History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 86

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. Lisco claims the Hawkeye state as the place of his nativity and is a representative of one of its early pioneer families. He was born in Worth county, Iowa, November 20, 1858, a son of William and Martha (Shields) Lisco, both of whom were born and reared in Ireland, where they were married and then came to America, imbued with a determination to find better opportuniies for the winning of independence and prosperity. They first set- tled in one of the eastern provinces of Canada before becoming pioneer of Iowa, where the father reclaimed a farm and became a success- ful agriculturist. He lived to be eighty-four years old and his wife was about fifty-three years of age at the time of her death, in 1881. Of their eight children six are living. The family came to Nebraska in 1873, and settled near Columbus, Platte county, where the par- ents spent the remainder of their lives, the father having secured land and developed a pioneer farm.

Reuben Lisco attended the public schools of his native state and was a lad of about four- teen years at the time the family removed to Nebraska, his broader education having been here, gained principally in the school of prac- tical work and experience. He remained at home until of age and a year later, in 1881, he made his way to the Panhandle of Nebras- ka. He found free and vital life in this great cattle district of western Nebraska, for he was employed as a cowboy by what is now the Rush Creek Land & Stock Company, of which corporation he is president, a statement which implies that he has been continuously asso- ciated with the cattle business here during the intervening period of nearly two score years. When he began life as a cowboy the place on which he was employed was known as the Club Ranch, and his reliability and energy en- abled him to make such advancement that when the operating company was reorganized he was given the position of manager. In the meanwhile he accumulated considerable land

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

and owned a goodly number of cattle, both land and stock being taken over by the com- pany of which he became a member of its re- organization, in 1897, and he has been the executive head of this corporation since 1910. Upon the organization of Deuel county, in 1888, Mr. Lisco was chosen the first sheriff of the new county, a position in which he served nine years. In 1909, when the Union Pacific Railroad built through this section of the state, Mr. Lisco laid out the town of Lisco, which was named for him and which now has a population of about two hundred inhabi- tants. To foster the interests of the new town which he thus founded, Mr. Lisco es- tablished a well equipped general store, giv- ing it general supervision for some time, be- sides which he became the prime mover in the organization of the Lisco State Bank, of which he has been president from the time of its in- corporation and which has become one of the substantial and popular financial institutions of the county. Mr. Lisco lives in the town named for him, but he is also the principal stockholder in the Oshkosh State Bank, which was organized in 1917, and he has been its president since that time, the general man- agement of the institution devolving upon him, - a fact that adds to its popularity, as he is known as a substantial capitalist and able ex- ecutive. A substantial brick building, two hundred and forty-four by seventy feet in dimensions and two stories in height was erect- ed an dis the property of the bank.

Mr. Lisco has had neither time nor inclina- tion for political activities, but is a staunch Republican and a liberal and public-spirited citizen. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Rush Creek Land & Stock Company, of which he is president and manager, has a ranch property comprising about forty thousand acres, and an average run of ten thousand cattle. Mr. Lisco has won success through his own ability and well directed efforts. He has kept pace with the general development and growth of the Pan- handle country and has been big enough at all times to do big things and do them well.

The year 1895, Mr. Lisco married Miss Addie R. Miller, who was born and rearci in Michigan, near Kalamazoo, and she is the popular chatelaine of their pleasant home. Mrs. Lisco is a member of the Presbyterian church.

FRED A. WRIGHT, one of the most prom- inent and best known attorneys throughout western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming, is the

dean of the Scottsbluff county bar, having been longest in continuous practice here of all the lawyers of the county. He was born in Wash- ington county, New York, February 11, 1869, the son of William H. and Ellen J. (Clark ) Wright, of whom mention is found on other pages of this work. Removing to Iowa in early life with his parents, he was reared on a farm near Pacific Junction, Mills county, and at- tended the public schools, high school at Glen- wood, and college at Tabor, Iowa. While in Glenwood he read law, and after leaving col- lege he came to Scottsbluff county in 1892 and took a homestead three miles east of the present city of Scottsbluff, on which he later proved up.

