History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 67

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

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ments, proved up and became a land owner in fact. In 1888, he removed to Cheyenne coun- ty, that part of which subsequently was erect- ed as Morrill county, where he at once en- gaged in raising live-stock, as that was the heigh-day of the cattle business on the plains. He made good from the start and from time to time, as his capital permitted, bought other tracts of land so that he is the sole owner of a landed estate of three thousand acres, a ranch from which he cuts over eight hundred tons of prairie hay each year. Thus for thir- ty-one years Mr. Graham has been one of the leaders in this vast enterprise in the Pan- handle. In 1897 he formed a partnership with Eugene Hall, a business association which con- tinues to the present time. Together they hold about thirty-eight thousand acres of ranch and grazing land in Morrill county, where they annually handle three thousand head of cattle and some horses ; during the haying season the pay roll contains nearly half a hundred names of the employes engaged in carrying on the various farm industries. Mr. Graham has tak- en an active part in public life since first com- ing to Nebraska. During the late war he was chairman of the Council of Defense for Box Butte county, chairman of the Liberty Loan Committee, chairman of the County Fuel Ad- ministration Board, chairman of the building Committee, and as he stand pre-eminently at the head of the live-stock producers of the state was appointed by Governor Neville, a member of the State Federal Live-Stock Committee ; is also a member of the Live-Stock Sanitary Board; is president of the Nebraska Stock Growers Association, an office he has held for the past five years and to which he was re-elected for the ensuing year. Mr. Gra- ham is a broad minded man of far, keen vision and he early realized that the day of the open range was over so that he went in "on the ground floor," so to speak, in the cattle producing business, and his present large fortune is due to his ability of visualizing the future as well as his marked executive ability and willingness to work long and late when necessary, not only for his own business but in the interests of his county and the state, both of which he has served long and well.

April 6, 1887, Mr. Graham married Miss Lilla M. Clark at Hay Springs, Nebraska. Mrs. Graham was born in Dewitt county, Illi- nois, the daughter of Reverend Samuel and Elizabeth (Brownlee) Clark, the former a minister of the United Presbyterian church.

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Mrs. Graham is a great grand-daughter of Wil- liam Brownlee, who was born at Strathavon, Lanark Shire, Scotland, who came to America several years before the Revolution, settling in western Pennsylvania. He entered the Con- stitutional army and served until the close of the war, being promoted to quartermaster. For his services he received a grant of several thousand acres of land near Beaver, Pennsyl- vania, on the Chio River. Nine children have come to join the family circle of the Graham family : William F., a banker at Minatare, Ne- braska, who graduated from the high school then took a course in the Lamphere and Mosh- er business college at Omaha, he is a Mason and an Elk; Elizabeth, after finishing the Alliance schools graduated from the Lincoln Business college, following which she served as secretary to the president of the Peru Norm- al school, but since the war has been in gov- ernment service at Washington, D. C. in the office of the judge advocate ; John R., a high school graduate, is foreman of the Hall and Graham ranch at Alliance; Margaret, after finishing school at home graduated from the Chadron Normal school and is now a teacher in Scottsbluff, and is a member of the Daugh- ters of the American Revolution ; Alice, grad- uated from the high school and then entered the training school for nurses of the University Hospital, at Omaha, being in her third year, and will finish in 1921; Donald, after leaving school at Alliance took two years work at the State University and was matriculated in the medical college of the university at Omaha, in Omaha, in 1917, when he was called into gov- ernment service, being stationed at the Aux- iliary Remount station, Camp Funston, and after nineteen months in the army was mus- tered out in March, 1919, and has resumed his interrupted medical career ; Katherine, after completing a four year high school course, graduated from the Chadron Normal school and now teaches in Box Butte county ; Samuel B., is a freshman at the University of Ne- braska, and Lilla, who is at home attending school.

Mr. Graham was appointed postmaster of Al- liance in 1915, and proved such an efficient ex- ecutive that he was re-appointed in 1919. He is a Scottish Rite Mason of Thirty-second degree, a Shriner, Knight Templar and also belongs to the Elks. In politics he is a staunch adher- ent of the principles of the Democratic party, while his church affiliations are with the Pres- byterian denomination, a faith in which he was reared.

