History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 115

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

USA > Nebraska > History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III > Part 115

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

state, and in all and to all this marvelous pro- gress he has liberally contributed.

Charles F. Grewell was born in Illinois, Feb- ruary 18, 1863, the son of Christopher and Mary J. (Hewett) Grewell, to whom were born ten children but only two of them came west, Charles and his sister, Mary, who mar- ried Henry Rose, and now lives in Wyoming. The father was a farmer and stock-raiser in Illinois, who came to Nebraska in 1892, one of the pioneer settlers of this section, 1896, as he located on section 34, Sheep Creek township, the place which Charles today owns. The home place consisted of a quarter section on which Christopher Grewell carried on farming occupation until his death in 1907. Charles grew up on his father's farm in Illinois, at- tended the district schools near his home where he laid the foundation for an excellent practical education. As soon as his age and strength permitted he began to assume many tasks that are ever to be found in the country and while still young had a good practical knowledge of farm business. When the fam- ily came west he accompanied them, assisted in the establishment of a home in the new country, broke the prairie sod and assisted his father in every way to make the good and per- inanent improvements on the farm. He was far-sighted, shrewd in his business dealings, and was one of the first men to realize that the day of the open range on the prairies was doomed and that the future of the cattle bus- inss was to be in the hands of the farmer who would raise fewer but high grade animals for the market. With this end in view he early induced his father to add stock-raising to his general farming so that with the gradual with- drawal of the range cattle they began to deal more and more in farm bred animals, and thus were some of the first men of the valley to be- gin shipping to eastern markets.

Upon his father's death, Mr. Grewell took the old home place. He had already become a large landholder on his own account and today is the proprietor of an extensive landed estate of six thousand, four hundred and forty acres. Today Mr. Grewell is not only one of the rich- est farmers of the Platte valley, but he is also one of the largest stock-raisers of a district known for its wealthy, prosperous cattle men. He is modern in his ideas of farm management and has inaugurated the theories and practices of the best farm experts of the state and na- tion and finds that they pay. From the first he has held that high bred stock brought in the greatest returns and has specialized in White Faced cattle on his ranch, shipping car- load lots out of the valley each year. In Feb-

586

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

ruary, 1913, Mr. Grewell married Mrs. Mertle Fuller, and to them one child has been born, Wesley C. Mrs. Newell had two children by her former marriage, Von and Mona. Mr. and Mrs. Grewell are highly respected in the Morrill community, active and gracious in so- cial circles, and it is not surprising that they have a host of friends. Mr. Grewell is a Demo- crat in politics, while his fraternal affiliations are with the Modern Woodmen and the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows.

WILLIAM P. MILES, prominent pioneer, leading member of the bar of the state of Ne- braska and well known real estate man of Sidney has seen nearly of half century pass since he came to a veritable wilderness, where habitations were few and where civilization was still in its primitive form. Mr. Miles is one of the worthy and sturdy pioneers who came to Nebraska just a decade after the territory was admitted to statehood, the first period of his residence within the borders of this common- wealth having been passed in Lincoln county. He has contributed to the civic and industrial development and progress of every community where he has resided, representing the best in communal life and spirit and has horne with fortitude and unwavering faith and confidence the hardships and trials of frontier life. Mr. Miles is one of the far-sighted men, filled with energy, who had the vision to make the most of the opportunities offered in connection with the development and growth of a new coun- try and has achieved success through his pro- fessional and business interests. Of Irish de- scent he was born strong of decision, judg- ment and with pronounced self-independence. During all of his life he has had a dislike for the affected or pretentious, and despised hypocracy, deceit and dishonesty.

Within a period of some thirty years of his professional activity, in this state, Mr. Miles has won, and still maintains, for himself a reputation of being one of the strongest and most resourceful lawyers in western Nebraska. No member of the Cheyenne county bar has participated in more contested cases and with such great success. His whole aim in the work has been not so much for the material gain as to obtain justice for his clients. His judgment of men is recognized by all. and this attribute alone has never failed him in selecting a jury, and in questioning the wit- nesses. His mental make is about as follows : he is honest, he is keen, with a bright mind stored with legal lore ; gentle in spirit and re- tiring, he yet stands as one of the central fig-

ures ; he has a liberal education of his own winning, and is an able advocate.

