History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 131

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

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William H. Putnam spent his childhood in New York state, being ten years old when his parents brought him to Chicago, where he remained until 1874. He received a public school education and upon leaving Chicago went to Kendall county, Illinois, where he worked as a farmi hand; then

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rented a farm in Lee county, that state; then moved to Fillmore county, Nebraska, in 1900. He had bought a splendid farm there the year previous. He owned a number of good farms, getting options on them and selling out at a profit. His judgment was never at fault in this line and he prospered. In 1899 he purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, for which he paid the sum of five thousand dollars, and he sold it later for eleven thousand dollars. He sold out in Fillmore county in the fall of 1905, with the excep- tion of one farm, which he sold in 1908. Upon leaving that county he came to Falls City and went into business, also invested in real estate here, becoming the owner of five valuable residence properties. He also was proprietor of the Falls City Bottling Works, which factory he purchased in 1905. He erected for it in 1912 a large and substantial two-story concrete building and installed much new and modern equipment. He manufactured soda water and all kinds of soft drinks and extracts and carried on an extensive trade, building up a prosperous and growing business over a wide territory, supplying Falls City and surrounding towns in Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas and Iowa, and since his death the factory is still maintained. Five thousand dollars was invested in the business. Every effort is made to keep the products uniformly pure, every bottle being thoroughly sterilized before fill- ing. Owing to failing health Mr. Putnam retired from the active manage- ment of the plant on February 1, 1917, turning the business over to his son, John J. Putnam. In 1915 Mr. Putnam began operating a glove factory in the building adjoining his bottling works and this concern is also prospering and growing in prestige. It is known as the Putnam Glove Company. Seven skilled workmen are constantly employed. The factory is operated by Mr. Putnam's daughter, Charlotte Putnamı.

William H. Putnam was married in Chicago, in 1872, to Catherine McNally, who was born. in Ireland, from which country she came to the United States when a child. She was born in 1847. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Putnam: William Henry, manager of the Madison-Kipp Lubrication Company, at Madison, Wisconsin; Charles. who is engaged in merchandising in Chicago; John J., who is manager of the Falls City Bottling Works, and Charlotte, who is managing the Putnam Glove Factory. Mr. Putnam died on April 5, 1917.

Politically, Mr. Putnam was a Democrat; fraternally, he belonged to the Modern Woodmen and to the Knights of Columbus. He was a member of the Catholic church. He was a business man of rare foresight and sound- ness of judgment and had been successful in whatever he turned his atten --

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tion to, long having been regarded as one of the most public-spirited citizens of Falls City, which he had done much to promote and advertise. He was a pleasant man to meet and his personal reputation was unassailable.

EDWIN HERMAN TOWLE.

Edwin Herman Towle, well-known lumber dealer at Falls City and secretary and manager of the Southeast Nebraska Telephone Company of that city, was born in Falls City and has lived there all his life, long having been recognized as one of the leading factors in the general business life of that city. He was born on September 19, 1869, son of the Hon. Edwin Sargent and Kittie L. (Dorrington) Towle, pioneers of Falls City, who are still living there and further and fitting mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume under a biographical sketch relating to the Hon. Edwin Sargent Towle, first mayor of the city of Falls City, a member of the Nebraska constitutional convention, former speaker of the House in the Nebraska General Assembly and for years one of the most influential business men in southeastern Nebraska.

Reared at Falls City, Edwin H. Towle was graduated from the high school there in 1887, and then entered Northwestern University at Evans- ton, a suburb of Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1892. Upon completing his schooling Mr. Towle returned to Falls City and there became engaged in the lumber business as a member of the Towle Lumber Company and since 1901 has been manager of the affairs of that company. In 1906 he became connected with the Southeastern Nebraska Telephone Company. in the capacity of secretary and manager of the same, and has since occupied that position, attending to the affairs of the telephone company as well as to his own extensive lumber interests. This telephone company was organ- ized on April 1, 1895, as the Falls City Telephone Company, and was re- organized on May 1, 1906, as the Southeast Nebraska Telephone Company. with eighty-four stockholders and with a capital stock of $68.666, the present officers of the company being as follow: President, Joseph F. Frederick : vice-president, Aaron W. Loucks; treasurer. W. E. Dorrington; secretary . and manager, E. H. Towle, and directors, besides the above officers, Joseph H. Miles, Arthur J. Weaver and Thomas H. Gist. The operations of the Southeast Nebraska Telephone Company cover Richardson county and the company owns all toll lines in the county, together with exchanges at

