History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 74

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

USA > Nebraska > Richardson County > History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions > Part 74

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During this session of the Legislature the public lands for internal im-

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provements were disposed of to assist in the building of railroads. The state was full of railroads on paper and there was not enough land in the state to pay for half of the construction necessary. To provide for the proper expenditure of this money, Mr. Reavis introduced a bill to provide for the expenditure of the money accruing from the sale of the public lands, where it would do the most and lasting good, and be of the greatest benefit to the state. Three railroads were selected, and possibly a fourth, as bene- ficiaries of this fund when they should comply with the prerequisites to show good faith. The Midland Pacific, now owned by the Burlington System and running from Nebraska City to Lincoln, was one of those roads; the Atchison & Nebraska railroad was another one, now owned by the Bur- lington and running from Atchison to Lincoln; the Burlington & Missouri River railroad was another in Nebraska, running from Plattsmouth to Ft. Kearney.

It was at this session of the Legislature that Senator Reavis intro- duced a bill appropriating money to the Lincoln Monument Association. This association was in process of building the monument for our martyred Presi- dent in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois, and. it was the desire of Mr. Reavis to have our state represented in the construction of that beauti- ful edifice. One of the senators from Nemaha county introduced an amendment to strike out the words "Lincoln Association" and insert "Nebraska Soldiers Association." In reply to the member's remarks introducing this amend- ment, Senator Reavis had this to say :

Mr. Chairman :- I regret exceedingly that the gentleman from Nemaha county has seen fit to offer this amendment. In my judgment nothing could be more ill-timed and ont of place than a proposition of this character. His explanation may be satisfactory to the members on this floor who have heard it; but, sir. there are those outside of these walls who will doubt while the gentleman protests. The bill under consideration appro- priates-should it become a law-one thousand dollars to aid an association of very respectable individuals, among them which are some of the states of the I'nion, in build- ing a monument over the grave of Abraham Lincoln. The gentleman moves to strike out "Lincoln Association" and insert "Nebraska Soldiers' Association." The amendment. if adopted, will destroy the bill and defeat a measure that commends itself to the heart of every patriot in this broad land of ours. It will do more. If persisted in it will compel senators to discriminate between the soldiers who were slain in battle and our good old President who was murdered in Washington.

Nir. I do not want the time ever to come when I shall be compelled either as a legislator or otherwise to make such discrimination. I would rear a monument to the memory of each, tall enough to be seen over the hilltops of all the centuries. I am at a loss to know why the gentleman offers this amendment. Does he think the fallen heroes of the rebellion are in danger of being forgotten? If he does I am bond to believe he has less confidence in the people, to say nothing of the survivors of six hundred bloody battle fields of the slavery war than I had supposed him to possess. The soldiers-God

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bless them-will take care of the memory of their lost comrades, whether they receive assistance from associations or legislatures or not. Monumental piles are bnt the physical manifestations of the love we bear the deported who sleep beneath, and shall it be said of Nebraska that she bad Hot love enough in her young heart to place one slab in the marble edifice that is to stand like a ghostly sentinel by the side of the great patriot's grave, while time shall grow old with the ages?

For myself, I desire to appropriate money enough for the purpose mentioned in the bill, to give Nebraska-the youngest member of the federal family-a respectable position in this magnificent and praiseworthy enterprise. The gentleman need have no fears that the fallen soldiers of Nebraska will receive less attention on necount of this bill. Sir. they are being attended by those that "drank from the same canteen"-by those that loved them in life-that love them in death, and who revere the lofty patriotism that impelled them to take arms in defense of the best human government that was ever made. In the court house square at my own home, stands a beautiful marble shaft. It was placed there by the members of two companies of Nebraska soldiers in memoriam of the dead of both. On its smooth surface is engraved the names of the "lost boys jn blue"; when and where they died; whether killed in battle or carried away by disease : and the names of the companies at whose instance it was erected. All honor to the warm-hearted, generous citizen soldiery who did the noble deed. It is the spontaneous offering of the companies in arms whose march is ended forever and there, sir, it will stand long after this generation shall have passed away and the memory of those whose names are chiseled on its smooth surface shall have otherwise faded from the world. For these and other reasons I oppose the amendment and hope it may be withdrawn.

