USA > Nebraska > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. II > Part 28
USA > Nebraska > Clay County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. II > Part 28
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J. W. ELARTON
J. W. Elarton, who passed away June 21, 1919, was through the last twenty years of his life a successful photographer of Aurora. He became a resident of Hamilton county in 1879 and thus for forty years made his home in this section of the state, winning many friends, so that his death was the occasion of deep and widespread regret. He was born in Jackson, Ohio, August 21, 1844, and was a son of William J. and Mary J. Elarton, who in 1854 removed to Iowa and con- tinued to live in that state until they were called to the home beyond, the mother recently passing away at the notable old age of ninety-six years. They were the parents of five children, all of whom are living with the exception of Mr. Elarton of this review. Mr. and Mrs. William J. Elarton were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and in politics he was a republican. He was engaged in the undertaking and cabinet-making business.
J. W. Elarton was but ten years of age when the family home was established in Iowa, so that his education was largely acquired in the public schools of that state. He was but seventeen years of age when in 1861 he joined Company F, Fourteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry for service in the Civil war. With his com- pany he encamped at Davenport, Iowa, for some months and later was sent to the front, participating in a number of the hotly contested engagements which led up to the final victory that crowned the Union arms. In the battle of Shiloh he was taken prisoner and was incarcerated as a prisoner of war for four months, after which he was exchanged. On one occasion he returned home on a furlough but soon afterward rejoined his command and served altogether for three years.
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When the war was over Mr. Elarton returned to lowa and gave his attention to the wagon-making business for a time, while later he took up carpentering. In the year 1879 he removed with his family to Aurora where his remaining days were passed. During the last twenty years of his life he gave his attention to photography and was very successful in following that art, for he displayed ex- cellent ability in securing likenesses of his patrons and his business reached sub- stantial proportions.
It was in Iowa on the 16th of October, 1870, that Mr. Elarton was united in marriage to Miss Ella F. Nixon, a daughter of Isaac and Sarah (Bryan) Nixon. The father was a native of Pennsylvania and in 1847 removed to Iowa where he fol- lowed farming and passed away in 1864. Mrs. Nixon's father was a native of Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Nixon were parents of eleven children, their youngest child being Joseph C. Nixon, who was killed at Franklin, Tennessee, while serving in the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. Elarton have been born six children, but only one is living, Nellie, the wife of A. Carter, a resident of the state of Washington who follows farming and he and his wife each own a homestead.
Mr. Elarton held membership in the Congregational church and for forty-three years belonged to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was likewise identi- fied with the Grand Army of the Republic and served as commander of the Post at Aurora. Through this association he always maintained close comradeship with the "boys in blue" and enjoyed the reminiscences around their camp fires. His political allegiance was given to the republican party but he was never ambitious to hold political office. On coming to Aurora in 1879 he built a comfortable home but sold it after two years and erected a more commodious residence in the same block. His remaining days were here passed and he enjoyed at all times the high respect and warm regard of those with whom he was associated through business or social relations. Mrs. Elarton occupies a comfortable home at No. 1217 Tenth street in Aurora, where she is most widely and favorably known.
ANDREAS NISSEN
A native of Denmark, where he was born in the year 1851, Mr. Nissen was there reared to manhood, received the advantages of the national schools and gained practical experience in connection with farm industry, with which he there con- tinued his active alliance until he had attained the age of thirty-one years, when, in 1882, he came to the United States and numbered himself among the pioneers of Hamilton county, Nebraska, where he purchased, at seven dollars per acre, a tract of one hundred and sixty acres in Otis precinct. His financial resources were very limited, but he was fortified in energy, ambition and good judgment and thus was well equipped for meeting the duties and responsibilities that came to him in con- nection with the reclaiming of his land and the developing of a productive farm from the raw prairie. On his farm he erected a frame house, twenty-four feet square and concentrated his full powers in furthering his farm enterprise, with the result that cumulative success attended his efforts, though he did not escape his share of reverses, including the destruction of his crops by hail in the year 1884.