ANDREW BROADDUS BEARD, the sen- ior member of the firm of Beard and Pickett, is one of the leading real estate men of Kim- ball county, who is well known as a farmer and merchant, as he has lived here many years and taken an active part in the development not only of his community but of Kimball county. He was born September 12, 1867, the son of George W. and Angie E. Beard, whose biographies appear in this volume. Mr. Beard was reared and received his educational advantages in Bloomfield, Indiana. He came west to Nebraska at an early day and as a pioneer newspaper man inaugurated his career in the Panhandle as editor of the Western Ne- braska Observer, of Kimball, with which he was associated for eight years. Later Mr. Beard took up land, engaged in farming and then entered business life where he has at- tained gratifying success. He is well known as a merchant and after engaging in the real estate business has broadened his financial field to cover all realty lines, being especially interested in the sale of farm ranch proper- ties. Entering the realms of finance, Mr. Beard became the cashier of the Bank of Har- risburg where he ably filled such an exacting office. He was elected county clerk in 1910, serving in that capacity two terms and in 1915, was elected county treasurer, holding office until January, 1917, which shows in what esteem he is held by the people of Kim- ball and the county who elected him to two offices of trust and responsibility. Mr. Beard is a Republican and has taken active part in local politics for some years. He at- tends the Presbyterian church.

September 1, 1892, Mr. Beard married at Kimball, Miss Julia Wooldridge, the daughter of Samuel and Minerva Wooldridge, the father was a soldier of the Union army in the Civil War and after coming to Nebraska to settle was first county clerk of Kimball coun- ty, one of the pioneers who took an important part in the development of his locality. The children of the Beard family are as follows : Anna Bessie, married Leonard E. Smith in 1912 and died in 1916; Daisy Irene, married D. L. Pickett in 1914; Marguerite, died in 1899; Lelia May, married Edward V. Heff- ner in 1919; Marion Tyrone, married George W. Van Aelstyne in 1917 ; Florence Jeanette, Vivian Delight, Rosalie Victoria, Mildred Verona, Charles Broaddus and Harold Eu- gene complete the family circle.

TRUE MILLER, the owner of one of the best equipped business houses in the Panhandle,

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the Coursey and Miller Garage, of Alliance has been prominently identified with business inter- ests of Box Butte county for thirty years. Here he has established a lasting reputation for abil- ity in commercial affairs, integrity in transac- tions and engagements and probity in personal character. Mr. Miller has attained success through merit and not by chance or fortunate circumstances. He is a citizen of public spirit, progressive in his ideas and always willing to help with time or money every constructive movement for the general welfare.

Mr. Miller was born at Birmingham, Iowa, June 2. 1872, the son of Dr. William K., and Ellen S. (Elliott) Miller, the former a native of Illinois, while the mother was born in Ohio. Dr. Miller attended Rush Medical College, Chicago, after finishing his elementary educa- tion and from that institution received his M. D. degree in 1872. For a number of years he practiced in Iowa, but believing there was a wider field for his services in the newer coun- try opening up to the west came to Nebraska in 1887, locating in Box Butte county, one of the first physicians in this locality. In connection with James Carothers the doctor engaged in mercantile business handling gro- ceries as the fees a doctor received from the scattering settlers of that day would not pro- vide a living for a family. This was one of the first stores. established in Alliance, as the first goods were sold from a tent until a suit- able building could be erected, for there was a crying need for merchandise in the district and they made service a point for their custo- mers, rather than comfort and conveniences for themselves. Dr. Miller also engaged in the duties of his profession as needed, for physicians were few and far apart at that day on the prairies. For many years the doctor served the Alliance district faithfully and well, he built up a fine practice which he enjoyed until the shadows of life began to lengthen, when he retired from active life and now lives with his son, looking back along the years he can feel with honest pride and satisfaction that his life has been a construc- tive one, as he helped develop this part of the country and also alleviated the suffering of many.

True Miller attended the public schools in Winterset, Iowa, and again there in Alli- ance when the family came west, following which he matriculated at the Normal school in Chadron, and later, in the winter of 1890, and spring of 1891, took a special business course in the Lincoln Business college. Mr.

