USA > Nebraska > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. II > Part 8
USA > Nebraska > Clay County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. II > Part 8
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for one year, subsequently entering a business college in Grand Island. After completing his business course he accepted a position in a wholesale house in Hastings, where he remained for six years and then entered a harness store in the same town and was there employed for the same number of years. Upon the death of his eldest brother, who had been taking care of the homestead, the father of Mr. Siefken prevailed upon him to take charge and for five years he was occupied in that connection. He was then appointed to the office of deputy county clerk in 1912, and after serving three years in that capacity engaged with a Mr. Ripateauen in the mercantile business at Clay Center. In 1915 he became manager of the Farmers' Elevator here, having sold out his interest in the store, but after one year resigned when he was elected clerk of the district court by a very large majority. He held that office for a period of two years, then resigned, returned to Harvard and has since been in charge of the elevator there.
In 1898 Mr. Siefken was united in marriage to Miss Effie Lineaweaver, a native of Burlington, Iowa, and a daughter of Henry Lineaweaver. Her father was born in Pennsylvania, and went to lowa in the early '70s, where he spent the remainder of his life. To Mr. and Mrs. Siefken three children have been born : Ruth, who is attending the State University at Lincoln; Mildred, who is in the grade schools; and Robert, three years of age.
Although Mr. Siefken follows an independent course in politics, he is inclined toward the democratic party. Fraternally he is well known as an Ancient Free and Accepted Mason, a member of the commandery and shrine and he is like- wise identified with the Odd Fellows and the Royal Highlanders. The religious faith of the family is that of the Federated church. Although Mr. Siefken devotes the greater portion of his time to his interests at the elevator, he is also active in agricultural circles and is the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of fine farm land near Burlington, Colorado. He is one of the self-made men of Harvard, for starting out in life with practically nothing he has achieved a substantial success and his reputation as an honorable business man and repre- sentative citizen has spread throughout the county.
FRANK E. EDGERTON
Frank E. Edgerton, who since 1915 has engaged in the practice of law in Aurora, is found as a most worthy and capable follower of that profession to which life and liberty must look for protection. He has done much to uphold the legal status of the community for it is ever his aim to insure justice. While a native of lowa, Mr. Edgerton is descended from one of the oldest and best known families of New England. The ancestral line can be traced back to Richard Edgerton who came from England about 1665 and was associated with twenty-nine other men in founding the town of Norwich, Connecticut. A grandson of Richard Edgerton married a daughter of William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth colony. Two of the great-great-grandfathers of Frank E. Edgerton in the paternal line served as soldiers of the Revolutionary war. His grandfather, James M. Edger- ton, who was born in the state of New York, went to Iowa in 1871 and there devoted
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his attention to farming. He had been among the early gold seekers of California in 1849 and had accumulated a considerable fortune. He met all of the hardships of a trip across the plains in the early days but took back with him to New York six thousand dollars as the result of his labors in the mines of the Pacific coast. He then resumed farming in the Empire state where he also conducted a lime kiln for a number of years. Eventually, however, he determined to establish his home in Iowa but had been a resident of that state for only two years when in 1873 he passed away. His son, LeRoy A. Edgerton, was likewise born in the Empire state and at Baldwinsville, New York, wedded Mary E. Luke, also a native of that state and a daughter of John W. Luke who spent his entire life in New York. In the year 1871 Mr. and Mrs. LeRoy A. Edgerton became residents of Iowa and he made investment in land in Harrison county, after which he carried on farming to the time of his death. He was born in 1848 and departed this life in 1904, while his wife who was also born in 1848, survived him for a number of years, being called to her final rest in 1917. In his political views he was a republican and he held membership with the Woodmen of the World. To Mr. and Mrs. Edgerton were born three children: Ralph, who is residing at Missouri Valley, Iowa, where he is engaged in the auto tire and repair business; Frank E .; and Claude W., who is the chief plant pathologist in the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.
