History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 27

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

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JAMES R. RUSSELL AND FAMILY

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

agricultural sections of the United States with prosperous and growing cities and towns every few miles.

Mr Newsum stands high in his circle of aquaintances as a man who has been upright and enterprising. He has made a success of his life and has retired to enjoy the fruits of his labors, enjoying the friendship and respect of all who know him.

JAMES R. RUSSELL, a pioneer of Scotts- bluff county and one of the energetic and pro- gressive citizens of the Mitchell valley, is a rep- resentative of the spirit that in recent years has proved such an important factor in the ad- vancement of the Panhandle. He is the owner of a valuable and productive farm located in section 35, township 23-57, and he has also been identified with the business interests of the valley from first locating here and his career has been marked by a versatility that has done much to make him one of the substantial and influential men of this locality, well known for its able agriculturists and progressive, success- ful business men.

James R. Russell is a native of the Badger state, born in Vernon county, Wisconsin, in 1868, the son of Calvin Russell, who was born and reared in Ohio. Mr. Russell grew to man- hood on the farm owned by his parents in Wis- consin and acquired his education in the public schools. In 1888, a mere boy in years, he broke all the home ties and with high heart and the determination to success started for the west to seek and make his fortune. Coming to Ne- braska in 1888 he soon looked the different localities over, became an embryonic farmer and pioneer of the Panhandle. He took a homestead of 160 acres. Twelve years later the young man married and from then on for sev- eral years he and his devoted wife encountered many hardships and weathered many storms, but they did not falter in courage, made the best of the circumstances and privations, with- out complaints, and manifested the faith that has been graciously rewarded in the later years. Industrious by nature, Mr. Russell in the early days obtained work wherever he could get it to tide over the hard years when crops were de- stroyed by grasshoppers or burned up by the droughts, and by means of such employment provided his family with the necessities of life and was able to retain his land and gradually carry forward the added improvements which he deemed necessary to become a successful farmer. He went 200 miles away to find work and assisted in building the railroad west of Alliance. This land, located in township 23-57, section 35, has been his home continuously dur- ing the long intervening period. He has added

to the original tract and is the owner of 400 acres, all now in a high state of cultivation, is well equipped for intensive farming and ex- tensive stock-raising, with substantial buildings that have taken the place of the first placed there. Mr. Russell has been a deep student of agricultural methods and naturally was one of the first men of the valley to realize and advo- cate the value of irrigation. He has one hun- dred and twenty acres of his land under water and it is mostly a question of time before many more acres will be under ditch. Mr. Russell raises a good grade of stock on his farm and finds that branch of farming very profitable. He tells of the makeshifts the early settlers were forced to employ when they could not obtain necessary farm machinery and family supplies and laughs as he describes how the first postoffice of Mitchell, a frame structure eight by twelve feet square, was put up over night in the stress of necessity and that he be- came the first postmaster, cancelling thirty dol- lars worth of stamps the first month. Branch- ing out into a pioneer merchant, Mr. Russell became owner of the second store in Mitchell where he handled everything needed by the farmers of the valley.

While Mr. Russell is an advocate of the principles of the Republican party, he is bound by no strict party lines when it comes to casting his vote in local elections and gives his influence to the man he deems best qualified to serve the community or county. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Fra- ternal Union, and the M. W. A., while the family are members of the Congregational church. In 1900 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Russell and Miss Lena Ewing, a native of Pennsylvania, who accompanied her parents to Nebraska when her father settled in this state in 1887. Thomas Ewing is now deceased, after having been a potent factor in the devel- opment of the region, being a representative pioneer settler who shouldered his part in open- ing up the middle west for settlement and de- velopment. There are seven children in the Russell family: Eva, Lester, Thomas, James, John, Clem, and Amy, all of whom are at home and to whom their father and mother have given all the educational advantages that their children cared to avail themselves of.

From first settling in the Panhandle, Mr. Russell has been progressive in spirit and is the advocate for all movements that tend to the betterment of the county and community in which he lives. Both he and his wife take an active part in their church affairs and they are numbered among the sterling and honored pio- neer citizens of Scottsbluff county.

