USA > Nebraska > Lancaster County > Lincoln > Lincoln, the capital city and Lancaster County, Nebraska, Volume II > Part 4
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John O. Rowland is indebted for his early education to the public schools of lowa and later attended the Bellevue College at Bellevue, Nebraska, and a business college at Lincoln. On entering the business world he became asso- ciated with his father in business at Avoca, but in 1907 he removed to Bethany and engaged in the lumber business in partnership with L. L. Turner. They also dealt in coal and hardware, and their association continued for a year, after which our subject and his father bought out Mr. Turner's interest, remain- ing the owners until 1910. In that year .A. E. Cutler, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this book, was admitted to partnership in what is still known as the Rowland Lumber Company. The firm conducts two lumberyards and also a hardware store. John O. Rowland having charge of one yard and Mr. Cutler being manager of the other yard and the hardware business. The company has gained an enviable reputation for reliability and fair dealing and theirs is one of the leading enterprises of Bethany.
Mr. Rowland was united in marriage on the 20th of June, 1809. to Miss Ethelyn Clary, and they are the parents of four children, namely : Gerald C., who was born on the 4th of June, 1901; Helen .A., born November 29, 1902; Ralph S., born May 7, 1905 ; and Howard, born October 28, 1907.
The republican party has a stalwart adherent in Mr. Rowland, and he has served acceptably on the town board and on the school board, doing all in his power to promote the public welfare. He holds membership in the Christian church, whose teachings govern his life, and he is highly esteemed by all who know him because of his ability and his many excellent traits of character.
HERBERT COLLIER PROBASCO.
Herbert Collier Probasco, who was the efficient and popular assistant cashier of the Nebraska State Bank of Lincoln, was born in Geneva, New York, on the 6th of February, 1870, of the marriage of Charles and Mary ( Jackson) Probasco, natives respectively of New Jersey and West Virginia. In 1882 the family removed to Iowa, but after farming there for a year the father decided to try his fortune in Nebraska and accordingly removal was made to Blue Hill. He farmed in that vicinity until 1893, when he retired and took up his residence in Lincoln, where he passed away on the 2d of November, 1902. His wife survived for a number of years, her demise occurring in June, 1915. Their daughter, Alice, the wife of C. J. Pope of Red Cloud, Nebraska, is the last of the family with the exception of the children of our subject.
Herbert Collier Probasco was reared in New York, Iowa and Nebraska and received his education in the schools of these states. When seventeen years of age he began teaching and followed that profession for seven years, having charge of schools at Grand Island. Blue Hill and Red Cloud, and during the last year of his professional experience teaching/in/unSPrescofi school at Lin-
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coln. lle next went to the Black Hills in South Dakota and remained there until 1901, hoping that an outdoor life would benefit his health. At the end of that time he returned to Lincohi and for a year engaged in the insurance busi- ness, after which he became connected with the Farmers & Merchants Bank, which had just been organized. He received the first deposit made in the bank. Subsequently he became cashier and assisted in directing its policy until it was sold to the Nebraska State Bank. He became assistant cashier of the latter institution and held that position until his death on the 5th of August, 1915. He was thoroughly familiar with the minutiae of bank practice and also had that grasp of large financial problems essential to the bank official and his record was highly creditable.
Mr. Probasco was married on the 15th of August, 1906, to Grace W. Will- rett. Her parents, Joseph and Elizabeth ( Buerer ) Willrett, were born in De Kalb county, Illinois, where the latter farmed during his active life, and is now living retired, residing in the city of De Kalb. To Mr. and Mrs. Probasco were born three children: Herbert Willrett, born February 26, 1909: Charles Joseph, whose birth occurred on the 16th of July, 1911 ; and Hope Collier, born Novem- ber 20, 1915.
Mr. Probasco was independent in politics, voting in accordance with his best judgment rather than following the commands of a party leader. He gave much time to the study of the life of AAbraham Lincoln and was an ardent admirer of that great American. He held membership in the Methodist church ; for ten years was church treasurer ; and for twelve years had charge of the choir. Fraternally he belonged to the Royal Arcanum and the Fraternal Aid, and the spirit of helpfulness was manifested in his daily life. He purchased a comfortable resi- dence at 1710 D street and there his family still live. In all relations of life he measured up to high standards of manhood, and his death, which occurred when he was in the prime of life, was recognized as a loss to his community.
