USA > Nebraska > Lancaster County > Lincoln > Lincoln, the capital city and Lancaster County, Nebraska, Volume II > Part 21
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When Mr. McKain retired from railroad work in 1900 he came to Lincoln and built a beautiful residence at No. 417 South Twenty-sixth street, where he has since resided. He is familiar with every phase of Nebraska's pioneer life, for he was one of the first settlers of Buffalo county. The representatives of the present generation can hardly imagine what the early residents had to endure. Conditions that existed brought on hard times. Mr. McKain saw grasshoppers completely strip forty acres of corn in five hours. He paid twenty dollars per month rent for a two-room frame house when he first went to Kearney and began railroading there. Corn, corn stalks and buffalo chips were used for fuel, and they ate buffalo meat ; and when Mrs. McKain's parents arrived one year later they were served buffalo steak, her father thinking that it was beef steak and saying that it was the finest he had ever eaten. The winters of that period were very cold, the snow remaining for months upon the wind-swept prairies. While acting as engineer Mr. MeKain encountered blizzards so severe that he could not see the smokestack of the engine, and in the summer grasshoppers were so thick that the trains were stalled. Upon the plains were bands of reckless cowboys who were often worse than the Indians and not infrequently murders occurred. Such were some of the experiences through which the family passed and there is no phase of pioneer life with which they are not familiar.
To Mr. and Mrs. McKain were hori five children, as follows: Alex C .. re- siding in Des Moines, Iowa, has a married son, Gay, with one child, Margaret.
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Adeline is the wife of William Walker, of Bonesteel, South Dakota. Lizzie is the wife of Joseph Astley, of Northfield, Minnesota, by whom she has two sons. James Kirwin, who resides in Oketa, Kansas, is the father of two sons. Margaret is the wife of Lloyd Combs, an electrician, who resides at Butte, Montana.
In politics Mr. MeKain is a stalwart republican, having supported the party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. Fraternally he is connected with Farragut Post, No. 25, G. A. R., and thus maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades. Ile and his wife are a well preserved couple, although now seventy-five and seventy-four years of age respectively. They look much younger and keep young in their interests. Mr. MeKain drives an automobile and they take long trips together, having in that way visited South Dakota in the summer of 1915. After long years of active connection with railroad interests he is now living retired in the enjoyment of a rest which he has truly earned and richly deserves.
EDWARD R. SIZER.
Edward R. Sizer is president of the Day & Night Realty Company, con- ducting a growing business in real estate, loans and insurance, handling ranch property as a specialty. He is a man of firm purpose and his indefatigable industry has been the salient feature in his growing prosperity. He was born in Ottawa, Illinois, August 25, 1850, his parents being Randolph and Marinda (Root) Sizer. The father, a native of Massachusetts, became a resident of Illinois in 1833, casting in his lot with its pioneer settlers, for only the year before had the Black Hawk war occurred, terminating Indian supremacy in that state. He settled in Ottawa where he engaged in the lumber business, remaining for more than two decades a merchant of that city. Ile there passed away Sep- tember 28. 1856, while his wife survived until December 16, 1860.
Edward R. Sizer was but six years of age at the time of his father's demise. He acquired a public school education, passing through consecutive grades to his graduation from the high school of Ottawa. He afterward engaged in busi- ness in Princeton, Illinois, for a year and in 1874 he arrived in Lincoln where he turned his attention to the real estate business. Some time afterward he was appointed deputy district clerk under R. M. Vedder and in 1883 he was nomi- nated and elected to the position of district clerk with a majority of three thou- sand votes. So excellent was the record that he made during his first term in the office, that he was re-elected in 1887 for a second period of four years. Upon the expiration of his services as district clerk in 1801, he joined J. 11. Mc- Clay in building the Lincoln Normal College. The dormitory of that institution is now the Green Gables Sanitarium. From 1800 until 1001 Mr. Sizer was chief clerk of customs at Havana, Cuba, and for two years he occupied the position of state oil inspector in Nebraska. Later he was appointed to the position of postmaster in Lincoln under President Roosevelt and continued in that office for twelve years under Presidents Rooseych aud Taft, discharging his duties in a manner highly satisfactory sto the public. frampt. reliable and
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faithful, and he retired from office as he entered it-with the confidence and good will of all concerned. He then once more resumed active connection with the real estate business and is now president of the Day & Night Realty Com- pany, with offices in the Lincoln Hotel building at the corner of Ninth and P streets. The company handles real estate, makes loans and writes insurance. They deal in city and farm property, making a specialty of ranches in Nebraska and adjoining states. The business is incorporated and capitalized for one hun- dred thousand dollars and the other officers are: Henry G. M. Burgess, vice president ; Charles A. Randall, secretary ; Fred D. Mason, treasurer ; and Harry R. Follmer, manager.