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HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

PEARL M. STONE, educator and agri- culturist, furnishes in his career another ex- emplification of self-made manhood. He is one of the most prominent and prosperous exponents of farm enterprise in the Mitchell section of Scottsbluff county, is a liberal and progressive citizen who well merits recogni- tion in this publication. Mr. Stone claims the great Sunflower state, to the south, as the place of his nativity and is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of that great commonwealth. He was born in Smith coun- ty, September 28, 1876, the son of W. E. and Madord (Duffie) Stone, the former a native of Illinois and the latter a descendant of a long line of New England ancestors, having been born in Vermont. The father was one of the successful farmers who settled in Kan- sas during territorial days when that was te- garded as a "Land of Promise," and such it proved to be for him. There were three chil- dren in the family, two of whom are living: Pearl and Edna, the wife of Thomas May- cock, who resides in Gilette, Wyoming.

His father being a man of comfortable means Pearl was given all the educational advantages that this section of the country afforded as his parents removed from Kansas to Scottsbluff county in 1890; the father be- ing instrumental in the great enterprise of securing the irrigation ditch which has made this county "bloom like the rose." The boy attended the public schools at Gering and Lin- coln, graduating from the Western Normal school in the latter city. The following seven years Mr. Stone devoted to his profes- sion as teacher and the success he gained in this field may be understood when we learn that he was then elected county superintendent, an office most creditably filled by him for two years. A highly educated man, he kept abreast of all the questions of the day and being of far vision saw that the free, independent man of today is the one who owns land ; this man being his own master. The wide world must be fed and the farmers of this great country are carrying on the greatest agricul- tural business ever witnessed in history. Mr. Stone had opportunity to observe the more than satisfactory results achieved by the farmers on irrigated land and having been reared on a farm in childhood was well quali- fied to take up this pursuit for life. During his scholastic years he had accumulated con- siderable capital and with this was able to purchase a large tract of irrigated land, con- sisting of three hundred and twenty acres in

Mitchell township. Mr. Stone has been re- markably successful in his farming which is diversified, though he carries on a large stock- raising and feeding business. Mr. Stone keeps cognizant of all questions of the day and improved methods of farming and thus has come to be recognized as one of the lead- ing exponents of this industry in his section of the country. He has demonstrated that a cultivated mind and fine instincts reach their highest development often-times amid rural surrounding, diffusing around them that re- finement and peace which are the hall marks of the cultured. Mr. Stone has for years been a supporter of the Republican party ; is an advocate of every movement for the im- provement of his community ; he and his wife are members of the Christian church while his fraternal affiliations are with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1910 he married Miss Minnie Whittaker, native of Kansas, who became the mother of five chil- dren: Ellen, Maxine, Perl Hazen, Dorothy and Bernice, all of whom are at home attend- ing school and all assured an excellent educa- tion because of their father's superior men- tal attainments.

LAWRENCE A. FRICKE. - The success- ful men in Western Nebraska today, are by no means all of the older generation. Start- ing out to carve a career for himself, a young man undoubtedly is helped if his educational training has been thorough, but not education alone explains personal popularity, political prominence and keen business foresight. Pos- sessing these qualities, Lawrence A. Fricke has become a leading representative citizen of Bayard while still almost at the beginning of his career as a dealer in real estate.

Lawrence A. Fricke was born at Madison, Nebraska, January 8, 1889, and is a son of Herman and Johanna (Ruegge) Fricke, both of whom were born in Germany. They came to the United States as young people and were married in Illinois. In 1865 they came to Richardson, Nebraska, where he bought land and traded a horse for additional land. He followed farming in that section for some time, then moved to Omaha and went into the agricultural improved implement business and still resides in that city, being now retired. Ten of his eleven children survive, Lawrence A. being the youngest of the family. In poli- tics the father is a Republican and both he and the mother are members of the German Lutheran church.

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After completing the high school course at Omaha, Lawrence A. Fricke spent one year in the Nebraska State University and then entered on railroad work in the engineering department of the Burlington system. In 1914 he embarked in the real estate business at Bayard, in partnership with his brother-in- law, Peter O'Shea, of Scottsbluff. The firm handles both farm and city property and through choice locations and honest business representations, has built up a prosperous business.