Mr. Miles is a native of the Bay state, born in Middlesex county, Massachusetts, May 23, 1856, the son of Thomas and Johanna (Tooney) Miles, the former a native of County Limmerick and the mother of County Cork, Ireland. They were reared and given such education as could be afforded them in their native land and there married. Both were young, ambitious and had heard from many of their returned countrymen of how they had been able to get ahead in America, so they too decided to hazard fortune in the New World. Thomas Miles and his wife landed in the United States in 1846, and were soon located in Massachusetts where he work- ed in one of the many shoe factories of that state, but he was not to live to enjoy long the country of his adoption as he died June 11th, of that year. This left the mother and oldest children to shoulder the burdens of the family of nine, as there were eight children, but where there is a will there is a way and all grew up to become fine citizens of our great country and well-to-do men and women.

William P. received an excellent practical education in the fine public schools of Massa- chusetts, where his boyhood was spent. He realized the necessity of helping himself and worked at any honest employment when his years permitted and after leaving school start- ed out independently in life. He was nineteen years of age and at the zenith of his physical and mental powers when he came to Ne- braska in 1877, to accept a government position as teamster on one of the government routes to the west. For a time he remained in Lin- coln county, then came to Sidney, where he worked while reading law. Mr. Miles had opportunity to look the country over and he at this early date had a vision of what the Pan- handle was to become. This was in 1888, when central and western Nebraska was very different in appearance from today ; then the rolling prairies stretched on and on unbroken for miles by habitation or fence. Soon after settling in Sidney Mr. Miles entered the law office of Norvall and McIntosh, where he dili- gently applied himself to study, soon mastering enough of the intricacies of the law to go up for his bar examination which he passed with brilliancy in 1888, a record that is not often attained today. Within a short time after be- ing admitted to practice he was elected coun- ty attorney of. Cheyenne county, capably serv- ing in this office four years. He rapidly achieved success as a lawyer and became affili-

587

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

ated with the rising Republican party, and to this day has remained a loyal member of that great national organization, honoring it and frequently being honored by it, being emi- nent and influential in its councils for many years. Soon after locating in the Panhandle Mr. Miles became interested in business life, being one of the prime spirits in the organiza- tion of the Home Land Company of Sidney. The business grew with gratifying rapidity and soon assumed large proportions under the able guidance of Mr. Miles, who eventually bought the controlling interest in the concern and in 1917 reorganized it under the name of the William P. Miles Land Company. From time to time as the capital permitted Mr. Miles invested in land in Cheyenne county and later in the Panhandle until today these holdings are extensive and very valuable.

For over thirty years Mr. Milles has been attorney for the Union Pacific Railroad and has been a potent factor in its affairs in this locality during the quarter of a century which has marked the great development of this sec- tion of the state. For many years from his coming to Sidney Mr. Miles took an active part in politics of western Nebraska; he was a Taft man but after that campaign ceased to take an active part in political affairs. He was Republican delegate to the National Con- vention in 1904, was a member of the commit- tee on rules. Fraternally he is associated with the Knights of Columbus, the Benevolent and Protective Order of. Elks and with his family is a devout member of the Roman Catholic church, a faith in which he was reared. The Miles home is not only one of the finest in Sidney but of the state and there the many friends of the family enjoy the generous hos- pitality dispensed by both Mr. Miles and his charming wife. From year to year Mr. Miles has been accumulating a fine library, as he is an omnivorous reader on a wide range of subjects and as a result of this wide range of literature which he has pursued he is today one of the highly educated and cultured men of the legal profession. His library is one of the largest and most select collections in Nebraska.

In 1901, Mr. Miles married Miss Eva Whit- man, who was born in Galesburg, Illinois, but reared in Iowa and Dodge county, Ne- braska. She was attending school when Mr. Miles met and married her. They have two daughters: Eva, who is the wife of M. J. Flintzer, a prominent business man of Sidney ; and Mildred, who is the wife of R. W. Bauer, of the Sun Drug Company, of Lincoln, Ne- braska.

