History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 109

Author: Shumway, Grant Lee, 1865-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., The Western publishing & engraving co.
Number of Pages: 1056

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HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

age and is a representative of the second gen- eration of the family in America, his parents, John and Mary (Casey) Dailey, having been born and reared in Ireland, where their mar- riage was solemnized, and were young people when they immigrated to the United States and became pioneer settlers in Stephenson county, Illinois, in the year 1820. There the father took up a pre-emption claim of forty acres of government land, and eventually he accumulated a valuable estate of about three hundred acres, which he reclaimed into a pro- ductive farm. His first crop of wheat he hauled to Chicago, which was then an insig- nificant little city, and to reach this market he was compelled to traverse a distance of eighty miles. He continued his farming enterprise in Stephenson county until his death, in 1849, and his widow passed away in 1851, when about forty-nine years of age, both having been devout communicants of the Catholic Church.

Robert F. Dailey was reared and educated in Stephenson county, Illinois. At the age of twenty-one years he established himself in the livery business in Butler county, Iowa, and after conducting this enterprise six years came to what is now Garden county, Nebraska, the county having been at that time still a part of Cheyenne county and having later become a part of Deuel county, prior to the erection of Garden county. He arrived August 27, 1888, and forthwith selected a homestead and a tree claim, upon both of which he proved up in due course of time ; in the meantime he began prac- tical operations in the raising of cattle and horses. With the passing years Mr. Dailey developed his original claims into a productive and well improved farm, and in 1902, he took three-fourths of a section under the provi- sions of the Kinkaid act, besides which he added an equal amount by purchase, so that he now has a total of twelve hundred and eighty acres, four hundred acres being under cultivation and three hundred and twenty acres receiving effective irrigation through the med- ium of the Lisco ditch. Mr. Dailey has proved himself a man of energy and resourcefulness, and is one of the loyal and substantial citizens of Garden county. His political support is given to the Democratic party and both he and his wife art communicants of the Catholic Church.

On April 17, 1884, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Dailey to Miss Nellie Noonan, who was born in the state of New York but reared and educated in Butler county, Iowa, where her parents, John and Winifred

(Hayes) Noonan, were pioneer settlers, both having been natives of Ireland, where their marriage was celebrated. Mr. Noonan was about seventy years of age at the time of his death, and his widow attained to the venerable age of eighty years. Mr. and Mrs. Dailey be- came the parents of three sons and three daughters, and of the number four are living : Bernard F., of Lisco, Garden county, is mar- ried and has two children; and John Edward, Margaret and Mary remain at home, which is a center of genial hospitality.

WALLACE DWIGHT BEATTY, who during a long and successful career, has fol- lowed various occupations in several parts of Nebraska and Wyoming, is now a well known resident of Scottsbluff, although his operations are by no means confined to the borders of the city or county. During his residence in this state he has been in turn farmer, cowboy, fore- man of a cattle company, live-stockman, con- tractor, irrigation superintendent and then a combination of several of these enterprises at one and the same time, and in his several fields of endeavor his versatility has assisted him to well deserved prosperity. He is a native of Iowa, born in Howard county, December 1, 1866, the son of Martin and Lucy (Tamplin) Beatty. The father was a son of the Blue Grass state, who was one of the honored pio- neer settlers of Cheyenne county, locating there in the very early days, when there were no railroads in this section of the state. The family suffered all the hardships and privations incident to life on the frontier. Lucy Tamplin Beatty was born in Ohio but came west to Iowa as a child and there was reared and ed- ucated in Clayton county. She married Martin Beatty and together they bravely started out to establish a home in the new country. They improved the government land on which they first settled and there Mr. Beatty engaged in general farming and stock raising. Mr. Beatty was sturdy and for many years he retained the mental and physical vigor of a man many years his junior, while his wife, who had a remark- able share in the pioneer experiences, was re- markably vigorous. In 1901, Mr. Beatty re- moved to Rockport, Missouri, where he died at the advanced age of eighty-one years. Mrs. Beatty lived out the psalmist's span of three score years and ten as she passed away in 1914 in her eighty-ninth year.