Miller recalls that his first business venture as a boy was a trade he made, exchanging a Waterbury watch and four dollars and a quarter for a colt, which was a most satisfactory investment, as he kept the colt and raised quite a herd of horses. After his father opened the store in Alliance the young man clerked there for some time, a year all together, then in 1893, opened a butcher shop of his own, but commercial life of this kind and its confinement did not appeal to him and in 1895 he purchased the Engelbreck and Ames ranch in Sioux county. There Mr. Miller entered actively into the live-stock busi- ness. He says that as long as he was in partner- ship with Uncle Sam and had free range for his many head of cattle his business was most satisfactory and life on the ranch was not only pleasant and exhilirating but exceedingly profitable ; and were conditions the same today as they were for the twenty-three years he was a ranchman he would never have given it up, but with the free range gone business in cattle dealing was not so satisfactorily though Mr. Miller still owned three thousand, three hun- dred acres of land, which seems a rather large landed estate to most people, at the time he sold out, in May, 1918. A month later he bought an interest of James Keeler in the Keeler and Coursey Garage in Alliance, since which time the firm has been known as Cour- sey and Miller. They have a fine brick build- ing, fifty by a hundred and thirty feet, three stories in height, where they handle Ford cars and all accessories, Ford tractors and Repub- lic trucks, also doing a general repair busi- ness on all makes of cars. The company is distributors of Firestone tires for western Ne- braska, southern Dakota and eastern Wyoming, a branch of the business which is constantly expanding and exceedingly profitable as a side line.

November 21, 1894, Mr. Miller was married at Alliance to Miss Lillie D. Stevens, born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Frank P. and Jane ( When) Stevens, the former a native of New Hampshire who emigrated from the Pine Tree state and located in Box Butte coun- ty in 1885, where he became the proprietor of the Grant House which he conducted for sev- eral years. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Miller, Harley, who received his elementary education in the Marshland schools and then entered the normal school at Chadron, but left his studies to enlist in Company G, Fourth Nebraska National Guard, from which he was transferred to the

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One hundred and twenty-seventh Heavy Ar- tillery, at Deming, New Mexico, and then was sent to Clintonville, Wisconsin, to attend a tank school, after six weeks being again transferred to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and from there to Camp Upton, Long Island, soon to embark for overseas service. He landed in Liverpool, England, first, then was sent to France, de- barking at Brest, served during the great American offensive and upon his return to this country was mustered out of the service at Camp Dodge, Iowa, January 23, 1919, hav- ing been in the army nearly two and a half years. Since returning to ways of peace Harley has been employed by the Alliance Pot- ash Company in the plant at Antioch. The second child, Mattie J., is at home, a student in the Alliance high school.

Mr. Miller is a Mason of high degree and a Shriner. He has won the confidence and re- spect of his business associates and is one of the commercial assets of Alliance which does not lack able men of affairs.

CLARE A. DOW, one of the younger generation of business men who has done much during a short business career to develop na- tural resources, both in Iowa and Nebraska, is now superintendent of the Public Utilities Light, Water, Power and Sewerage of Alli- ance and also the proprietor of one of ilte most modern and up-to-date electric contract- ing firms in the Panhandle.

Mr. Dow was born at Garner, Iowa, Feb- ruary 13, 1881, the son of Parker S. and Oner S. (Groom) Dow, the former born at Mont- pelier, Vermont, while the mother was a na- tive of Polk county, Iowa. Clare was the old- est of the two children born to his parents, as he had but one sister. He attended the pub- lic schools at his home and after four years in the high school entered Iowa State College, at Ames, where he took a special course in electrical engineering. Before this the boy had learned to be self reliant and recalls that the first money he earned was picking apples for a neighbor at fifty cents a day. After leaving college Mr. Dow went to St. Louis, where he held a position with the Union Elec- tric Light and Power Company, which had the contract for wiring the World Exposition Grounds near that city. When one considers the stupendous task of carrying power and light to the many buildings on the grounds and the complicated system that had to be em- ployed that it is no wonder that a young man just out of college was rather overwhelmed