Time may bring additional honors to Mr. Miles : it may enlarge his field of activities and usefulness, it may broaden his acquaintance ; but it cannot augment the esteem, confidence and affection with which he is regarded by those who really know him.

ESTHER M. JOHNSON .- Few states in the Union have manifested in connection with their education systems as full and merited ap- preciation of women in scholastic executive office as has Nebraska, and numerous coun- ties in the state have gained unequivocally through selection of women for such respon- sible and exacting academic and executive po- sitions as that of county superintendent of schools. Thus Garden county has had much to gain and nothing to lose in the able ad- ministration which Miss Esther M. Johnson is giving in the office of county superintendent of school. She is possessed of high intellectual attainments, a definite prerequisite for the in- cumbency that is now hers, and is showing also a really remarkable constructive and ad- ministrative powers in the systematizing and advancing of the important work in her juris- diction.

Miss Johnson was born in Red Willow coun- ty, Nebraska, and is a daughter of Alfred and Hannah (Pierson) Johnson, who were born in Sweden and who were young folk when they came to the United States. After com- ing to Nebraska Mr. and Mrs. Johnson became pioneer settlers in Red Willow county, where he filed entry on a homestead and where she took up a pre-emption claim. With undaunt- ed courage and faith they essayed the task of reclaiming their land and developing a produc- tive farm,- a work in which they succeeded admirably. They continued to reside on their land, which they had equipped with good im- provements, until the death of Mr. Johnson, on June 24, 1904, and within a short time thereafter Mrs. Johnson rented the farm and removed with her children to Lebanon, that county. There she remained until 1918, when she removed to Garden county, and has since made her home with her daughter Esther M .. whose name initiates this review.

Miss Johnson passed the period of her child- hood and early youth on the old home farm, and in the meanwhile she fully availed herself of the advantages of the public schools of her native county, including the high school at Le- banon. In futherance of her higher academic education she entered the Nebraska State Nor- mal School at Kearney, from which institu- tion she was graduated as a member of the class of 1914. She passed the following year

588

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

with her widowed mother, and thereafter was for three years a successful and popular teach- er in the public schools at Lewellen, Garden county, where she was a teacher in the high school at the time when she was appointed county superintendent of schools, to fill an unexpired term. This appointment was made on March 1, 1918, and in November of the same year she was elected, on a non-partisan ticket, to fill this office for a term of four years, her election having shown that in the intervening months her administration had met with unqualified popular approval. Under elec- tion Miss Johnson initiated her administra- tion in January, 1919, and the results of her work since that time have fully demonstrated the wisdom of the popular vote which placed her in office. She has the earnest co-operation of the teachers of the county, as well as of the people who support the excellent schools, and she is zealous and indefatigable in her work. Miss Johnson was reared in the faith of the Methodist church, of which she is a communicant.

NICHOLAS E. ZEHR, the owner-manager of a popular barber shop of Chappell, was born in Livingston county, Illinois, March 30, 1871, the son of Christian and Catharine (Roth) Zehr, the former a native of Alsace-Lorraine, (France) while the mother was born in Ohio. The father was a farmer who came to the United States in 1856, locating first in Illinois but in 1880, he came to Nebraska, settled in Seward county where he lived until his death in 1907. Mrs. Zehr returned to Illinois after the death of her husband, where she resided until she died in 1910. Mr. Zehr was a Demo- crat and both he and his wife were members of the Mennonite church. There were thirteen children in the family but Nicholas is the only one in this locality, a brother joseph, lives in Arthur county.

Mr. Zehr was educated in the Public schools of Seward county and recalls the great bliz- zard of 1888, when he and the teacher helped many of the pupils to get home and cven then some were forced to stay in the school house all night. In 1893, he came to Deuel county, beginning to work on a farm in March, remain- ed engaged in that work several years and then accepted a position with Wertz Brothers on the ranch. Five years later Mr. Zehr came to Chappell to work for them in a hardware store and was associated with this business until the Wertz Brothers sold out in 1908. Soon after this he bought a barber shop where he has been engaged in business to the pres- ent time. Mr. Zehr has made may friends in

Chappell due to his courtesy and kindness, has built up a good business and today is regard- ed as one of the reliable and substantial men of the town.