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He made his labors count in definite advancement toward the goal of independence and prosperity, and today he is the owner of a well improved and valuable farm property of two hundred and forty acres, with secure status as one of the substan- tial citizens of his adopted county and state. He remained on the farm until 1918, when he erected his present modern and attractive residence at Kronborg, where he has since lived virtually retired, though he maintains a general supervision of his farm interests. He is found aligned in the ranks of the republican party and he and his wife are earnest communicants of the Danish Lutheran church in their home village.
In the year 1883 occurred the marriage of Mr. Nissen to Miss Marion Ostergard, who likewise is a native of Denmark and who was a young woman when she came to the United States, about the same time her future husband immigrated to this country. They have two children: Peter E. has the active management of his father's fine farm; and Anna is the wife of Peter B. Peterson of Kronborg, Nebraska.
OZIAR J. MERRILL
Oziar J. Merrill is living retired in Edgar. For many years he was promi- nent in the business circles of Edgar and Clay county and as the result of his ability and determination is now financially independent. He owns six or seven hundred acres of valuable land in the county and has one of the finest resi- dences in Edgar. He was born in Fulton county, Ohio, in 1850, a son of N. and Harriett (Zimmerman) Merrill, the former a native of Maine and the latter of Ohio. Their marriage occurred in Ohio and there they resided until death. N. Merrill was prominent as an attorney and banker throughout the community in which he resided, having engaged along those lines at Wauseon. Four children were born to that union, of whom O. J., the subject of this review, is the only one living. Mr. Merrill was a Mason and an Odd Fellow and gave his political allegiance to the republican party. For nine years he served as county clerk of his county. Both Mr. and Mrs. Merrill were consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church and active in the charitable affairs of that organization.
In the acquirement of an education O. J. Merrill attended the schools in Wauseon, Ohio, and his first occupation after putting his textbooks aside was farming. In 1872 he came to Clay county and bought a homestead right, which he improved and upon which he resided for a short time. In. 1877 he moved into Edgar and entered the mercantile business, in which connection he re- mained for a period of eleven years. For about eleven years after disposing of his mercantile business he resided retired, but subsequently entered active life again as a dealer in hardware, in which business he engaged until 1902, and then retired. Success has come to him as the result of his own determined effort and his ability.
Mr. Merrill has been twice married. In 1880 he married Miss Emma Nichols, a native of Wisconsin, whose death occurred in 1884. She became
MR. AND MRS. OZIAR J. MERRILL
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the mother of one child, now deceased. The second marriage was celebrated in 1885, when Mr. Merrill chose as his wife Grace Wiltshire, a native of Illinois. To the second union three children have been born, two living: Bruce, engaged in the picture show business at Edgar; and Charles, an employe of the light plant at Edgar.
Mr. Merrill gives his political support to the republican party and has served on the town board. His religious faith is that of the Episcopal church. Mr. Merrill has made many friends throughout the county who appreciate his true personal worth and many sterling traits of character.
I. W. HAUGHEY, M. D.
This is preeminently an age of specialization. In few lines of business does one attempt to cover an entire field but concentrates upon a single department in order to obtain a degree of efficiency that makes for success and leadership. In keeping with this tendency Dr. Haughey is now devoting his attention to diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. He has had special training for this branch of practice and is meeting with very gratifying success in his work. A native of Iowa he was born in Davis county, January 12, 1868, and is a son of Stephen G. and Annie M. (Irvin) Haughey, who were natives of Ohio where they were reared and married. On leaving the Buckeye state they became residents of Illinois and about 1867 removed to Iowa where the death of the father occurred, while the mother passed away at the home of her son, Dr. Haughey, in Aurora. The father was a brick manufacturer and for a long period conducted a brick yard at Moulton, Iowa. During the latter part of the Civil war he served with the Union army. His people came from Ireland, while the ancestors of Dr. Haughey in the maternal line were from Scotland. Both Mr. and Mrs. Stephen G. Haughey were members of the Christian church and he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while his political belief was that of the republican party.
