History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 85

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

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Mr. Daniels obtained his education in the public schools and grew up on a farm. When he left Pennsylvania he went to Iowa as a farmer, later to Kansas and before coming to Nebraska, was a resident of Michigan. In February, 1900, he homesteaded where he lived and had one hundred and sixty acres of well developed, ditched land. He carried on gen- eral farming and raised pure bred Shorthoin cattle. While in Iowa Mr. Daniels was married to Miss Rhoda Eckley who was born in that state. At her death Mrs. Daniels left three children: Leo, who is a farmer in Morrill county ; John, deceased ; Mrs. Sadie Eckhart, who lives at Edison, Nebraska ; and Mrs. Lyda Smith, who lives in Morrill county. In 1913, Mr. Daniels was married a second time to Miss Ada Van De Venter. Mrs. Daniels is a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church. In political life Mr. Daniels was a Republican. Mr. Daniels died January 30, 1920, leaving a sor- rowing family and friends. His funeral was held at the Presbyterian church, and he was laid to rest in the Bayard cemetery after a long and useful life.

Leo Daniels, the eldest son of S. W. Daniels, was born in Nenominee county, Michigan, August 7, 1884. He was educated in the pub- lic schools and remained with his father, ac- companying him to Morrill county in 1900. In 1910, he homesteaded for himself and now has a very good property consisting of one hundred and sixty acres, all ditched. He carries on general farming and takes much in- terest in his Shorthorn cattle, all thoroughbred. He annually feeds many hogs and raises horses and poultry for home use. He is considered one of the very successful young farmer, of this section of the county.

Mr. Daniels was married March II, 1918, to Miss Josephine Hoag, who was born ucar Blue Hill, Nebraska. Mr. Daniels has sub- stantially improved his farm and they have very pleasant and comfortable surroundings. Like his father, Mr. Daniels is a Republican in politics.

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HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

HARTSON A. MARK has been progressive, both as a citizen and official in Garden county, and is most ably serving as county surveyor, with headquarters at Oshkosh.

Special interest attaches to the career of Mr. Mark by reason of his being a native of Nebraska and a member of one of the pioneer families. He was born at Belvidere, Thayer county, on June 17, 1875, a son of David and Delilah H. (Durfee) Mark, who were born and reared in the state of New York, where their mariage was solemnized and whence they came to the west about 1870. The father filed entry upon a homestead in Thayer county, Nebraska, and in due time proved up on the property and developed it. He was one of the representative farmers and valued citizens of that county until he came to Scottsbluff county and established his residence at Gering, where he passed the remainder of his life and died at the age of seventy-three years, his widow now residing at Mitchell.

Hartson A. Mark was educated in the public schools of his native county, including the high school at Belvidere. When about eighteen years of age he rented land and began to farm in Thayer county, where he continued until he became of age. He then, in 1896, after hav- ing previously been employed in a blacksmith and general repair shop at Belvidere, came to the Panhandle country and settled at Ger- ing, and became associated with his brother, G. E. Mark, who, without any previous ex- perience, had purchased the Nebraska Home- stead at Gering and embarked in the printing business. In the autumn of 1897, he, then having suffered from typhoid fever which left him too weak to continue the printing business, became apprenticed in a photographic studio at Gering, and finally purchased the establish- ment, which he ran until 1901. He then pur- chased a similar studio at Alliance, but in the following year he sold out, after which he was for a time manager of a photographic studio at Lead, South Dakota. Upon his re- turn to Nebraska Mr. Mark located at Lincoln, where he was similarly engaged until the spring of 1905, in charge of the engraving de- partment of the Cornell Photo Engraving Company. During this time he devoted him- self to the study of concrete or cement engi- neering, and by 1905, had become well in- formed in the practical and scientific details of this industry, and established hinself in business, as a contractor in concrete construc- tion work, at Mitchell, Scottsbluff county. He erected the first concrete business block in the North Platte valley, at Mitchell. Mr. Mark

