History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 125

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742

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· On February 2, 1887, Elva J. Duryea was married to Amelia Bacon, a native of Richardson county, where she grew up and attended school. She

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is a daughter of Elmer and Sarah (Johnson) Bacon, natives of Pennsylvania, who settled in this county after the Civil War. Mr. Bacon and four of his brothers were soldiers in the Civil War, all serving in Pennsylvania regi- ments. Eight children have been born to Elva J. Duryea and wife, namely : Myrtle, the wife of Robert Haushan, of Nemaha precinct; Seth M., man- ager of the Nims City store owned by his father; Lloyd, manager of his father's garage at Dawson; Earl, who is working in the store at Nims City; Cecil, a machinist, who works in the garage at Dawson, and Chester, Dale and Donald, who live in Nims City.

Mr. Duryea is a Republican and was elected county commissioner in 1915. He has also served on the local school board. He belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

WILLIAM SHERMAN COLGLAZIER.

Among the citizens of Richardson county who originally came from the Hoosier state is Williain S. Colglazier a farmer of Liberty precinct, who was born in Washington county, Indiana, March 31, 1867, a son of John N. and Sarah (Combs) Colglazier. The father was born in Washington county, Indiana, October 30, 1844, and is now living in Florida. He grew up in his native county, attended school and married there, and engaged in farming in that county until 1870, when he came to Nebraska, locating on a farm near Verdon, Richardson county, buying eighty acres. This place is now owned by H. P. Kelly. Here he engaged in farming until 1885. John N. Col- glazier was twice married, the last time in 1915, to Mrs. Beck, a widow. By his first wife he was the father of the following children: Lulu, wife of M. Jones, a farmer, living on a farm north of Shubert, this county ; William S., the subject of this sketch ; Minnie, who married L. Jones and is now deceased, and Fred, a hardware merchant of Falls City.

William S. Colglazier spent his boyhood on the farm in Richardson county, having been but three years of age when his parents brought him from Indiana, and received a common-school education. He began life for himself when seventeen years old, farming on rented land until 1907, when he bought his present farm, which was unimproved. He built a house, barn and other outbuildings, set out trees and made extensive improvements in general. The place consists of one hundred and sixty acres in section 20.

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In connection with general farming he raises Shorthorn cattle and Poland- China hogs.

On December 24, 1892, Mr. Colglazier was married to Mabel P. Wat- kins, who was born in Ohio, a daughter of George and Sarah (Jones) Wat- kins, mention of whom is made in the sketch of Carl A. Watkins on another page of this work. Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Col- glazier, namely: Harold (deceased), Doris, Enid, Mildred, Minnie, Sarah and Arden F. Doris married Clair Brown and lives in Liberty precinct. Mr. Colglazier is a Republican. He belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and Mrs. Colglazier are members of the Christian church.

ROBERT E. GRINSTEAD.

There is no positive rule for achieving success, and yet in the life of the successful man there are always lessons which might well be followed. The man who gains prosperity in any vocation is he who can see and utilize the opportunities that come in his path; an example of this type of man being Robert E. Grinstead, formerly representative from this county to the state Legislature and one of the leading citizens of Richardson county, but now living in honorable retirement in the city of Lincoln, after an exceptionally successful career as a general agriculturist.

Robert E. Grinstead was born on April 1, 1840, in Glasgow, Barren county, Kentucky, and is a scion of a sterling old Southern family. He is a son of Philip W. and Angeline (Jones) Grinstead. Philip W .. Grinstead was also a native of Glasgow, Kentucky, where his parents located in pioneer times in the old Blue Grass state. The date of his birth was 1808. There he grew to manhood and devoted his active life to farming and surveying. He owned a large plantation in the South and prior to the Civil War owned a small number of slaves, but was not of the slaveholding class, and abhorred slavery. He was loyal to the Union and during the war formed a company of Home Guards of which he was elected captain. He was killed in his own home in 1863 by a Confederate soldier and while he lay wounded to death the home was harrassed and threatened by Rebel soldiers encamped nearby, his son, Robert E:, remaining in hiding. He was an ardent admirer of Abraham Lincoln and was loyal to the President to the last. Although a small slaveholder, he believed in the policies of Lincoln. He was an exten- sive stock raiser. He was a son of Philip and Lucy (Hooker) Grinstead,

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natives of Virginia. Lucy Hooker was a daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Guy) Hooker and she attended school with Henry Clay in Virginia and was always interested in the career of the great Kentucky statesman. Angeline Jones, mother of the subject of this sketch, was born in Barren county, Ken- tucky, in 1812, a daughter of John and Polly (Young) Jones. She grew up, attended school and married in Kentucky. Her death occurred in 1890 on the old homestead, where she had lived for a period of fifty years.

