History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 68

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

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Herbert Copsey was born in Crawford coun- ty, Wisconsin, January 21, 1880, the son of Alonzo H. and Anna (Wallen) Copsey, who had a family of nine children of whom Herbert is the third in order of birth. When the boy was only a year old his parents came to Ne- braska, locating in Custer county near Wester- ville : the country was so little settled at the time that supplies had to be obtained at Grand Island, eighty miles away. The children were sent to the district school nearest their home, where they laid a good sound foundation for a practical education. Young Herbert early learned to work on the home farm as well as all boys in the country do but well recalls the first money he actually earned by driving calves for a half day for a neighbor, receiving fifteen cents for his work, but that number of cents in those early days looked as big to him as dollars did later. After finishing the elemen- tary courses in the local schools, Dr. Copsey attended the high school at Ansley, followed by the teacher's course in the normal school at Broken Bow. For three years he taught in the Custer county schools, but the life of a peda- gogue did not appeal to him as a permanent vocation so he entered the Lincoln Medical college, in 1902, graduating with the degree of M. D. in May, 1906. The following July he came to Alliance, opened an office and be- gan his professional career. Dr. Copsey soon built up a good practice in Alliance as well as the surrounding country as he was a skillful physician, courteous and sympathetic to those afflicted, and for thirteen years held a high position among medical men of the Panhandle. When the president called for volunteers when war was declared against Germany, Dr. Cop- sey volunteered, was commissioned captain and placed in charged of the medical wards in the hospital at Camp Hancock, Sandy Hook, New Jersey, serving from September, 1918 to January 4, 1919, when he was mustered out at Camp Grant, Illinois. On his return to ways of peace Dr. Copsey entered the financial field, as business appealed to his tastes and temperament. Soon after reaching Alliance he bought a large block of stock in the Alli- ance State Bank, becoming its president. The bank had been organized in 1914, but its de- velopment was not decidedly marked until the

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present officers took charge of its affairs. The personnel of the bank at the present time is: H. A. Copsey, President ; Charles E. Brittain, vice president and Jay O. Walker, cashier. Dr. Copsey's resolute purpose, high integrity, won during his many years in Alliance, have begot- ten popular confidence and esteem that are so essential to the furtherance of success in financial circles and have materially aided in building up the clientele of the bank. As a banker Dr. Copsey is showing special construc- tive talent, and through his effective policies and efforts the Alliance State Bank is taking rank in the forefront of the financial institu- tions of western Nebraska, as it has a paid up capital stock of $35,000, surplus of $30,- 000, with an authorized capital of $50,000, while the amount that it has grown may be gained from the fact that the deposits are well over $700,000, making it the second larg- est bank in the city. At the present time the board of directors consists of Herbert A Cop- sey, Charles E. Brittain, Jay O. Walker and M. C. Hubbell.

On January 20, 1909, Dr. Copsey married Miss Mabel C. O'Brien, at Broken Bow, and one child has been born to them, Mary Loretta. Dr. Copsey has ever been a believer in a great future for the Panhandle which he has demon- strated by investing his capital here for he is the owner of five thousand acres of land ly- ing forty-five miles southeast of Alliance in Garden county, where he is actively engaged in agricultural business, as he annually runs about eight hundred head of cattle on his pas- tures and cuts a thousand tons of hay, a large and well paying business aside from all his other interests. In Alliance the doctor and his wife own a fine modern home where they dispense a cordial hospitality as they have a host of warm friends and acquaintances. Be- ing progressive in his ideas for his own affairs the doctor also advocated progress in civic and municipal affairs and is a "booster" for every movement that will develop the county or city, giving liberally toward all worthy causes. In politics he is a Republican while his fratern- al affiliations are with the Elks. He and his wife are members of the Roman Catholic church, while the doctor is a Knight of Colum- bus.

LYMAN A. BERRY, for more than a quar- ter of a century one of the leaders of the Box Butte county bar and for over thirteen years continuously on the bench, is the example of a life that has been worthily lived and as such

bears its full measure of compensation. Now that he has passed life's meridian and the shadows begin to lengthen from the crimsoning west, he has stored up lessons of rich and varied experience, as one who has wrought wisely, justly and effectively. Each succes- sive year to him must thereafter be radiant in personal contentment and gracious mem- ories. Judge Berry, as he is best known in the Panhandle, is engaged in the practice of his profession in Alliance and his status as a citi- zen, a lawyer, and as a genial and popular man makes it specially pleasing to accord him rec- ognition in this history.

