, as instructor in the use of the Caproni bombing machine. After serving in this capacity he went to the Italian front for active fighting where he remained until the armistice was signed. Upon receiving his discharge the young aviator returned home, having rendered efficient service to his country and earned a creditable record for a young man of twenty- six.

Mr. Thompson was united in marriage to Miss Ruth Schwin, a native of Hall County. He has again taken up the practice of law in partnership with his father where new laurels await him.

E. ARTHUR WATSON, M. D., a special- ist in surgery diagnosis, has been engaged in medical practice in Grand Island since 1914, coming here from other points in the state in search of a wider professional field. Dr.

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Watson was born in Pierce County, Nebraska, August 1, 1883, the son of G. P. and Anna (McCarragher) Watson, the former of whom was born in Michigan and the latter in county Armagh, Ireland.

The father of Dr. Watson was eight years old when he accompanied his father to Sarpy County, Nebraska, where the latter took up land near Bellevue. At a later date G. P. Watson homesteaded in Pierce County, his land at that time being fifty miles distant from a railroad. In the course of years he made the stock business profitable and now lives in comfortable retirement at Plainview. He has been a leading factor in politics in Pierce County and served in the state legis- lature in 1897 and 1899, elected on the Demo- cratic ticket. He belongs to the Odd Fellows and both he and wife are members of the Presbyterian church. Of his three sons, Dr. Watson is the youngest, the others being: Charles, a farmer and stockman in Pierce County ; and Ansel C., in the stock business and lives at Plainview.

E. Arthur Watson completed his high school course at Plainview, Nebraska, and spent some time in the Normal college at the same place, after which he was associated with his father in the stock business for two years, in the meanwhile making plans for a medical career. These plans happily came to fruition and re- sulted in his graduation from Creighton Medi- cal College, Omaha, in 1908, where he had, for a year, been first assistant to the cele- brated Dr. C. C. Allison. Subsequently for , two years Dr. Watson was in active practice at Brunswick, Nebraska, and for two more at Kearney, coming from the latter place to Grand Island in August, 1914. He is con- nected with Saint Francis Hospital, where all his operations are performed, many of them in their completeness being marvels of science. Dr. Watson had the advantage of taking grad- uate work under the instruction of the late Dr. Murphy, of Chicago, whose eminence in surgery is universally acknowledged.

Dr. Watson married in 1908, Miss May E. Mullin who was born at Parnell, Iowa, but was reared and educated in Omaha, Nebraska. They have had three sons: Gilbert Joseph, who died when aged four years eight months ; Donald, a sturdy little schoolboy of eight years ; and James Wendell, five years old. Dr. and Mrs. Watson are members of the Roman Catholic church. He has been very active in the Knights of Columbus organization and organized a council at Kearney and served as its first grand knight. He belongs to the Elks, but has never found time to be active

in politics, which, however, is no criterion of good citizenship. Dr. Watson has found in Grand Island, an appreciation of his scienti- fic knowledge, as well as a congenial social atmosphere for himself and family.

JAMES A. MITCHELL, a substantial busi- ness man and worthy citizen of Grand Island, came to Nebraska with his people in boyhood. Almost forty years have passed since he first set foot in Grand Island, of which city he has been a permanent resident since 1893. Mr. Mitchell is president of the Chicago Hide & Fur Company, incorporated.

James A. Mitchell was born near Ionia, Michigan, March 4, 1871, a son of Robert and Mary (Howett) Mitchell, both of whom were born in Scotland. Robert Mitchell was a farmer in Michigan when he enlisted for ser- vice in the Civil War, becoming a member of the Third Michigan cavalry, and during his three years of dangerous service participated in many battles. He survived and returned to his Michigan farm to remain there until 1882 when he came to Nebraska acquiring a farm in Buffalo County. He now lives retired at Elm Creek. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and is a Democrat in poli- tics. His wife died in Colorado in 1903. They had three children, namely : James A., who is a resident of Grand Island; William, who con- ducts a garage at Elm Creek; and Robert, who is in the harness business at Minneapolis.

James A. Mitchell atttended school in early boyhood in Michigan and completed his edu- cation in a military college at Kearney, Ne- braska, from which he was graduated. His first business experience was clerking in a store at Elm Creek, later at Kearney. Fol- lowing this he went to Chicago and worked for a firm dealing in hides which was his introduction to the hide and fur business. In 1893 he established a hide and fur business at Grand Island for D. H. McDonald, of Chicago, and so ably conducted it that the entire business was turned over to him when Mr. McDonald died. It has, since then, been incorporated, with a capital of $65,000, as the Chicago Hide & Fur Company. The firm owns a large farm west of Grand Island where from 2,000 to 3,000 hogs are fed annually. Mr. Mitchell buys hides and furs all over the west.