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Salem, Verdon and Barada. It is equipped with the latest appliances for expeditious service, has nearly two thousand subscribers, employs thirty- three persons and has an annual payroll in excess of twenty thousand dollars.

Mr. Towle is a Republican and from the days of his boyhood has given his earnest attention to local political affairs. For two years he served as police judge of the city of Falls City and for some time served as city civil engineer, in that latter capacity having had charge of the first systematic paving in the city in 1910. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and, fraternally, is affiliated with the Masons and with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in the affairs of which organ- izations he takes a warm interest.

On December 9, 1897, Edwin H. Towle was united in marriage to Lillian M. Farington, of Falls City, a daughter of C. W. and Mary Faring- ton, old residents of Falls City, and to this union two children have been born, Mary D. and Edward S.

FRANK P. WILSON.

Frank P .. Wilson, farmer and stockman of Falls City precinct, this county, was born on the old homestead in that vicinity on January 22, 1882, on the farm which he now owns. He is a son of Robert P. and Adaline (Gardner) Wilson. The father was born in Wilkesbarre, Penn- sylvania, December 29, 1845, and died on June 13, 1894. He moved to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, with his parents when young and his father and mother spent the rest of their lives in that state. Robert P. Wilson came to Ne- braska in 1872 and, in Richardson county, bought a tract of school land which he transformed by hard and persistent work into the present well- improved and productive farm. There was an old frame house on the land, which had been used for a vinegar factory, and he lived in it for some time. The present comfortable Wilson home was built in 1893 and contains ten rooms, being located in the midst of pleasant surroundings. Mr. Wilson made extensive improvements in various ways and set out about eight acres of orchard and a grove of shade trees. He owned one hundred and sixty acres, forty acres of which now belong to his danghter, Mrs. Mabel Boose. His wife, Adaline Gardner, was born in Union county, Indiana, November 26, 1846, and her death occurred on January 14. 1913. To them two children were born, Frank P., the subject of this sketch,

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and Mabel, wife of Doctor Boose, of Falls City, a sketch of whom appears on another page of this work. The ancestors of both Robert P. Wilson and wife came to America in the "Mayflower" and thus both sides of the house date back to our earliest Colonial history. Frank P. Wilson has in his possession a pewter mug which has been handed down since the year 1620.

Frank P. Wilson was reared on the home farm and attended high school in Falls City. He has always lived on the home farm, which he has kept well improved and under a high state of cultivation. He owns one hundred and twenty acres in section 16, and has made a success as a general farmer and stock raiser.

On October 11, 1911, Frank P. Wilson was married to Jesta Houck, a daughter of John and Elnora (Tipton) Houck, natives of Ohio, where they spent their earlier years. They came to Brown county, Kansas, in 1884, and two years later established their home in Richardson county, Nebraska. Mr. Houck has devoted his life to agricultural pursuits, but is now living in retirement in Salem, this county. Mrs. Wilson was born in Gallia county, Ohio, January 21, 1881. She was reared on the farm and was educated in the public schools and in the Hiawatha (Kansas) Academy. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, namely: John R., Francis P., Stella W., and one who died in infancy, unnamed. Politically, Mr. Wilson is a Republican. Fraternally, he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his wife is a member of the Baptist church.

HON. ARTHUR J. WEAVER.

Hon. Arthur J. Weaver, vice-president of the First National Bank of Falls City, is a native son of Nebraska and a scion of an old American family, whose forbears were pioneers in the famous Wyoming valley of Pennsylvania. His career in his native county has been such as to deserve approbation and to reflect credit upon his ancestry and himself. Having served the people of Richardson county in the halls of the state Legislature and taken an active and influential part in the civic, commercial and agri- cultural development of the county, his position as one of the real leaders of the community is assured and definite. Primarily, Mr Weaver is a farmer and he and his brother are probably the most extensive orchardists and stock growers in southeastern Nebraska. Weaver hrothers rank as the

IWear.

