History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 65

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 Hewett finished the public schools of Brownsville, then matriculated at the Peru Normal School where he graduated in 1883. The next fall he entered Hastings College, re- ceiving the degree of A.B. in 1885. That winter he found employment in the Govern- ment Land Office as clerk and served for a year before being transferred to McCook as clerk in the land office there. A year later he was again transferred to Bloomington, and on July 11, 1888, was married to Miss Maude L. Kelley of that city, who was born at Roa- noke, Indiana, the daughter of James E. and Margaret J. (Lawrence) Kelley. Two chil- dren were born to this union: James K., a graduate of the Alliance high school in 1908, entered the State University in the fall and after pursuing an extended course in electrical engineering graduated with the degree of Bach- elor of Science and Electrical Engineering in 1913. Before going to college the young man had learned the trade of printer. On his return home after commencement he joined the force of the Alliance Times, where he spent some years learning the editorial end of the news- paper business and in 1916, feeling that he was now in a position to handle a paper, he purchased the Broken Bow Republican, where he is now in business. He married Miss Anna M. Veith, the youngest daughter of Henry Veith of Lincoln, Nebraska, and they have one child, Helen. The second child of James H. H. Hewett is Helen Bernice, also a gradu- ate of the Alliance high school, in 1915. She entered the State University that fall and graduated in 1919. While in the university Miss Hewett was a champion woman athlete and since leaving the university has been in- structor in physical education in the Lincoln high school.

Mr. Hewett came to Box Butte county in the fall of 1888, locating at Hemingford for the purpose of practicing law, but when the United States Land Office opened at Alliance in 1890

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he was appointed clerk and moved to that city to assume his governmental duties. He had been chosen chief clerk of the office as he was the only man in the county who had had experience in a land office and had shown marked ability in conducting the affairs of the government while serving in the same capacity in other offices in the state. Mr. Hewett re- mained in charge here until the spring of 1894 when he resigned to engage in the prac- tice of his profession in partnership with R. C. Noleman, a prominent attorney of this section, who had made an enviable reputation for himself as a jurist. Two years after open- ing his office Mr. Hewett was elected county judge on the Republican ticket at the Novem- ber elections of 1896. In addition to his ju- dicial duties he acted as deputy county clerk, filling the two offices four years, then in Janu- ary, 1900. he was appointed chief clerk of the land office, accepted, and has since remain- ed there working for the government. Mr. Hewett is one of the prominent and progress- ive business men who have played an import- ant part in the development of the Panhandle where he has seen the great changes that trans- formed the so called "American Desert" into a wealthy farming community that produces abundantly. He is one of the best known and liked citizens of the county, having been a resident for nearly thirty years. He has al- ways been ready and willing to give his time and money to help with county or munici- pal affairs and as a result of this popularity had the honor in July, 1919, to be chosen by unanimous vote at a non-partisan mass meet- ing of the citizens of Alliance as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Nebraska, held in December of that year at Lincoln, to frame a new constitution for the state. Mr. Hewett is a prominent member of the Masonic order, having been the Worshipful Master of Alliance Lodge No. 183 A. F. and A. M., eight terms. He is also a member of Sheba chapter No. 54 R. A. M., is a Past Commander of Bunah Commandery No. 26 K. T., and a member of Adoniram Lodge No. 6 Scottish Rite and Nebraska Consistory No. 1 A. and A. S. R., Omaha. For years Mr. Hew- ett has been a member of Box Butte Camp No. 733 of the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Hewett owns a fine modern home in Al- liance where he and his wife dispense a cordial hospitality to.their many friends.

JESSE M. MILLER, one of the prosperous and progressive business men of Alliance is the owner and manager of the Alliance Hotel

and Cafe, enjoying a clientele of the best citi- zens of the town and the traveling public.