Frank E. Edgerton was born at Woodbine, Iowa, September 29, 1875. In the pursuit of his education he attended the Woodbine Normal School of Woodbine. Iowa, and afterward entered the University of Nebraska, from which he was graduated in 1900. He taught school for a number of years in early manhood and afterward engaged in the newspaper business. In 1907 he went to Washington, D. C., as private secretary to Senator Norris Brown and while thus engaged com- pleted a law course in the George Washington University at Washington, D. C., winning his diploma and degree in 1910. In 1911 he was appointed assistant attor- ney general of Nebraska at Lincoln and remained in that office for four years, after which he engaged in the private practice of his profession in the capital city for a year. In 1915 he came to Aurora where he has since remained, practicing as a member of the firm of Hainer, Craft & Edgerton. In 1918 he was elected county attorney of Hamilton county and has made a creditable record in office, just as he has in the conduct of his private practice.
On the 2d of April, 1902, Mr. Edgerton was married to Miss Mary Coe, who was born in Woodbine, Iowa, and was a schoolmate of her husband in their child- hood days. She is a daughter of Josiah Coe, a native of Ohio, who removed to Iowa prior to the building of the railroads through that state. He devoted his attention to farming and banking and became an active factor in the development and improvement of the section of the state in which he lived. To Mr. and Mrs. Edgerton were born three children: Harold Engene, who is a senior in the high school at Aurora ; Mary Ellen, also a high school pupil; and Margaret Coe, who is likewise pursuing her studies in the Aurora public schools. Both Mr. and Mrs. Edgerton are members of the Christian church and he is a Scottish Rite Mason and member of the Mystic Shrine. While in Lincoln he served as senior warden in the Masonic lodge. His political endorsement has always been given to the repub- lican party, for he is a firm believer in its principles as factors in good government. He stands for all those interests and activities which are elements in public progress
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and civic development and as a member of the bar has made a most creditable record, holding to the highest ethical standards of the profession and at the same time displaying marked ability in handling the litigated interests entrusted to his care.
M. F. STANLEY
For a quarter of a century M. F. Stanley has been a member of the bar at Aurora and the zeal with which he has ever devoted his energies to his profession, the careful regard evinced for the interests of his clients and an assiduous and unrelaxing attention to all the details of his cases have brought him a large business and made him very successful in its conduct. Mr. Stanley was born in Richmond, Virginia, his birth having occurred in that historic and beautiful old city on the 5th of December, 1862, his parents being Joseph and Margaret (Morrison) Stanley, the ancestral line of the father being traced back to Dublin, Ireland, while the mother's people came from Saxony, Germany. Mr. Stanley was born in Ohio and his wife was a native of Virginia, in which state their marriage was celebrated. They removed to Illinois about 1870 when M. F. Stanley was eight years of age and afterward took up their abode in Indiana, finally settling in Nebraska. His father served his country in the Mexican war under General Taylor, taking part in the battles of Matamoros and Monterey as well as a number of other engage- ments. To him and his wife were born four sons and a daughter, of whom three sons are living, namely : M. F., of this review ; H. M., a general contractor living at Fullerton, Nebraska; and L. M., who resides near Oakland, California, where he is the owner of a fruit ranch.
M. F. Stanley pursued his education in the Fremont Normal College and in the Nebraska State Normal School of Peru and took up the profession of teaching which he followed in the schools of Hamilton county. He has resided within the borders of this county since 1885, or for a period of thirty-six years, and in 1889 he was elected county superintendent of schools, in which position he served for six years, making a most creditable record by his support of the highest educational standards and his ability to inspire teachers and pupils under him with much of his own zeal and interest in the work. Before entering upon the duties of the position he had taken up the study of law and in 1895 was admitted to the bar. The following year he began practice and throughout the intervening period has re- mained in Aurora. His practice is extensive and of an important character. At no time has his reading ever been confined to the limitations of the question at issue. It has gone beyond and compassed every contingency and provided not alone for the expected but for the unexpected, which happens in the courts quite as frequently as out of them.
