History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 141

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 141

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).

Bird S. Rodgers was reared under the condi- tions and influences that marked the pioneer period of the history of the Nebraska Pan- handle, and his early educational training was

716

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

received principally in the rural schools of what is now Morrill county. When a lad of about eleven years be began working for a cattle company, and he continued to be thus identified with the cattle business about nine- teen years, within which period he was em- ployed by various representative cattle com- panies. In 1912, he purchased a quarter-sec- tion of land two and one-half miles north of Oshkosh and, in 1917, made an additional pur- chase that so enlarged his estate that he is now the owner of an entire section of the valu- able land of Garden county, his progressive- ness being manifest in the improvements and general condition of his farm property, which is devoted to diversified agriculture, to dairy farming and to the feeding of hogs during the winter seasons. He is loyal in citizenship, is a Democrat in his political alignment and is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World.

On November 15, 1905, at Sidney, Chey- enne county, Mr. Rodgers was united in mar- riage to Miss Carrie Robinson, who was reared and educated in western Nebraska, she having been six weeks old when her parents removed to this section of the state from St. Paul, How- ard county. On other pages the sketch of her brother, John Robinson, gives data con- cerning the family history. Mr. and Mrs. Rodgers have two children: Alice I., born April 12, 1910, and John T., born July 8, 1917.

CYRUS L. KEMPLIN is a Garden county citizen who has here proved his constructive ability through his effective enterprise as an agriculturist and stock-raiser, and he is the owner of a large and well improved landed estate, on which he lives in contentment and prosperity. His career has been varied and interesting, but in his multifarious experiences in the past he reverts to none than has given him as much satisfaction as that connected with his industrial activities in Garden county.

A representative of a sterling pioneer family of Iowa, Mr. Kemplin was born in Story coun- ty, that state, on December 17, 1866. His father, Wilson Kemplin, was a native of West Virginia, and he was a young man when he wedded Miss Anna Simmons, who was born and reared in Ohio, where their marriage was solemnized. Mrs. Kemplin died in Vernon county, Missouri, in 1873, when her son Cyrus subject of this review, was a lad of seven years. Wilson Kemplin manifested somewhat of a nomadic spirit during the course of his long and active career, and he re- sided for varying intervals in different states of the west, it having been his distinction to

be a pioneer of Nebraska. Prior to the ad- mission of Nebraska to statehood he took up a pre-emption claim not far from the present capital city, and thus he became one of the earliest settlers of Lancaster county. He final- ly returned to Iowa, but passed the closing period of his life at Lincoln, Nebraska, where he died at the venerable age of eighty-five years.

Cyrus L. Kemplin, gained his early education in the public schools of Iowa, and as a youth he learned the mason's trade, to which he gave his attention about seven years in Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri. In 1890, he went to South Dakota, where he remained about one year, after which he returned to Kansas City. His next response to the wanderlust was given when he went to Bighorn mountains, in Wyoming and Montana, in which section he found employment in saw mills, besides work- ing at his trade for some time. From that local- ity he came to Nebraska in 1893, making the trip with team and wagon, in true pioneer style, and finding his destination in that part of Deuel county that now constitutes Garden county. He entered claim to a homestead in Antelope valley, and on this place he continued his residence thirteen years, during which time he perfected his title and made numerous improvements. Success attended his efforts, and after disposing of this homestead he pur- chased the fine ranch of seventeen hundred and sixty acres which represents his place of abode and the stage of his vigorous activities at the time. He has erected good buildings and made other excellent improvements on his extensive ranch, and here he is doing a successful busi- ness in the propagation of the various crops for which the soil and climate are best adapt- ed and in the raising of live stock, his average run of cattle being about forty head and his place showing about forty head of horses at the opening of the year 1920.

Mr. Kemplin has never manifested any de- sire to "tinker with" practical politics and has shown his public spirit more effectively in productive industry than by seeking official preferment. His allegiance is given to the Democratic party and he is steadfast in his political convictions.

April 1, 1887, recorded the marriage of Mr. Kemplin to Miss Minnie St. Clair, who was born and reared in Indiana, where her mother still lives, at the venerable age of eighty-five years, the father, George St. Clair, having been a valiant soldier of the Union during the Civil War and died shortly after the close of that great conflict. Mr. and Mrs.