Dr. Haughey was the youngest of the family of six children, five of whom are living. His education was pursued in the schools of Moulton, Iowa, and he was graduated from the high school with the class of 1885. He afterward took a medical course in the State University of Iowa and is numbered among its alumni of 1889. He then located for practice at Palmer, Nebraska, where he continued for a few months and then removed to Elmwood, Cass county, there residing for three years. In 1893 he took up his abode in Hampton, where he continued in practice for eight years and since 1901 has made his home in Aurora. Here he remained in general practice until 1920, since which time he has specialized in the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. He has taken post- graduate work at Harvard University on the eye and in the Children's Hospital on the throat. He also pursued a course at Camp Greenleaf, Georgia, during the period of the World war. He enlisted for service in the army, reporting for duty Angust 7, 1918, and was discharged on the 6th of December following, having spent nine weeks at Camp Greenleaf, two weeks at Camp Sevier, North Carolina, and the remainder of the time at Camp Wheeler, Macon. Georgia.
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On the 12th of March, 1891, Dr. Haughey was united in marriage to Miss Mary J. Humphreys who was born in Davis county, Iowa, a daughter of Lewis Humphreys who in an early day removed to Otoe county, Nebraska. He was a minister of the Christian church for a number of years and preached in various places through a period of three decades, being regarded as one of the able repre- sentatives of the Christian ministry in this section of the country. Two children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Haughey: Irene E., who attended the high school and spent a part of one year at Simpson. College at Indianola, Iowa, and is now at home; Lois H., who also completed the high school course and for a part of a year was a student in the State University at Nebraska.
Dr. Haughey gives his political allegiance to the republican party and was a member of the park board of Aurora for a number of years. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons, belonging to the Royal Arch Chapter, while in the consistory he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and has also become a member of the Mystic Shrine. He filled the master's chair for three terms and was also high priest for three terms. He and his wife are active mem- bers of the Christian church, taking a helpful interest in all that pertains to its growth and Dr. Haughey is also a member of the Rotary Club and along strictly professional lines is connected with the Hamilton County, the Nebraska State and the American Medical Associations and has served as secretary of the County organization. He is interested in all that pertains to the profession and in anything that tends to bring to man a key to the complex mystery which we call life. He is continually broadening his knowledge through study and experience and his ability is widely recognized, especially along the line upon which he is now concentrating his thoughts, efforts and attention.
EDWARD A. McVEY
The section of Nebraska to which this publication is dedicated claims Edward A. McVey as one of its venerable and honored pioneer citizens. He played a large part in the earlier stages of development and progress in Clay county and is now living in retirement in the village of Stockham, Hamilton county, not far distant from the dividing line between the two counties mentioned. He was well fortified in youthful pioneer experience, gained in the state of Iowa, and thus was ready to face the labors and hardships that might come to him when he cast in his lot with the pioneer settlers of Clay county, Nebraska.
Edward A. MeVey was born in Delaware county, Indiana, January 9, 1844, and is a son of James O. and Hannah (Ward) McVey, his maternal grandfather, Edward Ward, having attained to the patriarchal age of ninety-nine years. James O. McVey continued his alliance with farm industry in Indiana until 1852, when he removed with his family to Iowa and became a pioneer farmer in Poweshiek county, where he purchased land at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre and where the original domicile of the family was a log house. Both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives in the Hawkeye state and their names merit place on the roll of the honored pioneers of that commonwealth.
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Edward A. McVey was a lad of eight years at the time of the family removal to Iowa, where he was reared under the conditions and influences of the pioneer days and where, between the ages of ten and fourteen years, he attended school about three months each year. For two years he prosecuted his studies in a subscription school maintained in a pioneer log building, with rough-hewed desks and benches and with windows of oiled paper. It is needless to say that his broader education has been that gained in the school of practical experience and all who know can realize that he has profited fully by this discipline. He remained at the parental home until he was nineteen years old and then manifested his patriotism by enlisting for service in defense of the Union. In the autumn of 1863 he enlisted in Company E, Fourth Iowa Cavalry, and was mustered in at Davenport, Iowa. He proceeded with his command to the stage of conflict and with it con- tinned in service until the close of the war. He took part in the battle of Guntown, Mississippi, where the Union forces lost their artillery and supply train and in the command of General Wilson the Fourth Iowa Cavalry went from Gravelly Spring, Alabama, to the Atlantic coast, with assignment to the tearing up of rail- roads, which involved almost daily conflict with Confederate forces. Mr. McVey aided in destroying a Confederate munitions factory at Selma, Alabama, and in his career as a soldier lived up to the full tension of responsibility.