when placed in charge of part of the work. However, the chief engineer had been young once himself and knew that all Mr. Dow need- ed was a little practical experience and respon- sibility so told him that it was not necessary at first to comprehend the whole system but just to go ahead on each unit as it came up and soon all of it would work itself out for him. This proved true for during the eight months he was at the grounds Mr. Dow not only made good but won an excellent reputation with the company for his ability and management. On leaving St. Louis he came back to his home at Garner as foreman of the inside wir- ing department while the electric wiring was being installed by the new electric lighting company. After the power was turned on his work was over so Mr. Dow went to Des Moines, as stock keeper and assistant shop fore- man in the meter testing department of the Des Moines Edison Electric Light and Power Company. A year later, in 1904, a fine offer was made him to go to Iowa Falls, where he purchased the wiring and contracting depart- ment of the Iowa Falls Electric Light and Power Company. On April 20, of that year, Mr. Dow married Miss Vira F. Walton, at Thompson, Iowa. She was born in South Da- kota, the daughter of John D. and Juliet (Pol- hemus) Walton, the former a Pennsylvanian, being the youngest of their five children.

Mr. and Mrs. Dow have two children : Verna C., a student in the Alliance high school; and Vivian R., in the grades. For three years after his marriage Mr. Dow was one year wire chief and two years superin- tendent of the Iowa Falls electric plant, then was offered and accepted the position of super- intedent of all public utilities, holding office until 1910, when he resigned to take up the same duties at Crawford, Nebraska. While there he completed the contract for the electri- fication of Fort Robinson and in 1913 came to Alliance as superintendent of the public utili- ties here. In 1916 he purchased the Pugh Electric Company, which he still owns and manages, being located in the Times block on Box Butte Avenue, where he also maintains a storage battery service plant. Mr. Dow is a general electric contractor, carrying on business all over the Panhandle, South Da- kota, and eastern Wyoming, as he has won a well deserved reputation for excellent work- manship, fidelity to contracts and high busi- ness integrity. He is a progressive citizen, living up to the standard which he believes every American should follow, is progressive

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in his business and ideas for civic welfare so supports all movements for the development of the county and his home city. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church while Mr. Dow's fraternal affiliations are with the Masonic order. The Dow family comes of a fighting race as both Mr. Dows' father and his wife's father fought on the side of the Union during the Civil War and the post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Garner, Nebraska, is named Parker S. Dows, in honor of his father.

JOSEPH H. VAUGHN, today one of the prosperous and progressive business men of Alliance, the man whose name head this brief review must also be given recognition as one of the early settlers and ranchers of the Pan- handle for he has been a resident of this section more than thirty-five years, and has not only been an eye witness of the vast changes that have taken place but has also been an important factor in the development of this now favored section of the state.

Mr. Vaughn was born in Lafayette county, Missouri, January 6, 1860, during the dis- turbed period preceding the Civil War and it may be that some of the rugged determination and spirit of that day entered into his mental make-up for he has surmounted a handicap that would have discouraged a man of less moral fibre. He is the son of Benjamin and Anna ( Williams) Vaughn, the former born at Lexington, Kentucky, while the mother was a Virginian, born at Norfolk. There were but two children in the family, Joseph and a sister. The father was a Missouri farmer so that the boy spent his life in the country attending the district schools until his thirteenth year, when it was found that his lungs were not as strong as could be wished and he was sent to Boul- der, Colorado, and placed in charge of a Dr. Dodge, who had Mr. Vaughn drive him around on his calls in a one horse "chaise." This kept the boy out of doors and he soon be- came much stronger. While living at home he had already learned to work as he went in the wheat fields to gather the bundles of cut grain into chocks after the cradlers. The first money he earned he invested in a pig and thus early had become accustomed to frugality and industry. Reaching Colorado in 1873, Mr. Vaughn spent three years with the doctor, then accepted a position as stage driver from Boulder to Caribou, a distance of twenty-four miles, but as he says it was straight up or down the mountains the horses had to be

