USA > Nebraska > Lancaster County > Lincoln > Lincoln, the capital city and Lancaster County, Nebraska, Volume II > Part 75
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Mr. Graham belongs To the /Episcopal church, while his wife holds member-
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ship in the Catholic church. In politics he is a democrat and fraternally is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America. He has never regretted his determination to come to the new world for here he has found the oppor- tunities which he sought and has worked his way upward, winning a position among the substantial farmers and representative citizens of Lancaster county.
S. G. ZEMER, M. D.
Dr. S. G. Zemer, specializing in the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat and practicing in Lincoln as a member of the firm of Hompes & Zemer, was born in Lockport, Shelby county, Ohio, on the 19th of February, 1883. a son of Peter C. and Margaret (Gartley) Zemer, who were also natives of the Buckeye state. The father has been identified with educational work throughout his entire life and at the present time is superintendent of the city schools of Mount Vernon, Ohio, being recognized as one of the eminent educa- tors connected with public instruction in that state.
With the removal of the family Dr. Zemer pursued his education in various places and was graduated from the high school of Celina, Ohio, in 1900. He afterward attended the Ohio State University for two years and through the succeeding two years engaged in teaching, being made principal of the South Charleston schools. In 1907 he entered the University of Chicago, from which he was graduated with the class of 1909, winning the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science, his course having been a very broad and liberal one. Upon this excellent foundation he builded the superstructure of profes- sional knowledge, for following his graduation from the University of Chicago he entered Rush Medical College of that city and completed his course in 1912, winning the M. D. degree. While studying there he specialized in the treatment of the eye, ear, nose and throat and after his graduation he served an interneship in St. Luke's Hospital of Chicago. His health having become impaired through his close application during his college days, he then went to New Mexico and for nine months practiced in Santa Rita, there regaining his normal condition. In February, 1915, he came to Lincoln and entered upon the practice of his profession independently but on the Ist of January, 1916, joined Dr. J. J. Hompes in the present partnership relation, with offices in the Ganter block. He is well versed in all the modern methods of scientific treatment in the line of his specialty and his ability is being proven by the excellent results which are attend- ing his practice.
On the 20th of September. 1915, Dr. Zemer was united in marriage to Miss Virginia Rogers, of Lincoln. He is a member of the Greek letter fraternities, Alpha Tau Omega and Phi Rho Sigma, and of Silver City (New Mexico) Lodge, No. 413, B. P. O. E. He also belongs to the Presbyterian church and his life in its various relations is guided by high ideals. Professionally his connection is with the Lancaster County Medical Society, the Nebraska State Medical Associa- Digitized By Microson
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tion and the American Medical Association, and the breadth of his interests is further indicated in the fact that he is a member of the National Academy of Science. He is yet a young man, but thorough preliminary study, close applica- tion and laudable ambition have already brought him to a creditable point in professional circles and he is now well advanced on the high road to success.
WALTER A. GUTHRIE.
Walter A. Guthrie, who is concentrating his energies upon the operation of one hundred and sixty acres of good land in North Bluff precinct, was born at Schuyler, Nebraska, on the 3d of April, 1891. His parents, C. A. and Lulu ( Payton ) Guthrie, were born respectively at Grafton, Illinois, and at Clarinda, Jowa. The father removed from his native state to Jowa and thence to Nebraska but subsequently returned to Iowa. Still later he located two miles north of Havelock in North Bluff precinct, Lancaster county, Nebraska, and there followed agricultural pursuits for many years. In 1913 he retired and is now living in Clay Center, Kansas.
Walter A. Guthrie, who is the third in order of birth in a family of eight children, received a good public school education in Iowa and also took a course in music at the Nebraska Wesleyan University at University Place. He resided with his parents until 1913, when he was married and removed to Clay Center, Kansas. He farmed in that vicinity for two years but at the end of that time returned to Lancaster county and took up his residence upon the homestead of his father-in-law, Levi Martin Wilhelm, which is located in North Bluff precinct. The place comprises one hundred and sixty acres, all of which is in a high state of cultivation and which is improved with excellent buildings. He follows general farming, growing large crops of grain and also engaging in stock raising to some extent, and his industry, his enterprise and his good judgment insure his continued success in his chosen occupation.