Mr. Miller was born in Peru, Indiana, Janu- ary 13, 1879, the son of John A. and Lucinda (Nell) Miller, the former born in Ohio and the mother a native of Peru. Jesse was the second child of the four born to his parents. As his father was a Dunkard minister the family moved from town to town as the min- ister assumed different charges and thus the children went to school in the institutions of the various localities where the family lived in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, but they man- aged to lay the foundations for good, practical educations. Jesse's first work was shoveling grain in an elevator. After finishing the ele- mentary schools Mr. Miller attended a com- mercial college at night to further prepare him- self for a business career, and his first position was with the firm of Marshal Field and Com- pany of Chicago when he was twenty-one, where he remained eighteen months before go- ing to New York to enter the service of the H. B. Claflin Company, wholesale dry goods house. It was while working there that Mr. Miller's whole career was changed, when Mr. Claflin, president of the company said to him "Jesse, a man of your temperament should be in business for himself, even if it was nothing but a, peanut stand. I would do that myself if I had nothing else." Mr. Miller decided from that day never to work for another cor- poration, as a man on a salary never gets ahead in the world. Soon after this he resigned, took a trip to England, Belgium and France, and while this was not a success from a financial point of view, as he arrived in New York broke, it was a great and broadening experi- ence of value. He worked his way back to his old home in Indiana, was employed on a farm for a month, then decided to head for the "land of opportunity," the west, and came to Nebraska, locating in Crawford, July 28, 1905, with just a dollar in his pocket. Almost at once he secured work on the ranch of An- tone Mechem, where he remained a year and a half, busy at all kinds of farm work. He saw that the best thing was to secure land of his own and took up a homestead on Sand Creek, in Sioux county, placed good and per- manent improvements on his place and en- gaged in farming until 1908.

October 3, 1908, Mr. Miller was married at Chadron, to Miss Anna Lux, born in Sioux county, the daughter of Carl Lux, a native of Germany, and Rena (Fellows) Lux, who was born in Illinois. Mr. Lux was one of the first settlers of Sioux county and held office

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as county treasurer four terms. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Miller, Martha K., in school in Alliance. After his marriage Mr. Miller went to Crawford, started the Owl Cafe, which he made a success but sold at the end of two years and then bought the Gates City Hotel there in 1910. After establishing it on a sound basis he disposed of it at a sat- isfactory figure in 1914 and came to Alliance. At first he rented the Alliance Cafe which he rebuilt in 1916 and bought the old Burlington Hotel that year. The following year he pur- chased the Alliance Hotel building and in 1918 rebuilt the Burlington which he uses as an annex to the cafe. Mr. Miller has displayed his faith in the Panhandle by investing heavi- ly in land as he is the owner of a quarter sec- tion of the finest land in Box Butte county, where he is considered one of the best all around farmers of the section, producing the butter, milk, and vegetables for his hotel and the cafe so that his guests get the benefit of fresh, home grown products, a very unusual thing now days. Mr. Miller is an up-to-date business man in every respect, keeps abreast of all the latest movements and improvements in hotel business and adopts all that are of bene- fit to him. He is a supporter of all civic and municipal movements and very popular with the residents of his city. He is a Mason and Shriner and also belongs to the Elks.

ANTON UHRIG, county commissioner of Box Butte county, was born in the Province of Nassau, of the German Empire, February 2, 1847, and has through his life demonstrated the fine qualities of industry and thrift for which the German people have gained high standing. His parents were Franz and Anna M. (Mill- er) Uhrig, both natives of Germany. The father of the family was a merchant who ran a grocery store and by this means supported his family of three boys and three girls, of whom Anton was the second oldest boy. In addition to his commercial affairs Mr. Uhrig also owned a farm and thus was more able to care for the children than were many of his compatriots. Anton attended the public schools in his native land until he was fourteen years old when he was apprenticed to a harness maker, served three years at the trade and became a journeyman. It was then that he earned his first money by working for his employer for two dollars a week and board. The young man was ambitious, he had heard of the success of many of his countrymen who had emigrated from the native land and deter- mined that he, too, would seek his fortune in