November 9. 1893, Mr. Zehr married Miss Nancy Roth, at Chappell, the daughter of Jacob and Lydia (Stutzman) Roth, pioneer settlers of Deuel county. Mr. Roth now lives at Nampa, Idaho, his wife having died in 1908. Three children have been born to this union : William, Edna and Nicholas, all at home. Mrs. Zehr and the children are mem- bers of the Methodist church while Mr. Zehr belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America. He is a Democrat, was assessor of Deuel county two years and served as precinct as- sessor several years. He is progressive in his ideas and one of the substantial men of Deuel county and the Panhandle.

SARAH ROSELLA STALNAKER, wid- ow of the late Charles Stalnaker, came to Ne- braska in the early days and suffered all the hardships and privations incident to life on the frontier and her reminiscences of that period are interesting. She was born in Jasper county, Iowa, August 16, 1866, the daughter of James R. and Rachael (Cline) Thomas, both natives of Illinois, who had a family of ten children: Warren A., of Washington; Sarah of this review; Anna, deceased ; James A., lives in Canada ; Ira E., of Oregon ; Alice, of Seattle, Washington; William Charles, de- ceased; Nora, the wife of George Givens, of Shaw, Oregon, and two deceased. Mr. Thom- as was a farmer who owned and operated a threshing outfit for many years, in Hamil- ton county, Nebraska. He served as a priv- ate in Company D, One Hundred and fifteenth Illinois Infantry during the Civil War and was very ill; after his discharge from the army in 1865, he moved to Iowa and in 1869, to Hamilton county where the family lived sixteen years. Later Mr. Thomas moved to Dundy county, Nebraska, to the state of Ore- gon and Ellensburg, Washington, where he and his wife died. Mr. Thomas was a Re- publican, a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Woodmen, while he and his wife were members of the Christian church.

Sarah Thomas Stalnaker was educated in the public schools of Hamilton county, where she came with her parents when four years of age. Her father took up a homestead near Marquette and there she experienced many frontier adventures. She well remembers the trip overland from Iowa, as they drove through with a span of mules, eight cows and

JOHN H. ORR

589

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

lived in their covered wagon on the way. The first home was a dugout which soon fell in from rain; they then tried a tent and it blew over ; then a cave was found and later a frame house was built. Indians were frequent visi- tors and the children were afraid at first but learned they were friendly. Water had to be hauled four miles; Central City, known then as Lone Tree, was nine miles north of Marquette and it was from that town that the lumber for the home had to be carried by wagon, fording the river, as there were no bridges. Crops were poor the first years and the family suffered from want of food, pro- visions and even clothes. Mrs. Stalnaker was much with her father in those days. When the railroad was built through near them the mother boarded some of the men for money to keep the family. Mrs. Stalnaker herded cattle where the present village of Marquette is and tells of the terrible prairie fire she saw there when the flames were sixty feet high.

When Sarah Rosella Thomas was eighteen years old she married Charles Stalnaker, on September 30, 1884 ; he was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Ryan) Stalnaker, residents of Hamilton county, now deceased.

Mrs. Stalnaker lived in Hamilton county forty-seven years and has seen all the marvel- ous changes that have taken place in this state covering nearly half a century. She became the mother of seven children, two of whom died in infancy : Cleveland, deceased ; Grace, the wife of Ira Williams of Deuel county ; Syl- via, the wife of Grover Moist, of Crawford, Nebraska ; Vancil and Wilma, both at home. Mr. Stalnaker died November 23, 1913, and soon afterward Mrs. Stalnaker came to Deuel county with the two youngest children. She bought land seven miles north of Chappell where they ran a farm until the son enlisted in the army during the World War. Mrs. Stalnaker sold out to move to Chappell where she bought a home and building lots but re- cently traded the lots for a quarter section of land in Wyoming. She is a fine woman of great ability and resource : has played her part in the development of Nebraska and is an ardent worker in the Methodist church while the children belong to the United Brethren church. For years she has been affiliated with the Royal Neighbors.