continued his contracting business until 1907, when he established himself on a reclamation homestead near Morrill, Scottsbluff county. In the meanwhile he did a considerable amount of concrete contracting work. In 1907, he be- came one of the associate editors of the Ne- braska Farmer. In 1911 he perfected his title to his reclamation claim and in the same year he rehabilitated the Gering Canal and did im- portant work in the surveying of the Alliance irrigation canal, near Bayard, Morrill county. In the meanwhile his health had become some- what impaired and in the spring of 1912, he found opportunity for gaining less strenuous open-air occupation, by going out on the land- office retracement survey in Thomas and Grant counties. His health compelled him to abandon this work. In 1912 he found- ed and became editor and publisher of the Hammer, "The Builders' Tool, not a Brick-bat," a semi-monthly paper which was issued at Morrill and later moved to Gering and which gave special attention to shedding light on the reclamation service. In 1913, Mr. Mark went to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he accepted the position of efficiency engineer in the office of Up-To-Date Farming, a farm paper and the official publication of the Farm- ers' Society of Equity. Later he resigned to accept the position of engineer for the Nation- al Concrete Company, of Indianapolis. He retained this place until physicians advised him to leave Indiana, on account of the con- dition of his health. He then entered the serv- ice of the Illinois Bridge Company, as foreman of construction work. He was assigned to work on an important contract at St. Joseph, Michigan, and there, in August, 1913, he met with a serious accident, which disabled him and which led to his return to his home, at Gering, Nebraska.

In October, 1913, Mr. Mark established his residence at Oshkosh and after a few months in the office of the Oshkosh Herald, was empoyed to edit a magazine - Produc- tion - they were about to establish. This new publication being delayed, he taught one term of district school in this locality. He was then appointed deputy county surveyor, in June, 1914, and served until the following autumn, when he was elected county surveyor. The best evidence of his efficiency in this office was shown in his re-election in 1916 and again in 1918, and holds the post to the present time. In 1918, he became the owner of a tract of four acres adjoining Oshkosh, and has made good improvements there.

In politics Mr. Mark is a stalwart advocate

WILLIAM H. WRIGHT

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

of the principles of Democracy, and has served as secretary of its county central committee in Garden county. During the progress of the World War Mr. Mark gave every possible as- sistance in connection with the various national campaigns projected for the aiding of the gov- ernment and its military and naval forces, his services as a public speaker having been en- listed as one of the "four-minute men." He was made chairman at Oshkosh and acting county chairman. He was a volunteer reserve of Garden county during the war, being also chairman of the Smilage committee, secretary of the county council of defense, associate member of the legal advisory board, chairman of the civilian relief committee for the Osh- kosh A. R. C., and vice-chairman Oshkosh A. R. C. and public-service representative of the government's employment bureau. The governor of Nebraska advised him to remain on the local field, where he could work to bet- ter advantage in supporting the nation's war policies than he could by enlisting for mili- tary service. Mr. Mark is descended from eight ancestors who served in the war of the Revolution. The lineage of the Mark family traces back to staunch Scotch origin and the original American representative or represen- tatives were numbered among the early settlers at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1666. The Am- erican founder of the Durfee family. the ma- ternal line of the subject of this review, was Thomas Durfee, who emigrated to this coun- try from England, about the year 1665.

October 12, 1905, the subject of this sketch was united in marriage to Miss Frances E. Twiford, a lady of exceptional musical ability and assistant in the School of Expression of the Wesleyan University at University Place, Nebraska. Possessed of an impulsive, care- free disposition, so often found in musical prodigies, looking forward with great enthus- iasm to a life on one of Uncle Sam's reclama- tion homesteads, the stern realities of home- stead life soon changed optimism to pessimism. It was with difficulty that Mr. Mark induced her to continue as a homestead resident until residence proof could be made. Following the depressing experience of extreme illness and prolonged disability, in the spring of 1913, the convalescent husband went to a lower altitude, only to return that fall a disabled man on crutches. This was too much for the sensi- tive wife. She declared marriage was a failure and that she had no further use for a husband. Finding the lady could not be changed from this attitude, Mr. Mark disclaimed all interest in family property, both real and personal, and

began life anew. Following the statutory two- year limitation, Mrs. Mark applied for and re- ceived an absolute decree of divorce. They have two children, Harriet T. and Arc Dur- fee. At the age of thirteen Mr. Mark made a profession of Christianity and at present is a member of St. Mark's Lutheran church of Oshkosh.