Wallace Beatty was reared and educated in Howard county, Iowa, where he attended the public schools and thus laid the foundation of a good practical education. In 1876, he moved with his parents to Missouri and remained

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there for nine years. He then located in cast- ern Nebraska but two years later came west. He filed on a claim in Banner county on which he proved up and became one of the early set- tlers of the Panhandle. At that early day he was farsighted enough to realize that this sec- tion was to have a wonderful development and future. After proving up on his land, Mr. Bcatty accepted a position with the Ogallala Land and Cattle Company, one of the firms that had wide ranges and thousands of head of cattle on the plains. He remained with this concern for ten years, a large part of the time being spent in Wyoming, as he was foreman for them and had charge of moving the great herds from Nebraska to the higher summer pastures farther west in 1886, 1887 and 1888. In 1893, he was manager in the field of the Ogallala company and the following year helped catch the last bunch of wild horses that roamed the valleys of Montana and western Nebraska. When the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad and the Misouri Pacific Rail- road were being built through Nebraska, Mr. Beatty entered independent business as a con- tractor for railroad grading. Meeting with gratifying success he branched out front his initial effort and when the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad was constructed was engaged in building it through Wyoming. When the government started its irrigation projects in the middle west, Mr. Beatty was one of the first men to bid on the contracts for the Tri-State ditches and put in the new intake for the Winter Creek ditch in Scottsbluff coun- ty. His standing as a contractor and specialist in irrigation won him a fine reputation among the people of the Panhandle country and in 1913, he was unanimously chosen superinten- dent of Enterprise ditch. For some time Mr. Beatty has had the contract for grading the roads in the Winter Creek district and it has been due to his care that this precinct has one of the best systems in the county. In 1913, Mr. Beaty again returned to the soil and en- gaged actively in farm enterprise, as he had been extensively engaged in feeding for ten years, shipping large consignments of stock to the great packing centers of Kansas and Ne- braska each year. At the present time he owns over a hundred acres of land just south of Scottsbluff, some of which is within the city limits, and has fine residence property in Scottsbluff and Gering. While in the con- tracting business Mr. Beatty realized the ne- cessity of a fine, high grade sand in all con- struction work, especially where cement is used and in 1917, he decided that there was

money in supplying just such a commodity for concrete and now has a prosperous business in this line in the Panhandle, shipping to all points in the western part of the state. Op- portunity and years are yet before Mr. Beatty, and his friends prophecy splendid things for him in the coming decades that must pass be- fore he reaches the years to which his parents attained. Mr. Beatty is a Republican in his political views, and though he has never had time to take an active part in more than local affairs is a loyal and public-spirited citizen whose support is never withheld from helpful enterprises and good civic movements.

Mr. Beatty's first wife was Miss Blanche Draper, who died in Gering, in 1913, leaving one child, Wallace Dell, who is living with his father in Scottsbluff, a young man of seven- teen years who is making the most of the many advantages afforded him. On February 25, 1915, Mr. Beatty married Mrs. Jane Peters of Alliance, Nebraska. The family are members of the Congregational Church.

FRED W. STONE has had a specially eventful career, through his loyal and efficient service in the United States Navy, which he again entered when the nation became involved in the great World War. He was a child at the time when he came with his widowed mother to Nebraska, and thus the honors which are his in conection with the Navy are reflected upon the state which has represented his home and in which he now resides in the city of Scottsbluff. He is one of the popular young men of Scottsbluff county and is spe- cially entitled to recognition in this work. His mother, whose maiden name was Ella S. Fasha, is now the wife of James H. Hall, of Scotsbluff, and concerning her further men- tion is made in the sketch of the career of Mr. Hall, on other pages of this work.

Fred W. Stone was born at Hubert, Wyo- ming, on November 5, 1888, and is a son of William Edwin and Ella S. (Fasha) Stone. His father was born at Dansville, New York, and was a boy at the time of the family re- moval to Iowa, where he was reared and cdu- cated under the conditions that marked the pioneer era in that state. In 1863, when but fifteen years of age, his youthful patriotism led him to run away from home, in order to enter the Union service in the Civil war. He man- aged to enlist in an Iowa volunteer regiment that was assigned to the Army of the West, and before the close of the war he had gained an amplitude of experience in connection with the great conflict, including his participation

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in the campaigns of General Sherman, with whom he took part in the historic march from Atlanta to the sea. After the close of the war he resumed his educational work and finally completed a course in civil engineering. Dur- ing one winter he was engaged in trapping in Minnesota, and thereafter he spent four years in Kansas and New Mexico. He was still a comparatively young man at the time of his death, which occurred in the state of Wyo- ming, where he had acquired land and engaged in farming and stock-raising. Of his first marriage were born two children-Pearl H. of Mitchell, Nebraska, and Mrs. Edna Gatels, of Juliette, Wyoming-the subject of this sketch being the only child of the second marriage.

