USA > Nebraska > Lancaster County > Lincoln > Lincoln, the capital city and Lancaster County, Nebraska, Volume II > Part 2
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On the 6th of May, 1902, occurred the marriage of Mr. Harrington and Miss Fosta Roberts, Frank Mills, pastor of the Union church at College View and a well known business man of Lineoln, officiating. Mr. and Mrs. Harrington have become the parents of three children : a son, who died in infancy ; Donald P., born June 20. 1904 : and Roma E., born December 12, 1909.
Mr. Harrington supports the republican party at the polls but although he has never been remiss in any of his duties as a good citizen he has never had the time nor inclination to hold public office. He is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America and in religious faith is a Methodist. He has gained a gratifying measure of prosperity, which is the direct reward of his close attention to business, his enterprise and his integrity, and he has also won the sincere respect of all who know him, for his salient quali- ties are those that characterize honorable manhood. His residence is at No. 2323 l' street, University Place.
ADOLPHUS ROBERT TALBOT.
Adolphus Robert Talbot is senior member of the law firm of Talbot & Allen. of Lincoln, and is also head consul of the Modern Woodmen of America with headquarters in Nebraska's capital city. The importance and extent of his professional and business activities at once place him among the leading residents of the city. He was born upon a farm in Warren County, Illinois, April 11, 1859.
His father, William Talbot, a farmer by occupation, was born in England and after arriving at years of maturity married Amy Joan Godfrey, also a native of that country. Their marriage was celebrated in England, after which they emigrated to the United States and for two years were residents of New York. They then removed to Warren county. Illinois where they spent their remaining
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days. After living for many years upon the farm they took up their abode in Alexis, a small town three miles distant from their old homestead. There they spent their remaining days, the father passing away at the age of eighty-five years. In their family were nine children, seven of whom are living: Mrs. Frances Ann Andrews, of Emporia, Kansas; Edwin H., of La Plata, Missouri ; George W., of Los Angeles, California ; Mrs. Harriet Ann Vivian, of Schenectady, New York ; Mrs. Mary Jane Anderson, of Galesburg, Illinois ; Adolphus R., of this review : and Frederick S., of La Plata, Missouri.
In religious faith the father, William Talbot, was a devout Methodist and in political belief a stanch republican. In 1860 he was a candidate for township office on the ticket on which Abraham Lincoln ran for the presidency and was elected. He took a very helpful part in promoting the moral progress of his community and was instrumental in securing the erection of several Methodist churches in Warren county. In youth he had been denied all educational oppor- tunities but in the school of experience he learned many valuable lessons and. moreover, he became a great reader and student of good books, thereby acquir- ing extensive learning and developing his natural talents. His ability made him a leader in his home community, and his opinions were listened to with deference. Realizing the value of education he provided all his children with collegiate training and, moreover, he gave to each one of them a thousand dollars as they attained their majority, thus assisting them to start out in life.
Adolphus Robert Talbot was reared upon his father's farm in Illinois to the age of sixteen years, at which time he entered the high school at Alexis, Illinois, completing his course there by graduation when eighteen years of age. He then became a student in Hedding College, a Methodist school of Abingdon, Knox county, Illinois, which he attended for four years and was graduated in 1881, with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, becoming valedictorian of his class. In the meantime he had determined upon the practice of law as a life work and with that end in view he entered the Union College of Law at Chicago, which is the law department of both the Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. He was graduated therefrom with the class of 1883 with the degree of B. L. and in 1886 his alma mater, Hedding College, conferred upon him the 1_L. D. degree.
On the Ist of May, 1883, Mr. Talbot located in Lincoln, Nebraska, where for a period of twenty years he actively engaged in the practice of law. during which time he was regarded as one of the eminent and able members of the city bar. For a period of ten years, or from 1887 until 1897, he was a member of the firm of Talbot & Bryan, his partner having been Ilon. William Jennings Bryan, thrice democratic nominee for the presidency of the United States. During the full period of his law practice, covering twenty years, Mr. Talbot was assistant general attorney for Nebraska of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company. He yet remains at the head of the law firm of Talbot & Allen, his partner being the Hon. Thomas S. Allen, who at the present time holds the office of United States district attorney.
In politics Mr. Talbot is a republican but despite this fact has always been an ardent friend of his former law partner, W. J. Bryan. In the fall of 1896 Mr. Talbot was elected asstate senator on the republican ticket aml was reelected to the office in 1898, serving as president pro tem of the senate during his second
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term and by virtue of this office became acting governor of the state when Nebraska's chief executive was absent. In 1914 Mr. Talbot was appointed by President Wilson peace commissioner from the United States to Bolivia and is still serving in that capacity. He is ever found in those circles where men of intelligence are met in the discussion of vital and significant problems, and his labors and influence have been of far-reaching effect.