In 1893 Mr. Mitchell was married to Miss Nettie Blake, a native of Jowa; they have had four children : Delman, who is associated with his father in business; Gladys, who died at the age of eleven years; and James Blake

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and Jean, all of whom have been given educa- tional advantages. Mr. Mitchell and his fam- ily belong to the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a Knight Templar Mason and belongs also to the Mystic Shrine. In addition to his Chicago and Grand Island interests, Mr. Mitchell is president of the Omaha Hide & Fur Company, of Omaha, Nebraska, and probably few men in the country are as well informed along this line and not many devote themselves so closely to its development. Mr. Mitchell is an earnest and thoughtful citizen and has always been identified politically with the Republican party, but no arguments of his neighbors and friends have served to convince · him that his duty lies in accepting any kind of public office.

ROLLAND CECIL WOODRUFF, M. D., one of Grand Island's younger medical prac- titioners, enjoys a large measure of public confidence because of proved ability. In his special line of work, he exemplifies the won- derful progress that medical science has made within a comparatively short time. He is an enthusiast in his profession. Dr. Woodruff makes a specialty of X-ray work. He was born at Gibbon, in Buffalo County, Nebraska, August 13, 1888.

The parents of Dr. Woodruff, Charles E. and Mary (Smith) Woodruff, came to Ne- braska in 1884. The father was born in Wis- consin, in 1852, and died at Walla Walla, Washington, in 1918. The mother, who was born in New York, still resides in Washington. Besides Dr. Woodruff, who was the first born, they had four children: Ralph, with (the American Expeditionary Forces in England, when the World War was halted; Rhea, the wife of Clough Hudson, a newspaper man of Spokane, Washington; and Ruth and Eugene, both of whom live in Walla Walla, Washing- ton. When the parents of this family came to Nebraska, the father started a lumber pard in Gibson. In 1899 he removed to Grand Island and started the Yost Lumber yard, with which he remained until 1909 when he went to Walla Walla, Washington, where he was engaged in the lumber business until his death. He was a Republican in politics but was never an office seeker. For many years he belonged to the Masonic fraternity.

Rolland Cecil Woodruff attended the public schools of Grand Island and the Baptist Col- lege before entering the Chicago University. In 1913 he was graduated from Rush Medical College, Chicago, and for two years after- ward served as an interne in the Cook County

Hospital. In 1915 he established himself in practice in Grand Island, where he is surgeon for the Union Pacific Railroad.

Dr. Woodruff married, in 1912, Miss Pauline Sutherland, a daughter of John Suth- erland, who is a prominent attorney of Pierce, South Dakota. Dr. and Mrs. Woodruff have three children: Mary Katherine, Ralph and Bradley.

A close and earnest student of science, Dr. Woodruff in his busy life has found little time for politics although he never seeks to evade a citizen's responsibility. He votes with the Republican party. He is a member of the Hall County Medical society and the American Medical association, also of the Knights of Pythias and some social organizations. Both he and Mrs. Woodruff are members of the Baptist church.

HENRY CHARLES WENGERT, M. D. - There are few cities of its size that can boast of a more eminent body of medical men than can Grand Island. Almost every school is represented here and among them are trained specialists who have devoted years of their lives to scientific investigation and in their practice have accomplished wonders of cure and regeneration. One of the best known specialists in the difficult and very generally prevalent diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, is Dr. Henry C. Wengert, who has had many years of professional experience.

Henry Charles Wengert was born August 2, 1875. His parents were Philip and Eliza- beth (Stenzel) Wengert, natives of Alsace- Lorraine, from which they came to the United States and settled at Miltonsburg, Ohio. The father was a merchant and died there. The mother yet survives. Of their five surviving children, Dr. Wengert is the only one living in Nebraska. He had excellent educational opportunities and creditably completed the public school course at Woodsfield, Ohio, then entered Starling Medical College, from which well known institution he was gradu- ated in 1900. His first field of practice was Mapleton, Iowa, where he rmained for five years and then removed to Overton, Nebraska, where he continued in practice for eight years. In the meanwhile he had continued his studies and had become so much interested in the diseases of the respitatory organs that he went to Chicago and remained nine months. Dur- ing this time he took a course in the eye, ear. nose and throat schools in that city. He had while there the advantage of practice and in- vestigation in the clinics and hospitals. In Digitized by oogie

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1916 Dr. Wengert came to Grand Island and since then has devoted himself entirely to his specialty.