Mr. Guthrie was married on the 30th of January, 1913, to Miss Mildred Wilhelm, a daughter of Levi Martin and Sarah Etta (Cunningham) Wilhelm, both of whom were born in Washington county, Ohio. On her mother's side she is descended from one of the oldest American families, the ancestry having been traced back to the famous Captain Miles Standish. The family homestead was totally unimproved when Mr. Wilhelm purchased it but as the years passed he made it one of the best equipped places of the precinct. In 1908 he retired from active life, and he and his wife are now living at Havelock. More extended mention of them is found elsewhere in this work. To Mr. and Mrs. Guthrie has been born a son, David Luther, whose natal day was the 13th of December, 1915.
Mr. Guthrie gives his political allegiance to the republican party but has con- fined his activity in public affairs to the exercise of his right of franchise. His religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal church, and fraternally he is identified with the@gadtlenow ao Havelockrand with the Daughters of Rebekalı,
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to which his wife also belongs. He is held in high esteem wherever known and most of all where best known, and his friends predict for him continued success.
GEORGE HARVEY HOLDEN.
George Ilarvey Holden, vice president and general manager of the Western Glass & Paint Company of Lincoln and having active control of this enterprise, which conducts a large wholesale business, covering much of the territory of the northwest, is everywhere recognized as a forceful and resourceful business man, alert, energetic and determined. He was born in Washington, lowa, Febru- ary 18, 1866, and is a son of John Harvey and Mary Jane ( Marsden) Holden. The father was born in Rush county, Indiana, but at an early age went to lowa, where he was reared, obtaining his education in the public schools of Washing- ton county and the high schools of the city of Washington. He there became a merchant and was not only a leading representative of the commercial interests of that place but was also very active in politics. In 1869 he received appoint- ment to an official position in the United States treasury at Washington, D. C., and there remained for eighteen years. On the expiration of that period he returned to Washington, Iowa, in 1887 and there he passed away in 1889. His wife was born in Baltimore, Maryland, obtained her education in a convent school there and was afterward married in Baltimore. She then 'accompanied her husband to lowa and is now living in Washington with her three daughters. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. John Harvey Holden were eight children, of whom six are yet living, namely: Charles Marsden, a broker of Burlington, lowa ; Nora and lda, both at home; George Harvey, of this review; Bertha, the wife of William Babb, a merchant of Chicago, Illinois ; and Inez, who lives with her mother at Washington, Iowa.
George Harvey Holden was but three years of age when he accompanied his parents on their removal from Washington, Iowa, to Washington, D. C., and there he acquired his early education in the public schools, while later he attended the Washington Academy, in which he made a special study of chem- istry. Following his graduation there he returned to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and traveled as a salesman for a chemical house. He afterward removed to Denver, Colorado, where he resided for eighteen years and was president of the Denver Laundry Machine Company, a subsidiary organization of the American Laundry Machine Company, a trust of New York city. His business ability is indicated in the fact that he was chosen as president of the Denver organization, where he successfully managed its interests for many years.
In 1911 Mr. Holden removed to Lincoln to become active in the control of the Western Glass & Paint Company as vice president and general manager. He had been financially interested here for some time before and in 1910 was elected vice president. He is now active in the control of the enterprise, which conducts a large wholesale business all over the northwest, its territory covering Montana, Utah, Wyoming and other states, and in addition the company does a large wholesale and retail business in LincolnicOf this company Thomas P. Kennard, father-in-law of George H. Holden, is the president.
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In Lincoln Mr. Holden was united in marriage to Miss Lulu Kennard, her father being Thomas P. Kennard, a sketch of whom is given on another page of this work. llis history is inseparably interwoven with that of Lincoln, consti- tuting an important chapter in the annals of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Holden have a son, Thomas Kennard, who was born in Lincoln on the 4th of June, 1888, and was reared in Lincoln and in Denver, Colorado. He attended the Kearney (Ncb.) Military Academy and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and is now the northwestern representative of the Western Glass & Paint Company, residing at Billings, Montana.