The amendment was withdrawn, the bill passed and the appropriation allowed to languish in the treasury until it became null and unavailable. Many years afterward, in the year 1880, Judge Reavis had occasion to visit his old home on the Sangamon river, near Springfield. He visited the Lincoln monument that had been recently completed, and having an added interest in the building by reason of his successful efforts in having Nebraska repre- sented in the erection of it he made the cemetery a visit. The surprise that came to him when he found that the money appropriated by Nebraska in 1869 was not used or gotten from the state treasury at all is spoken of in his reminiscences, together with his immediate efforts in having the money re-appropriated and forwarded to the custodian of the immortal sepulchre for the use, benefit, beautification and maintenance of the tomb, thus finally placing Nebraska among the list of donors. A distinction which would have been lost to the honor of the state whose capital bears the immortal President's name, but for his interest and efforts in memory of the one man who lived upon this earth but to bless it, whom he really loved and worshiped-Abraham Lincoln.

On May 19, 1864. Isham Reavis and Anna Dorrington were united in marriage in Falls City. Anna Dorrington was a daughter of David and Anne Dorrington, who were well-known pioneer residents of Richardson county. Five children were born of this marriage, as follow: Mrs. Anna

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(Reavis) Gist, of Falls City ; Isham, Jr., deceased; David Dorrington Reavis. of Falls City, concerning whom a biography is given in this volume; Charles Frank Reavis, member of Congress from this district, and Burton Isham Reavis, of Falls City. All of the living children are residents of Falls City, and it was a source of supreme happiness to Judge Reavis that he lived to rear and educate his family and to see them take honored places in the life of the community of which he was one of the distinguished creators. Mrs. Reavis taught for a time in the first school established in the county.

For over half a century Judge Reavis was an honored member of the Masonic order and was the last of the charter members of Falls City Lodge No. 9, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. The Masons attended his obsequies in a body as also did the Richardson County Bar Association, augmented by the entire bar of Pawnee and Nemaha counties and members from Otoe, Johnson, Gage and Adams counties, who were associated with Judge Reavis in the State Bar Association.

Judge Isham Reavis did his work nobly and well and left to his family a splendid heritage of deeds which will live long in the hearts and minds of those who knew him best. He gave the best that was within him to the business and social life of the city, county and state and achieved a place of prominence and renown which will live through the years to come and which entitles him to a place among the leaders of the great commonwealth which he assisted in creating. His was a worthy life, his many years having been filled with usefulness and the accomplishment of things worth while.

JUDGE JOHN D. SPRAGINS.

Judge John D. Spragins, police judge at Falls City, an honored veteran of the Civil War, justice of the peace in and for Falls City, also engaged in the insurance business in that city, of which he is one of the pioneers, is a native of Illinois, but has been a resident of Nebraska ever since the summer of 1869, when he came out here and settled at Falls City, then a village of but two hundred and fifty inhabitants. He was born on a farm three and a half miles north of Galena, in Jo Daviess county, Illinois, December 21. 1840. son of Thomas and Louisa (Langlois) Spragins, both of French descent. the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Illinois.

Thomas Spragins left Virginia in the days of his young manhood, in 1827, and came West, becoming one of the early lead miners at Galena, Illi-

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nois. He was one of the party led by Monsieur Dubuque that crossed the Mississippi river and laid out the town that later developed into the present city of Dubuque. That party was run out by the Indians, but later Dubuque returned with a stronger party and the Indians were dispossessed of that tract forever, the town thereafter being peaceably settled. Thomas Spragins married Louisa Langlois, who was born at St. Charles, Illinois, daughter of Gabriel Langlois, a Frenchman, who later was killed in the Black Hills while on an expedition in behalf of the American Fur Company. In 1844 Thomas Spragins moved to the Apple River mines in Elizabeth, Jo Daviess county. where he made his home until 1869, in which year he came to Nebraska and settled at Falls City. where his last days were spent, his death occurring there in 1883. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth in order of birth, the others being as follow: J. W. S., who went on farther West and spent his last days in Cali- fornia: Thomas F., who became a pioneer in Montana and there spent his last days: Mrs. Louisa Batcheller, now living at Prairie du Chien, Wiscon- sin: Mrs. Julia C. Goodwin, who died in Milwaukee: Mrs. Anie E. Miller. of Duluth, Minnesota, and Mrs. Virginia P. Crowley, also of Duluth.