After the close of the war Mr. McVey returned to the parental home and soon afterward bought eighty acres of land in Poweshiek county, Iowa. There he continued his activities as a farmer until he came to Nebraska, in 1871.
On the 20th of April, 1871, was recorded the arrival of Mr. MeVey and his brother in Clay county, the journey from Iowa having been made with a covered wagon and team of mules and completed in sixteen days. In the wagon were transported also a small supply of household goods and a few farm implements. There was nothing of stately splendor in the arrival or equipment of these sterling pioneers, but they had those qualities which beget success and which make for definite communal value in the march of civilization into a new country. In what is now School Creek township, Clay county, Mr. McVey obtained a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, this having been one of the first seven homesteads entered in that township. On his land, which was unbroken prairie, he erected a small frame house, somewhat more pretentious and inviting than the average dwell- ing of the locality and period and said to be the first house to be equipped with a brick chimney in Clay county. The lumber and brick for this pioneer dwelling were hauled overland from Lincoln and Crete, respectively. Mrs. McVey came to this new home in October of the same year. In the sod barn which Mr. MeVey constructed on his farm the only lumber utilized was that for the door. With characteristic vigor and discrimination Mr. McVey bent his energies to the reclaim- ing and cultivation of his land, and among early improvements which he essayed was the planting of an orchard, the trees having later been killed by hail and a similar fate attended the second orchard which he planted. In the early days he went to Lincoln for necessary supplies for the farm and household, and his grists of grain were taken to mills at Beaver Crossing and Milford. On his own farm he killed wild turkey and on the place both deer and buffaloes were seen at intervals. The family was snowbound three days during the famous Easter blizzard that visited this section in 1873 and he met with his quota of loss through droughts and
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devastations by grasshoppers and fuel for the home was acquired mainly from trees along the neighboring creek. Time and well directed industry brought results and prosperity crowned the earnest efforts of Mr. MeVey and his wife. He eventually became the owner of a finely improved landed estate of two hundred and forty acres in School Creek township and the old homestead place is now owned by his youngest son. Mr. McVey and his wife remained on the farm until 1908, when they removed to Stockham, Hamilton county, in which pleasant village they have since resided, in an attractive home that is equipped with all the comforts to reward them for former years of earnest endeavor.
Mr. and Mrs. McVey are active members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Stockham and in a fraternal way Mr. McVey is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. He has been influential in public affairs of local order, served twenty-eight years as justice of the peace in Clay county, where he gave a quarter of a century of service as school director of his district, besides representing that county one term in the state legislature, in its twenty-third session. He also served one term as a member of the county board of commissioners. In politics he votes in accord with his judgment as to men and measures, rather than being constrained by strict partisan dictates.
On February 7, 1866, in Poweshiek county, Iowa, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McVey to Miss Margaret Breniman, who was born near Berne, Switzerland, and who was nine years of age at the time her parents came to the United States and established a home in Ohio, whence they removed to Iowa in the pioneer period in the history of that state. Mr. and Mrs. McVey became the parents of the fol- lowing children : Mary E., who resides with her parents at Stockham ; Nettie J., the wife of Delbert Call, of Aurora, Hamilton county ; Oliver Clay, a farmer near Ogallala, Keith county; James E., who owns and has charge of his father's old homestead farm in Clay county ; and Grace Maude, the wife of Elmer Hunter, a prosperous farmer of Hamilton county.
J. H. HAGGARD
J. H. Haggard is well known as a successful banker and agriculturist. He is prominent in financial circles as well, being vice president and a director of the Farmer's Exchange Bank at Trumbull, which institution he helped organize. As are many other prominent men of Nebraska, Mr. Haggard is a native of another state, his birth having occurred in Springfield, Sangamon county, Illinois, May 2, 1855, a son of H. F. and Frankie J. (Todd) Haggard. His parents who were both natives of Kentucky came to Illinois in prairie schooners at an early day. They secured some land, part timber, and after clearing the place built a substantial log house. There H. F. Haggard engaged in general farming until 1868 when he removed with his family to Iowa, buying land in Marshall county which he broke himself. This country was then but sparsely settled and the fuel had to be obtained from branches along the river banks which he cut and hauled to his home, a dis- tance of nine miles. In 1887, however, the Haggard family came to Nebraska and resided in Clay county, where they became successful farmers. The mother of
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J. H. Haggard passed away when he was but ten years of age, but his father lived to the advanced age of ninety-one years, six months and three days. Mr. and Mrs. Haggard were consistent members of the Christian church and he was for the greater part of his life a stanch republican.