JULIUS C. HARPHAM.
Julius C. Harpham, president of the Harpham Brothers Company, wholesale saddlers of Lincoln, occupies a position of distinction in trade circles in the United States as the president of the Wholesale Saddlery Association. A spirit of enterprise and progress has actuated him at every point in his career, and step by step he has steadily advanced, his course being marked by an orderly progression that has brought him to a position of leadership.
He was born upon a farm near Richmond, Wayne county, Indiana, February 14, 1855, and in the paternal line is of English and Scotch descent, the Ilarphams originally living in Lincolnshire, England, where many generations of the family were represented. The American branch was founded by Stephen Harpham, who came to the United States soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, accompanied by two of his brothers, James and John. The descendants of tivo of these brothers are now numerous in this country, the other brother never having married Stephen Harpham took up hiszabode near Syracuse. New York. The line of descent is traced down to Henry Harpham, father of Julius
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C. Harpham, who was born near Syracuse but became a citizen of Wayne county, Indiana, in 1854. His entire life was devoted to agricultural pursuits. In 1858, when his son Julius was but three years of age, he removed with his family to Whiteside county, Illinois, and there transformed the virgin prairie soil into a highly developed farm, making it his place of residence until his death, which occurred in 1861, when but thirty-one years of age, resulting from an attack of typhoid fever. His widow, whose maiden name was Elsie A. Cooper, still survives at the advanced age of eighty-four years and has lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, or vicinity for the past thirty years, her home being now at College View, one of the suburbs of Lincoln. She was married to Mr. Harpham in Ohio county, Indiana, in 1853 and became the mother of five children, but the first born, a daughter, died unnamed. The other four, all sons, are Julius C., Charles Frank, John N. and Henry. The two oldest and the youngest reside in Lincoln, Nebraska, while John N. is a resident of Sterling, Illinois. The three brothers living in Lincoln compose the wholesale saddlery firm of Harpham Brothers Company, Julius C. being the president and treasurer, Charles F. vice president and secretary, while Henry is also a partner in the concern.
Julius C. Harpham was but six years of age at the time of his father's death and was largely reared in the home of an uncle in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he acquired much of his education. He left school, however, at the age of sixteen years and began learning the saddler's trade as an apprentice in Sterling. Illinois, serving for a three years' term, during which he was paid twenty-five dollars for the first year's work, fifty for the second, and seventy-five for the third. When he had completed his trade at the age of nineteen he remained in the employ of the man with whom he had learned the business and who was his uncle. John Harpham, of Sterling. He continued with him for two years more, or five years in all, and then in 1876, when twenty-one years of age, he returned to Indianapolis and entered the employ of Gordon Kurtz & Company, wholesale saddlers, as a traveling salesman. He occupied that position for six years and thus acquainted himself with every phase of the business. In 1882 he went to Peoria, Illinois, where for two years he conducted a retail harness store on his own account.
In 1884. Mr. Harpham removed his entire stock and tools to Lincoln, Nebraska, and here opened a retail and wholesale harness business as the partner of A. J. Gustin. The firm of Harpham & Gustin continued until 1888. when J. C. Harpham and his brother, Charles F., purchased the interest of Mr. Gustin and established the firm of Harpham Brothers. This business was con- verted into an exclusive wholesale enterprise in 1888 and in 1900 was incorporated under the present firm name of the Harpham Brothers Company. The firm has now been in existence for twenty-seven years as the exclusive property of the Harphams. The wholesale saddlery concern of Harpham Brothers Company is today the largest of the kind in the state of Nebraska and is represented on the road by seven traveling salesmen. Its ramifying trade interests now cover a broad territory, and the house maintains an unassailable reputation for enter- prise and business integrity and reliability. That he occupies a prominent posi- tion as a farsighted, sagacious and progressive man is indicated in the fact that he is now the president of the Wholesalers Saddlery Association of the United States. having been first electoi tizChicago jin /19iq andSeetette at the annual
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meeting in San Francisco in 1915, so that he is now serving for the second term and presided over the deliberations of the convention at San Francisco. In addition to his connection with the saddlery trade he is a director of the Central National Bank of Lincoln.