Fourteen children were born to Philip W. and Angeline Grinstead, as follow: William E., a retired merchant, of Louisville, Kentucky ; George R., a retired farmer of Falls City, Nebraska ; Emily, who married Thomas Depp and is now deceased; Robert E., the subject of this sketch; Dr. C. T. Grin- stead, a physician of Glasgow, Kentucky, who was a soldier in the Civil War, was wounded in the battle of Stone's River, Tennessee, and who rose to the rank of lieutenant before being mustered out of the service of the Union; Mrs. Laura E. Shirley, who lives with her daughter in Horton, Kansas: Capt. J. P. Grinstead, who was a soldier in the Mexican and Civil Wars and who died at Salem, this county; Judge V. H. Grinstead, an attorney, who lives at Liberal, Kansas; Mrs. Mary L. Stephens, deceased; Mrs. Hattie G. Harlin, who lives at Davy, Nebraska ; Mrs. Betty C. Murray, who makes her liome in El Paso, Texas; Mrs. Belle Nolan, deceased ; Samuel, deceased, and one child, Mary, who died in infancy.

Robert E. Grinstead was reared on the home farm in Barren county, Kentucky, where he worked hard when a boy. He attended school in a log cabin and in 1864 cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, having been one out of thirteen in his county to vote the Republican ticket in that year. He always regretted his lack of educational opportunities in his youth and, seeing the need of a high school at Summershade, Kentucky, he erected a building there in 1876 to be used as a high school. The same year he was elected to the state Legislature from the county in which he then lived. He introduced a bill to abolish the manufacture and sale of liquor within one mile of the school house which he had built, and it became a law, and today there is not a saloon in Metcalf county, Kentucky, his work against the liquor traffic there in the early days having thus had a far-reaching effect. He has always been an ardent Prohibitionist and has done much for the cause.

· As a boy Robert E. Grinstead learned surveying under his father and in 1860 became county surveyor of Metcalf county, Kentucky. He had sur- veyed thousands of acres for the public domain. About 1876 he went to Texas. From there he intended to go to southern Kansas, but a friend advised him to go to southeastern Nebraska, for the blue grass grew better

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there. This was inducement enough and he removed to Richardson county and bought a farm south of Dawson, but later moved four miles south of Humboldt, where he made some extensive improvements, including the set- ting out of a fine grove of catalpa trees and pecan trees and Chincopin oaks, the first of the kind in the state. He also planted Ohio blue ash trees. Grow- ing on his farm are the only pecan trees in Nebraska. Hard maple trees which he planted are now yielding sap. He also set out other varieties of trees. He became one of the leading farmers of that locality and also handled large numbers of live stock. He took an active interest in public affairs and was soon a leader in his party in this section of the state. In 1882 he was elected representative to the Legislature from Richardson county on the Republican ticket and was one of the leading members of the sessions of 1882 and 1883, doing much for the good of his county, as well as for the general good of the state. He was also several times elected county surveyor of Richardson county. He surveyed the Iowa Indian Reservation in Nebraska and Kansas for the government, into forty-acre tracts and re-established the southeast corner of the state of Nebraska. He was regarded as one of the most expert surveyors ever in this section of the United States, was one of the five men appointed to survey the drainage ditch in Richardson county and became its drain commissioner, acting superintendent of all the work on this ditch, which was quite an extensive undertaking. As a public servant, Mr. Grinstead always performed his work in an able, faithful and conscien- tious manner, in a way that rejected much credit upon himself, and to the eminent satisfaction of all concerned.

In 1891 Mr. Grinstead moved to Salem, where he continued to reside until 1915. when he moved to Bethany, Nebraska, and in 1916 he located in Lincoln, where he now resides. In partnership with his son, Philip, and son- in-law, Prof. R. L. Hoff, he owns a ranch at Alliance, Nebraska, containing twenty-nine hundred acres in all and known as the "Black Root Ranch." He is vice-president and treasurer of the company; his son is president, and Professor Hoff is secretary. They operate this great ranch on an extensive scale, and are raising great quantities of grain and live stock, besides main- taining a large dairy herd.