The judge was born at Pompey, New York, May 15, 1854, the son of Matthias and Sylvia (Osborn) Berry, both natives of the Empire state, the former born at Morrisville, the lat- ter at Fabius. Lyman was next to the young- est in a family of eight children and thus early learned to adjust himself to the welfare and comfort of others as is necessary among a number of growing children. Matthias Berry was a mill-wright by trade, a very skillful man in his vocation whose time was in great demand where a mill was to be constructed or repaired. During his boyhood the judge attended the public schools of his home town with his brothers and sisters, then entered the Pompey Academy and later matriculated at the Whitestown Seminery, Whitesborough, New York. Following his course in this in- stitution he became a student at Hamilton Col- lege, Hamilton, New York, where he spent three years in college work. Soon after grad- uating he began to teach but after some time spent in the school room winters and working on a farm summers he began to read law in the office of Judge Parker at Marshalltown, Iowa, and on February 18, 1879, was admitted to practice in the district courts of Iowa. Two years later he located at Ida Grove, Iowa, and formed a partnership with Mat. M. Gray. The two youthful members of the legal profession opened an office under the firm name of Gray and Berry, an association that continued four years when Judge Berry formed a new part- nership with Charles W. Rollins. For eight years the judge and Mr. Rollins enjoyed a fine practice but in 1893 the judge's health gave out and he returned to his old home in New York for a vacation of a year. After suffi- ciently recuperating he came west but this time located in the Panhandle in Box Butte county, establishing himself again in a law practice until he was elected county judge in 1903, on

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the Democratic ticket ; he was re-elected seve- al times serving thirteen and a half years on the bench before retiring to a private practice on January 1, 1917. During his long service as a county official Judge Berry established an enviable reputation as a jurist, few of his de- cisions being reversed by a higher court and since he has again opened an office for business in the Rumor Building at the corner of Third street and Box Butte Avenue, has had a con- tinually expanding business that is most satis- factory from a financial view as well as show- ing the high place the judge holds in the esteem of the people of the community.

On June 27, 1883, Judge Berry married Miss Minnie J. Sparks, at Gilman, Iowa, the daugh- ter of Lyman B. Sparks, a native of Massa- chusetts. Two children have come to make happy this union : Leo M., who married Miss Florice Cook, is a ranchman near Lakeside, Nebraska, and they have one child, Grace, eight years old; and Llye S., who graduated from the high school in Alliance then entered college in Chicago, Illinois, where he took a special course in electricity, graduating with highest honors in just half the time that most men take for the course, in competition with twenty-five hundred students. This was in the spring of 1908, and within a short time Lyle Berry accepted a position as electrician at the Boyson Dam Project, Wyoming, as superin- tendent of the light and power plant, where he remined two years before he was induced to go to Lusk, Wyoming as superintendent and manager of the light and power company of that city, where he was in charge until July 18, 1918. When war was declared with Ger- mayn Lyle Berry entered the aviation division of the army, being sent to Elling Field, Texas, for general training. He remained in the serv- ice until mustered out in March, 1919, then returned to assume his duties as manager of the electric company at Lusk. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Judge Berry came to the Panhandle more than a quarter of a century ago and before that was an old resident of Iowa, so that pioneer honors must be accorded him. From first settling here he has taken an active and important part in the development of this sec- tion being ever ready with money, time and advice for every laudable enterprise that was of benefit to the town and communty. His faith in the future of this section has been unfailing and he has lived to see it justi- fied. He owns one of the finest and most hospitable homes in Alliance where, with his

charming wife, open house is kept for their many friends. He can recall many experi- ences of the early days, some of which will be found in the old settler's stories written by Judge Tash, on the historical pages of this book. According to Judge Berry they were not all hardships, but he as usual shows us but the sunny side of frontier life on the high prairies. Politically the judge is a staunch supporter of the tenets of the Democratic party while his fraternal affiliations are with the Masonic order, as he is a Scottish Rite Mason.