717

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

Kemplin have six children: Mrs. Mary Pick- ard resides at Oshkosh and is the mother of two children; Mrs. Mabel Bennett, of Gering, Scotts Bluff county ; Belva remains at home ; Mrs. Goldie Pratt resides at North Platte, this state, and Charles and Mary are the younger members of the home circle.

JOSEPH R. WOOLERY came to Garden county in 1890, at which time it was still a part of Deuel county, and during the inter- vening years he has continued as a vigorous and successful exponent of agricultural and live- stock industry, and his civic loyalty and worthy achievement have contributed to the develop- ment and progress of this section of the state.

Joseph Richard Wollery was born in Pet- tis county, Missouri, April 1, 1864, and in the same state was born his father, Joseph Perry Woolery, a farmer by vocation who died at the age of forty-eight years, his wife, whose maiden name was Eliza Carpenter, having like- wise been born and reared in Missouri and died when she was about forty years of age.

Joseph R. Woolery was reared to adult age in his native state, where he received the ad- vantages of the public schools. After the death of his father he lived in the home of his uncle, Thomas Woolery, until he was eighteen years of age, and he then found employment in connection with the operation of a thresh- ing machine. Thereafter he was employed a few months at farm work, for thirteen dollars a month and at the age of twenty-one years he went to Kansas, where he was employed about three years, principally at ranch work. From the Sunflower state he made his way to Denver, Colorado, where he was engaged in teaming for a period of about a year. His next venture was made in 1890, when he came to Nebraska and took up the homestead upon which he has continued to reside to the pres- ent time, having developed one of the excellent farms of Garden county and being now the owner of nine hundred and fourteen acres, with about a hundred acres under effective cultiva- tion and the remainder used as grazing land. Mr. Woolery has been specially progressive and enterprising in his industrial activities, and has made each year mark an advancement in cumulative success. He is one of the sub- stantial stock-growers of the county, and raises cattle, horses and hogs. He keeps an average of about fifty head of cattle and ships about a carload of hogs annually. He is one of the stockholders in the Farmers' Elevator in the village of Lisco, and also in the Farmers' Mer- cantile Company at that place.

In politics Mr. Woolery gives his allegiance

to the Democratic party, and he has been influ- ential in public affairs in his county, where he is serving his second term as a member of the board of county commissioners (1919-20), having been elected first in 1912. His serv- ice has been marked by earnest effort to pro- mote the best interests of the county and its people. His wife is affiliated with the Royal Neighbors and is a popular figure in the repre- sentative social life of her home community.

May 26, 1895, recorded the marriage of Mr. Woolery to Miss Maude V. Suit, who was born at Council Bluffs, Iowa, in which state she received her earlier educational training, which was supplemented by her attending school after the removal of the family to west- ern Nebraska, as she was a resident of Gar- den county at the time of her marriage, which was solemnized at Oshkosh. Mrs. Woolery is a daughter of Slathial B. and Helen ( Kimble) Suit. Her father came to western Nebraska in 1887, as a pioneer farmer of this section of the state, his death occurred in 1918, when he was about seventy years of age, and his widow, who is a native of California, is now a resi- dent of Oshkosh, Garden county. Mr. and Mrs. Woolery have three children - Joseph Percy, Mildred and Cecil Gwendolyn.

JAMES J. McCONNELL is another vig- orous and progressive young man who has found in Garden county ample opportunity for successful activity in connection with the ba- sic industries of agriculture and stock-raising, along which lines he initiated his independent career by entering into partnership with Frank O'Rouke, of St. Joseph, Missouri, with whom he continued to be associated two years, as active manager of a well improved farm and stock ranch of seventeen hundred acres, sit- uated eighty-eight miles east of Oshkosh, the county seat. At the present time he is con- ducting an individual farming and live-stock enterprise, with special attention given to the raising of cattle and horses, and the base of his operations is a farm of six hundred and forty acres, located about eight miles northeast of Oshkosh.