At Ottawa, Illinois, on the toth of May, 1871, Mr. Sizer wedded Elizabeth C. AAtkinson, daughter of David and Mary 11. ( Armstrong) Atkinson, who were natives of West Virginia. They have become parents of three children : Edward R., who resides in East Orange, New Jersey, and is inspector in the United States customs service . in New York City; Mrs. Fred E. Hurd, living at Council Bluffs; and William A., of the Shedd & Sizer Investment Company of Omaha.
The parents are members of the Holy Trinity church in which Mr. Sizer is a vestryman and in the work of the church they take active and helpful interest. That his influence is always on the side of moral progress and uplift is further indicated in the fact that he is now serving on the board of directors of the Young Men's Christian Association. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and fraternally he is connected with the Odd Fellows, the United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen, the Knights of Pythias, and the Red Men, being in hearty sympathy with the purpose of these different organizations which recognize the obligation of man to his fellows and which teach the prin- ciple of extending a helping hand wherever assistance is needed. He has made a most creditable name in connection with his public service, proving himself a loyal and progressive citizen and over the record of both his public career and his private life there falls no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil.
ALBERT O. FAULKNER.
Albert O. Faulkner is president and general manager of the Woodman Acci- dent Company, the oldest accident insurance company of Nebraska. He was formerly engaged in the practice of medicine, but turned to the insurance business and the wise and capable direction of his interests have brought him success and prominence in this field. He was born on a farm in Henry county, Iowa. April 4. 1859, and is a son of William and Margaret ( Johnson) Faulkner. The paternal grandfather. James Faulkner, who wa's a native of Virginia, was of Scotch descent and served with the American army in the War of 1812. In Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 17th of November, 1814, he married Rhoda Terry. Their son, William Faulkner, was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, November 20, 1826, and when eleven years of age, or in 1837, was taken by his parents to Henry county, Iowayjtheztrip being finaderfrom Indiana in a covered wagon, drawn by oxen. They were among the pioneers of that state and shared in all
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the hardships and privations incident to settlement upon the frontier. William Faulkner was married three times, his first wife being Harriet J. Wilmeth. Ilis second wife, who bore the maiden name of Margaret Johnson, had a family of seven children, including Albert O., who was ten years of age at the time of his mother's demise. Later the father married Permelia A. Palm, who still survives and is now living in Los Angeles, California. William Faulkner devoted his life to general farming, but died at the home of his son, Albert O., in Lincoln, December 26, 1900, his remains being interred in Wyuka cemetery. Of the seven children born of the second marriage, five are yet living : Wesley D., a resident of Sheridan, Wyoming; Josephine A., now the wife of John A. Campbell, of Omaha ; Albert O. ; Elmer E., a resident of Chicago ; and Alice E .. who is now the widow of Rev. John W. Hackley and is living in La Salle, Illinois. The two children who passed away in infancy were Mary E. and Margaret J. On the maternal side, the family comes of Swedish ancestry.