changed three times each way on the trip, four and six horses being used to draw the coach at one time. Passengers were carried as well as the government mails and express. For five years Mr. Vaughn was on this route, completely regaining his health so that when he was offered a position with the Marshall Coal Company, six miles southeast of Boulder, as buyer and barn boss, he accepted, holding this position three years. Realizing that a man who owns land is independent, Mr. Vaughn determined to take some up and with this end in view came to Nebraska in 1884, locating on a quarter section homestead in Cheyenne coun- ty and at the same time filing on a tree claim adjoining, where the Scottsbluff Sugar Beet Factory is now situated. On his homestead is the grave of Rebecca Wintersea, a Mormon woman who died on the way west and was buried, when the great migration of that sec- tion took place to Utah as they passed up the Platte Valley in 1859. Later Mr. Vaughn re- moved to the Sand Hills twenty-five miles north of Camp Clark land, through which the B. and B. railroad was built at a later date as the road now splits the Vaughn meadow, However, when the Vaughn family settled there railroads were not extended this far west and Mr. Vaughn had to drive to Sidney, eighty miles away, for supplies and provisions, fording the North Platte rather than to pay the tole of three dollar's to cross the bridge at Camp Clark, for money was a very precious commodity on the plains at that early day as most of the trading was done by way of ex- change. When Mr. Vaughn came to the Pan- handle all his equipment consisted of a wagon, team of horses, two milch cows and calves, what household goods that could be loaded on the wagon while his responsibilities consist- ed of his wife and three year old son, and the determination to make a fortune as well as give his family comforts while doing it. That he has succeeded need not be questioned when one learns that he is the owner of a landed estate of four thousand acres. Soon after erecting his home and some buildings for the stock, Mr. Vaughn began to actively engage in the cattle business, as it was at the height of its prosperity at the time. He owned what was known as the "Old Hay Lakes," where the soldiers from Fort Robinson in early days cut wild hay, hauling it to the fort for pro- visions. With the passing years and as his capital permitted, Mr. Vaughn purchased land adjoining the original tract and carried on farm and ranching operations until 1911. His

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wife lived on the farm summers and in the winter the family came to town to educate the boy. Mr. Vaughn still has general charge of the ranch though he now has a foreman there so that he can alternate between the county and his business in Alliance where he is ex- tensively engaged in running a jobbing house, dealing in oil and gasoline and other allied products. Mr. Vaughn is a stockholder in the Reliance Refining Company of Eldorado, while his son, J. Claude, is secretary and treasurer and salesmanager. For some years Mr. Vaughn and his son were engaged in a coal, feed, ice and oil business in Alliance but has disposed of this as their time is more profitably spent in carrying on larger concerns.

September 12, 1881, Mr. Vaughn married Luttia Clemmons at Boulder, Colorado. She was the daughter of Jesse Clemmons of Ken- tucky, and Mrs. Vaughn was born at Frank- fort, that state. One child was born to this union, J. Claude, who was graduated from the Alliance high school then took a special commercial course in a business college at Kansas City, Missouri, and is now located at Eldorado in charge of his father's interests in oil production, as has been stated. J. C. Vaughn was the youngest man ever to take the degree of Shriner in the Masonic order in Ne- braska.

The Vaughn family have a fine modern home in Alliance, where they are known for their generous hospitality to their friends, hav- ing made many warm and kindly associations since settling here at an early day and have been known throughout the valley for many years for their kind deeds and ready support for all worthy causes of the community. Mr. Vaughn owns a fine business block at 222 Box Butte Avenue, other residence properties in the city and has an annual income from six hundred tons of prairie hay he cuts each year that many might well envy, besides the gen- eral income from investments and the ranch so that his faith in the Panhandle has been fully justified.

HERBERT A. COPSEY, M. D., president of the Alliance State Bank is well known among the progressive agriculturists of this section and for a number of years was a leading member of the medical fraternity of Box Butte county, thus he has been identified with numerous financial enterprises here and has established a high reputation for ability, judgment and general acumen. His introduc- tion to Alliance was as a physician in which

he served the community with great skill un- til he entered government service at the out- break of the World War, Since leaving the army he has become connected with the large financial affairs of the Panhandle, his rise being rapid, sure and most substantial.

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History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 67

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