Mr. McConnell was born in Fountain coun- ty, Indiana, October 21, 1894, and at Veeders- burg, that state, he received his earlier educa- tion in the public schools. He was about nine years old at the time the family removed to Nebraska, and here his further educational discipline was received in the public schools of Lakeside, Sheridan county, and those of the Antelope valley, in Garden county. Mr. McConnell is a son of Edward and Eliza (Singleton) McConnell, the former born

718

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

at Springfield, Ohio, and the latter of whom was born and reared in Fountain county, In- diana, where her marriage was solemnized. When Edward McConnell was about one year old his parents returned to their old home in Ireland, and thereafter he remained on the soil of the British Isles-in Ireland, Scot- land and England - until he had attained to the age of fourteen years, when he came back to his native land and became a member of the family circle of his uncle, at Springfield, Ohio. He gained excellent mercantile experience along retail lines, and finally became a travel- ing salesman for a wholesale dry-goods house, and remained "on the road" for a per- iod of eighteen years, during which time he traveled in eighteen different states, in the north and the south. In 1903, he came with his family to Nebraska and settled at Lake- side, Sheridan county, where he conducted a hotel about one year. He then took up a home- stead, and also purchased an additional quar- ter-section of land, in the Antelope valley, in Denel county, his land lying near the Garden county line. He continued his successful ac- tivities as an agriculturist and stock-grower until 1918, when he retired, and he and his wife have since maintained their home in the thriving little city of Oshkosh.

James J. McConnell gained practical ex- perience in connection with the activities of the home farm of his father, and thus was well prepared when he instituted independent enterprise as an agriculturist and stock-rais- er, an industry of which he is now one of the prosperous and popular representatives in Gar- den county. He is aligned in the ranks of the Democratic party and he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic church, in the faith of which they were reared. In a fra- ternal way he is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.

January 9, 1917, at Oshkosh, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McConnell to Miss Anna Donnelly, who was born and reared in Saun- ders county, the daughter of Patrick and Bridg- et (McCarty) Donnelly ; the father was born in Ireland, November 6, 1864, and the mother in Illinois, December 1, 1869. They came to Nebraska in 1908 and settled in Garden coun- ty. Mrs. McConnell's educational advantages included those of the Nebraska State Normal School at Chadron. Prior to her marriage she had been, for three terms, a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of Oshkosh. Mr. and Mrs. McConnell have a fine little son, Darrell Joseph, who was born October 7, 1918, and who is the arbiter of all affairs in the pleasant home.

FREMONT G. DURAND is properly to be ascribed a tribute not only as one of the representative pioneer citizens of Garden coun- ty but also as one who has furthered com- munal advancement and prosperity through his well ordered and unreservedly successful activities as an agriculturist and stock-raiser, his attractive home farm being situated about four miles southeast of the village of Lewellen.

Mr. Durand was born in Stark county, Illi- nois, November 24, 1857, and is a son of Mardonous and Matilda (Williams) Durand, the former a native of the state of New York and the latter of Illinois, where her parents were pioneer settlers. Mardonous Durand was reared and educated in the old Empire state and was a young man when he numbered him- self among the pioneers of Stark county, Illi- nois, where he continued to be engaged in farm enterprise until 1861, when he amplified his pioneer experience by removing with his fam- ily to Iowa. There he reclaimed and improved a productive farm, and he continued his resi- dence in the Hawkeye state until 1885, when he removed to Fort Collins, Colorado, and be- came again a pioneer, this time on the wide- stretching plains of Colorado. There he passed the remainder of his life, and he was seventy years of age at the time of his death, his wife there passing away at the age of seventy-two years. They lived up the full experiences of American pioneer life and labored to worthy ends, so that they ever commanded the confi- dence and high regard of all with whom they came in contact, both having been earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal church. The father was first a Whig and later a Re- publican in his political adherency.