On the ist of December, 1880, Mr. Harpham was married to Miss Elizabeth llubbard, who died September 19, 1882. On the 26th of March. 1886, he wedded Mrs. Clara B. Cook, nee Gustin, and their children are Edna May, James H. and Dorothy Maud, the latter now the wife of Phil Southwick. a son of 1. E. Southwick, of Lincoln, who is well known in banking circles throughout the state.
In politics Mr. Harpham is a republican and for three consecutive terms and one other term he served as a member of the Lincoln excise board, which had complete control over the police regulations, liquor interests, saloons and the health department of the city. In 1912 he was a delegate to the republican national convention at Chicago and as an ardent supporter of Theodore Roosevelt was a member of the famous three hundred and six delegates who refused to vote for a candidate under the steam roller rules which a majority of the national committee had adopted and which virtually eliminated the candidacy of Roosevelt. In 1914 Mr. Harpham was a candidate on the progressive ticket for the state office of railway commissioner, consenting to make the race solely from the standpoint of patriotism. He takes a most active interest in all matters for the betterment of Lincoln and stands stanchly in support of those things which are a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and Mystic Shriner and belongs to the Elks, the Royal Highlanders and the Modern Woodmen of America. He was one of the four men who organized the Lincoln Commercial Club in 1894 and served as first president in 1897 of the Reorganized Club, a consolidation of the Lincoln Commercial Club with the Union Club. He was a prominent factor in benevolent work and is now vice president of the Lincoln Charity Organization Society. The foregoing will indicate that his interests are not self-centered but reach out along the broader lines that affect humanity and promote the welfare of his fellowmen. He is alert, enterprising and progressive and studies public questions with the same thoroughness that has marked his understanding of his private business interests. Thus it is that he is actuated by the spirit of true American patriotism which recognizes conditions, needs and opportunities and in working toward high ideals utilizes practical methods.
BURTON ARTHUR GEORGE.
Burton Arthur George, the senior member of the firm of George Brothers, composed of Burton A. and Rollin H. George, high class printers, engravers and office stationers, has been a resident of Lincoln since 1885. or for more than three decades. In that period he has taken an active part in all civic affairs and in all movements which have been undertaken for the growth and improve- ment of the city and its environment. His labors have been resultant, far- reaching and beneficialitized by Microsoft ®
1
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Wisconsin claims Mr. George as a native son, his birth having occurred in Brookfield, that state, October 15, 1871. His father William A. George, a newspaper man and publisher, was born in New England and during the Civil war served for three years with the Union army as a member of Company B. Fifth Wisconsin Regiment, commanded by Colonel Amasa Cobb, who later be- came a prominent citizen of Lincoln. Mr. George, who was a corporal in his company, was three times wounded while in service, twice suffering severe injuries. One of the bullets that struck him undoubtedly would have proven fatal but for the fact that it hit a small book in his pocket and thus its force was somewhat checked and its course deflected. During the greater part of his active career William A, George was a resident of Wisconsin, having removed from New England to that state prior to the period of hostilities between the north and the south. He had learned the printer's trade in early life and after the war he became a prominent figure in newspaper circles in Wisconsin, being at one time a partner in the ownership and conduct of the Milwaukee Sentinel. Later he became the founder of the Washington County Republican, published at Hartford, Wisconsin, remaining its editor and publisher for several years. He afterward sold that paper and in 188t removed to Nebraska, settling at Exeter, where he continued until his death in 1883. He had been married in Brookfield, Wisconsin, late in the '6os to Mary M. Barnes, and four children, three sons and a daughter, were born to them, but Burton A. and his brother Rollin H., are the only ones now living. The eldest, a daughter, died in infancy, and the youngest, Harry, died of measles at the age of six years. After the death of the father Mrs. George spent her last years in Lincoln, here passing away in 1910.