Mr. Fricke was married in February, 1917, to Miss Eleanor Parks, who was born at Greeley, Nebraska, and they have two chil- dren, namely: Robert L., who was born in January, 1918; and Johanna Ruth, who was born January 16, 1919. Mr. Fricke was bap- tized in the German Lutheran church. He is a leading Republican of Morrill county, has served Bayard in the office of mayor with the greatest efficiency and is a city councilman at the present time. He is a Consistory Mason of advanced degree. Personally, with genial manner that shows sincerity, Mr. Fricke im- presses one favorably and he has a wide cir- cle of friends.

IRA BIGELOW, who has been a resident of Nebraska almost his entire life, owns and operates a fine farm in Morrill county, upon which he has placed substantial improvements. Mr. Bigelow has been prominent in the Tri- State Ditch project, and served three years as treasurer of this enterprise. He was born in Wisconsin, May 27, 1868, and is a son of Reuben and Saphronia Bigelow.

When Ira Bigelow was three years old, his parents left Wisconsin, moved to Iowa, set- tled there on a farm and remained until 1879. Another change was made and Mr. Bigelow remembers the journey from Iowa to the new home in Holt county, Nebraska, where his father homesteaded. He attended school there and later went to Omaha and came to Morrill county in 1910. Here he purchased eighty acres of wild land and immediately set about its development and improvement. He now has a valuable farm and is in a posi- tion to feel well satisfied with conditions of all kinds as they are in Nebraska.

In 1895, near Kearney, Nebraska, Mr. Bige- low was married to Miss Esta Ford, who was born and reared in Iowa. Her parents, Samuel W. and Angelina Ford, came from Iowa in 1887 to Kearney, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Bigelow have had children as follows: Mrs.

Zana Warren, lives at Redington, Nebraska ; Mrs. Pearl Harms, lives near Bayard; Vera, lives at home; Ray died at the age of three years ; and Hazel, lives with her parents. Mr. Bigelow is not identified with any particular political party but is a wide awake citizen and casts an idependent vote for the candidates of whom his own good judgment approves. He takes a deep interest in the public schools and has served in the school board for fifteen years.

HENRY MILLER, whose valuable irri- gated farm in Morrill county, Nebraska, lies on section fifteen, town of Bayard, has been a resident of Nebraska for thirty-eight years and during that long period has witnessed many wonderful changes. He has been a farmer all his life and has developed a fine property on which he lives.

Henry Miller was born in Alsace Lorraine, then a province of Germany, March 10, 1860. His parents were farming people named Peter and Elizabeth (Schmidt) Miller, who emigrated from Germany to Canada, in 1866. The change of climate and manner of living did not agree with them and both died short- ly after reaching their new home. Henry was young at the time. He remained in Canada, where he obtained a fair amount of schooling and learned to be a farmer, until 1881, when he came to Nebraska and settled in the east- ern part of the state. He followed farming there until 1909 and then came to Morrill county and bought two hundred and forty acres of wild land. With accustomed industry he began the development of his land and soon had a crop started but a drouth ruined it, and in the season of the following year, a hailstorm caused great damage to his growing crop. Since that time, however, Mr. Miller has been continuously successful, and with his large farm all irrigated may well be con- sidered one of the county's substantial agri- culturists. He has excellent improvements, keeps standard stock, owns modern machinery and his entire place gives the pleasing impres- sion of a profitable, well regulated farm.

Mr. Miller was married to Miss Alvina Go- ing, who was born in Germany, March 23, 1861. Her parents came to the United States from Germany in 1867 and settled in the eastern part of Nebraska, where the father carried on farming until his death. The moth- er of Mrs. Miller still lives on the old home farm and is now in her eightieth year. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have had eight children:

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Henry and Willie, twins, both of whom live in eastern Nebraska; Louis, lives in Wyom- ing ; Martha, the wife of L. J. Tilden, of Mor- rill county ; Alvena, the wife of E. J. Tilden, of Wyoming; and Walter, Esther and Paul, all of whom are at home. The family is of the Lutheran faith. Mr. Miller is independent in his political views. His neighbors know him to be an honest, dependable man.