John D. Spragins grew up in Jo Daviess county, Illinois, and from the days of his boyhood was trained in the ways of the mines, becoming an expert miner, and was engaged in working in the mines when the Civil War broke out. In .August, 1861, he enlisted for service as a member of Company E. Forty-fifth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and went to the front with that command, continuing in service until the close of the war, being mustered out on July 12, 1865, with the rank of first lieutenant. During this long period of service Judge Spragins participated in eighty distinct engagements, including some of the hottest battles of the war, including forty-eight days at the siege of Vicksburg, during which historic siege his ability as a miner proved very serviceable, he having there had charge of a detachment of sap- pers and miners, whose hazardous task it was to mine under the Confederate forts and blow them up. On one of these expeditions the Judge was trapped with three others in his own mine, the rebels having been successful in blow- ing up the entrance to the mine, and before he and his men were able to dig themselves out they were almost overcome by the deadly mine "damp." After the fall of Vicksburg he was on provost-guard duty in the city from July + to October 24 and thence on down Black river, going on to Meridian, Missis- sippi, fighting every day, and at Canton, Mississippi, entered upon the task of destroying the railroad, tearing up twenty miles of track and destroying

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twenty-three locomotives and other rolling stock. After this expedition the Judge was given a veteran furlough home. After some hazardous experi- ence, on his return, he rejoined his regiment at Vicksburg and proceeded on to Huntsville, Alabama, and thence to Chattanooga and then on the march through Georgia. "After the battles of Resaca and Carterville, his regiment was detailed to guard the Ettawa bridge and from there went on, taking part in numerous battles including Kenesaw Mountain and Marietta and was then detailed to guard the bridge near the Chattahoochie cotton mills, burning that bridge when Atlanta fell and then returning to Marietta. Just as the army was starting on the march to the sea the Judge was seized with a severe attack of rheumatism and was turned back, that having been his last fighting. He remained on sick leave until he joined his regiment at Louisville: after the close of the war, the command proceeding thence to Chicago, where it was finally discharged. Among the other battles Judge Spragins participated in may be mentioned, as among the hottest, Ft. Henry, Ft. Donelson, Savannah. Pittsburg Landing or Shiloh, Holly Springs, Thompson's Hill. Clinton, Ray- mond. Jackson, Champion Hills and the Black River and on to Vicksburg. His command was in action almost continually and, as noted above, he was au active participant in eighty distinct engagements.

Upon the completion of his military service John D. Spragins returned to Illinois and in June, 1868, at White Oak Spring, Wisconsin, was united in marriage to Lydia Frances Friend, who was born in Pennsylvania, daughter of George and Priscilla ( Harrington) Friend. The next year, in August, 1869, the Judge and his wife and their four-months-old son came to Neb- raska and located at Falls City, then a promising village of about two hun- dred and fifty inhabitants. He there became engaged as a building contractor and three years later engaged in the livery business, continuing engaged in that line for three years, at the end of which time he began manufacturing wagons and buggies and was thus quite successfully engaged until 1884, when he sold his establishment and went out to Hayes county, Nebraska, . where he homesteaded .a tract of land with a view to establishing a home there and "grow up with the country." The Judge has little to say regard- ing that homesteading experience, the disastrous experiment in pioneering being summed up in his terse phrase that he "saved himself, but lost five thousand dollars." Upon the failure to realize his plans as a homesteader. the Judge returned to Falls City and there engaged again in wagon-making, later moving to Straussville, Richardson county, but after a sometime resi- dence there returned to Falls City, where he since has made his home. In

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November, 1905, he was elected justice of the peace in and for Falls City and in April, 1906, he was elected city police judge, both of which magis- terial offices he still holds. In addition to attending to his magisterial duties Judge Spragins is engaged in the insurance business and is doing very well. The Judge formerly was a Republican, but in the memorable campaign of 1896, became one of the ardent supporters of William Jennings Bryan and has since remained a Democrat. He is an active member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic and is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, taking an earnest interest in the affairs of these several organizations. Judge and Mrs. Spragins have a pleasant home at Falls City and have ever taken an interested part in local good works. They have one son, George W. Spragins, who was born in Illinois in April, 1869, and is now a traveling salesman for the Oliver Chilled Plow Company. He married Grace Jack and has one child, a son. Given Spragins.