Being admitted to the bar in this county, Mr. Wright began practice in Gering in 1894 and has been continuously in the practice of law in Scottsbluff county since that time, having moved his office from Gering to Scottsbluff in 1906. He is the senior member of the legal firm of Wright, Mothersead & York, of Scotts- bluff.

Mr. Wright has held a number of public offices. He was postmaster at Gering during the second Cleveland administration ; was elect- ed county attorney in 1898, and was a member and president of the board of education in Scottsbluff for several years. At the primaries for the nomination of delegates to the Constitu- tional Convention of Nebraska in 1910 he was nominated with the highest vote of all the can- didates in the district comprising Scottsbluff and Morrill counties. He has also been vice- president of the Nebraska State Bar Associa- tion and president of the Western Nebraska Bar Association. He is a Democrat in politics, is a member of Robert W. Furnas chapter of the Masonic order, a Knight Templar, and a member of the Elks.

On October 29, 1896, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Royer, who was a native of Nebras- ka and was educated at Weeping Water, Elm- wood, and Lincoln, Nebraska, and was a teacher in this state. Six children have been born to theni:

1. Charles R., who enlisted in the service of his country as a volunteer in February, 1918, while a student in the University of Nebraska, having completed two years of his course in college. He was trained in the coast artillery in Florida and embarked for overseas service with the rank of sergeant in Unit A, S. A. R. D., in September, 1918. He was taken ill with pneumonia while on the ocean and died at an American army hospital in Brest, France, October 11, 1918. There was no finer, manlier, or more promising young man among all the great host of American volunteer soldiers, and

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he lived long enough to be a credit and an honor to his father and his mother and died that others might live in liberty.

2. Floyd E., the second son, also left the State University to enlist in the army. He was drill sergeant at Fort Rosecrans, California, and after the signing of the armistice with Ger- many was discharged and returned home to re- sume his college course.

3. Dorothy and (4) William H. are stu- dents in the University of Nebraska, and (5) Elizabeth and (6) Flavel A. are at home.

Mr. Wright has reached the enviable position of having so extensive a practice in his profes- sion that it taxes his energies to take care of it, but he enjoys also the much rarer distinction of a universal reputation for absolute probity in his professional and personal life and devotion to the highest ideals of legal ethics. He is known as one of the half dozen most brilliant trial lawyers of the state, and is retained as attorney for practically all the important com- mercial interests of this section, among others the C., B. & Q. Railroad Co., Tri-State Land Co., Great Western Sugar Co., and Lincoln Land Co. He owns a beautiful home in Scotts- bluff and a valuable irrigated farm adjoining the city. Mrs. Wright is a member of the Presbyterian church and is prominent in the social, educational and club life of the com- munity.

JOHN ROBINSON, who is now living semi-retired in Oshkosh, has been a resident of Nebraska for more than half a century and he has gained his full share of distinction during the period of his residence in what is now Garden county. He was one of the representative pioneers and cattle men of this county, where he settled when it was still a part of Deuel county, and he has been a promi- nent and influential figure in connection with the industrial progress and civic advancement of this section of the state.

Mr. Robinson is descended from Scotch and English stock and was born in Jo Daviess county, Illinois, on November 25, 1950. His parents, John and Mary (Adkinson) Robin- son, were natives respectively of Scotland and England, and in America the family home was established in Illinois, where the father even- tually met his death while working in the coal mines.

John Robinson was educated in the public schools of Illinois and in 1868, as a sturdy and amibitious youth of eighteen years, he came to Nebraska. At Columbus, Platte coun- ty, he learned the butcher's trade, and later he conducted a meat market at that place. Still