HARRY P. COURSEY, the senior member of one of the largest automobile houses in the Pandhandle, is a business man of marked ability and for the past ten years has become known as one of the specially successful auc- tioneers of northwestern Nebraska. He is an adopted son of this great commonwealth but has the push, energy and financial acumen usually attributed to one of our native sons.

Harry Coursey was born in Grundy county, Iowa, December 22, 1877, the son of Septimus M. and Sarah (Weatherby) Coursey, the former a native of Hagerstown, Maryland, while the mother was born in Indiana. There were seven children in the Coursey family of whom Harry was the fourth boy. His father was an contractor and builder by trade and followed this vocation in Iowa until 1879 when the family moved to Kansas, locating on a farm in Norton county, where they lived for some time. Septimus M. Coursey proved up on his homestead but during the years of the drought had such poor crops that he could not support the family from the returns of the farm and went to Topeka, to work as a build- er and also undertook some contracting. Harry had already attended school in the country and after moving to the state capital continued his studies in the schools there for three years, at the close of which time he accompanied his parents when they returned to the old home in Norton county. They all remained on the farm until the spring of 1889, then removed to Lexington, where Mr. Cour- sey engaged in work as a builder, the boys worked at whatever they could out of school hours and during vacations in order to keep the family going, for money was very scarce at that period in the plains country and many people became so discouraged they returned to their old home farther east, but the Cour- seys were made of firmer fibre and determined that if they could "stick it out" would in the

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end be rewarded for their work, which has proved true. Harry Coursey well remembers the first money he earned while still a small boy, as he hired out to H. C. Stockey of Lex- ington to drive a cow to pasture for which he received a check of fifty cents, a goodly sum for a small boy at that time. In the fall of 1895, the Coursey family returned to Topeka and Harry went to work there, remaining in Kansas until 1907, when he came to the Pan- handle, locating on a farm in Box Butte coun- ty in the spring of the year. His father and the rest of the family came at the same time and took a Kinkaid homestead of four hun- dred and eighty acres on which he lived and proved up, at the same time engaging in busi- ness as a contractor. In 1909 Harry Coursey bought the livery business in Alliance from C. C. Smith which he conducted two years then in 1912, purchased Forest Allen's livery business and merged the two, which was then known as the Keeler Livery, but receiv- ing a good offer for this concern in 1913, sold at a very satisfactory figure. Just a month and nine days later on February 1, 1914, Mr. Coursey and J. R. Keeler formed a business partnership and took the agency for the Ford automobile for Alliance and the surrounding territory, established the Keeler-Coursey Com- pany, which at once became a most prosperous concern with business covering a wide range of country. They were forced to move twice into larger buildings in order to have more room. June 7, 1918, True Miller bought Mr. Keeler's interest in the firm which became known as Coursey and Miller. They purchas- ed the large brick building at the corner of Third and Laramie streets which has nine- teen thousand square feet of floor space de- manded by their rapidly expanding business, space to display their cars, tractors and trucks as well as their accessories and for tire space as they are the wholesale distributors of the Firestone Tires for northwestern Nebraska and southwestern South Dakota. Both mem- bers of the firm are men of initiative, execu- tive ability and business foresight which is all contained in one word "hustlers" here in the Panhandle. They are aggressive in their busi- ness methods and development of Alliance and the local district and are a valuable ad- junct to the citizenship of this progressive city. From the two years past we presage a great future for the firm which is so ably managed by its owners. For more than ten years Mr. Coursey has been an auctioneer in Western Nebraska, where he has built up a

fine reputation for honest dealing, careful ful- fillment of business engagements and personal integrity, while his courtesy and consideration are wining him a widening clientele in all his business ventures. Being a leading live- stock auctioneer he is naturally thrown in as- sociation with the rural population where he has made many warm friends and business associates. Fraternally he is associated with the Elks, Modern Woodmen and Odd Fellows.

December 23, 1901, Mr. Coursey married Miss Laura M. Titus, at Holton, Kansas, the daughter of James W. and Novelle (Mc- Cormic) Titus, the former a native of Iowa. Mrs, Coursey was born and reared in Ottawa county, Kansas, where she still lived at the time of her marriage. Two children have been born to this union: Harvey P., in the high school at Alliance, and Novella, also in the high school.