In February, 1891, Mr. Stanley was married to Miss Ethzelda Rush, who was born in Iowa and came with her parents to Hamilton county in 1885, her father settling with the family upon a farm. She was educated in the high school of Aurora and in the Nebraska State Normal School at Peru and was a successful teacher prior to her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley have become parents of three children : Lamar, who was graduated from the high school and State Uni- versity of Nebraska and United States Army Aviation School, balloon section ;
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Ethel, who is in school; and Marion E., who is a student in the Colorado College at Colorado Springs. Mrs. Stanley is a member of the United Brethren church. Mr. Stanley has membership with the Knights of Pythias and is a past chancellor commander. He is also identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His political support is given to the republican party but he was among those who were identified with the progressive party movement and was made a member of the state executive committee of that party. He supported Roosevelt in 1912 and was a warm admirer of the "best loved and most typically American citizen." Mr. Stanley has been called to official position, having served as county attorney of Hamilton county for seven years and was the only republican elected to the office for twenty-five years. In June, 1920, he was made receiver for the W. C. Wentz Company and is now trustee in bankruptcy. He gives his attention to the duties of this position and to his important law practice and is a member of the American Bar Association. He is recognized as a prominent and worthy follower of his call- ing-one who at all times maintains its highest ethical standards.
JOHN BERGMARK
Now holding status as one of the honored pioneers and venerable citizens of Hamilton county Mr. Bergmark is a man to whom is to be ascribed a goodly share of distinction in connection with the development and advancement of farm industry in this section of the state. He was born in Sweden in the year 1848, was there reared to manhood and received his early education in the common schools and he was a self-reliant and ambitions young man when he crossed the Atlantic in 1867 and established his home in the United States, where he felt assured of better oppor- tunities for the winning of independence and stable prosperity through personal ability and effort. Soon after his arrival in America he made his way to the city of Chicago, where he found employment at his trade, that of blacksmith, in the service of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, with which he continued his connection in this capacity for a period of seventeen years. About two years after his arrival in this country his parents severed the ties that bound them to their native land and the father was a resident of Chicago at the time of his death, when sixty-three years of age. The mother later came to Hamilton county, Nebraska, where she presided over the domestic affairs in the home of her sons and where she remained until her death, at the venerable age of eighty-two years.
It was in the year 1884 that John Bergmark and his wife established their home in Hamilton county, though prior to this both had visited the site of the new home, at the time when the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad was in process of construction through the county. Mr. Bergmark purchased one hundred and sixty acres of prairie land in what is now the progressive township of Phillips and he vigorously instituted the development of the land, on which not a furrow had been turned at the time when the property came into his possession. His capital was very limited at that time and in the purchase of his land he assumed a burden of indebtedness for nearly the entire amount. He and his brother, the latter com- ing to Nebraska about the same time, resided with their widowed mother, until
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John Bergmark married and took possession of the substantial house which he erected on his land, which is now one of the well improved farm estates of the county and its general appearance bears testimony to the abundant prosperity that has rewarded his persistent and well ordered activities in past years. He has made each successive year count in worthy achievement, has done his part in the furtherance of the agricultural and live stock industry in this section of Nebraska, has been loyal to all civic duties and responsibilities and has so ordered his course as to merit and receive the unqualified esteem of those with whom he has come into contact in the varied relations of life. He remains on the old home farm, in the activities of which he still maintains lively interest, though his sons now relieve him of the active management that was his portion for many years. He and his wife had full fellowship with the hardships that marked the pioneer days and their appreciation of the state of their adoption has grown with the passing years, which have brought to them peace and prosperity and a well established position in their home community. Mr. Bergmark has had no desire for political preferment but is found stanchly aligned as a supporter of the cause of the republican party.