In 1900 Dr. Wengert married Miss Nancy J. Johnson, who was born at Thurman, Fre- mont County, Iowa. They are members of the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Wengert is active in many charitable ways. Dr. Wengert is a Democrat in politics and has served on both the staff of Governor Moorehead and of Governor Neville. Fraternally he is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias, and belongs, also, to the Modern Woodmen.

ELMER E. BROWN, whose practice in veterinary science covers a period of thirty years, has been a resident of Grand Island since 1900 and is well known over the county to different parts of which he is frequently called to exercise his professional skill. Dr. Brown was born in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, December 15, 1863, and is a son of Robert and Loanza (Murlett) Brown. They were born in Guernsey County, Ohio, and were married in that state. In 1856 they came to Iowa and took up government land and continued to live on it during the rest of Dr. Brown's life, he passing away at the age of eighty years, a man respected and esteemed by all who knew him. He believed in the principles of the Republican party and at times served in . public office, once being a county commissioner. Both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Of their family of twelve children there are eight survivors, but only two live in Nebraska, Elmer E. and a sister, Alice. She is the widow of M. M. Parish, who died at Omaha two years since. He was a veterinarian, and at one time was publisher of the South Omaha Times.

Dr. Brown comes of a long line of farming people. His grandfathers on both sides spent their lives in agricultural pursuits, Moses Brown, who was born in Ireland, dying on his farm in Iowa, and Louis Murless, who was born and died on his old homestead in Ohio. After his schooldays were over, Elmer E. Brown remained on the home farm in Iowa until in March, 1881, when he came to Ne- braska and settled in Merrick County, where, for two years he rented a farm with his brother, Robert L. Brown. From there he went to Greeley County, Nebraska, home- steaded there and lived on his place two years, then sold and located at Wolbach. He had studied veterinary science very thoroughly and practiced this profession for six years at Wol-

bach, from which place in 1900 he came to Grand Island, and since then his time has been entirely taken up by the demands of his profession.

Dr. Brown married Miss Mary E. Hill on February 1, 1887, who was born at Janesville, Wisconsin, a daughter of Henry A. and Paulina (Campbell) Hill. The father of Mrs. Brown was born in Rock County, Wisconsin, and died at St. Paul, Nebraska. The mother was born in the state of New York and re- sides in St. Paul. Mrs. Brown's grandpar- ents were Caleb B. and Permelia Hill, the former was a sea captain. The grandmother, born in Massachusetts, lived to venerable age, having passed ninety-eight years of life at time of death. Dr. and Mrs. Brown have had two children: Robert Allen, whose death occurred June 11, 1908, when but twenty years of age; and Hazel Maine, the wife of William Linderkamp, who is a sheet metal trade worker at Grand Island. Mr. and Mrs. Linderkamp have a daughter, Theda Wilma. Dr. Brown and his family are members of the Congregational church. While not unduly active in politics, he keeps abreast of the times and in the various changes and developments finds no reason to change his faith in the Republican party.

WILLIAM E. CLAYTON. - Few profes- sional men have more diversified demands made upon them than the druggists. To satis- fy a clamoring public, a modern drug store owner is expected to offer for sale the choic- est and most dependable articles of a dozen or more kinds of merchandise in addition to a complete and expensive line of the purest of drugs, for which he must assume full re- · sponsibility. It has often been remarked that no other business is made so free with as the drug store in case of accident or sudden ill- ness, for which usage, it might be added, re- muneration is seldom offered. The druggist himself, furthermore, must pass through a protracted and expensive course of study. The life is not one of ease but it is a worth-while effort, and as a class, no professional men en- joy more universal confidence nor general reputation for unblemished integrity. Grand Island has great reason to feel proud of her representative men in this profession. Atten- tion is directed to William E. Clayton, who has been in business here since 1910.

William E. Clayton was born at Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri, June 5, 1886, the eldest of three children born to his parents, George O. and Mary E. (Lean) Clayton. The

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father was born in Coles County, Illinois, De- cember, 22, 1865, and the mother in Cedar County, Missouri, December 31, 1867. George O. Clayton was brought to Cedar County in 1866 and grew up there and was married in that county. His three children are: William E., Walter O. and Effie E. Walter O. has spent one year in the military training camp at Fort Worth, Texas. George O. Clayton and family removed to Oklahoma where he is engaged in farming and merchandising.

After attending school near his father's farm, William E. Clayton attended the high school at Blackwell, Oklahoma, and then entered the Fremont School of Pharmacy at Fremont, Nebraska, where he completed his course. From the age of seventeen he has been a student of pharmacy and in different places has had experience, but the first store he owned was when he purchased the drug business of W. B. Dingman at Grand Island, the transaction taking place January 29, 1910.