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most successful fruit growers in the state and have extensive land holdings, which are managed ably and successfully. Mr. Weaver was born in Falls City, November 18, 1873, and is a son of Judge Archibald J. Weaver, deceased, and Martha A. Weaver, residing in Falls City. His father was one of the prominent and outstanding figures of the early civic and politi- cal life of Richardson county. He filled the office of judge of the district court with such pronounced ability that his constituents elected him repre- sentative from the first Nebraska district in the national Congress. Extended mention of the life and activities of Judge Weaver are given elsewhere in this volume.

Arthur J. Weaver received his primary education in the public schools of his native city and pursued his preparatory course in Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston, Pennsylvania, from which institution he was graduated in 1892. He then entered the University of Nebraska and was graduated therefrom with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1895. Continuing his studies in the law department of the university, he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1896. As as student, athlete and orator he took first rank while in the university. He served as manager of the Nebraska football team and was influential in having the first football coach installed in a seat of learning west of the Mississippi river. His activity in athletic sports elevated, or was influential in advancing, the athletic standing of Nebraska University. He attained renown as an orator and for two years in succes- sion made the opening and closing addresses in the interstate college debates in which his alma mater participated. His team won the debate presided over by William J. Bryan in May, 1896. Following his admission to the bar he practiced law successfully for eight years in his native city and built up an extensive practice. He served three terms as city attorney, was elected to represent Richardson county in the state Legislature in 1898 and served during the session of 1899. During this session he introduced and secured the passage of the bill providing for the permanent location of the state agricultural exposition at Lincoln, and served as a member of the judiciary and other important committees. He was elected to county attorney in 1900 and served for two years. He became a member of the city council of Falls City in 1910 and served as an active member and president of that body until 1916. It was during his incumbency in this office that the great improvements in Falls City, such as paving, sewerage, and the like were undertaken and completed, Mr. Weaver occupying the important post of chairman of the finance committee during this period.

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Mr. Weaver's farming and financial interests now occupy the greater part of his time and attention. As vice-president and manager of the First National Bank of Falls City, a position which he has held since 1912, his place in the financial world is an important one. He and his brother, Paul B. Weaver, operating under the name of Weaver brothers, own and manage over three thousand acres of land in Richardson county, two hundred acres of which is in producing apple orchards. Weaver brothers' orchards prob- ably produce more high-grade commercial fruit than any other orchards in the state, their output exceeding fifty to one hundred carloads annually. The orchards are famous for the high standard quality of the fruit shipped. Two thousand hogs are raised and marketed annually from their stock farms. Five hundred cattle are raised and fattened for market on their ranges and in their feeding sheds. The payroll of this extensive agricultural plant ex- ceeds one hundred dollars a day to the hands employed, or more than forty thousand dollars annually. Mr. Weaver is associated with former Gov. John H. Morehead in farming, orcharding, stock raising and timber interests in Nebraska and other states. Mr. Weaver, with others, organized the National Bank of Humboldt and later sold it. He is a member of the State Horti- cultural Association and served as vice-president of the Farmers industrial congress held at St. Joseph in 1913 and 1914, at which meetings he delivered addresses. Although frequently called upon to speak before various import- ant gatherings held in important cities of the country at different times he has been forced in most cases to decline because of the press of business affairs. In 1897 Mr. Weaver was married to Persa Morris, of Humboldt. a graduate of the Nebraskan Wesleyan University, who died in January, 1906. Mr. Weaver was again married. September 2, 1908, to Maude E. Hart, of White Pigeon, Michigan, daughter of Capt. B. F. Hart and Harriet Hart. Captain Hart served as captain of a Michigan volunteer regiment during the Civil War. At the time of her marriage, Mrs. Weaver was en- gaged as a teacher in the public schools of Falls City. Four children have blessed this union, namely: Mande Harriet, born on September 14, 1909: Dorothy Jane, July 11, 1911 ; Arthur, Jr., November 19, 1912, and Ruth, November 22, 1914.