Dr. Faulkner was reared on a farm in Henry county, Iowa, and supple- mented his district school training by study in the schools of Mount Pleasant, remaining for a time as a student in the lowa Wesleyan University of that state. When his university course was completed he went to Seward county. Nebraska, where he engaged in teaching for one term, boarding during that time with a family who lived in a sod house. At times he had to fight the coyotes from the playgrounds surrounding the school house. Desiring to become a member of the medical profession, in the fall of 1880 he entered the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago and was graduated therefrom with the class of 1883. He then began practicing medicine in Fairfield. Jowa, and in 1884 he removed to York, Nebraska, where he continued in active practice for six and a half years. In 18go he came to Lincoln and has since devoted his attention to business pursuits largely concentrating his efforts upon insurance and real estate. He is the owner of the Fraternity building on the southeast corner of Thirteenth and N' streets, which he erected in 1895 in connection with W. E. Sharp and of which he is now sole owner with the exception of an eighth interest that is still retained by Mr. Sharp. This is one of Lincoln's most popular office buildings. While still living in York, Nebraska, in 1890 Dr. Faulkner organized the Woodmen Accident Company and removed its headquarters to Lincoln the same year. He has since been president and general manager of what is now the oldest accident insurance company of Nebraska, its business extending over fourteen states. Dr. Faulkner was also one of the pioneer promoters of the Modern Woodmen of America in Nebraska and was for some time its supreme medical examiner. He was likewise one of the promoters of the Lincoln Telephone Company and for some time was its treasurer. Ile aided in organizing the Citizen's Railway Company of Lincoln, of which he was one of the officers and for several years he was a director of the First National Bank of Lincoln. At the present time he is a director of the City National Bank. Whatever he undertakes he carries through to successful completion. He is a man of marked energy and notable business force, who readily recognizes the value of an opportunity.
On the 13th of December, 1883. in Fairfield, lowa. Dr. Faulkner was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Van Dorn and they have four living children : Edwin J .. Cora May, Albert Es,and Richard W _all in Lincoln, They also lost one son. Robert, who died Gazed.by Microsoft@ are members
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of the first Presbyterian church and for many years Dr. Faulkner has been chairman of its board of trustees. In politics he is a republican but has never sought nor desired political office. He belongs to the Commercial Club, the Country Club and the Automobile Club and is prominent in Masonic circles. His life has been one of continuous activity which has been accorded due recognition and today he is numbered among the substantial citizens of the capital. His interests are thoroughly identified with those of the state and at all times he is ready to lend his aid and co-operation to any movement calculated to benefit this section of the country or advance its wonderful development.
HENRY II. WILSON.
For thirty-five years a member of the Lincoln bar, Henry II. Wilson has, throughout that entire period, made continuous progress and has written his name high on the keystone of Nebraska's legal arch. While at all times careful to conform his practice to the highest professional ethics he has at the same time so guided his course in every relation that his name is honored and respected wherever known and most of all where he is best known. The law firm of which he is now a member, practicing under the firm style of Burkett, Wilson & Brown, is composed of Elmer J. Burkett, formerly United States senator. Henry H. Wilson and Elmer W. Brown, the last named being a nephew of Mr. Wilson.
Upon a farm near Fremont, Sandusky county, Ohio, on the ist of January, 1854, Henry H. Wilson was born. The father, Nathaniel Wilson, a farmer by occupation, was a native of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, born September 13, 1813, and was of Scotch-Irish descent. In 1841 he removed to Sandusky county, Ohio. He devoted several years of his early manhood to school teaching and after his marriage also continued to teach for a time. While engaged in ped- agogic work he walked each day three miles to his school and received the munificent sum of forty dollars for a three months' term, teaching six days in the week. From Sandusky county, Ohio, he removed to Saunders county, Ne- braska, in 1871, and in Green precinct secured a homestead claim, which he developed into a good farm. IIe died in Valparaiso, Nebraska. October 25, 1890, when seventy-seven years of age. Nathaniel Wilson was twice married, his first union being with Hannah Benscoter, who died in carly womanhood and in 1841 he wedded Mary Feasel, who was of English and Holland-Dutch descent and was born in Franklin county, Ohio, May 23, 1819. In the family were nine children. The son Henry H. was the seventh in order of birth and the eldest son. Only two are now living, the other being his sister, Mrs. Carolina Brown of Lincoln. The mother passed away September 8, 1874, just three and a half years after the family came to Nebraska. Mr. Wilson, however, sur- vived for a number of years. Ile was a Dunkard in religious faith and a leader in his church.