The early boyhood of Burton A. George was divided between Hartford, Wisconsin, and Exeter, Nebraska, prior to his removal to Lincoln in 1885. All his schooling was obtained in those two places before he reached the age of twelve years. Upon his arrival in Lincoln, when he was fourteen years of age, he entered the employ of the late Colonel J. D. Calhoun, then editor and owner of the Daily State Democrat, and in connection with the mechanical department of that paper he served a full apprenticeship at the printer's trade. He was employed by Colonel Calhoun and by his successors, the firm of Cox & Bushnell, for eight years and was advanced from the position of office boy to that of foreman of the mechanical department. Later he was employed in the office of the Nebraska State Journal for a year as assistant night foreman, after which he and his brother, Rollin H., established the present firm of George Brothers in June, 1894. Their plant today is one of Lincoln's foremost business institutions, turning out printing and engraving of the highest class, indicating expert work- manship and capable business management. Their trade has assumed extensive proportions and the enterprise is today one of the profitable industries of the city. Our subject has served on the board of directors of the Cushman Motor Works for six years and is now vice president of this growing manufacturing concern.
On the 15th of October. 1893, Mr. George was married to Miss I illie Bridges, of Cortland, Nebraska. He is identified with several fraternal organizations, being a Scottish Rite Mason, a Mystic Shriner, a Knight of Pythias and also a member of the Maccabecy and fin Royal Highlanders.Suel-Glso identified with
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several local organizations which have to do with the best interests of the city as well as with the more important features of its social life. He belongs to the Rotary Club, the Country Club, and the Lincoln Commercial Club, and is one of the directors of the last named and chairman of its good roads committee. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Lincoln Manufacturers Associa- tion, one of the directors of the Automobile Club and former president of the Omaha-Lincoln-Denver Highway Association and of the Lincoln Automobile Club. He is particularly interested in the subject of improving public highways and has done effective work along that line.
In politics Mr. George is a republican and for seven years served as a member of the city council from the seventh ward, after which he declined to again become a candidate. He was president of the council for two years and while a member thereof he served on the committees which established the city's present fine park system and was also a member of other important committees, including those on gas and traction. He took the initial step in bringing about the legisla- tion which built the Tenth street viaduct and also which resulted in the sale of six tickets for twenty-five cents on the street cars. He was likewise instrumental in helping pass the dollar gas ordinance. He worked effectively and untiringly to promote the welfare and interests of the public and to raise the standards of municipal improvement. He has been again and again solicited to accept the candidacy for other political honors but would never consent, although since leaving the city council he has continued to take an active part in civic affairs and the trees, numbering two hundred and five, which adorn West P street, were planted as a result of his individual efforts. He collected over one thousand two hundred dollars by private subscription and this sum was used in pavi . this important boulevard from the west into the city. In all his public serv. : he has looked beyond the exigencies of the moment to the needs, possibilities and opportunities of the future, laboring for the later as well as for the present generation. flis plans have ever been well defined and have made such strong appeal to the civic pride of his fellow townsmen as to secure hearty indorsement and support. His work in this particular has been of great benefit and value and at the same time he has largely forwarded the material welfare of his city through the establishment and successful conduct of his business.
PHILIP L. WEBSTER.
Among the business enterprises of Havelock which contribute to the material development and substantial upbuilding of the city is the jewelry store of Philip L. Webster, who began business here in 1901. He was born in Rhode Island. February 15, 1869, his parents being John and Martha (Tourgee ) Webster, who were also natives of that state and there spent their entire lives.
Philip L. Webster passed his boyhood in his native town of Peace Dale and at the age of twenty years turned his attention to the jewelry business. He worked at the bench for a time and later embarked in business on his own account. In 1892 he came to Nebraska and for a short period was employed in Lincoln, by thejewelry firmyof 6Nel & Gardner. He then removed to
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Tamora, Seward county, Nebraska, where he conducted business for seven years, and in June, 1901, he came to Havelock. Here he opened a store for the sale of jewelry and optical goods and has since remained active in the trade, being accorded a liberal patronage, so that his business has reached very desirable proportions.