MARTIN J. KING. - In these days, to the ordinary individual, the ownership of vast tracts of land and thousands of cattle repre- sents wealth almost inconceivable, yet there are men in Morrill county who go quietly about the ordinary affairs of life without os- tentation, who can claim such possessions. A sale of 2,300 acres of land recently recorded by Martin J. King, one of the county's well known cattlemen, brings this to mind, al- though it is but an incident that may be re- peated, for Western Nebraska men are apt to think and act in large figures. Mr. King has spent almost all his life in Nebraska but his birth took place September 12, 1878, at Creston, Iowa.

The parents of Mr. King were Valentine and Barbara (Hutchinson) King, natives of Ireland and truly worthy people there and later in the United States. They located first in Maryland but after the ways of the new country had become familiar, removed to Iowa and lived there as farmers until 1887, when they came to Cheyenne county, Nebras- ka. The father homesteaded and turned his attention to growing cattle, in the course of years becoming one of the big cattlemen of this section, at one time having 6,000 head. He was a good business man, attended closely to his own affairs, voted the Democratic ticket and brought up a large family in the Roman Catholic church. He died at Alliance, Nebraska, the mother of Mr. King passing away in the city of Omaha. Of their children Martin J. was the fifth in order of birth, the others being: William, lives at Alliance, is in the stock business; Patrick, a farmer near Blackfoot, Iowa; John, a farmer in Morrill county ; Annie, resides at Alliance ; Maggie, the wife of L. Jacobs, a farmer near Angora ; Nellie, the wife of James Murphy, a ranchman near Alliance ; and Thomas, lives on the old King homestead, and with one of his brothers owns no less that 14,000 acres of land in Mor- rill county and runs about 1,000 head of cattle. John King keeps 300 head of cattle, included in these being 150 pure-bred Herefords.

Martin J. King was nine years old when the family located near Alliance, Nebraska, and he remembers going to school in a little tent, for schooling was one of the first privi- leges the most of the early settlers endeavored to secure for their children, second only to religious instruction. Later he had public school advantages. After his school days and until 1915 when he moved into Alliance, Mr. King engaged in ranching and became one of the county's well known cattlemen. He has a fine farm of 320 acres but has retired entirely from active farm and ranch life. For several years he carried on an automobile business at Alliance and then came to Bayard and bought the Bayard Hotel, and now occupies his time in managing this place of business.

In 1907 Mr. King was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth L. Shetler, who was born near Kearney, Nebraska, and is a daughter of Lesley L. Shelter, who came to Cheyenne county in 1887 and now lives retired at Den- ver. Mr. and Mrs. King have three children: Lavern L., Catherine Barbara and Martin Carroll, the youngest being at the engaging age of three years while the older children are doing well at school. Mr. King and his family belong to the Catholic church. Mr. King follows his father's example in political membership but has never been willing to ac- cept a public office. He belongs to the lodge of Elks at Alliance.

CHRISTIAN NUSZ, who owns a well im- proved farm situated on section 12 town of Bayard, Morril county, Nebraska, has not liv- ed in the United States so very many years and still fewer in Nebraska, but he has dem- onstrated what a man of energy and enter- prise can accomplish when given free oppor- tunity. Mr. Nusz was born in Russia, in 1869, a son of Christian and Mary (Hass) Nusz. Both parents were of Russian birth. The father died on his farm in Russia and the son hopes that his beloved mother still lives there. The unsettled condition of his native land has made it impossible for Mr. Nusz to communicate with the old neighbors and eight years have passed since he had re- liable news.

In 1908 Mr. Nusz came to the United States and made his way to Kansas. There he work- ed as a laborer until 1914, when he came to Morrill county and invested his savings in one hundred and sixty acres of land. He has not spared himself in developing this land and has improved it very well. Almost all' of

MR. AND MRS. ARTHUR J. BAILEY

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

his farm is now irrigated and his crops are abundant. Knowing the hard conditions of life for men with little chance to get ahead as they were when he left Russia, he feels that he has been fortunate in coming to Ne- braska. He has found friends here, has ac- quired a beautiful home and assured comfort for old age and has been able to give his chil- dren the educational opportunities he has de- sired.