Mr. Weaver is a Republican, has generally taken an active and influen- tial interest in the affairs of his party and has served on the Republican state committee has a member from the first senatorial district. The mein- bers of his family attend the Presbyterian church, with which religious de- nomination they are affiliated. He is a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite (thirty-second degree) Mason and a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of

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Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and is also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and various fraternal insurance orders. Mr. Weaver is a native Nebraskan, who saw opportunity in the development of his native county and state, grasped it, and with decided ability and characteristic energy achieved a striking success, proper note of the achievement of which is deserving a place in the annals of his native county, to which he is intensely loyal.

JOSEPH G. HEIM.

Joseph G. Heim, of Dawson, this county, is a man of varied attain- ments in the agricultural life of the community in which he resides. As a farmer, breeder of cattle, hogs and sheep, as well as fruit growing, his life may be described as a busy one. He was born on March 9, 1857, in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, the son of Jacob G. and Regina (Gross) Heim, also natives of that same county and state.

Jacob G. Heim was born on June 15, 1832, in Pennsylvania, the son of Gotleib and Margaret (Steiger) Heim, who were natives of Wurtemburg, Germany, and who came to the United States about 1808. Jacob G. Heim, who followed the occupation of farming all his life, came to Nebraska in 1874. He located on section 15, Grant township, this county, and bought four hundred acres of land. His first experience in this place was somewhat unfortunate, as he lost the whole of his first year's crops, the grasshoppers eating every growing thing on his land. This experience, however, was not repeated and he continued to farm with much success up to the time of his retirement. A few years before his death he moved to Dawson; later he moved to the farm home of Emanuel Ulmer and died there in 1914. His wife, Regina (Gross) Heim, a daughter of Joseph and Christena (Ulmer) Gross, was born on July 13, 1835, and is now living with her daughter, Mrs. Sarah Ulmer, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. Her parents were also natives of Lycoming county, Pennsylvania. Jacob G. and Regina Heim were the parents of eleven children, four of whom are deceased, the others being Joseph G., the subject of this sketch; Mrs. Sarah Ulmer, who lives in Grant township; Samuel F .; Jonathan W .; Rebecca. the wife of Jacob S. Heim; Sophia, who married Martin D. Ulmer; and Maggie, who married Thomas Wuster, and all of whom are living in Grant township, this county.

Joseph G. Heim came to Nebraska with his parents in 1874. he then

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being seventeen years of age. In 1882 he rented land from his father and in 1884 he bought his first farm in section 10, Grant precinct. The tract was all unimproved and he set to work to bring it into a state fit for culti- vation. He built a substantial house, put up three barns and set out ten acres to an orchard for fruit growing, in which he has been very successful, selling his fruit locally and shipping large quantities. He is regarded as one of the most progressive fruit growers in this part of the state.

Mr. Heim's entire acreage in sections 10, 26 and 27, in Grant town- ship, amounts to two hundred and forty acres of choice land, all of which with the exception of the portion set out to the orchard, is operated for general farming purposes. He is an extensive breeder of Holstein cattle and Duroc-Jersey hogs and has an excellent strain of pure-bred Shropshire sheep, several of which he keeps for breeding purposes. For several years Mr. Heim has been a member of the Shropshire Breeders Association of Lafayette, Indiana. In all his varied business activities he has shown much enterprise and sound judgment.

On December 22, 1881, Joseph G. Heim was united in marriage to Rosa Heim, daughter of John and Margaret (Heim) Heim, who came to Rich- ardson county in 1881, the year of their daughter's marriage to Mr. Heim. John Heim is dead and his widow is now living on the farm in section 15, Grant township. Joseph G. Heim and wife are the parents of six children, namely : Mrs. Bertha Shively, of Calloway, this state; Mrs. May Belden, of Grant township; Emerson, who lives on the homestead in Grant township; Olive and John, both deceased, and Alice, who is attending high school. The Heim family are members of the United Evangelical church and are active in all its good works.