After the death of the father of Fred W. Stone, the widowed mother came to Scotts- bluff county and established her home at Ger- ing, where was later solemnized her marriage to James H. Hall. Thus Mr. Stone gained his early education in the schools of this county, including the high school at Scottsbluff, be- sides which he was afforded the advantages of the Kearney Military Academy, at Kearney, this state. At the age of seventeen years he joined the United States Navy, in which he received his training course at Goat Island, California, and on the United States ship Pen- sacola. He was on military guard duty in San Francisco at the time of the great earthquake and fire which devastated that city in 1906, and in December of that year he was assigned to service on the steamship Milwaukee, at Mare Island, California. On this vessel he was in service on the west coast from Seattle, Washington, to Callao, Peru. In April, 1908, he was transferred to the United States steam- ship Wisconsin, at Bremerton, Washington, and on this vessel he served while it was the flagship of the Fourth Division of the North Atlantic Fleet in the celebrated trip made by this fleet around the world. Thus it was his privilege to visit Honolulu, New Zealand, Aus- tralia, the Philippine Islands, Japan, China, Ceylon, Egypt, Malta, Algiers, Gibralter and many other important ports, in 1908-9. The fleet arrived at Hampton Roads, Virginia, February 22, 1909, and with his command Mr. Stone thereafter participated in the in- augural parade attending the induction of President Taft into office, in the city of Wash- ington. He received his honorable discharge from the navy on November 4, 1909, at Ports- mouth, New Hampshire, and thus was re- leased from service the day prior to his twen- ty-first birthday anniversary. He then re- turned to Nebraska, and became associated

with his stepfather, James H. Hall, in the operation of a ranch in Banner county, where they ran a large number of cattle, horses and mules. In December, 1910, Mr. Stone sold his interest in this enterprise to his partner, Mr. Hall, and then went to Long Pine, Brown county, and entered the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, with which he continued his service until March, 1912. He then extended his already excep- tional experience, by going to Davidson, Sas- katchewan, Canada, where for the first year he devoted his attention to farming. He then en- gaged in the moving-picture business at Prince Albert, but about one year later returned to Davidson, where he was engaged in the same line of enterprise until July, 1915, when he sold out and returned to Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Here he became associated with Clarence L. Chapin in carpentering and contracting, in which he continued successfully until the Uni- ted States became involved in the war with Germany, when he entered the service of his country. On the 9th of July, 1917, he returned to the United States Navy, as a volunteer, his enlistment having taken place in the city of Omaha. He was sent to San Francisco, and in the following August was assigned to duty on the United States Steamship Standard Ar- row, which loaded with oil, at Point Richmond, that state, and proceeded, by way of the Pan- ama canal, and the Gulf of Mexico, to Hamp- ton Roads, Virginia. The vessel then made its way to New York City and Sydney, Nova Scotia, from which latter point it crossed the Atlantic to Portsmouth, England. Mr. Stone served as chief carpenter's mate on this vessel during the remainder of the war, and within the period the boat made twelve trips across the Atlantic, carrying oil, ammunition and air- planes to different ports in England, Scotland and France, the service being especially haz- ardous, in view of the submarine activities of Germany. After the signing of the armistice Mr. Stone was transferred to the United States Steamship Maumee, on which he served from January 23, 1919, until he received his discharge, on the 23d of the following May, at Portsmouth, Virginia. He then returned to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where he is to make his permanent residence.

In politics Mr. Stone is a Republican, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and with the lodge, encampment and canton bodies of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife holds membership in the Ladies of the Maccabees.