In the city of Chicago, in the year 1879, Mr. Bergmark was married to Miss Hattie Sophie Brand, who likewise was born and reared in Sweden and who became a resident of Chicago in 1871, her parents coming to this country about two years later and they were residents of Chicago at the time of their death. Mr. and Mrs. Bergmark became the parents of six children, all of whom are living except one: Mrs. Emma Anderson is the wife of one of the prosperous farmers of Hamilton county ; Mrs. Tillie Scanman and her husband reside in the state of Washington ; Charles died at the age of twenty-two years; Theodore is married and is engaged in independent farm enterprise in Hamilton county; Frank is connected with the work and management of the home farm in association with his brother Theodore; and Arthur, who was in the nation's military service in the World war, now resides at Ellensburg, Washington.
THOMAS JEFFERSON DUDGEON
Thomas Jefferson Dudgeon, who for a long period was actively and prominently identified with the farming interests of Clay county and became the owner of a valuable tract of three hundred and twenty acres, was born in Ohio, August 18, 1860, but was only four years of age when his parents removed to Iowa. settling in Wapello county, where he was reared to manhood and obtained a common school education. He early assisted in the work of the home farm and thus gained the valuable experience which proved of great worth to him when he began farm- ing on his own account. In the fall of 1882 he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land in Leicester township, Clay county, Nebraska, where his house now stands, paying eight dollars per acre for the property. There were no improve- ments on the farm, but with characteristic energy he began its development and erected a small frame house and also a little granary. He likewise planted shade trees and fruit trees and carried on the work of further developing and improv- ing the property until he had converted it into one of the fine and productive
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farms of this section of the state. As his financial resources increased he also added to his holdings and became the owner of three hundred and twenty acres, which he held to the time of his death and which constituted a valuable legacy to leave to his family. While engaged in general farming he also raised Percheron horses starting this only two years before his death, and both branches of his business proved quite successful.
On the 11th of October, 1885, Mr. Dudgeon was married to Miss Ella Pine and to them have been børn three children: Jennie, the wife of W. L. Hageman; and Orpha and Ray, both at home. The family circle was broken by the hand of death on the 26th of September, 1909, when Mr. Dudgeon passed away. His political support was given to the democratic party, but he never sought nor desired office, preferring at all times to concentrate his efforts and his energy upon his farming interests, which brought him to well merited and substantial success.
J. J. REFSHAUGE
J. J. Refshauge, an Aurora banker, recognized as a man of keen sagacity and sound judgment in business affairs, was born at Cedar Falls, Iowa, June 18, 1882, a son of Christian J. and Marie (Andresen) Refshauge. The father was born in the Danish province of Slesvig in 1840 and the mother was also a native of Denmark. For many years the father was a schoolmaster. He had almost completed a seminary education when the war of 1864 occurred and the province of Slesvig, through the fortunes of war, became a province of Germany. He was bitterly opposed to German control of his country and refused to teach the Ger- man language. Not wishing to live under German rule he removed into that section of the country which still belonged to Denmark and for eight or nine years engaged in teaching there. In the early '70s he came to the United States, settling near Cedar Falls, Iowa, and in that locality purchased land. He then concentrated his efforts and attention upon farming, which he followed throughout his re- maining days. His financial resources were limited when he came to the United States, but in this country he prospered and won a place among the well-to-do men of his community. Both he and his wife were members of the Lutheran church and his political views were in accord with the teaching and principles of the republican party. To this worthy couple were born eleven children, ten of whom are living, but only two are residents of Hamilton county : J. J., of this review ; and P. J., who is secretary and treasurer of the First Trust Company.
J. J. Refshauge, like the others of the family, was accorded excellent educa- tional privileges, completing his studies in the State Teachers' College at Cedar Falls, Iowa. He started out on his business career in a humble capacity in connec- tion with the Citizens' National Bank of Cedar Falls and there remained for about four years, working his way steadily upward to the position of assistant cashier. In 1905 he removed to Davey, Nebraska, where he became connected with the Farmers' State Bank, purchasing an interest in the business with which he was connected for a year and a half. While there he became acquainted with W. I. Farley, who persuaded him to come to Aurora. In 1907 he was made the vice
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president and cashier of the First National Bank of Marquette and in 1919 entered the First National Bank of Aurora as cashier. He has since continued in this position and his personal popularity, his business ability and his enterprise are featuring largely in the growth and advancement of the business.