MILLARD LEWIS WILSON, M. D.

Dr. Millard Lewis Wilson, of Falls City, Richardson county, and one of the best-known physicians and surgeons of this part of the state, a resi- dent of this county since he entered upon the practice of his profession in 1896, is a native son of Nebraska and has lived in this state all his life. He was born on a pioneer farm in the immediate vicinity of Nebraska City, November 26, 1866, son of Enoch and Eunice (Jarrett) Wilson, the former of whom was born in the neighboring state of Iowa and the latter in the old state of Virginia. and who were married in Missouri. Enoch Wilson, a life-long farmer, served as a member of the state militia, the Union Home Guards, during the Civil War. In 1864 he settled on a farm just north of Nebraska City and there made his home until a few years ago, when he retired from the farm and moved into Nebraska City, where he is now living in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He was the father of ten children. eight of whom are living. Three sons of Enoch Wilson are physi- cians, Dr. S. S. Wilson, of Nebraska City; Dr. J. S. Wilson, of Johnson, Nebraska: Dr. M. I .. : and an attorney, Judge W. W. Wilson, Nebraska City; Andrew, Nebraska City; Mrs. Dora Delzell. Peru, wife of Prof. W. N. Delzell. of Peru Normal; Donna, wife of Prof. J. W. Crabtree, president Normal school, River Falls. Wisconsin, and Della, at Nebraska City.

Reared on a farm. Dr. M. I .. Wilson received his early schooling in the

MILLARD L. WILSON, M. D.

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public schools, supplementing the same by a course in the State Normal School at Peru and thus admirably equipped by preliminary study entered the medical department of Cotner University at Lincoln and was graduated from that institution in 1896, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In that same year the Doctor established an office for the practice of his pro- fession at Humboldt, in this county, and after his marriage the next year established his home there, remaining there for eleven years, at the end of which time, in 1907, he moved to Falls City, where he ever since has been very successfully engaged in practice. The Doctor has well-appointed offices in the Wahl building and has ever kept abreast of the wonderful modern advances being made in his profession. In 1905 he took a post-graduate course at the Chicago Polyclinic. He is affiliated with the Richardson County Medical Society, the Nebraska State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Nebraska State Eclectic Medical Society and the National Eclectic Medical Association and to the affairs and deliberations of these various learned societies gives his thoughtful and earnest attention. Doctor Wilson is a Democrat and has ever given a good citizen's attention to local political affairs. He served for one term as coroner of Richardson county and has in other ways done his part in the public service. Dr. Wilson is president of the local board of pension examiners. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, besides various fra- ternal insurance associations, and in the affairs of all of these organizations takes a warm interest. Doctor and Mrs. Wilson have a very pleasant home in Falls City and take a proper interest in the general social and cultural activities of their home town.

It was in 1897, at Essex, Iowa, that Dr. Millard L. Wilson was united in marriage to Elfrida Eugenie Ruth Osterholm, who was born in the kingdom of Sweden, February 15, 1875, daughter of Peter Emanuel and .Anna (Schubert ) Peterson (now Osterholm), who left their home at Brans- torp, in their native Sweden, and came to this country with their family in the summer of 1881 and settled at Essex, in Page county, Iowa, where Mr. Osterholm engaged in the jewelry business and where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring there on April 20, 1906. His widow sur- vived him for nearly five years, her death occurring on December 3, 191I. Her. Grandfather Schubert was born in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, of German parentage. He was a sympathizer with the cause of the "Little Corporal" during the time of the Napoleonic Wars and became attached

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to the staff of Napoleon's great field marshal, Gen. Johan Bernadotte, ac- companying the latter to the Scandinavian peninsula when Napoleon created him king of Sweden and Norway, with the title of Carl XIV, and there Schubert fell in love with a lovely Swedish girl, married her and established his home in Sweden, Mrs. Wilson therefore being a great-grand- daughter of one of Napoleon's favored soldiers of fortune. To Peter Emanuel Osterholm (born Peterson) and wife eleven children were born, of whom six are still living, those besides Mrs. Wilson being as follow : August, who is engaged in the implement business at Essex, Iowa ; Dr. Martin Osterholm, Ph. D., professor of modern languages in the University of Heidelburg at Tiffin, Ohio; William, who is in charge of the efficiency de- partment of the great Deering works at Chicago; Elmer, who is employed in that same department, and Mrs. Philip Schorr, of Ottumwa, Iowa.