the new world. When twenty years old, ac- companied by his sister, Anna M., and a friend who had already lived in the United States for some years, George Gundlach, who had been sheriff in his adopted country and who afterwards was elected to the United States Senate from Carlisle, Clinton county, Illinois, Anton set sail for America. He had relatives in Clinton county, Illinois, among them an uncle who owned a soda factory. After his arrival the young man drove one of the wagons while he was learning the language and customs of the country. When the season for summer drinks was over Mr. Uhrig work- ed at his trade of harnessmaker at various places and then secured steady employment at Council Bluffs, Iowa, for three years. During this time he attended night sessions in a com- merical college to learn American methods which proved very valuable to him in later business life. Having laid aside some capital he opened a harness shop and factory of his own at Mondamin, Iowa, but disposed of it after three years to become a traveling sales- man for a St. Louis furniture factory and in 1885 came to Box Butte county. He was so favorably impressed with the western push and energy of the pioneer settlers that while in Valentine, Nebraska he decided to locate in this state, and filed on land near Hemingford in the fall of 1885. The towns of Hemingford and Alliance were not in existance then but Mr. Uhrig, his brother Fred and brother-in- law shipped what supplies and goods they needed to Valentine and then with two teams drove to Box Butte across the country in true pioneer style, locating in what was nearly a wilderness. They proceeded to locations near the present town of Hemingford and were forced to use the cover of their "prairie schooners" for tents in which to live until they could haul logs and put up log and sod houses on their claims. Mr. Uhrig took a pre-emption and timber claim and in the fall of 1885 returned to Mexico, Missouri, where he was married in January, 1886, to Augusta Basse. Returning almost immediately to Hemingford with his bride, Mr. Uhrig brought with him a stock of goods bought while east, which consisted of hardware, saddlery, harness, farm implements and furniture and then open- ed the first store in Hemingford. This was really the start of the town of Hemingford, for from that time, the fall of 1885, people began to settle there and when the tide of immigration set in soon afterward, it be- came a flourishing village. Mr. Uhrig owns about six hundred acres of fine, arable land

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ASA B. WOOD

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

near Hemingford of which thirty acres is laid out in town lots while he has a ranch of sixteen hundred acres, eighteen miles south- west of the town, which is a valuable farm tract. For about twenty-five years he ran a hardware and saddlery store in the town of Hemingford but seven years ago disposed of it and put the money in land which he began to see was a paying investment. He owns a fine modern home just at the edge of the city limits where a delightful hospitality is dis- pensed to the many friends of the family, for they, being the oldest residents, are well and favorably known in the community which they have assisted so materially to develop. Mr. Uhrig is considered one of the most substan- tial men financially of Box Butte county and his high standing with the citizens has been demonstrated by the various positions of trust which they have placed in his capable hands. He was elected county commissioner on the Democratic ticket in 1917 and has proved his efficiency in handling the vast business of the county in the past three years. He is an enthusiastic believer in the future of this sec- tion of the Panhandle and gives time, energy and money for any project that tends to the development of county or community. There are seven children in the Uhrig family : Nettie, a graduate of the high school and the Univer- sity of Nebraska, is now a teacher in the state normal school at Chadron; Frank is a farmer near Hemingford; Ida is at home keep- ing house for her father as the mother died in 1911 ; Otto A. is a clerk in the Farmers State Bank of Hemingford; Wilfred is employed by a hardware firm of Hemingford and was one of the first boys to enlist from Box Butte county when was was declared against Ger- many, remaining in the service two years and eight months, most of that time being in France, he is also a graduate of the Omaha Business college ; George, a farmer near Hem- ingford, and Margaret, who is attending the Chadron normal school. Mr. Uhrig has made a record for liberality and progressiveness since serving as commissioner and is highly thought of as he has ever the welfare of the county in mind when exercising his powers of executive.