later he was similarly engaged at St. Paul, Howard county, and in 1885, he came to the Panhandle. Mr. Robinson, in association with Alfred W. and Henry Gumaer and Albert Potter, came to Deuel county to engage in the cattle business. Each of the party took up homestead and pre-emption claims, on one of which is situated the present town of Osh- kosh. This was all wild prairie at that time, and settlers were comparatively few, as the cattle business was virtually the sole indus- trial enterprise. Within two years after com- ing to the county these men laid out and founded the new town of Oshkosh, which be- came the county seat of Deuel county and later as that of the newly organized Garden county. The founders established a general store and otherwise gave impetus to the up- building of the village. Later they sold the store and the townsite of eighty acres to a townsite company, and Mr. Robinson and Henry Gumaer purchased the ranch and cattle interests of the other partners, their associa- tion continuing several years before the part- nership was dissolved by an equal division of the property. Mr. Robinson thereafter contin- med operations in the cattle business until the rapidly increasing settlement of the country led him to dispose of his cattle, with the clos- ing of the large range facilities. He is the owner of five well improved farms in Garden county, having an aggregate area of about eleven hundred acres, all valley land and near- ly all under irrigation, which are rented. The accumulation of this valuable property, with its rise in value, has in itself placed Mr. Robinson in comfortable circumstances. He built the first house, a sod structure, in what is now Garden county, and the primitive build- ing was on his pre-emption claim, a half mile north of Oshkosh. Mr. Robinson has given attention to the raising of fine types of horses and at the present time he is the owner of about one hundred head.

A man of strong individuality and alert mentality, Mr. Robinson was well equipped for leadership in thought and action in the pioneer community, and he has been influential in communal affairs during the entire period of his residence in western Nebraska. He was the first postmaster at Oshkosh, and served two terms as county commissioner of Gar- den county. He was one of the organizers and is past master of Oshkosh Lodge, No. 286, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons.

In the year 1882, Mr. Robinson wedded Miss Mary Doolittle, who was born in Wis- consin. Of their nine children Edward and

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George are conducting large live-stock opera- tions in Wyoming, and with them is asso- ciated their next younger brother, Floy S .; Carrie, Mabel, Lillian, Elizabeth, and Frank are all members of the family circle, while William married Mae Winters July 3, 1918. and conducts one of his father's farms north of town.

JACOB C. SCHLATER, is a member of the well konwn and reliable real estate firm of Day & Schlater, of Oshkosh, Garden coun- ty, a concern that represents the best ideals of this important line of business, its two principals being young men of marked energy and enterprise, so that their firm is constantly growing.

Mr. Schlater, junior member of the firm, was born March 3, 1893, in that section of Deuel county that now is comprised in Garden county. He is a son of William E. and Hattie M. (Roudebush) Schlater, who were early pioneer settlers in the famous Panhandle of Nebraska. Here the father took up a home- stead in what is now Garden county, in 1888. Later he purchased and assumed active man- agement of a ranch in the northern part of the county, and was accidentally killed there when a horse fell upon him causing injuries that re- sulted in his death, when he was about thirty- five years of age. His widow now lives at Oshkosh.

Jacob C. Schlater was but six years old at the time of the tragic death of his father, and went to live in the home of an uncle at Platts- mouth, where he was reared and received good educational advantages, in the public schools, where he studied until he completed a course in the high school. After graduation he spent one semester as a student in the University of Nebraska, and upon his return to Oshkosh he took the position of bookkeeper in the First State Bank, of which he later became assist- ant cashier. After holding this position about three years he was advanced to cashier, of which he continued the efficient and popular incumbent until the bank changed hands. in March, 1899. when he severed his connection with the institution and became associated with Robert A. Day in their present real estate enterprise, under the firm title of Day & Schlater. The firm has already built up a substantial business of importance.

Mr. Schlater is a Democrat ; he and his wife are members of the Lutheran church and he is affiliated with Oshkosh Lodge, No. 286, An- cient Free and Accepted Masons, and with

Plattsmouth Lodge, No. 686, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

March 3, 1918. was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Schlater to Miss Marguerite Day, daughter of Robert A. Day, pioneer citizen and prominent banker at Oshkosh. Mr. and Mrs. Schlater are popular figures in the social activities of their home community, where their circle of friends is large.

ROBERT QUELLE, is one of the repre- sentative business men and valued citizens of Oshkosh, where his well equipped hardware and furniture establishment has a department devoted to the undertaking business, avith facilities of the most modern and approved or- der. He is one of the progressive men of the younger generation in Garden county, and in the management of his flourishing business he has an able helper, Howard C. Fickes, the en- terprise being conducted under the firm name of The Oshkosh Hardware Company.