Fremont G. Durand was about three years old at the time the family removed to Iowa, where he was reared on the pioneer farm of his father, in Keokuk county and profited by the advantages afforded in the common schools of the period. Fnially he engaged in inde- pendent farm enterprise in Iowa, and his at- tention was thus engrossed for a period of six years, at the expiration of which, in 1884, he removed to Colorado and became interested in the sheep business, with headquarters in Morgan county. In 1887, he drove a bunch of sheep through from Colorado to old Cheyenne county. Nebraska, his destination being the part that now constitutes Garden county. Here he took up and perfected title to a home- stead and a tree claim, in Ash Hollow, and continued his activities as a stock-grower, prin- cipally sheep, until 1893, when he returned to Colorado, and engaged in general farming, near Fort Collins, where he continued opera-

719

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

tions until 1900. Mr. Durand then came to his land in Garden county, Nebraska, and has since resided on the tree claim which he took up in 1887. Many of the trees which he planted on this place in the pioneer days are now of stately proportions and add greatly to the attractiveness of the farm, which he has improved with good buildings and otherwise made to conform with the high standards that now obtain in this fine section of Nebraska. He also purchased an additional tract of a hundred and sixty acres, which is maintained under effective cultivation, and utilizes also an entire section of school land on the South Table, where he has gained special success and prominence in the raising and feeding of cat- tle and hogs.

Mr. Durand has entered fully into the best community spirit, and has been specially lib- eral and progressive in his civic attitude. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and is fortified by well regulated con- victions and opinions concerning matters of governmental and economic policy. He is prominently affiliated with Camp No. 7970, Modern Woodmen of America, at Lewellen, of which he has served for the past nineteen years as clerk, besides which he has repre- sented the organization as a frequent dele- gate to the grand encampment of the state. Both he and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Lewellen, and in the community their circle of friends is coincident with that of their acquaintances.

At Indianola, Iowa, January 10, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Durand to Miss Mary McNaught., who was born in Illinois and was a girl at the time the family removed to Iowa, where she was reared and . educated. She is a sister of Mrs. Louise P. Clary and Mrs. Maggie B. Orr, both of Lewel- len, and on other pages of this work the re- view of Mrs. Clary gives the history of the McNaught family. Mr. and Mrs. Durand have four children : Frederick M. and his wife reside at Cassa, Wyoming, and they have one child; Inez is the wife of Roy L. Robley, of Lewellen, Nebraska, and they have two chil- dren ; Gordon S., of Lewellen, married Miss Fanny Shryer and they have three children; and John H., of Lewellen, still permits his name to be enrolled on the list of eligible bachelors in Garden county.

THOMAS W. LALLY .- Bearing a family name that has been one of eminence in Ireland for many generations, this well known citizen of Cheyenne county may well take pride in claiming the Emerald Isle as the home of his

immediate ancestors, for the Irish are a peo- ple known for their versatility, marked men- tal ability and enthusiasm for any cause which they espouse. Appreciative of the subtle at- tractions and undeniable opportunities offer- ed in the field of practical journalism, Mr. Lally has chosen the newspaper as his vocation, and the success which he has attained in this field of endeavor is shown by his well equip- ped establishment and the excellent business which he controls as the editor and publisher of the Dalton Delegate.

Thomas Lally was born at Lewiston, Illi- nois, January 1, 1879, the son of Frank M. and Mary A. (Gibbons) Lally. The father was born in County Mayo but was brought to the United States by his parents while still a young boy. The family located in Illinois af- ter reaching America and there Frank grew to manhood. He received an excellent prelimin- ary education in the public schools and later studied pharmacy, being admitted to prac- tice in Illinois, where he was engaged in the business of his profession until the time of his death at the age of sixty-four years. Mary Gibbons Lally was born in Lewiston, Illinois, of Irish parents, she was reared there and given the educational advantages afforded by the public schools of that progressive com- monwealth and was considered the finest Celtic scholar in Illinois and later of Nebraska. She was a highly educated and cultured woman, be- ing a graduate of the State University of Ne- braska and supplemented her college course there by graduate studies in the University of Chicago and Columbia University in the city of New York. At the present time she resides in Cleveland, Ohio.