ASA B. WOOD. - In the compilation of a work of the province assigned to this publica- tion there is both pleasure and consistency in giving more than cursory record of the career of Asa Butler Wood, the pioneer, the aggres- sive and successful newspaper man, the pro- gressive and liberal citizen and the man who

has wielded large influence in connection with the development and upbuilding of the western part of Nebraska. At Gering, the judicial center of Scottsbluff county, he is editor and publisher of the Gering Courier, which has the .distinction of being the pioneer paper of the west half of the state and of which he has been continuously in active charge since April, 1887, when, as he himself has stated, "it was estab- lished, virtually, on the raw prairie." Few devotees of journalism in Nebraska have been so long and continuously at the helm of news- paper "navigation" as has Mr. Wood, and he has a longer continuous business record here than any other man in the North Platte valley. These years have been filled with large and worthy achievement on his part, and he is to be honored for the service he has given in further- ance of the civic and material progress of this vigorous part of our great commonwealth.

Asa Butler Wood was born in Wapello county, Iowa, August 26, 1865, and this date indicates emphatically that he is a scion of one of the pioneer families of the Hawkeye state. His parents, Clay and Jane ( Warren ) Wood, were natives of Ohio. The former passed the closing years of his life in the state of Iowa. The mother died at Gering, Nebraska, where she had joined her sons after their location here. She was a splendid woman who is re- membered with appreciation by many earlier residents. The father was a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil War, in which he served as a member of Company C. Thirty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was a man of sterling character and distinct individuality - one who was influential in community affairs and who commanded unqualified popular esteem. He was a successful school teacher and in Iowa he served several terms as county superintendent of schools. His political adherency was given to the Republican party and both he and his wife held membership in the Methodist church.

Asa B. Wood acquired his early education in the public schools of Iowa, and after complet- ing the curriculum of the high school he eventually broadened his training by associa- tion with the various departments of news- paper enterprise - a discipline that has well been designated as the equivalent of a liberal education. During his entire active business career he has never severed his allegiance to newspaper and allied work, and in the same he has been definitely successful. He has at the present time perhaps the best newspaper and job printing plant in the western half of the state and his prominence and influence in jour- nalistic circles are evidenced by his having served as president of the Nebraska Press As-

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sociation. Mr. Wood has made his paper not only an exponent of but also a leader in the work of development and upbuilding that has brought great prosperity to western Nebraska, and his loyalty has been on a parity with his enthusiasm and prevision as an apostle of progress along both social and industrial lines. He has been unwavering in his allegiance to the Republican party and has given yeoman service in support of its cause. He has served several times as chairman of the Scottsbluff county Republican central committee, has been a delegate to county, district and state conven- tions of the party and has twice served as dele- gate to the Republican national convention - once from his district and once as delegate at large. He has not been ambitious for political preferment, however, and the only office he has held along this line was that of postmaster of Gering, a position of which he was the in- cumbent for sixteen years.

With all things that have fostered communal interests Mr. Wood has identified himself with characteristic loyalty and efficiency, and in this connection it inay be noted that, as a pioneer. lie erected the first frame building at Gering, this having been used as the office of his newly established newspaper. The building is still standing, is used as a residence and is made the subject of an illustration in this history. As a newspaper office Mr. Wood has replaced this structure with a substantial and modern two- story brick building which is an ornament to Gering, the first floor being utilized for his printing establishment and the second floor be- ing equipped and rented for general office pur- poses.

Mr. Wood has been president of the Gering Community Club and is secretary of the Gering Investment Company, which built the modern Gering Hotel. He was specially active and earnest in the support of the various instru- mentalities which furthered the work of prep- aration for the nation's participation in the World War and the upholding of the country's prestige in that great struggle. He was secre- tary and a member of the executive committee of the Scottsbluff county Council of Defense during the war period, and also a member of the executive committee of the county's lib- erty loan committee. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he served two terms as master of Scottsbluff lodge, No. 201. Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is a charter member. He is also a charter member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has passed the vari- ous official chairs therein. Mr. Wood and his wife are active members of the Christian

church of Gering and at intervals during the past thirty years he has served as chairman of its official board.