On December 28, 1865, Robert E. Grinstead was married to Fannie Pool, who was born on November 22, 1840, near Edmonton, Kentucky, a daughter of John and Eliza (Wren) Pool, natives of Virginia, and to this union five children have been born, namely: Philip W., formerly a teacher in the Fremont, Norfolk and Salem schools, now an attorney of Louisville, Kentucky, who married Irene Reed, a native of Kentucky; Pool, who is now

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deceased, who was at one time owner and editor of the Salem (Nebraska) Index, the Morrill (Kansas) News, and the Wathena (Kansas) Star, who died in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1912; Robert, former surveyor of this county, . for twenty years a soldier now a major in the United States Army, stationed at Syracuse, New York, and who during the Spanish-American War was captain of a company in the Twenty-third Infantry, being promoted to the rank of major of the Fiftieth Infantry Regiment; Emma, wife of Prof. R. L. Hoff, of Lincoln, Nebraska, and Dr. Wren J. Grinstead, who is a profes- sor in the State Normal School at Richmond, Kentucky. Dr. Grinstead was graduated from the Kenton State University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and received the degree of Master of Arts from the State University of, Kentucky, and the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the State Uni- versity at Madison, Wisconsin.

The history of the Grinstead family shows that they have been inclined toward professional life, especially those of the last two generations, and they are playing well their parts in their respective walks of life. The children of the subject of this sketch received excellent educational advantages.

Fraternally, Mr. Grinstead is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. He is a man of fine personal characteristics, has become well informed as a result of,wide miscellaneous home reading and close observation and has a host of friends wherever he is known.

LOUIS J. SEGRIST.

It matters little what vocation a man may select as his life occupation as long as it is an honorable one. If he is an honest, upright man, courte- ous in his intercourse with his fellow men, and possessed with the average amount of energy and business sagacity, he is bound to make his business a financial success. Louis J. Segrist, formerly a resident of Richardson county, but now owner and manager of the Lincoln Tire and Repair Com- pany, in the city of Lincoln, evidently possesses the above mentioned require- ments.

Mr. Segrist was born in Richardson county, this state, April 25, 1875, a son of J. C. and Susannah (Simon) Segrist. The father was born on February 21, 1847, in Bremen, Germany, from which country he came to America when young and is now living at Humboldt, this county, where he

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is engaged in the furniture busniess, in partnership with A. H. Fellers. He was twelve years old when he left his native land with his mother and stepfather, who located in Illinois. In the fall of 1874, J. C. Segrist came to Nebraska and began farming in Porter precinct, Richardson county, where he resided until 1882, when he left the farm and moved to Hum- boldt, where he has since resided. His wife was born in Maryland, July 5, 1849. To their union eight children were born, three of whom are . now deceased; the five living, besides Louis J., the subject of this sketch, who is the eldest, being as follow: Della, wife of I. Sheirley, a merchant of Humboldt; George who lives in Sioux City, Iowa, a salesman for the packing plant of Swift & Company, Chicago; Anna, wife of E. C. Colhapp, of Lincoln, a clerk for a clothing company, and Mrs. Mabel Beurstetta, a widow, who also lives in Lincoln.

Louis J. Segrist was reared on the home farm in Franklin precinct, this county, and assisted with the general work of the farm when he became of proper age. He received his early education in the district schools there. As a young man he engaged in farming for himself, renting the home place from his father for nine years. He continued general farming and stock raising successfully until 1904, when he bought out the M. F. Linn & Son lumber yard at Humboldt, continuing in that line with very gratifying results until 1911, when he turned his attention to the automobile business, becoming associated with the Slama & Davis Company. On April 17, 1914, he moved to Lincoln, where he bought out a tire and repair business at 124 South Fifteenth street, which he is now conducting under the firm name of the Lincoln Tire and Repair Company, carrying a large and complete stock of tires and tubes, and does a large business both in the sales and repair departments. He was also one of the organizers of the T. & H. Oil Company of Ottawa, Kansas, and is vice-president of the company, which is a very thriving concern, this venture having met with great success. Sixteen wells are in operation, producing large quantities of oil. It is a one-hundred-thousand-dollar corporation. Mr. Segrist also owns one thou- sand acres of valuable land in South Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Kansas, besides property in the city of Lincoln. He is a man of rare busi- ness acumen and foresight, possessing sound judgment, perseverance and courage. He is also a man of sound business principles, honest and straight- forward in all his dealings with his fellow men.

On January 12, 1898, Louis J. Segrist was married to Fannie May Reynolds, who was born in Princeton, Illinois, a daughter of I. M. Rey- nolds of Humboldt. Her mother is now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Segrist

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two children have been born, Dale and George, both at home with their parents.