Mr. Quelle was born in Schleswig, Germany, May 25, 1873, and he was educated in his native land until he was fifteen years of age when his parents came to America and estab- lished their home in Nebraska. He is a son of Franz and Minnie (Werber) Quelle, who immigrated to the United States in 1888. Up- on coming to Nebraska the settled in that part of Deuell county that now comprises Garden county, and became pioneers of this now pro- gressive part of the Nebraska Panhandle. Franz Quelle entered claim to a homestead, to the improvement of which he directed his at- tention with marked success. He developed his homestead into a productive farm, later added materially to its area, and there he con- tinued his successful activities as a farmer un- til his age and prosperity justified his retire- ment. He removed from his farm to Oshkosh, where he died at the age of seventy-five years, and where his widow still resides.

The third in order of birth in a family of seven children, Robert Quelle, was fifteen years of age when the family home was es- tablished on the pioneer farm in Nebraska. Many hardship and vicissitudes were naturally to be endured by the pioneers, and as a youth Mr. Quelle not only assisted in the work of the home farm but also found employment elsewhere, at intervals, to aid in the support of the family and provide a good home. He became a clerk in the first mercantile estab- lishment opened at Oshkosh, where he was employed four years. He then purchased a farm, near Lewellen, Garden county, but dis-

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posed of it within the same year, then became one of the organizers of the Oshkosh Lumber Company, which engaged in the lumber, grain and coal business and which erected, in 1909, the grain elevator at Oshkosh. In 1912, Mr. Quelle formed a partnership with his brother, Albert Quelle, they became the interested pricipals in organizing the Oshkosh Hardware Company and developing a substantial busi- ness. In 1916, Robert Quelle sold his entire interest in The Oshkosh Lumber Company and purchased his brother's interest in the hard- ware establishment which they had opened some time previously. The following year he sold a third interest in this business to How- ard C. Fickes, with whom he has since been associated ; they have materially expanded the scope of the store, in each department of which they receive a substantial and represen- tative supporting patronage. One mile south- east of Oshkosh Mr. Quelle owns a well im- proved and irrigated ranch of three hun- dred and twenty acres, to which he gives supervision in a general way.

Mr. Quelle has been a worker and business man, and has had no desire to enter political life or to hold office. He is an independent Republican. He is affiliated with Oshkosh Lodge No. 286, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and also with the local camp of the Modern Woodmen.

September 14, 1900, Mr. Quelle married Miss Doris Rohlfing, who is a native of Ger- many and was seventeen years old at the time her parents immigrated to America, in 1894. To Mr. and Mrs. Quelle have been borne four children: Robert, Jr., died at the age of two years ; and Alvena, Carl and Maude.

WALTER W. BOWER, who is now living in semi-retirement at Oshkosh, is one of the well known and influential pioneer citizens of this section of the Panhandle and is a man whose experiences in the west have been most varied and interesting. He was long and prominently identified with the cattle in- dustry as a cowboy. He is the owner of val- uable real estate in Garden county and at the present time conducts a substantial enterprise in: the handling of Nebraska farm lands and other realty.

Mr. Bowers was born in the Lone Star state and is a representative of a pioneer fam- ily of that great commonwealth. He was born in eastern Texas, January 7, 1863, a son of Thomas and Elizabeth Bowers, natives of Mis- souri. Mr. Bower was but three years old at the time of his mother's death and when he

was a lad of six years his father passed away. The orphaned boy was taken into the home of and uncle and aunt, in central Texas, where he lived until eleven years old, when he ran away from this home and found employment while he attended school and supplemented the education which he had previously received. He continued to work and go to school until he was fifteen years old, when he became a cowboy and assisted in driving cattle along the trail from Texas to Julesburg, Colorado. Six months was required to make this trip, in autumn of 1878. After arriving in Colorado Mr. Bower found employment with the L. F. ranch, located in Colorado and Nebraska. He assisted in herding and driving cattle from Ogallala to Greeley, Colorado and also to Cheyenne. Wyoming, the ranch having shipped fully twenty-five thousand beef cattle annually. After four years Mr. Bower gained a new ex- perience, as he spent about two years driving Texas ponies into Nebraska and Kansas, where he sold them. This venture prove financially profitable and for several years Mr. Bower gave his attention principally to the buying and selling of horses, besides which he be- came the owner of a ranch property in the Indian Territory. He continued in be exten- sively engaged in the buying and shipping of horses until 1890, when he came to the Pan- handle of Nebraska and purchased about nine hundred acres of wild land, in what is now Garden county. He engaged in the handling of both horses and cattle, which he raised and fed on a somewhat extensive scale, until 1905. when he sold his live stock and rented his land, and engaged in a general merchandise business at Oshkosh, where he was in business until 1908, when he sold his general store and opened a drug business. He disposed of the drug store in 1916, and since that time he has lived retired, giving a portion of his attention to the buying and selling of real estate.