M. S. HARGRAVES, is secretary of the Alliance Building and Loan Association, at 109 West Third street, Alliance Nebraska, and is engaged in a General real estate and insur- ance business.

CHARLES E. CLOUGH is one of the later settlers of Box Butte county who is now spending the sunset years of life removed from active business care in Alliance. His story which is about to be related proves, however, that the late-comers, if possessed of the same traits and business characteristics, make good practically as well as did the pio- neers of the early days when the very best land in the county was open for homestead entry.

Mr. Clough is a son of the Empire state, born at Fabius, Onandaga county, April 30, 1844, the son of Ephraim and Emmaline (Fitch) Clough, the former, as his son, a na- tive of New York state. Charles was next the youngest in a family of six children, one broth- er, Abel, being killed in action during the war of the Rebellion. Ephraim Clough was a farmer who kept a dairy herd, sold milk and also made cheese, an industry for which New York is famous the country over. Charles grew up in the country, attended the public schools and early began to earn money as his father paid him for milking. Later the fam- ily removed to Wyoming county, New York, and there the boy entered the Wyoming Acad- emy, later he changed to an academy at Pike and after his elementary education was com- pleted he matriculated at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he graduated

ENOS S. DE LA MATTER

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with the class of 1864. After leaving college Mr. Clough came west, locating at Ackley, Iowa, where he opened a law office being en- gaged in his professional duties there until 1873, when he removed to Boulder, Colorado, to engage in the live-stock business. Some- what later he moved his cattle to Laramie, Wyoming, establishing himself there in 1886. For a number of years Mr. Clough continued to engage in handling and running cattle but he had looked the country over and decided he wanted to locate permanently somewhere in good grazing land and with this end in view came to Box Butte county in 1892, locating a ranch ten miles southwest of the town of Alliance, where he remained until 1918. Mr. Clough prospered exceedingly here on the high prairies and as the shadows of life began to lengthen concluded that it was time for him to take life a little easier and enjoy his hard earned fortune. He sold his cattle and rented his ten thousand acre ranch, moving into the city to live. He built a fine modern home where he and Mrs. Clough are prepared to live, travel and enjoy the remainder of their days in comfort and happiness.

In 1869, Mr. Clough married Miss Eliza- beth Pardee, at Ackley, Iowa. Mrs. Clough was the daughter of Erastus and Sophie (Car- ter) Pardee, the former a native of Michi- gan. She is next to the youngest in a family of six children born to her parents, received an excellent education in the public schools of her native district and since her marriage has become the mother of two children: Charles E., Jr., who graduated from the Alliance high school and after engaging in business married Miss Abbigal Hill, and they now live at Mina- tare, Nebraska, where Mr. Clough is in the hardware business, and Elsie Clough Estes, who also graduated from the high school in Omaha, and now lives in the country near Al- liance.

From first locating in the Panhandle Mr. Clough has had great faith in what is now becoming one of the most productive sections not only of Nebraska, but the entire country and he says that he is willing to go on record any day as saying that he believes no country can be found "that will beat the sand hills of Nebraska for stock-raising." He is a broad gauged, liberal minded man who keeps abreast of the progress of this country and firmly be- lieves in progressive movements for Box Butte county and Alliance and in support of this is ever ready with his energy, time and money to "boost" an enterprise when convinced that it tends to the development and betterment of

civic and communal conditions. In politics he is a staunch supporter of the Republican party while his fraternal affiliations are with the Elks and the Modern Woodmen.

ENOS S. DE LA MATTER, whose many years of service as county judge has but strengthened a reputation with the people of Scottsbluff county, as a man of public spirit and sound judgment, has been a resident of Nebraska since 1884. Since then he has been one of her most loyal sons, taking an interest in everything pertaining to her welfare, and identifying himself with movements that have helped in her development.