Ilenry H. Wilson spent his boyhood on a farm in Sandusky county, Ohio, and attended the nearby district school for about four months each year, one of
OSG his early teachers being the noted educator, Professor Il. B. Brown, who
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HENRY H. WILSON
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founded the Valparaiso University of Indiana and who, at the time Mr. Wilson was one of his pupils, was a young man less than twenty years of age. When a lad of sixteen Henry H. Wilson spent one term as a student in an academy at Bryan, Ohio, and he came to Nebraska with his parents when a youth of seven- teen years. Being the eldest son he assisted actively in establishing a home for the family and in the arduous task of developing the wild land, turning the first furrows in many of the fields. During the winter of 1871-72 he taught school in Sarpy county, which adjoins Sandusky county on the east, and in the spring of the latter year he attended the Nebraska State Normal school at Peru for three months, after which he spent the summer in work upon his father's farm. Later he taught another winter term in Sarpy county and spent another summer in the work of the fields. In September, 1873, he matriculated in the University of Nebraska, in which he continued his studies for five years, doing six years' work in that period and paying his own way all through the university, earning the money as an employe of the Marsh Harvester Company, his special work being to set up the machines for the farmers and teach them how to operate them. He also earned some money as a traveling correspondent for the Omaha Bee, devoting the summer months to these activities. In the university he became a prominent member of the literary and debating societies and of the latter was president. He was also business manager and editor of the Hesperian, which was the University periodical of that time, these honors falling to him during his junior and senior years. He won the Bachelor of Philosophy degree in 1878 and in 1885 the university conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree, and in 1895 the degree of Master of Laws.
Before his graduation in 1878 Mr. Wilson entered into a contract to become superintendent of the schools of Seward, Nebraska, and was also principal and the only instructor in the high school. He served the Seward schools thus for two years and during that period entered upon the study of law. On the 2d of May, 1880, he became an employe in the law office of Lamb, Billingsley & Lambertson of Lincoln, agreeing to take care of the office and library, sweep the rooms and do other similar service for which he was to be paid twelve dollars and a half per month for the first eight months and twenty-five dollars per month for the next year. During this period he continued his law studies at every available opportunity, his reading being directed by his employers and on the 2d of February, 1881, he was admitted to the bar. He continued with the same firm, however, until November of that year when he entered into partnership with Arnott C. Ricketts under the firm style of Ricketts & Wilson. In November, 1882, they were joined by Mr. Wilson's former preceptor. Walter J. Lamb, under the firm name of Lamb, Ricketts & Wilson, which connection continued until November, 1892, when Mr. Lamb withdrew and the name of Ricketts & Wilson was resumed. In 1899 they dissolved partnership to enter upon other connections, Mr. Ricketts being joined by his son, while Mr. Wilson admitted his nephew, Elmer W. Brown, as a partner under the firm name of Wilson & Brown. The latter partnership was maintained unchanged until 1908. when United States Senator Elmer J. Burkett joined the firm under the firm style of Burkett, Wilson & Brown. In his law practice, which has been con- stantly growing in volume and importance, Mr Wilson has been identified with Microsoft (R) five notable cases heard before the United States suprente court, One of the five Vol. II-11
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being a celebrated case, that of Arndt vs. Griggs. It has become the leading case on the power of the state over the title to lands lying within its borders. Mr. Wilson was admitted to practice before the United States supreme court October 11, 1893. He has been interested as counsel in over three hundred cases heard in the supreme court of Nebraska, covering almost every class of litiga- tion which has reached that court. He has tried cases in fifty of the counties of Nebraska and has practiced in all the adjoining states. In 1889 he was invited to aid in organizing the Central Law School of Lincoln, a private institution, of which he became a member of the faculty. In 18of this school became the law department of the University of Nebraska with. its entire faculty as teachers, and Mr. Wilson is yet a member of its faculty, remaining as legal instructor in the school for twenty-five years. No doubt fully one-third of the lawyers of this state have received at least a portion of their professional training from him. He was one of the chief counsels in the famous gubernatorial contest of 1890, appearing for Governor Powers, populist, against Governor Boyd, demo- crat. Mr. Wilson argued the constitutional questions involved in that contest before the state supreme court. In 1888 he was selected by the university alumni and appointed by the board of regents to prosecute before that board the charges filed against the chancellor of the university alleging incompetence and malfeasance in office which resulted in the board demanding the resignation of the chancellor. Mr. Wilson carries a fine gold watch today bearing the date July 18, 1888, the day on which he made the closing argument, the watch coming to him as a present from the members of the faculty of the university. He is recognized as one of the most scholarly lawyers of the state. Besides his mastery of our own system of jurisprudence he is broadly read in ancient law and espe- cially in the elaborate and finished system of Roman law.