In 1896 Mr. Webster was united in marriage to Miss Julia Anna Henderson, who was born in Illinois and was taken to Seward county, Nebraska, when two years old. She is a daughter of Samuel and Hannah Elizabeth (Mercer) Henderson, the former of whom is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Webster have four children : Stanley C., Julia Fern, Philip Neil and Elizabeth Martha. The last named was the prize baby in her class at the state fair in 1915. The wife and mother is a member of the Congregational church and Mr. Webster belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Royal Arcanum. Since 1902 he has conducted the Havelock Military Band. His political support is given the republican party and he has been called upon to serve in several public offices, being for four years city clerk and four years city treasurer, as well as a member of the school board. He is unfaltering in his allegiance to all those forces which have proven most worth while in the public life of the community and is accounted one of the valued citizens of Havelock.
CHARLES STUART.
! Charles Stuart is secretary and treasurer of the Nebraska Buick Automobile Chpany, which was organized in 1909. They are dealers in automobiles and accessories and they occupy the Stuart building at the southeast corner of Thirteenth and P streets in Lincoln, while in Omaha and in Sioux City they have branch establishments. Other business interests have claimed the attention and profited by the cooperation of Mr. Stuart, whose energies and initiative make him one of the representative and prominent young business men of the city. Nebraska, therefore, is proud to claim him among her native sons. He was born in Madison in 1884, his parents being James and Lillie A. ( Eaton ) Stuart, who were natives of Connecticut and in the year 1878 arrived in Nebraska. settling in Madison, where the father embarked in the banking business. Ile gradually extended his efforts over a broad fiekl, becoming the head of banks at Madison, Tillen, Norfolk and Elgin. In 1894 he removed to Lincoln, where he passed away in 1808. His widow, however, still resides in the capital.
Charles Stuart pursued his education in schools of Nebraska and of Cali- fornia, completing his course in the Nebraska State University. He was a young man of twenty-five years when he embarked in his present business as a partner in the Nebraska Buick Automobile Company, with II. E. Sidles as presi- dent and R. H. Collins, vice president. Mr. Stuart holds the office of secretary and treasurer and is active in the management of this business, which is now extended over a wide territory and has reached most gratifying proportions. Something of the volume of their trade is indicated in the fact that they occupy a five-story building in Lincoln and employ seventy-seven people, making theirs one of the foremost automobilet concerns of the Gate.Son! Stuart is also a
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director of the Lincoln Telephone Company, of the First National Bank, the First Savings Bank, the First Trust Company and the Lincoln Traction Com- pany. He built and owns the Lyric theater, was one of the organizers and developers of Electric Park, is the vice president of the Madison National Bank at Madison, Nebraska, and a director of the Tilden National Bank at Tiklen, Nebraska. In his business life he is a persistent, resolute and energetic worker, possessing strong executive powers. He readily recognizes the possibilities of every new avenue opened in the natural ramifications of trade. He readily discrimi- nates between the essential and the non-essential and he therefore passes over the pitfalls into which unrestricted progressiveness is so frequently led and has focused his energies in directions where fruition is certain.
In 19to Mr. Stuart was married to Miss Marie Talbot, a daughter of A. R. Talbot, head consul for the Modern Woodmen of America, and they have one child, Charles, now four years of age. Mr. Stuart is a member of the First Congregational church, which indicates, his interest in those moral forces working for the uplift of the community, and he belongs to the Commercial Club, a fact indicative of his interest in the plans and projects for municipal and civic progress and improvements. His ability and his ambition make him a dynamic force in the business world and he stands among those for whom success is a certainty because he possesses the qualities which are indispensable thereto.
GEORGE P. TUCKER.
Among those who won public regard through ability and enterprise in busi- ness and through the possession of many sterling traits of character was George 1'. Tucker, now deceased. He was regarded as a citizen whom the community could ill afford to lose but death claimed him and he passed on. Ile was born in Walworth, Wayne County, New York, Stepember 28, 1834, a son of Luther and Elmira ( Kent ) Tucker, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of Wayne county, New York. The father engaged in merchandising in the Empire state throughout the entire period of his business career and there passed away in 1838. His widow long survived him, dying in 1889.
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