STEPHEN CONLEE BARLOW.

Stephen Conlee Barlow, an honored veteran of the Civil War, one of the real "old timers" of Richardson county, one of the founders of the village of Dawson and for years actively identified with the affairs of that village. one of the leading merchants of the place and in other ways interested in the business life of the community, now living comfortably retired in that village, is a native Hoosier, a fact of which he has never ceased to be proud, but has been a resident of this county since the days of the close of the Civil War and has therefore seen this region grow from its original wilderness state to its present flourishing condition as one of the richest agricultural communities in the great state of Nebraska. He was born on a farm in Shelby county, not far southeast of Indianapolis, the capital of the state of Indiana, January 15, 1842, son of Lewis and Ruth (Bishop) Barlow, both natives of Kentucky, but pioneers of Indiana, both having moved up into the Hoosier state with their respective parents in the days of their youth, the Barlows and the Bishops both settling in Shelby county in pioneer days. There Lewis Barlow and Ruth Bishop grew up and were married, establish- ing their home on a farm in that county and there continuing to make their residence until 1846, when they came West and settled in Polk county, Iowa, at a point six miles east of the present center of the city of Des Moines, back in territorial days. There Lewis Barlow built a log house and started farm- ing, presently building a log addition to that house and in that addition

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starting a country store. As others presently settled in that neighborhood, the store being the center of the social life of the settlement, he laid out on his place, with the store as the center, the townsite of Rising Sun, now a flour- ishing suburb of the city of Des Moines. He had to haul his merchandise up the river trail from Keokuk, then being the nearest extensive trading point. He gave to his new town of Rising Sun a plot for cemetery purposes and after his death in 1858 his body was laid away in that burying ground. He and his wife were members of the Christian church and their children were reared in that faith.

Stephen C. Barlow was four years of age when his parents moved from Indiana to Iowa and he was sixteen when his father died. He remained there assisting in the affairs of the store and of the farm until the Civil War broke out and-on July 4, 1861, enlisted for service as a member of Company E. Fourth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and at the end of that term of enlistment, three years, re-enlisted, at Woodville, Alabama, and served until his final discharge, at Davenport, Iowa, August 23, 1865, having served for four years and six weeks. The Fourth Iowa was raised at Council Bluffs and went to the front under Gen. Granville M. Dodge, coming down the river. It was on this trip that Mr. Barlow got his first view of the beautiful valley of the Nemaha. When the boat carrying the soldiers reached Brown- ville the people of that vicinity turned out en masse and gave them a rousing reception. Mr. Barlow's first test under fire was at the battle of Pea Ridge. Arkansas, and his last battle was that fought at Bentonville, North Carolina, this latter battle having been fought after Lee's surrender. He participated in the siege and capture of Vicksburg and in the battles at Arkansas Post, Chickasaw Bayou, Jackson, Champion's Hill, Lookout Mountain and Mis- sionary Ridge, and then on with Sherman's army in the Atlantic campaign. the battles at Resaca and Dallas, and at the fall of Atlanta was in the seventh and final charge and hand-to-hand fight which effected the capture of DeGrasse's great battery. When General McPherson was killed he was within two hundred yards of the spot. He then went on with the army on the march to the sea and thence north after the taking of Savannah; wit- nessed the burning of Columbia and fought Johnston's army all the way through the Carolinas, the struggle culminating in the final battle at Ben- tonville. Mr. Barlow then went on with his command to Washington, where his regiment was accorded the honor of leading the Grand Review down Pennsylvania avenue. From Washington the regiment was sent to Louisville and while at the latter place Mr. Barlow secured a thirty-days furlough which he spent in visiting his wife and her folks out here in

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 74

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