On August 18, 1914, Mr. Clayton married Grace Zinn, who was born at Fairfield, Ohio. They have one child, Billy, who was born June 15, 1916. Mr. and Mrs. Clayton are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In his political views he is frankly Democratic but has no political ambitions.' Since early man- hood he has been interested in Masonry and is one of the younger 32nd Degree Masons and Shriners at Grand Island. He also belongs to the Elks.

HENRY B. BOYDEN, M. D. - In the light of modern discoveries in medicine and surgery, it is no longer the privilege of the old practitioners to command exclusively the confidence of the sick. Experience, in many cases, has been forced to make way for the skill brought about by training under favorable conditions in newly developed paths of medi- cal science and in the amazing ones in the field of surgery. Grand Island is fortunate in having within its borders a number of capable medical practitioners, one of the youngest and most able being Dr. Henry B. Boyden.

Dr Boyden was born at Ravenna, in Buffalo County, Nebraska, January 12, 1889. His parents are Fred D. and Mary (Smith) Boy- den, the former of whom was born in Chicago, Illinois, and the latter in Des Moines, Iowa. The maternal grandfather of Dr. Boyden, was the real founder of Ravenna, which stands on the land he homesteaded when he located as a pioneer in Buffalo County. He set out

many of the beautiful trees which adorn the streets of Ravenna. For many years during his lifetime, he conducted a land bureau for the government, and the mother of Dr. Boy- den still carries it on. The father of Dr. Boyden came to Grand Island in the 'eighties to go into the drug store with his brother, and two years later bought a store at Ra- venna. Some years later he went into the drug business in Chicago, where he is now in the business. Dr. Boyden has a younger sister Helen, who is the wife of Rev. McIrvin, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church at Edgar, Nebraska.

In 1904 Dr. Boyden was graduated from the Ravenna high school, after which he spent two years in Doane College, at Crete, and three years in the University of Nebraska, se- curing his B.Sc. degree from the latter insti- tution in 1909. He then entered Rush Medical College, Chicago, from which he was gradu- ated in 1911. He came to Grand Island in 1912. Prior to this, however, Dr. Boyden had served for eighteen months in the Cook County hospital, and for three months as an interne. Dr. Boyden is a surgery specialist and has been well prepared for this branch of medical science, at different times taking graduate courses with the noted surgeons of Rochester, Minnesota, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago. He was already engrossed in practice when public events interrupted his career. He entered the army of the United States on' April 12, 1918, spent three and a half months at Fort Riley in training, and six months at Camp Beauregard, and was honorably discharged in January, 1919. He immediately returned home and has resumed his former activities.

Dr. Boyden married, September 20, 1916, Miss Eva Marie Brix, who was born at Lex- ington, Nebraska. Her father, Charles Brix, was connected with the milling business in Lexington. Later he returned with his wife to their old old homestead in Denmark, where Mrs. Brix subsequently died. Mr. Brix is now engaged in business in Omaha, Nebraska. Farmerly Mrs. Boyden was a trained nurse in the Clarkson hospital, Omaha. Dr. and Mrs. Boyden have one child, Annabel Lee Boyden. They are members of the Episcopal church. In politics the doctor is a zealous Republican. He has long been identified with Masonic bodies. He still maintains his interest and membership in his college Greek letter medi- cal fraternity.

Dr. Boyden occupies the offices of the late Henry D. Boyden, who was his uncle.

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RICHARD BUENZ .- The residents of Hall County, when they have occasion to trans- act business in the county seat, find in Richard Buenz, register of deeds, an accommodating and competent public official. A native of Grand Island, born here December 29, 1874, his interests have' always been centered in Hall County. His parents were John and Mary (Dreesen) Buenz.

Richard Buenz completed the public school course and later spent two months in a busi- ness college, that being the sum of his edu- cational advantages. After learning the trade of a cigarmaker, industrial life claimed him for more than fifteen years, during which period he not only reached a high degree of skill in his trade but, through sterling charac- teristics and good citizenship, won universal confidence and esteem. He early became in- terested in politics and has always been a loyal worker in the ranks of the Democratic party. In 1910 Mr. Buenz was appointed county clerk and served eight months in that office, retiring from the same to assume the duties of register of deeds, to which office he was elected in January, 1911. Since then Mr. Buenz has devoted his entire time to his official duties and enjoys the reputation of being one of the most faithful as well as efficient office- holders in the county.

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History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 83

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