Mr. Bower is a Democrat, but he has in- variably refused to become a candidate for office, with one notable exception, when he served one term as sheriff of Deuel county, be- fore Garden county was formed. He is affili- ated with the Modern Woodmen of America and attends and gives liberal support to the Methodist Episcopal church at Oshkosh, of which his wife was a founder. Mrs. Bower started the movement that resulted in the erec- tion of the first church building at Oshkosh, and she has continuously been one of the most active, loyal and loved members of this church, on the list of whose charter members her is the first name recorded. She has served

BERT J. SEGER

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

as a member of the board of trustees of the church from the time of its organization and is a gracious figure in the representative social life of her home community.

On August 31, 1883, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bower to Miss Sylvia Thom- as, who was born in Pennsylvania, but was reared and educated in Kansas, where her parents settled in the pioneer days. She is a daughter of Lorenzo D. and Mary Thomas, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Ohio, and both were residents of Kansas at the time of their death. Mr. and Mrs. Bower have two children: Zulah, is the wife of William F. Gumaer, a merchant at Oshkosh, and Beulah is the wife of Charles L. Tomppert, editor and publisher of the Garden County News, at Oshkosh.

BERT J. SEGER, who is officially identified with the great irrigating projects under govern- ment control in the Panhandle of Nebraska, came to Scottsbluff county in 1906, and took up his residence at Scottsbluff in 1910. He is secretary and treasurer of the North Platte Water Users Association, and secretary of the Farmers Irrigation District.

Bert J. Seger was born in Polk county, Ne- braska, February 13, 1874, the eldest of the seven surviving children of Andrew and Julia (Palmer) Seger, both of whom were born in Illinois, and came from there to Nebraska in 1872. The father homesteaded near Osceola and lived there until the spring of 1910, when removal was made to southwestern Kansas. In the fall of 1915 Andrew Seger and his wife established their home at Scottsbluff. Besides Bert J., their children are the following: Wil- bur, operates a garage at Kinnard, Nebraska; Elmer, a farmer northeast of Mitchell, Ne- braska; Harry, a stenographer employed in a sugar factory at Scottsbluff; Charles, an en- gineer employed by the state in road building ; Lester, a photographer at Lexington, and Vera, the wife of Howard Jennings. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Bert J. Seger received his elementary educa- tion in the schools of Osceola, following which he took advance courses at the Stromsburg and Fremont normal schools, and for twelve years was a teacher in his native state. He is a vet- eran of the Spanish-American War, entering military service in June, 1898, and accompanied his regiment to the Philippine Islands where he participated in numerous engagements. He was discharged in August, 1899. In 1906 Mr. Seger came to Scottsbluff county and took up a homestead. In 1910, when appointed secre- tary of the North Platte Water Users Associa-

tion, he came to the city and has lived here ever since. At the present time this government project has 1300 water users. He is also secre- tary of the Farmers Irrigation District, which includes about 65,000 acres. These enterprises are of such vast importance that only men of proved ability are entrusted with their manage- ment.

In 1900 Mr. Seger was united in marriage with Miss Carrie C. Camp, who was born at Ashland, Nebraska. They have two sons: Arthur H. and Don, aged respectively seven- teen and six years. Mr. Seger and family are members of the Church of Christ. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias, and polit- ically he is a Democrat of considerable local prominence. Since 1915 he has been a member of the Democratic county central committee.

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History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 86

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