Mr. Talbot's official connection with the Modern Woodmen of America began on the 23d of November, 1800, when he was elected a member of the board of directors. Hle was repeatedly elected to that office until 1903, when he was elected head consul (or president ) of the order, at which time the office was removed from Springfield, Illinois, to Lincoln, Nebraska, where it has since remained. Mr. Talbot has since occupied the position, having been reelected five times, so that his incumbency covers twelve years, during which he has occupied the highest executive office of the largest fraternal society in the world. As head consul he has general supervision over all the work and activities of the order throughout the United States with a field force of more than five thousand active men under him. He is likewise a prominent Mason, having attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and the Knights Templar degree of the York Rite, while with the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine he has crossed the sands of the desert. He is likewise an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias, and he is a director of the Woodmen's Accident Association of Lincoln.
On the 15th of May, 1884, Mr. Talbot was married to Miss Addie S. Harris, of Abingdon, Illinois, and they have three children: Marie Frances, who is now the wife of Charles Stuart, of Lincoln; Robert Harris, a senior in the Uni- versity of Nebraska ; and Eleanor Virginia, fourteen years of age, at home.
Mr. and Mrs. Talbot are prominent members of St. Paul's Methodist Episco- pal church, in the work of which he takes an active part, while for thirty years he has served as one of the church trustees. He is a prominent figure in the Nebraska State Bar Association and also a member of the American Bar Associa- tion. llis professional activities and his official duties in his present connection have brought him a wide acquaintance throughout the country and wherever known he is held in highest regard, honored for his ability and esteemed for his personal worth.
HON. JOHN B. WRIGHT.
llon. John B. Wright, who is one of the oldest and most prominent of Lincoln's citizens, established his home here in 1874 and throughout the interven- ing period has been actively associated with the material development of the city as a banker and grain merchant and also has been an influencing factor in its political affairs through the past forty years.
Hle was born in Rochester, New York, December 10, 1845, a son of Thomas and Phehe ( Brooks) Wright, both of whom were natives of Nottingham, Eng- land, where their ancestors had lived for many generations. The marriage of Thomas Wright and Phehe Brooks was celebrated in Nottingham and their three eldest children were born there ere their emigration to the new world. In 1841.
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however, they crossed the Atlantic to the United States and after residing for a short time in Batavia, New York, removed to Rochester. In 1849, when their son John was a little lad of four years, they became residents of Buffalo, New York, where for an extended period Thomas Wright was prominently engaged in the wholesale millinery business, continuing a leading factor in commercial circles of the city almost to the time of his death, which occurred in Monroe, Michigan, when he was eighty-one years of age. Mrs. Wright died in Buffalo at the age of seventy-seven. There were seven children born to them but only two are now living, John B. and Alfred, the latter a resident of Monroe, Michigan.
The former was reared and educated in Buffalo, New York, and between the ages of seventeen and twenty-two years taught several terms of school in Monroe county, Michigan. In 1868 he made a trip to Montana, accompanied by some young companions. The party of five young adventurers , traveled from Sioux City to Fort Benton, Montana, on a small steamer and were forty-eight days in making the trip. Mr. Wright remained for six years in Montana, devoting his attention through that period to mining and ranching but in 1874 disposed of the ranch interests, which he had acquired in that state, and came to Lincoln, where he has since remained. For forty years he has continued his residence in this city, which was but seven years old at the time he located here. Ile was therefore one of the pioneers of the town, which had just been made the capital of Nebraska at the time of his arrival. He has been intimately identified with various phases of its development and progress through almost the entire period of its history and has been one of the foremost figures in business and political affairs of the city. He has studied closely its opportunities and its possibilities and has been a prominent factor in all public movements looking to the city's growth and betterment. He has recognized and utilized opportunities and has wrought along the lines of modern city building, his labors being far-reaching, resultant and beneficial.
At the same time Mr. Wright has carefully managed his private affairs and in a strictly businesslike manner, with the result that he has built up a splendid competence and is today one of the substantial residents of the capital. Through the greater part of this period he has devoted his attention to the grain trade, although he has many subsidiary interests, including connection with the banking and real estate business of the city. Ilis plans have been carefully formulated, his activities intelligently directed and the result has been most gratifying. In 1890 he was one of the organizers of the Columbia National Bank and served as its president for seventeen years, or until it was sold. During that period he carefully directed its policy and his sound judgment was manifest in its success.