WILLIAM H. WRIGHT (deceased), a pioneer of Scottsbluff city and county, was born at Whitehall. New York, July 23, 1834. He spent his boyhood years at home upon the farm where he was born, and was educated in the public schools, and later at Oberlin college. Oberlin, Ohio.

On November 13, 1857, he was married to Ellen J. Clark, who was born at White Hall. N. Y., March 31, 1839. Miss Clark was also educated at Oberlin college, and was residing there at the time of her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Wright returned to Whitehall and for a number of years operated the old Wright farm- stead. In 1870 they came west and bought a farm in Mills county, lowa, and this farm they still owned at the time Mr. Wright was called home. It was near old Pacific City. For a time he maintained a real estate office in Glen- wood, the county seat, and Mrs. Wright and the sons operated the farm.

In 1890 they moved to Weeping Water, Ne- braska, and here he left the family for a short time and came up to the Scottsbluff country. The family followed the subsequent spring, and they bought a small farm near where the city of Scottsbluff now stands. Alliance, fifty-five miles away, was then the nearest railroad town.

To Mr. and Mrs. Wright there were born seven children: Carlton C. was legal adviser of the North Western system in Nebraska for several years. He was elected city attorney of the city of Omaha, which position he filled with exceptional ability and honor. Then he became the general counsel for the North Western sys- tem and moved to Evanston, Illinois, with of- fices in Chicago. This place he held until his death in February, 1918. (2) Catherine, the eldest daughter, was married to Rev. F. T. Mc- Collum, a Congregational minister of Chicago. She passed away at the age of forty-eight years. (3) Fred A. is an attorney, and resides at Scottsbluff, where in county and city affairs he has held many positions of honor, and has always been active in public affairs. (4) Chas. WV. was a son who died at the age of sixteen years. (5) Flavel L. spent many years of his life in this vicinity, and was known over a wide range of territory as an auctioneer of excep- tional ability. He was active in public affairs

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HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

and upon the right side on public questions. His ability attracted the attention of the North Western Life Insurance Company of Milwau- kee, Wisconsin, and he now resides at Harris- burg, Pennsylvania, where he went to take charge of the company's business in the Key- stone state. (6) Cullen N. is vice president of the Platte Valley State Bank, at Scottsbluff, and is president and resident manager of the Tristate Land Company, which company has large irrigation interests as well as other finan- cial connections with a large part of the valley.

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Wright were Con- gregationalists, but there being no church here when the town was organized, they were among the eight charter members of the First Presbyterian church at this place, and they as- sisted in the building of the first stockade shack in which the first church services were held in Scottsbluffs city.

The vision of William H. Wright has been demonstrated. He came here and saw the magnificent stretches of land, and when the lean years came he sought to amalgamate the interests at home and finance affairs from the east. The panic of the early nineties checked for a time the development, and wrecked the first corporation, but with the revival of busi- ness, other and new men of affairs took hold of it. Mr. Wright took an active part therein, and every man who invested in the first enter- prise was repaid with interest and profit. He knew that the new enterprise was to succeed, he saw into the future, a little of the wonderful city and empire about it, but he did not live to see the water actually running in the great canal, to which he had devoted so much time and energy. To him, more than any one per- son, is that canal a monument of ability. He died May 10, 1906, and rests in Fairview, on a beautiful plot irrigated from the Tristate canal.

Mrs. Wright is a woman of great energy and intelligence. She has been foremost in religious, educational and civic work. With a number of friends, she organized the first wo- man's club in the city, which was named for a very dear friend at Weeping Water, and still is active as the Laura M. Woodford club. The first lecture course put on in this city was through the instrumentality of this club. Al- though eighty years of age she retains her health, strength and mental vigor, and walks with the brisk step of a woman of half her years. Her contribution to the community will endure for many years to come.

GEORGE H. MORRIS, M. D., is a repre- sentative physician and surgeon upholding high standards and professional prestige in the Nebraska Panhandle.