JOHN H. ORR is another of the sterling pioneer citizens of Garden county, where his energy, ability and progressiveness have gain- ed for him substantial status as one of the representative agriculturists, dairymen and stock-growers of this favored section of the

state. He is the owner of an extensive and well improved landed estate in Garden county, and is a man whose individual success and ad- vancement have been attended with loyal and liberal support of those measures and enter- prise that have been for the general good of the community.

The honored pioneer whose name initiates this review was born in County Tyrone, Ire- land, December 25, 1862, of staunch Scotch- Irish lineage. He is a son of John H. and Mary (McCormick) Orr, the former of whom was born and reared in Scotland and the lat- ter in Ireland, where their marriage was solemnized. John H. Orr, Sr., was a young man when he removed from Scotland to Ire- land, and on the fair Emerald Isle he contin- ued to follow his trade, that of wheelwright, until 1867, when he came with his family to the United States and settled at Rahway, Union county, New Jersey, where he passed the remainder of his life and where he con- tinued to work at his trade during the remain- der of his active career. He passed away at the age of seventy-six years and his wife was sixty-seven years of age at the time of her death. They became the parents of nine chil- dren, and three of the sons, Calhoun, John H. and James W. became residents of Nebraska.

John Orr acquired his early education in the public schools of New Jersey, and after coming to Nebraska he supplemented this training by completing a course in a business college at Crete. His first independent serv- ice was rendered by taking charge of one of the wards of the New Jersey State Insane Asylum at Morris Plains, where he remained three years. He then, in 1882, came to Ne- braska and established his residence near Crete, where for four years he was employed on the Pleasant View stock farm of W. H. Smith. In 1886, he removed to Keith county, where he took up homestead and tree claims. He perfected his title to this land and met with excellent success in his activities as a farmer and dairyman. He was associated with A. D. Remington in establishing the first milk-skim- ming station in western Nebraska. On his original claims he continued in the dairy busi- ness twelve years, and in the meantime pur- chased the Spring Canyon Ranch, more fa- miliarly known as the old Brand Hoover horse ranch. This he stocked with cattle and horse, and to this ranch, situated in the part of Deu- el county now included in Garden county, he removed in 1894. He continued to reside on this place until 1912, since which time he has lived virtually retired, in his pleasant home

590

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

in the village of Lewellen. His ranch com- prises eighteen thousand acres where an aver- age of one thousand head of cattle and one hundred and fifty head of horses are kept. Mr. Orr also has a well improved farm of three hundred and twenty acres that is given over to diversified agriculture, with irrigation from the Meeker ditch. He also has twelve hundred acres on the South Table, which is under the active management of one of his sons.

Mr. Orr is one of the most substantial and influential pioneer citizens of Garden county, and his splendid success has been worthily achieved. He is vice-president of the Citizens' Bank of Ogallala; is president of the Orr- Spindler Mercantile Company, at Lewellen ; is treasurer of the Farmers' Life Insurance Company of Denver, Colorado; is one of the heavy stockholders of the Meeker Irrigation Ditch Company, and is a stockholder of the Blue Creek Light & Power Company, of Lew- ellen. All these associations indicate not only his aggressive and vital energy but also his civic loyalty and genuine public spirit. In politics Mr. Orr may be designated as an in- dependent Democrat, and while he has had no desire for public office he served as justice of the peace and notary public during virtual- ly the entire period of his residence in Keith county, as well as a member of the school board. He is affiliated with the Masonic fra- ternity, the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America. His wife is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In the light of his broad experience in connection with industrial life in western Nebraska, Mr. Orr gives advice to those who are developing homesteads or Kincaid claims at the present time to take up the dairy busi- ness to a sufficient extent to defray expenses, and thus to save the increase and become a success.

March 4, 1885, recorded the marriage of Mr. Orr to Miss Eleanor E. Smith, of Crete, this state. Mrs. Orr was born at Flint, Michi- gan, and is a daughter of Dr. William H. and Mary (Gordis) Smith, the former a native of Michigan and the latter of Holly, New Jer- sey. Dr. Smith, as an able physician and sur- geon, continued in the practice of his profes- sion in the state of Michigan until the early seventies, when his impaired health lead him to come to Nebraska, the family home being established near Crete, Saline county, where he engaged in the breeding and raising of thoroughbred stock, including Percheron horses, Durham cattle and Poland-China

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 115

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