J. H. Haggard received his education in the public schools of Illinois and Iowa and after putting his textbooks aside farmed for his father until he became of age. He then started out in life on his own account, working on farms for wages of fifteen and twenty dollars per month. In 1877 he began farming for himself in Clay county, Nebraska, buying one hundred and sixty acres of railroad land, well improved. He had driven through from Iowa and gave his team and wagon and twenty-five hundred dollars as first payment on this land. He valued the team and wagon at four hundred dollars. During the drought years of '93 and '94 he raised practically nothing but after that began to be successful in his farming and now owns three hundred and twenty acres in Hamilton county, also land in Box Butte county and Kit Carson county, Colorado. He has always done general farming and for twelve years has been buying and feeding live stock. In 1907 he sold a number of pure bred Poland China hogs, realizing a substantial sum on the sale. He retired in 1910. He moved to Trumbull, where he built a nice home and later went to Lincoln, where he gave his children further educational advantages. In due time, however, he returned to Trumbull and is now residing there.
Mr. Haggard was twice married, Miss Mary J. Kennedy becoming his first wife. Her death occurred in 1898. She became the mother of seven children: Myrtle, now the wife of Wallace Martin of Lincoln; Joseph A., who is managing an elevator at Trumbull; H. M., who is engaged in farming near Trumbull; Martha, whose death occurred at the age of twenty-four; Everett R., engaged in the nnder- taking business at Omaha; Ruth, who is the wife of Doctor Alldritt of Lincoln, where he has built up an extensive dental practice; and Fannie B., who is a teacher in the grade schools of Lincoln. Mr. Haggard's second wife was Jennie Cunningham.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Haggard are prominent workers in the Christian church and he has held the office of elder for some years, while Mrs. Haggard is a dea- coness. Fraternally he is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America. Not only has Mr. Haggard been interested in agriculture, but in the financial circles of Trumbull he has also taken an active part. He has always been honorable in every business dealing and his reputation as a fine agriculturist and business man has spread throughout the county.
GENERAL DELEVAN BATES
No history of Hamilton county would be complete without extended reference to General Delevan Bates, who was so long an active, prominent and honored figure in connection with the upbuilding and progress of this part of the state. He was among those who homesteaded land here in an early day and later he was on various occasions in public office, while in business affairs he contributed to the material development and substantial welfare of the community. His record as a soldier
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of the Civil war was a brilliant one and at all times his career reflected credit and honor upon the people of the state who honored him.
General Bates was born in Richmondville, Schoharie county, New York, March 17, 1840, and had attained the age of seventy-eight years when he passed away at Aurora on the 19th of December, 1918. His youthful days were passed in the Empire state and his educational advantages were those accorded by the public schools. He had attained his majority when on the 23d of August, 1862, he responded to the country's call for troops to aid in the preservation of the Union and became a second lieutenant. He was at that time residing at Worcester, Otsego county, New York, and he assisted in recruiting the One Hundred and Twenty-first New York Volunteers, being mustered in with that regiment on the 18th of August. The command was assigned to the Sixth army corps and had its baptism of fire in the battle of South Mountain, Maryland, on the 14th of September, less than four weeks after entering service. It soon won a well deserved reputation as a fighting regiment and in the course of the war lost two hundred and twenty- six of its men or one fourth of the entire number of the regiment. It was during the disastrous campaign of General Joe Hooker that Lieutenant Bates was taken prisoner and for sixteen days incarcerated in Libby prison, his capture being effected at Salem church, just after the fall of Fredericksburg, when he and about forty companions were surrounded by a superior force. They were sent to Richmond where they were placed with between three and four thousand other Union prisoners who had been captured at Chancellorsville. After Lieutenant Bates had been confined in Libby prison for a little more than two weeks his exchange was effected, his name being the last one called on a list of several thousand prisoners and an entire year elapsed before another exchange was made.
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