Mr. Segrist is an independent voter. While living at Humboldt he served as a member of the city council for many years, and while living on the farm in Franklin precinct, he served as precinct treasurer. He is a genial and companionable gentleman, who makes and retains friends wherever he goes.

HON. ARCHIBALD JERARD WEAVER.

The deeds of truly successful men live after them; a life filled with usefulness and which has been devoted to the accomplishment of something worth while to a people is one which never dies. Although several years have elapsed since the departure of the late Judge Archibald Jerard Weaver from the midst of earthly things-he yet lives in the hearts and minds of those who knew him. His career as a jurist and statesman left an impres- sion upon the historical annals of Richardson county and Nebraska which time can never efface and which is destined to endure as long as the state- itself. His life work was crowned with success; well educated, vigorous, a strong man mentally and physically, he made his advent into this growing community at a period when statesmen of his type and mold were needed to assist in shaping the destiny and guiding the activities of the common- wealth in the right direction. As a member of the constitutional conven- tions of 1871 and 1875, he gave evidence to his constituents that he was . possessed of ability of a high order, and while still the presiding judge of the first judicial district of Nebraska, he was called by the people of his district to represent them in the halls of the national Congress, as their representative. Here he displayed statesmanship of a pronounced order. Death called him at the zenith of his career, while still in the prime of his useful life. Judge Weaver set an example of right living, uprightness of achievement, and progressiveness which has been emulated by his progeny. This memoriam will serve to commemorate for all time to come the story of the life and deeds of this illustrious Nebraskan.

Archibald Jerard Weaver was born at Dundaff, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, April 15. 1843, and was a son of Abram Weaver, a native of Germany, who left his native land when a youth and settled in Pennsylvania, there marrying Chloe Coddington, who bore him six children, Andrew J., Arvilla, Amanda, Ann, Abram and Archibald J. The senior Abram Weaver

Martha A Weaver

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died in 1845 and the bereaved mother was left in poor circumstances, with six children to rear to manhood and womanhood. The early life of Archi- bald J. Weaver was thus one of hardship and penury and he knew not the luxurious upbringing of the younger generation of the present day. When a small boy he earned his way by doing chores and hoeing potatoes, while attending the village school. After his father's death he made his home with an elder brother for several years and was generally industrious, willingly performing the tasks allotted him in return for his "keep" and schooling. By the strictest economy he saved his small earnings and came into pos- session of a colt which, when sold, assisted materially in defraying his expenses at Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston, Pennsylvania. While a stu- dent in the seminary his roommate was Doctor Sprague, the present head of Wyoming Seminary. He and the future instructor were in the habit of playing boyish pranks upon their schoolmates when opportunity afforded and the mood seized them. One of these practical jokes, which the judge loved to relate at a later day, was occasion of "watering" the supply of milk, the boys doing this by milking the seminary cow and then filling the milk pail with water. They enjoyed very much the complaints of the student body because of the weak condition of the beverage. At this famous school Archibald Weaver met the girl who was destined to play an important part in the molding of his later matured life, in the person of Miss Martha A. Myers, a student in the seminary; daughter of one of the oldest and most influential families of the Wyoming valley. A warm friendship ripened into love, which later culminated in a happy marriage. Mr. Weaver studied for three years in Wyoming Seminary and, upon a vacancy occurring in the faculty through the resignation of a professor, he was tendered the position and filled the post for three years.

Archibald J. Weaver's ambition was to become a lawyer, and in keeping with this laudable desire he entered the law office of Henry Hoyt at Wilkes- barre, Pennsylvania. His preceptor later became governor of Pennsylvania. After studying for some months under the tutorship of Mr. Hoyt he entered Harvard Law School, studied one year and again resumed his studies with Mr. Hoyt. He finally returned to Harvard University from which he was. graduated in due time and, in January, 1869, was admitted to the practice of law in Boston, Massachusetts. His intention at the time of his admission to practice had been to locate in Boston, and there practice his profession. The lady he married in 1867. however, and the fact that a brother-in-law. Charles Steele, had located in Nebraska, had their influence in deciding his later course in favor of coming to the great West and there growing up