At Cozad, Dawson county, Nebraska, on October 11, 1888, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wood to Miss Maggie Claypool, daugh- ter of William and Sarah Claypool. The five children of this union are Marie, Dorothy, Marjorie, Lynette, and Warren C. The eldest daughter, Marie, is the wife of William B. Sands, who served as sergeant with the Amer- ican expeditionary forces in France and there- after in Germany, subsequently to the signing of the armistice, and now operating farm lands owned by the subject of this sketch.

Mr. Woods, whose participation in public affairs, has made him one of the best known citizens of Scottsbluff county and western Ne- braska, is a pioneer who has been a vital ex- ponent of progress in this favored section of the state, and both in spirit and action he has commended himself to the confidence and good will of the community and county in which he has lived and labored to goodly ends. What he has done speaks for itself, but even this brief review will offer a measure of assurance as to his achievement and to his high standing as a man and a citizen.

JOHN C. MORROW, receiver for the United States Land Office at Alliance, belongs to one of the fine old pioneer families that lo- cated in north central Nebraska in the late seventies. He is one of the self made men of the Panhandle, whose experiences here have been diversified and interesting, ranging from the days of sod houses and Indians and the general frontier conditions of that period to the affluence and comforts of civilized modern life. In all these changes and the development of the county Mr. Morrow has taken an active and interested part.

John Morrow was born in Lewis county, New York, February 25, 1867, the son of Thomas and Mary (McDonald) Morrow, the former a native of Ireland, who emigrated and located in the United States where he be- came a farmer. John was the eldest child in a family of four boys and three girls and thus early learned responsibility. When the boy was only twelve years of age the Morrow family left New York state for the west, as the father desired to give his children a good start in life and land was high in the east, while by coming west to the great praire coun- try he could obtain fine farming land for the taking. The Morrows located on a homestead four miles west of Atkinson, Nebraska, in 1879

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where the family lived for many years. John attended school in the east but had not com- pleted the elementary grades so when school opened in the "soddy" near his home he at- tended during the winter, helping his father in many ways during the summer, for on a frontier farm there was always plenty for agile feel and willing hands, herding cattle driving a plow or cultivator and thus the boy was a good practical farmer while a youth in years, and able to assume responsibility as the oldest child. Mr. Morrow recalls the first money he earned was for work on a farm, and he spent it for a pair of boots to wear to the district school that winter for he had to walk four and a half miles to Atkinson. He says that sometimes he could catch a ride on one of the Black Hills Stage Coaches as their route lay the same as his to Atkinson; some of the drivers were kind and let the boys ride, others would not but Mr. Morrow had exciting and interesting times as he rode with many of the famous Indian Chiefs going through to Wash- ington to consult and confer with the Presi- dent. Among the well known Indians he met in this manner was Chief Red Cloud of the Sioux. Mr. Morrow was ambitious and after finishing the country school he entered the normal school at Fremont and subsequently the Western Normal school at Lincoln, thus gaining an exceptionally fine education, which has been of advantage to him in his business life. After leaving school Mr. Morrow was engaged in business in the eastern part of the state for many years, meeting with great success in his chosen vocation.

On January 10, 1899, Mr. Morrow married Miss Margaret Harrington, at O'Neill, Ne- braska. Mrs. Morrow was the daughter of John B. and Margaret (Carroll) Harrington, both descendants of a fine old Irish family whose members had taken active part in the public life in their country for many years. Mrs. Morrow's parents emigrated from their native land to locate in Canada, and she was born at Lindsay, in the Dominion, being the youngest in a family of six children, three boys and three girls, two of the latter are now dead. Two of the brothers live in O'Neill, M. F. Harrington being one of the most successful criminal lawyers in the state, while J. J. Har- rington was judge of the district court for many years and is a well known and promi- nent jurist of the north central section. Mrs. Morrow is a woman of high education and cul- ture, having been trained during early years at the Loretta Convent at Lindsay, Canada, and also is a graduate of the O'Neill high

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History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 65

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