On the 15th of March, 1906, Mr. Refshauge was married to Miss Magdeline Ericksen, who was born in Iowa, her father having settled near Clinton, Iowa, in early life. Mr. and Mrs. Refshauge have three children : Lucile, a high school pupil ; and Elmer and Bernard, also in school. The parents are members of the Lutheran church and they occupy an attractive social position. Mr. Refshauge is a Royal Arch Mason and also belongs to the Knights of Pythias, while his political support is given to the republican party. He served as a member of the town council and of the school board while living in Marquette and it was during his connection with the town board that all modern improvements were there in- stalled. He is now acting as a member of the school board of Aurora and the cause of education has always found in him a stalwart champion. The greater part of his time and attention, however, are devoted to the bank in which he is serving as cashier, and to other banking interests in the county. His life has been actuated by a spirit of progress and difficulties in his path have ever seemed to serve as an impetus for renewed effort on his part. Steadily he has worked his way upward and his position in banking circles is a most creditable one.
GEORGE EVANS
George Evans is now living retired in Harvard but is still the owner of valuable property. For many years he was identified with the agricultural development of ('lay county and in addition to his farm of one hundred and sixty acres is in possession of six lots in Harvard. He was born in Holmes county, Ohio, on the 24th of November, 1845, a son of Jeremiah and Ellen (Liggett) Evans, both natives of Pennsylvania. When young people they removed from their native state to Ohio, where they were married and later moved to Indiana and thence to Nebraska in 1881. The father was a progressive and successful farmer and followed that line of work until his death. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Evans, three of whom are living: George, the subject of this review; William, a farmer of Hayes county ; and Thomas. Throughout their lives Mr. and Mrs. Evans were consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church and he was a whig and later a stanch republican. The Evans family are of Scotch descent. The maternal grandfather of George Evans, Jeremiah Liggett, was a native of Pennsylvania but later removed to Ohio, where his demise occurred.
In the acquirement of an education George Evans attended the schools at Crown Point, Indiana, and after putting his textbooks aside engaged in farming. In 1876 he came to Clay county, where he bought a homestead right, improved the land and resided thereon until 1911. He lived in a sod house the first year and passed through all the hardships of those early days. In 1911 he rented his farm and moved into Harvard, where he is now living retired. He is a veteran of the Civil
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war, having entered the service in 1863 as a member of the Twelfth Indiana Cavalry, with which he served for two years.
Mr. Evans was married in 1874 to Margaret Wesner, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of George and Mary (Sandall) Wesner, the former a native of France and the latter of Ohio. They removed to Indiana in 1856 and there died. Eleven children were born to them, Mrs. Evans being the eldest. Ten are living but Mrs. Evans is the only one residing in Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Wesner were members of the Lutheran church and for many years he was a democrat, later transferring his allegiance to the republican party. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Evans five children have been born: Elmer, Charles, Emma, Georgia, and Ralph. Elmer is living in Seward, where he is a well known electrician. He is married and has five children: Guy, Charles, Cecil, Pearl and Hazel ; Charles left home twenty-six years ago and no word has ever been received from him; the third member of the family, Emma, is the wife of Andrew Megrue, a ranchman of Colo- rado and they are the parents of three children: Fay, Elba and Elwin; Georgia married Bert Osborn, a rancher of Ogallala; and Ralph is married to Miss Rosa Golding, lives on his father's farm and is the father of four children: George, Raymond, Evelyn, and Wayne.
Mr. Evans gives his political allegiance to the republican party and has mem- bership in the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. His wife is a con- sistent member of the Congregational church. As the result of laudable ambition and determined effort on his part Mr. Evans reached his present day success and those who know him, and he has a very wide acquaintance, speak of him in terms of the warmest regard.
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