Judge De La Matter was born in Grundy county, Illinois, June 6, 1855. His parents were Cyrus and Mary Ann ( Rowe) De La Matter, the former of whom was born in Can- ada in 1820, and died in January, 1890, and the latter in Indiana in 1825, and died in Au- gust, 1863. The paternal grandfather was Martin De La Matter, who spent his entire life in Canada, where he was a farmer. The ma- ternal grandfather was Robert Rowe, who was born in Edinburg, Scotland, emigrated to the United States, and died on his farm in Illinois, in 1878. The parents of Judge De La Matter were married in La Salle county, Illinois, and they became the parents of four children, the following three surviving : Robert M., who is a farmer in Scottsbluff county; Enos S., who resides at Gering : and Sabina, who is the wife of Martin J. Tubbs, who is a farmer near Mis- soula, Montana. The mother of Judge De La Matter was a member of the Presbyterian church and his father of the Methodist Epis- copal church. The latter contracted a second marriage, Rachel Barnes becoming his second wife, and two of their four children are living, namely: Cyrus, who is a resident of Sterling. Illinois, and Mrs. Mary Ann Terrill, who lives at Sheridan, Illinois.

Enos S. De La Matter was reared on his father's farm and spent some years cultivating it. He was afforded educational advantages, after attending the local schools becoming a student in the normal school at Valparaiso, Indiana. In 1884 he came to Nebraska and for two and a half years worked as a carpenter in Buffalo county. In June, 1886, he homestead- ed in Cheyenne county, in what is now Scotts- bluff county, and in November following he

came to the county as a resident and has con- tinued here ever since, soon being recognized as a vigorous and dependable citizen, intelli- gently concerned in the material, social and political development of this section. He was soon called upon to accept public responsibility,

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and at a time when the county needed strong, honest, constructive officials. He served as justice of the peace from 1887 to 1895, when he resigned to become a member of the board of county commissioners, which position he held for six years. In 1901 he was elected county judge and has been continuously re- elected since then, showing on the bench great legal ability, open-mindedness, and straightfor- ward justice.

In 1900 Judge De La Matter was united in marriage to Mrs. Mettie A. Lovell, who was born in Grundy county, Illinois. Her parents came from Illinois to Buffalo county, Ne- braska, where her father, Isaiah Casteel, was a farmer, but later moved to Scottsbluff county and died here. Judge and Mrs. De La Matter have two children, namely: Mary and Ena. Politically he is a Republican and an important party factor in the county, and fraternally is a Mason. In all public matters during the past few years in which good citizenship was a feature, he worked in harmonious cooperation with his fellow citizens.

JOHN C. MCCORKLE, manager of the Nebraska Land Company of Alliance, is a well known and highly respected citizen of Box Butte county, and has been one of its most substantial stockraisers and ranchmen, as he is one of the early settlers of the Pan- handle, having passed more than thirty-four years in western Nebraska. Wonderful changes have been wrought in that time and, in a way, they may be typified by the com- parison between Mr. McCorkle's first home, a tent in summer and a log house for winter, on a lonely wind swept prairie, with his present handsome residence in the city. In all this change and development Mr. McCorkle has taken an active part and today is one of the foremost factors in opening up the still avail- able virgin farm lands of the county.

Mr. McCorkle was born in Columbia, Iowa, the son of John G. and Susan ( Rumsey) Mc- Corkle, the former a native of Indiana. He was next to the youngest in a family of nine children born to his parents and remembers with a whimsical smile that the first money he earned was helping his brother herd sheep at a salary of ten cents a day. John McCorkle was a farmer in Iowa so that the children were reared in the country, attended the public school near their home which required a walk of three miles back and forth each day. The boy remained at home until his seventeenth year, then worked for his brother driving oxen breaking hazel brush land in Iowa.

On March 12, 1878, Mr. McCorkle married Miss Flora McMannis, born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, the daughter of Jawhue McMannis, and to this union four children were born: Minet, died in infancy ; Inez L. (McCorkle) Dunning, a widow who has one child six years old and now resides in Alliance with her parents, was a graduate of the Peru Normal school and taught in the Alliance schools for eight years ; Orville, deceased, and Norman A., a graduate of the high school at Alliance who later took a special course in the Boyle Business College of Omaha, then entered the superintendent's office of the Burlington Railroad, remaining three years before he enlisted in the navy when war was declared against Germany. Mr. McCorkle was assistant recruiting officer at Kansas City four months before being trans- ferred to New York and shortly assigned to duty abroad the Iowan, a freighter. He made one trip across the Atlantic on her when she was made into a transport, following which he made three trips to Europe safely, and was mustered out of the service in Kansas City in April, 1919, and at present is located on a two thousand acre ranch in which he holds a large interest.

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History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 68

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