At Bridgeport, Nebraska, on October 17,

MR. AND MRS. PETER NELSON

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

1910, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Stone to Miss Reta H. Williams, of Scotts- bluff. Mrs. Stone was born at Creston, Iowa, and came with her widowed mother and her brother to Scottsbluff in 1902, having been graduated in the local high school in May, 1910, a few months prior to her marriage. She is a daughter of Frank J. and Catherine (Cluck) Williams, the former a native of Illi- nois and the latter of Pennsylvania, their mar- riage having been solemnized in Iowa. Mr. Williams, who was a commercial traveler out from Omaha, died at the age of forty years, and his widow later removed with her chil- dren to Scottsbluff, and she is now the wife of Rev. Allen Chamberlain, pastor of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church at North Platte, this state. Mr. and Mrs. Stone have a winsome little daughter, Ellen Ruth, who was born in the year 1911.

PETER NELSON. - Among the repre- sentative citizens of Kimball, there are few better known perhaps than Peter Nelson, who has been a resident of Nebraska for thirty-six years and of Kimball county but a few years less. He has accumulated an average fortune and has become a man whose business judgment is consulted in many matters of pub- lic importance. Should Mr. Nelson be ques- tioned as to the way in which he has managed to be so successful, in all probability he would answer, as have the greatest of social econ- omists, "work and economy form the basis of prosperity."

Peter Nelson was born in Denmark, Febru- ary 10, 1862, one of nine children born to Nels and Anna (Larson) Nelson, and one of three to reach maturity. His parents died in 1887. In 1883 he came to the United States, located in Kearney county, Nebraska, worked there as a farm hand for two years, then came to Kim- ball county and homesteaded five miles north of Dix. He lived on his homestead and tree claim until he had proved up on 320 acres, then went to work on the railroad, three years later coming to Kimball. Here, in 1894, he purchased a dray and went into the hauling business, working early and late, and by 1904 was prepared to invest $250 in a tract of sixty- seven acres that lay within the city limits. The purchase of this tract not only demon- strated faith in the future of Kimball, but was a mark of business foresight that is character- istic of Mr. Nelson. This land is now valued at $200 an acre, and promises to be one of the city's handsomest residential sections. He has jut completed laying out four blocks in town lots, and for the choicest of these he will prob-

ably realize more than he paid for the entire original tract. His own handsome residence stands here. When Mr. Nelson first took pos- session of this land he raised a few horses, but soon realized the beter profits in dairying and supplies dairy products to the most of Kimball. Mr. Nelson also owns 1120 acres that he is farming in a small way, holding the property mainly as an investment and ready to sell when a satisfactory offer is made.

In 1897 Mr. Nelson was married first to a daughter of Peter and Sofie Larson, who came to Kimball county from Denmark, and March 20, 1890, homesteaded and took a tree claim ten miles south and one mile east of Dix. In 1910 Mr. Larson was killed by a stroke of lightning while stacking hay in his barn, dur- ing an electric storm, this being the second tragic death in the family, as Mrs. Nelson had been accidentally killed by a railroad train, May 8, 1905. Mrs. Larson resides at Kimball. To Mr. Nelson's first marriage two sons and two daughters were born, namely: Paul E., Harold E., Mable E., and Helen E. Both sons were educated at Kimball and both entered military service during the great war. Paul was sent to the training school at Camp Sher- man, Chillicothe, Ohio, in the 47th Aero Squad, Signal Corps, then was transferred to the 163rd, was sent to France in August, 1918, and was honorably discharged July 3, 1919, and returned home. Harold E. was in train- ing for seven weeks at Bellevue, then was honorably discharged because of the end of the war.

In 1906 Mr. Nelson was married to the sis- ter of his first wife and they have had chil- dren as follows: Myrtle, Minerva, Ralph, Stanley, and Iris and Ira, twins. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Nelson has served on the town board of Kimball.

MORSE P. CLARY is another of the rep- resentative men of Garden county to whom are justly to be ascribed pioneer honors in the great Nebraska Panhandle, to which this his- tory is dedicated. He came to this county while it was still a part of Cheyenne county, his original land claims later were to be found in the new county of Deuel, and finally became a part of the still newer county of Garden. He has been continuously identified with agricul- tural and live-stock industry on his original land claims since the year 1886, and has been a leader in community thought and action. He is now president of the Farmers' State Bank of Lewellen but still gives a general super- vision of his farm enterprise.