At the same time he has been prominent in a political way and his fellow townsmen, appreciative of his worth and ability, have twice elected him mayor of Lincoln, in which connection he has given a businesslike and progressive administration. He also served in the state legislature for two terms, one in the house and one in the senate, and has occupied various minor offices in the city, including membership in the city council for two terms. While serving during his first term as mayor. in 1881, he was largely instrumental in procuring legisla- tion which culminated in building Lincoln's splendid waterworks system, which ACKOSOTO is the pride of all citizens, and he took the lead in the movement which resulted
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in municipal ownership of the water plant. It was the city that built the water- works and has since continued to own this public utility. It is a worthy monument to the untiring labor, foresight and devotion to municipal welfare on the part of Mr. Wright. In his political views he has always been a stalwart republican and has frequently been solicited to become a candidate for congressman and other high offices but has always declined.
On the 14th of May, 1890, Mr. Wright was married to Miss Jessie Eugenia Robinson, of Chicago, and they have one son, John Charles, whose birth occurred January 23, 1897, and who is now a student in the University of Nebraska.
Mr. Wright is a Knight Templar Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine and a prominent member of the Knights of Pythias. In the latter organization he has held the office of treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Nebraska for twenty- four consecutive years and still remains in that position. lle is also identified with the Elks. His life work has been of distinct value to his fellowmen. His character has stood the test of prosperity. He has never lost his power of self- control nor allowed his life to become self-centered but has reached out along lines of usefulness and worth to the community for the benefit of his fellowmen and the city in which he lives.
JUDGE ALLEN W. FIELD.
Judge Allen W. Field, of Lincoln, was one of the most prominent and most public-spirited residents of the city and his demise was widely mourned. For a number of years he served upon the bench of the district court of Lancaster county, but at the time of his death was a member of the well known law firm of Field, Ricketts & Ricketts. A native of Illinois, his birth occurred in La Salle on the 20th of November, 1853, and his parents were Wescott R. and Bethia ( Bates) Field, natives of Vermont. In 1850 they went to Illinois and there resided until 1858, when they went to Osage. Iowa. There the father engaged in mercantile business for about three years, after which he decided to try his fortune in Nebraska, which was then on the western frontier. He located in Lancaster county, taking up a homestead in Yankee Hill precinct adjoining the present site of the Hospital for the Insane. Later his family joined him here and he operated that farm for a long period. At length he removed to Colorado, where he passed away in August, 1902. He had long survived his wife as her demise occurred in 1875.
Allen W. Field entered the public schools at Osage, lowa, which he attended until he was ten years of age, and continued his education in the schools of Lancaster county, Nebraska. As a boy and youth he also gave much of his time to assisting in the development of the home farm. In 1870 he matriculated in Tabor College at Tabor, Iowa, but the State University of Nebraska being opened the following year, he became a student in that institution, which he attended for six years, receiving at the end of that time the degree of Bachelor of Science. Later the university conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. His high scholarship was indicated by the fact that he belonged to Phi Beta Kappa. After
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completing his college work he began the study of law in the office of James E. Philpott and in 1878 was admitted to the bar. During that year he held the office of justice of the peace and in January, 1879, he formed a partnership with Edwin P. Holmes, who later became judge of the district court. This association was maintained with mutual pleasure and profit until 1883, and the firm was accorded a large share of the public patronage. In 1882 Mr. Field was elected to the lower house of the state legislature and served as a member of that body during the eighteenth and nineteenth sessions. He was further honored by being elected as speaker of the house in the latter session and the impartiality of his rulings gained him the commendation of his fellow members. In 1884 he formed a law partnership with General J. R. Webster, with whom he was associ- ated in practice until 1886, when he was appointed judge of the district court. He acquitted himself so admirably in that office that he was elected to that position in 1887 and again in 1891, serving upon the bench until 1892, when he resigned in order to devote his time to the management of his campaign for election to congress, he having received the republican nomination. His opponent was William Jennings Bryan, who gained the election by the narrow margin of one hundred and forty votes. The excellent showing which Judge Field made was evidence of the high esteem in which he was held throughout the district and the confidence placed in his ability and integrity. He resumed the practice of law at Lincoln and remained an active member of the bar until his demise on the 9th of June, 1915. He was employed as counsel in the greater number of the important cases tried in the courts of this district. He realized fully the necessity of preparing his cases carefully, and his painstaking investigation of every point of the evidence was an important factor in his success. He had a comprehensive and exact knowledge of the law, was skillful in applying it to the case in hand and was convincing in the presentation of his arguments.
Judge Field was married on the 20th of December, 1883, to Miss May B. Fairfield, a daughter of Edmund B. and Mary A. ( Baldwin ) Fairfield, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Vermont. Mr. Fairfield devoted his life to educational work and in 1849 became president of Hillsdale College at Hills- dale, Michigan, a position which he held for twenty-one years. In 1876 he was chosen as chancellor of the State University of Nebraska and served in that capacity for six years, after which he returned to Michigan, where he lived until his removal to Oberlin, Ohio, in 1900. He passed the remainder of his life there, dying in November, 1904. His wife had long preceded him to the great beyond, her demise occurring in March, 1881. To Judge and Mrs. Field were born four children, namely: Allen W., whose birth occurred on the 6th of May, 1885, and who succeeded his father as a member of the firm of Field. Ricketts & Ricketts: Georgia B., who is a twin of Allen and is now the wife of Fred W. Upson, head of the department of chemistry of the State Agricultural College : Kate, who was born on the 8th of June, 1889, and is at home ; and Edmund, born July 3, 1892, who is attending the State University.