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with the new country. The wisdom of this decision was justified by subse- quent events and the entrance of the future judge almost immediately into the civic and political life of the young state of Nebraska was prophetic in its significance, and Richardson county and Nebraska were made richer by his coming. The party crossed the country by railroad to St. Joseph, Missouri, thence by steamboat to Rulo, Nebraska, from which river point they drove to Falls City in April of 1869. Mr. and Mrs. Weaver were both impressed with the wonderful natural beauty of the country through which they rode and were likewise pleased with the evident richness of the country-a fact which later induced Mr. Weaver and his wife to invest in Richardson county farm lands, thus laying the foundation for the present fortunes of the family. The future judge bought a farm at Falls City and, during his first summer he suffered much from fever, but established a law office in the embryo city situated upon the prairies north of the Nemaha and success seemed to come to him from the start. Being gifted with a winning personality and his powers of leadership impressing themselves upon the people of the growing community he was selected as a member of the con- stitutional assembly in 1871, just two years after his advent into the county. He distinguished himself at the sessions of this assembly and a year later was elected district attorney, a position which he held for two successive terms. In 1875 he was again a member of the state constitutional con- vention and did excellent work in behalf of the people of the commonwealth in assisting in framing wise and beneficent laws for the government of coming generations. His next official preferment was that of judge of the first judicial district of Nebraska, a position which he held for two terms in succession, resigning his high office to take a seat in the Congress of the nation, having been elected representative from this district in 1882. During his term in Congress Judge Weaver was a member of the important com- mittee which framed the interstate commerce law and provided for the commission which has played such an important part in the regulations of the vast interstate commerce which has developed in these latter decades. He was re-elected to Congress in 1884, his official term of office expiring in March, 1887. Not long after this he was seized with pneumonia and died on April 18, 1887, after a few days illness.

On September 10, 1867, Judge Weaver was united in marriage to Martha A. Myers, and to this union the following children were born, namely: Archibald J., who died at the age of two years; Harriet Blanche, who died at the age of four years; Mrs. Ruth M. Dennis, widow of Prof. David X. Dennis, of New Jersey, who was principal of the Falls City high school

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and who died at Salt Lake City, Utah, while engaged in educational work, and left two children, David, an orchardist, of Falls City, who married Alma Barton, and Ruth M., wife of Walter J. Lewis, of Pasadena, California, and mother of one child, Evelyn Louise; Arthur J. Weaver, banker and farmer, of Falls City, who married Maude Hart and is the father of four children, Maude Harriet, Dorothy Jane, Arthur, Jr., and Ruth Jean ; Lawrence M., Spokane, Washington, orchardist in the Yakima valley, who married Lydia C. Crowell and is the father of seven children, Polly, a graduate of the Spokane high school; Persis, Mary Elizabeth, John, Margaret, Robert and Priscilla, and Paul B. Weaver, an extensive farmer, lawyer and orchardist, of Falls City, who married Anna Crook and is the father of seven children, Bennett, Archibald Jackson, Mary, Martha, and Lawrence, Christobel and Doris.

The mother of the foregoing children, Mrs. Martha A. (Myers) Weaver, was born in Kingston, near Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania; „April 25, 1841, a daughter of Madison F, and Harriet Myers. Madison F. Myers was born on February 24, 1810, and died on August 2, 1859 .. His wife, Harriet Myers, was born on December 10, 1807, and died on May 2, 1889. They were united in marriage on May 23, 1833. Both of Mrs. Weaver's parents were members of old American families. Madison F. Myers, her father, was born at Utica Mills, Maryland, a son of Michael Myers, who was a son of Michael Myers, a native of the Rhine province, Germany, who emigrated to America in 1760. Michael Myers, the first, became a squire in the new country of his adoption and was a prominent and energetic figure in the early life of the region where he made a settlement. He had four sons, Lawrence, Philip, Henry and Michael. Philip Myers married Martha Bennett, born in Rhode Island, a daughter of Thomas Bennett, a famous patriot and Indian fighter of pre-Revolutionary days. It is recorded in the annals of the Wyoming valley that Thomas Bennett, together with his son, Andrew, and a Mr. Hammond, was captured by a band of savage Indians, with whom the settlers of the Wyoming valley were in almost ceaseless warfare for many years. They were taken far into the fastnesses of the wilderness and were bound in the camp of the Indians and held for possible torture and a slow lingering death, in keeping with the tastes of their savage captors. In the evening after their captors had feasted and were lying gorged and stupidly asleep before a blazing campfire, Thomas Bennett succeeded in loosening his bonds, killed the guard with a spear and used a gun and a tomahawk on the others. Hammond seized an ax lying within reach, laid about him lustily, and Bennett and Hammond in less than two minutes, killed all of the Indians

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 125

Author: Edwards, Lewis C Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1742

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742