Mr. Heim is a Republican and gives active support to that party, though sometimes voting the independent ticket. For two years he acted as town- ship assessor, giving general satisfaction in that office. He was elected to the Dawson school board about twenty years ago and has been an active worker on the board during that time, serving as president of the board for several years. In 1892 Mr. Heim became superintendent of the Sunday school attached to the United Evangelical church at Dawson, and has continued since in that capacity. He increased the membership of the classes from twenty-five to over two hundred, thus giving evidence of his zeal on behalf of the Sunday school. He is also a trustee of the church. In June, 1916, Mr. Heim moved to Dawson, where he built a modern and well-equipped bungalow and where he and his family are comfortably situated.

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WILLIAM CADE.

The late William Cade, one of the pioneers of Richardson county and former member of the board of county commissioners, an honored veteran of the Civil War and a well-to-do retired farmer, who died at his home in Falls City in 1908, his widow still residing in that city, was a native of the old Buckeye state and later a resident of Iowa, but had lived in this part of the country since pioneer days, having settled in Washington county, Kansas, in 1870, coming thence in 1880 up into Nebraska and locating in the pre- cinct of Nemaha, this county, one of the pioneers of that section of the county, and remaining there until his retirement in the fall of 1892 and removal to Falls City, where he spent his last days, one of the best-known citizens of Richardson county.

William Cade was born in Ohio on February 9, 1834, and in childhood was left an orphan, being thereafter compelled to "hustle" for himself. As a young man he came West and began to work as a farm hand in Iowa, where he was living when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted for service as a member of Company H, Thirty-sixth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and with that command served for three years, participating in some of the most notable battles and engagements of the war, but was never wounded nor taken prisoner. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Cade returned to Iowa and was there married early in 1867, continuing to make his home in Iowa until 1870, when he and his wife and their two small children came over to this part of the country and settled on an unbroken tract of land south of Hanover, in Washington county, Kansas, where they remained for ten years. Upon settling there they threw up a sod shanty on the plain and there established their home, continuing to use that humble habitation as a place of residence until presently Mr. Cade sold a team of horses and thus secured funds with which to erect a small frame house. That sod shanty had a plank floor, however, a luxury not enjoyed by all the early settlers of the plains country who had their "day of small things" in this primitive sort of a home. During the second year of their residence in Kansas the season was so dry that Mr. and Mrs. Cade came over the line up into Nebraska and took employment on the construction of the Burlington & Missouri River railroad, then making its way across through this county between Salem and Dawson, Mr. Cade using his two teams and Mrs. Cade taking care of boarders in a shack. At the end of the season they returned to their homestead in Kansas with money enough to tide them through the

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winter. During the grasshopper visitation in that section Mr. Cade's corn crop was devoured, but he had some reserve wheat in store and with this he fed his cattle, thus managing to get through that period of hardship that destroyed the hopes of so many Kansas and Nebraska homesteaders. In 1880 Mr. Cade sold his Kansas farm to advantage and moved over the line into Nebraska, buying a tract of two hundred and forty acres, a quarter of a section and an "eighty" in the precinct of Nemaha, east of Mins City, in Richardson county, building a house and barn on the "eighty." There he continued to live, improving and developing the place, until failing health necessitated his retirement from the farm, and on October, 1892, he moved to Falls City, where the rest of his life was spent. Upon retiring he sold his land in Nemaha precinct and invested in land in Osborne county, Kansas, which investments turned out very well, his widow now being the owner there of one thousand acres of excellent land, divided into four farms of two hundred and fifty acres each, which are managed by her sons. Mr. Cade was a Republican and ever took an earnest part in local civic affairs, for some time having served as a member of the board of county commissioners. He was an active member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Repub- lic at Falls City and took a warm interest in the affairs of that patriotic organi- zation, and after his death on December 31, 1908, his remains were laid away with the full honors of the post, his surviving comrades paying their last formal tribute of respect to his memory at his graveside.

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 131

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