Mr. Wilson is a most earnest republican and while not a politician in the usually accepted sense of the term, he has been most loyal to his party and earnest in his efforts to secure the adoption of its principles. In 1902 he was the candidate of Lincoln and of Lancaster county for the republican nomination for governor of Nebraska but was defeated in the convention although he had the support of many of the ablest men of the state-men who desire that the office shall be filled not by the professional politician but by the one whose intel- lectual force, business ability and public-spirited citizenship eminently qualify him for the position. In 1904 Mr. Wilson was a presidential elector for Ne- braska on the Roosevelt ticket. In addition to his prominence at the bar and in politics, Mr. Wilson has become well known in financial circles, being a director of the Lincoln State Bank and vice president of the Lincoln Savings & Loan Association.
On the 22d of June. 1882, Mr. Wilson was married to Miss Emma Parks, who was graduated from the State University in 1880 and who is a daughter of Benjamin D. Parks, captain of Company D of the Twenty-second Iowa In- fantry during the Civil war. He was killed in the second battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Ann Farnsworth, after living a widow for over fifty years, passed away recently at the age of eighty-one. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have four living children: Helen, a student at the Art Institute of. Chicago; Edith, the wife of Paul T. Bell of Oakland, California ; Ralph P., a lawyer of Lincoln , and Walter F., a student of archi-
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tecture in Columbia University. Both parents and all four children are gradu- ates of the academic department of the State University and three of the six hold the scholarship degree of Phi Beta Kappa.
Mr. Wilson has always been deeply interested in every plan and project for the betterment of civic and social conditions in Lincoln and for many years he was a member of the school board of the city. He is a thirty-third degree Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. lle has passed practically all of the chairs in the various branches of the order and is a past potentate of Sesostris Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. of Lincoln and is a past master of Kadosh in the consistory. He attends and loyally supports the First Congregational church. In the strict path of his profession he has connection with the Lancaster County, the Ne- braska State and the American Bar Associations and has been honored with the presidency of the first two.
When his friends were urging him strongly to become a candidate for the nomination for governor, The Courier of Lincoln said of him: "In all his instincts and feelings Mr. Wilson is still a young man. This is traceable to the inborn enthusiasm that is so marked a characteristic. For a number of years he has been an instructor of the law class of the State University, and this intimate association with young men has been the fount from which he has renewed his youth. As an instructor he is very popular. In all the years of his activities in Lincoln Mr. Wilson has invariably stood for that which is soundest morally and best for man. He is an independent thinker, firm in his convictions, with the ability to expound his beliefs and defend his principles. Some of these qualities bar men from hopes of political preferment, and the possession of them has heretofore shut the door of political ambition to H. II. Wilson. That it pays even in politics to be honest, sturdy and unflinching is proven by the fact that in the present crisis of the party many have turned to Mr. Wilson and asked him to stand for governor. Like all men who have the gift of oratory Mr. Wilson has a dramatic quality of utterance and a poise that have been mis- taken by many indifferent observers for austerity. Professional life with a man of studious habits, has a tendency to enwrap one in a mantle of self-concentra- tion that can easily be mistaken for aloofness. While in fact Mr. Wilson is a man of keen interest in his fellows and an active concern in affairs, he has had the misfortune to be misunderstood by some in matters which a closer personal friendship soon dispels. That this is true is proven by the high esteem and wide popularity he has achieved in those fraternal, professional and social organiza- tions in which he has been most active."
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