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HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

Morse Powell Clary has ample reason to be proud of his American ancestral line, for he is a scion of a family that was founded in this country in the early colonial era. His father, Dennis B. Clary, was born in the city of Bal- timore, Maryland, and was of the fifth genera- tion in line of direct descent from the original American ancetsor of the name ; the latter hav- ing accompanied Lord Baltimore's first colony from England and having taken up a "tomna- hawk claim" of about three thousand acres of land, twenty miles distant from Baltimore. This property has in part continued in the pos- session of the family to the present day, and four cousins of the subject of this sketch still reside on the ancestral place. In 1866, was erected in this locality the historic Strawbridge Church, notable as being the first Methodist Church edifice built in America. The original structure, of sturdy oak logs, had no doors and no windows at the start, but in this unfin- ished condition it was used for religious ser- vices. The ancient building remained as a landmark in Maryland for many years.

Morse P. Clary was born at Quincy, Adams county, Iowa, October 20, 1858, a date that in- dicates conclusively that his parents were pio- neer settlers in that section of the Hawkeye state. He is a son of Dennis B. and Rachel M. (Cooper) Clary, the former of whom was born in Baltimore, Maryland, as previously noted, and the latter of whom was born in Indiana, her father having been a native of Scotland and her mother of Indiana.

The subject of this review acquired his early education in the public schools of Indianola, Iowa, and during the first fourteen years of his independent career he was engaged in farm enterprise in Warren county, that state. In 1886, he came to western Nebraska and be- came a pioncer settler in what is now Garden county-at that time a part of old Cheyenne county. Here lie took up homestead and tree claims, about five and a half miles from the present village of Lewellen, and here he not only reclaimed his farm land from the virgin prairie but also made good improvements in the matter of buildings and other accessories, and became one of the successful agricultur- ists and stock-growers of the county. He still owns the old farm property, which comprises two thousand acres, but is now living semi- retired in Aslı Hollow.

Mr. Clary has been influential in community affairs under the three different county govern- ments, Cheyenne, Deuel and Garden-and that without changing his place of abode. He served two terms as county commissioner of

Deuel county-1892-9-and was county com- missioner of Garden county from 1910 to 1915. Under these conditions it is apparent that he had much to do with the progressive move- ments and official agencies that were potent in the civic and material advancement of the community in which he has lived and wrought to worthy ends. In 1915, Mr. Clary became one of the organizers and incorporators of the Farmers' State Bank of Lewellen, and he has served continuously as a director of this sub- stantial institution, to the presidency of which he was elected in January, 1919.

In politics Mr. Clary is a staunch Republi- can ; he is a charter member of Oshkosh Lodge No. 286, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, at the county seat, and his wife holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church.

At Indianola, Iowa, on January 17, 1881, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Clary to Miss Louisa C. McNaught, a daughter of Eze- kiel and Roxanna (Durand) McNaught, her father had been a blacksmith by trade but be- came a prosperous farmer in Iowa ; he was a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, as a member of a regiment of Illinois Volun- teer Infantry. In conclusion of this brief sketch is given record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Clary: March D., who is a prosperous farmer in the Lewellen neighbor- hood, supplemented his common-school edu- cation by a course in the Grand Island Com- mercial College. He married Miss Nora West, of Omaha. May R., who received the advan- tages of the University of Nebraska, is the wife of Jess Minchall, of Broadwater, Mor- rill county ; Frank L., who is now living in the city of Omaha, served as a member of Com- pany K of the Coast Artillery during the World war; he was educated at Fremont Col- lege. Josie J., who completed a thorough course of study at Fremont College, is princi- pal of the public schools of Bingham, Sheri- dan county, at the time of this writing, in the winter of 1919-20. Nona, who was afforded the advantages of the Nebraska State Normal School at North Platte, is now the wife of Ray Brown, of Lewellen. Ray S., who is now home, saw nine months of service in France during the late World war, having been band- master with rank of sergeant, with the One Hundred and Ninth Engineers, his assign- mient having been to Company E of this com- mand. Oren V., who profited duly by the advantages of the public schools of Lewellen, is still a member of the home circle, and Cora M., the youngest of the children, is stili at- tending school in her home village.

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History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 109

Author: Shumway, Grant Lee, 1865- Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., The Western publishing & engraving co. Number of Pages: 1056

Author: Shumway, Grant Lee, 1865-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., The Western publishing & engraving co.
Number of Pages: 1056