Dr. Morris was born in Des Moines county, Iowa, September 4, 1866, a son of William H. E. and Mary A. (Yates) Morris, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Kentucky. The parents became pioneer settlers in the Hawkeye state, where the father developed a farm and worked as a carpenter. He re- moved from Iowa to Carthage, Illinois, and in that state he passed the remainder of his life, his death having occurred in the city of Peoria, when he was about seventy years of age. He was one of the gallant representatives of Iowa in the Civil War, serving three years as a member of Company K, Second Iowa Cavalry. His widow was a resident of Han- cock county, Illinois, at the time of her death, at the age of eighty years.

Dr. Morris was still an infant when his par- ents removed from Iowa to Hancock county, Illinois. He passed his boyhood years on the home farm and attended the public schools, in- cluding the high school at Carthage, Illinois. As a young man he was in the government service in connection with the U. S. lighthouse system of the Mississippi river. In this and other positions which he held, he carefully conserved his earnings, with a definite ambition to declare himself for the medicine pro- fession. Thus through his own energies he provided the means which enabled him to com- plete the course in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, where he graduated with the class of 1907. After re- ceiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he engaged in the practice at Okmulgee, Okla- homa, but within a short time came to Ne- braska. He located near North Platte, Lin- coln county, to engage in professional activi- ties until 1911, when he moved to Oshkosh, Garden county, where he has since built up a large and substantial practice that clearly places him among the representative physicians and surgeons of this favored section of Nebraska. He has kept abreast of the advances made in his profession, and in 1908, completed an ef- fective post-graduate course in the Chicago Polyclinic, and the preceding year took a graduate course in the medical department of the University of St. Louis, while in 1915 he graduated at the Chicago Polyclinic. Prior to his graduation in medicine the doctor had completed a course and been graduated at the Keokuk College of Pharmacy in 1906, and the next year served as a member of the faculty of that institution. He is an active member of the Lincoln County Medical Society, the Nebras- ka State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

Dr. Morris is a Republican and served about two years as chairman of the Republican cen- tral committee of Garden county, besides which he has given effective service as chairman of the Oshkosh Board of Health, and was ex- amining physician on the local exemption board when the nation was recruiting for the army and navy in connection with the World War. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist and Presbyerian churches re- spectively.

DAVID F. FICKES, who has given able service in the office of assessor of Garden county since 1915, became a resident of this section prior to the creation of Garden county, and he was one of the first men to be elected commissioner of the new county. He has been closely identified with the industrial and civic growth and development of the county and his present official position gives him knowledge of values in the county, so that he is able to speak with emphasis and assurance of the wonderful advances that have been made with- in the period of his residence in this section of the state.

Mr. Fickes claims the Keystone state as the place of his nativity. His parents, Isaac L. and Margaret (Weyandt) Fickes passed their entire lives in that fine old commonwealth. David Fickles was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, January 11, 1858, and after com- pleting the public schools he pursued a higher course of study in a normal school in Penn- sylvania. He put his acquirements to practical application for a time as a teacher in the schools of his native state. Thereafter he was identi- fied with railroad construction work in the state of New York and later in eastern Can- ada, and later engaged in the operating of a steam shovel in the state of Tennessee, in con- nection with the work in the ore mines, where he worked for five years. In the autumn of 1892, Mr. Fickes came to Nebraska and be- came a pioneer settler in what is now Garden county. Here he took up a homestead, which adjoins the corporate limits of Oshkosh, which he still owns. He reclaimed and developed the land, made good improvements on the place, and devoted himself to diversified agricultural operations and the raising of live stock. He now rents the farm to a reliable tenant. Mr. Fickes purchased an adjoining tract, so that his landed property in the county now com- prises three hundred and twenty acres.

Mr. Fickles is a Republican and has been

influential in public affairs of a local order dur- ing the period of his resident in Nebraska. He served one of the first county commissioners of Garden county, and in 1915, he was appointed county assessor to fill a vacancy. The follow- ing year he was elected to this office, his ma- ture judgment and accurate information mak- ing him a most satisfactory arbiter of real estate value. He is one of the pioneer members of the Masonic fraternity in Garden county and is a citizen who commands unqualified popular confidence and esteem. His wife is a member of the Lutheran church.