Thomas was raised in his parents' pros- perons home in Illinois and given the best of educational advantages as both his parents were well educated and his mother an ex- ceptionally brilliant woman and scholar. He inaugurated his independent career as a school teacher in Furnas county, Nebraska, being the youngest at that time to hold a license. Be- ing a pedagogue proved rather satisfactory as an introductory business in life and Mr. Lally taught for eighty-seven months in the state of Nebraska, but the Irish of his blood spur- red him on to further endeavor and a voca- tion that would give greater scope to his tal- ents. To this end he accepted a position on a newspaper in Sterling and subsequently at Elk Creek, being engaged in professional work along the lines of his choice for three years and at the same time learning the newspaper busi- ness from the bottom up. Following this he devoted a year to work as a journeyman print-

720

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

er before becoming the business manager of the Daily Tribune at Hyannis, Nebraska, and was known as the newsboy of the Forest Reserve in 1913.

As an independent newspaper publisher Mr. Lally made his first venture when he purchased the plant and established the business of the Dalton Delegate in 1914, at Dalton, Nebraska, a weekly newspaper that has a wide circula- tion in the northern part of Cheyenne county, supplying a long felt want in this section. He has made a great success of this initial venture in journalism, being ably assisted by his cap- able and efficient wife, who has taken an ac- tive and prominent part in building up a pro- gressive and paying business within the short period since it was first established. The pa- per began its upward climb from its inception, and the advancement has continued from that time to the present, with the result that the paper has become a potent influence in public affairs in this section of the country, an ef- fective exponent of local interests, and a ve- hicle through which communal progress and prosperity are furthered. The Delegate reach- ed at one time a circulation of one thousand copies weekly and is to be found in the rep- resentative homes throughout the Dalton dis- trict of the county. The Delegate is non-parti- san but nevertheless is a local political organ of no insignificant influence, the while it ex- presses the well fortified political views of its publisher. However, Mr. Lally endeavors to give to his readers a fair, impartial and unprejudiced view on all questions of inter- est, political or otherwise, and his paper merits classification among the model village publi- cations of Nebraska, its columns having ef- fective summary of the latest news of gener- al character, as well as a chronical of local events and activities, and terse, well written editorials. The paper has good support from the merchants and professional men of its community and is recognized as a good ad- vertising medium. In connection with the newspaper plant is a well equipped job-print- ing department, in which first class job print- ing of all kinds is executed. Mr. Lally is non- partisan in his political views, voting for the man he deems best fitted to serve the people in public office while he is in faith a Roman Catholic.

August 29, 1899, Mr. Lally married Miss Bertha A. Kirste, at Norton, Kansas; she was a native of Webster county, Nebraska, reared and educated in that locality and was the oldest girl scholar in Mr. Lally's first school. Her father was a native of Germany,

born at Thorne, who came to the United States when a young man to take advantage of the free land offered to settlers by the government. After coming to this country he came west, locating on a homestead in Furnas county to engage in farming and still lives there, being engaged in agricultural pursuist. Mrs. Kirste, was Helen Kaforka, also of German birth, who accompanied her parents to America when a child of five years. They located in Illinois where she grew up, was educated and married and is still living on the old liome farm with her husband in Furnas county.

There were eight children in the Lally fam- ily : Walter E., Inez E., Frank W., Arthur T., Helen Kareen, Orville B., Robert E., and Eugene O., all of whom are still members of the happy family circle. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lally have been ambitious for their children and have determined to give them every ad- vantage in an educational way that is within their means, letting each child determine the line along which he or she desires to develop a taste or talent and already the two oldest have reached a high attainment in musical study, having attended the best musical schools, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Chicago.

JULIUS E. GALLOGLY, who is cashier of the Farmers State Bank at Dix, Nebraska, is a young man whose business capacity and sterling personal character have established him in the confidence of this community. He was born in 1885, in Ohio, and is the son of M. D. and Mary Gallogly, who moved to Sheridan county, Kansas in his youth. His mother still lives there and he has one sister, Mrs. Spear, who is a resident of Bushnell, Nebraska.

Julius E. Gallogly was liberally educated, after completing the high school course he at- tended Sheridan College, following which he took a course in the Grand Island Business and Normal College. He entered the business world in connection with a real estate firm in Kansas, remaining in that line five years, then spent three years in Wyoming, coming from there to Dix, Nebraska, in the lumber business. In 1917, he became identified with the Farm- ers State Bank as cashier, a position for which he is admirably fitted, being careful, conserva- tive, and courteous.

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 141

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