Judge Field was one of the leaders of the republican party in Nebraska and did much to secure its success in his district although in the last years of his life he became somewhat independent in his political views. He attended the First Congregational church and fraternally was identified with the Knights of Pythias, the Masons, the Mystic Shrine and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He
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erected a beautiful residence at No. 544 South Seventeenth street, and his home was always open to his friends, among whom were numbered the men most prominent in the intellectual and civic life of Lincoln. Judge Field gave unstintingly of his time and energy to the promotion of the public welfare and among the important services which he rendered to his home city was his successful fight before the interstate commerce commission in 1895 to remove discriminations in railroad rates which were then operating against Lincoln in favor of Omaha and other western cities. The Judge was the attorney for the Lincoln Commercial Club and showed so clearly the injustice of the discriminations that the commission ordered the greater part of them abolished and the railroads subsequently did away with the others voluntarily. When an effort was made in 1914 and 1915 to remove the State University from its present location to the state farm Judge Field was largely instrumental in securing the necessary financial support to make possible the expansion of the university on the present site. At that time he was president of the alumni association and vigorously opposed the removal of the school as he was convinced that it would work an injury both to the university and to the College of Agriculture. When the question was put to the vote of the people in the fall of 1915 the decision was overwhelmingly in favor of his position and was in large measure the result of his efforts. His attitude in this contest was characteristic of the man as in fighting the removal of the uni- versity he was working against his own financial interests since he had real estate holdings in the vicinity of the state farm whose value would have been greatly increased if the university had been located there.
In its issue of the 9th of June, 1915, the day of his death, the Lincoln Star paid the following well deserved tribute to Judge Field. "Death claimed the fore- most citizen of Lincoln and pioneer of Nebraska last night when Judge Field succumbed to heart trouble, from which he had been a sufferer for more than a year. Judge Field was sixty-one years of age last November, 1914. Coming to the state in 1861, Judge Field took an active part in the development of Nebraska. He was the type of citizen who placed public service before private interests and was an untiring laborer for the best interests of the community. His kindly, forceful personality made many warm friends and he enjoyed the love and admiration of thousands of Nebraskans."
EDWARD FRANKLIN BLACK.
Among the men in Lancaster county who have pushed forward the wheels of progress is numbered Edward Franklin Black, now deceased. Ile did much to raise the standard of live stock in this section of the state and the material development of the community was accordingly enhanced. In all of his business career he was found thoroughly reliable and progressive and his well directed energy and keen insight brought to him very gratifying success. His birth occurred at Whitby, near Toronto, Ontario, Canada, February 12, 1846, his parents being David and Sarah Black. The father was born near Whitby, Ontario, acquired his education in the schools of, that locality and afterward Crosoft (A)) in addition to working at his trade he engaged in
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preaching in Canada and there remained until 1884, when he removed to Ray- mond, Nebraska, where he organized a congregation and built the first church. He was also instrumental in building a parsonage there and for a considerable time engaged in preaching at that place. At length he and his wife removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where both passed away.
Edward Franklin Black was indebted to the public school system of Canada for the educational opportunities which he enjoyed, and when his textbooks were put aside he began learning the jeweler's trade. Working his way upward in that connection, he at length conducted several jewelry stores and in addition he took up as a side interest the importation of fine horses. When his health failed he determined to engage in business that would not be so confining as the jewelry trade and, disposing of his stores in Canada, he removed to Ne- braska. Ile had previously engaged in importing pure bred Shire, Clyde and Percheron stallions from Scotland and other points in Europe and he also made many trips to the south, from which point he brought fine horses to Raymond. Lancaster county, where he operated an extensive horse barn. There at one time he was also engaged in general merchandising but the importation and breeding of live stock claimed the greater part of his attention. After removing to Lancaster county he purchased seven hundred and twenty acres in Oak town- ship and established his home in Raymond, where he continued in the business of importing high grade stallions. On account of his popularity in this section of the state he was frequently called upon to act as auctioneer in the sale of live stock and in that way he became widely known throughout his part of the country, being everywhere called Colonel Black. He was an expert horseman and he had comprehensive knowledge of the business of importing, breeding and selling fine stock. Although he owned more than seven hundred acres of fine agricultural land in Oak township, he never cultivated the farm but left its development and improvement to his sons and concentrated his efforts along other lines, in which he continued up to the time of his death.
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