Mr. Nusz was married to Miss Latie Deins, who was born in Russia. Her parents were Jacob and Ella (Fogal) Deins, who never came to the United States. Mr. and Mrs. Nusz have had children as follows: Christian, a farmer in Colorado; Alexander, works on a farm in Colorado; and Jacob, David, Lydia, Victor, Mary and Carl, all of whom are at home. The family belongs to the Russian church. Mr. Nusz in an American citizen but has never identified himself with any par- ticular political party. In his neighborhood he is known to be a man of his word and is highly respected.

ARTHUR J. BAILEY was one of the pio- neer cattlemen of western Nebraska who played an important part in the early develop- ment of this section during that period when the great cattle barons ranged their cattle from the Pecos on the south to the Yellowstone on the north, and was well and most favorably known throughout the Panhandle.

Arthur Bailey was born in Iowa, July 3. 1869, the son of J. P. and Julia ( Birdsall) Bailey, who were farming people and who came to Colorado where he became the owner of land upon which the city of Fort Collins has since been built. The son grew up on his father's farm in Iowa and attended the public schools near his home. During the heigh-day of the cattle business on the high plains it had a lure for the young man of the period and many of them joined the great cow outfits that drifted from Texas to Wyoming with the changing seasons ; as the pasture became used and burned up in the south the herds slowly drifted northward and were finally sold on the northern market at the close of the season. Mr. Bailey joined such a camp and by prac- tical experience learned the live-stock industry as conducted at the time. After serving his apprenticeship as a cowboy his ability soon became recognized and he was offered the posi- tion of foreman of the Standard Cattle Com- pany at Ames, Nebraska, where he soon dem- onstrated his ability. He proved so efficient that subsequently he was given charge of the vast business of the concern at North Platte

and later at Scottsbluff and thus learned at first hand the country of the western Pan- handle and its future possibilities. His reputa- tion as a manager became well known through- out the cattle country and the Paxton people of the Hershey Ranch made him such an ad- vantageous offer that he accepted a position with them. Mr. Bailey kept abreast of the movement of the times, studied the markets and watched the increased settlement of the west- ern part of the states bordering the great "cattle trail," and was one of the first to recog- nize the signs that pointed to the fact that the day of the open range was over and the future of the meat industry was to change from the great companies to the farmer who would raise and feed a high bred beef stock. As he had been raised on a farm he decided to avail him- self of the fine government land still to be ob- tained in the rich Platte valley and in 1906 purchased 240 acres in township 23-57, section 35, Scottsbluff county, where he at once estab- lished himself as a farmer raising diversified crops and engaged in stock-raising. Water had been the paramount question of the cattlemen for years and having given considerable study to obtaining it while on the range, when he bought his land he chose that which lay near the river and became one of the first advocates of irrigation. Three hundred acres of his estate were under water rights and much of the rest was rich pasture, a combination that worked out well for the various lines of busi- ness which he carried on. Mr. Bailey was a strong man and from first settling in the Mitchell district, by reason of his force of char- acter, was enabled to inaugurate many im- provements and thus become a potent factor in the affairs of the locality and the lives of its citizens. He stood for progress and reform, served for many years as a school director, and stood behind all movements for the benefit and development of his district. In politics Mr. Bailey was a supporter of the principles of the Republican party and he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church, of which they were liberal supporters. Fraternally his associations were with the Masonic order, the Elks, and the Modern Woodmen of America. His death occurred at the farm home, May 12, 1916.

On April 18, 1898, Mr. Bailey married Miss Elizabeth Harvey at Webster, Nebraska. She was the daughter of Andrew and Margaret ( Richie) Harvey, both natives of Scotland, who came to America many years ago and are now well known residents of Dodge county, where Mr. Harvey has been a successful farm- er. Eight children became members of the

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History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 27

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