In Ohio, in 1882, Mr. Fickles married Miss Irene Fought, who was born and reared in that state, and the two children of this union are Howard and Orvin. Howard was married April, 1910, to Daisy Pueschel of Columbus, Nebraska, and they have two children, David Vada, both at home. He is successfully en- gaged in the hardware business at Oshkosh, and Orvin, is at Pueblo, Colorado. He was one of the gallant young men who gave to the nation loyal service on the European battle fields during the World War. He was a priv- ate in the Three Hundred and Fifty-fifth Regi- ment, Eighty-ninth Division of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, and while with this command he was wounded by a frag- ment of shell, in the battle of Argonne, No- vember 3, 1918. He returned to his native land after the signing of the armistice.

EDWARD S. WOOD, who, in the winter of 1919, was treasurer of Garden county, needs no further voncher for his hold upon the confidence and good will of the people of his constituent county. He is one of the progres- sive citizens who are proving alert and re- sourceful in furthering the general welfare of Garden county, where he is the owner of a valuable tract of land, besides having an at- tractive home at Oshkosh.

Mr. Wood was born at Sutton, Clay coun- ty, Nebraska on July 15, 1880, a son of Sam- uel and Gertrude R. (Reeder) Wood. The father was born and reared in Ireland and about the year 1859, came to the United States and found employment on a farm in the state of Illinois. By his own efforts he provided the means for securing the min- istry of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was in the very flower of his strong and use- ful manhood when he came to Nebraska and here he rendered service in the ministry, serv- ing as pastor in turn of the Methodist churches at Sutton, Central City and Tecumseh. He re- tained his charge in the last mentioned places

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HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

until his death, when he was about forty years of age. His widow, who now resides at York, was born in Ohio, where she received her earlier education, which was supplemented by further study after the removal of the family to Illinois, in which state her marriage was solemnized. In the public schools of Ne- braska Edward S. Wood continued his studies until he completed a course in the high school at York, then was employed three years as clerk in a grocery store. In 1900, he came to the Panhandle of Nebraska and established his residence in what is now Garden county. During the ensuing winter he was employed on a ranch, and he then entered the service of John Orr, one of the large landholders and extensive cattle raisers of this locality. Mr. Wood continued his association with Mr. Orr for five years, and thereafter he was in the employ of the Western Land & Cattle Com- pany, and held the position of foreman the greater part of the time. He gained broad and practical experience in connection with the cattle industry and is still manager of the company. This concern has about five thou- sand acres of deeded land, used for the graz- ing of herds of cattle, besides which the com- pany has four head of buffalo. Mr. Wood continued the management of the business of this corporation until he was made a Republi- can candidate for the office of county treasurer, a post to which he was elected by a majority that was gratifying, in view of the fact that Garden county normally gives substantial Democratic majorities.

In addition to being a staunch and active supporter of the cause of the Republican party and an influential figure in its local councils, Mr. Wood maintains affiliation with the Mod- ern Woodmen of America, the Odd Fellows and Masonic orders. In Garden county he is the owner of eleven hundred and fifty acres of excellent grazing land, which he rented upon assuming his present county office. Mrs. Wood is a member of the Methodist church.

On June 9, 1909, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Wood to Miss Nora Beaver, of Des Moines, Iowa, and their son Orien is nine years old.

REUBEN LISCO, is a sterling pioneer of the Panhandle of Nebraska; and has exerted influence in connection with civic, business and industrial affairs. He came to the Pan- handle country nearly forty years ago, when this section of the state was practically noth- ing but unbroken prairie land, with the rais- ing and feeding of cattle as its sole productive

industry. He gained experience in herding cattle on the great open range; he was long and prominently identified with the cattle busi- ness when operations were conducted upon an extensive scale; he has witnessed and aided in the march of development and progress and he is today one of the leading citizens of Gar- den county, where he is president of the Lisco State Bank, in a town that was named in his honor. He is direct and unassuming in his varied activities and is essentially one of the representative business men of the great coun- try to which this history is dedicated.

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History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 85

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