Mr. Holden has a beautiful home which he erected at No. 2042 Pepper avenue in Lincoln and which he calls Nikka Villa. It is a most attractive place and its hospitality adds to the charm of its beauty and harmonious furnishings. It contains much to delight the eye and everything to add to the comfort, and Nikka Villa is regarded as one of Lincoln's notable homes. Mr. Holden is iden- tified with no fraternal organizations. He attends the Christian Science church and in politics is an earnest republican.
JOHN MILLS MAYHEW, A. M., M. D.
Dr. John Mills Mayhew, one of the foremost practitioners of internal medi- cine in Lincoln, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 13th of June, 1873, a son of Peter and Alice ( Mills) Mayhew, both of whom were natives of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and both were of old Revolutionary stock and of English ancestry. One of the ancestors in the paternal line, Thomas Mayhew, was appointed governor of Martha's Vineyard in 1642. In the maternal line the family has been represented quite as long in the new world, early representa- tives of the name also settling at Martha's Vineyard. Peter Mayhew, the father, was a civil engineer and died in Cincinnati, Ohio, while engaged in con- struction work of which he had charge. His wife passed away in Chicago.
Dr. Mayhew completed a course in Princeton University, in New Jersey, with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1892, while in 1803 the Master of Arts degree was conferred upon him. His professional course was pursued in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Chicago, from which he was graduated with the class of 1806. He located for practice in Chicago and for eight years resided at No. 870 Warren avenue, with offices in the Reliance building. In 1905 he came to Lincoln, where in the intervening period of ten years he has built up an extensive practice, ranking at the head of the practitioners of internal medicine in the state. Colleagues and contemporaries recognize his superior ability and talent for this branch of professional activity and his opinions are largely accepted as authority.
In 1899, in Chicago, Dr. Mayhew was united in marriage to Miss Grace Busbey, by whom he has three children: Winifred; and Ruth and Katherine, twins. Dr. Mayhew is a member of the Lancaster County Medical Society, the Medical Society of Missouri Valley, the Mississippi Valley Medical Society, the Nebraska State MedicalAssociationandrtbs American Medical Association.
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That his interests are broad is indicated in the fact that he is a member of Lincoln Lodge, No. 80, B. P. O. E .; of the Lincoln Country Club, in which he finds recreation and rest from arduous professional cares; and in the Lincoln Commercial Club, which indicates his interest in those projects which have to do most with the upbuilding and development of his city. He is a broad-minded man, actuated by the spirit of progress in all that he undertakes, and his ability has brought him to the front rank among Nebraska's most able physicians.
OLIVER P. WILSON.
Oliver P. Wilson, who in his later years lived practically retired in Lincoln, passed away in January, 1915, at the age of about seventy years. He was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in March, 1845, a son of Joshua and Rosannah ( Spillers) Wilson, the former a native of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and the latter of Ohio. He represented one of the old families of Pennsylvania, being a deseendant of Rebecca Cambay, who was one of the colonists who came to America with William Penn. In 1730 she became the wife of Samuel Wilson and the line of descent is traced down through David, Amos and Joshua to Oliver P. Wilson. A complete family tree has been compiled in the east and reunions of the Wilson family have been held in Illinois since 1872. Joshua Wilson was a farmer and followed that occupation in Ohio, after which he removed to Illinois, where he carried on general agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred on the Ist of December, 1876. His widow survived until IQII.
Oliver P. Wilson was reared and educated in Illinois, having been very young when his parents removed to that state with their family from Ohio. He was a young man of nineteen years when he donned the nation's blue uniform and joined the army in defense of the Union cause, enlisting as a member of Company K, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. This was in 1864 and he served until the close of the war. When hostilities were over he returned to Illinois and began farming in Marshall county. while subsequently he went to Iroquois county, where he carried on general agricultural pursuits until 1883. In that year he came to Lincoln but later removed to Chester. Nebraska, where he resided for nine years. He owned two good tracts of land there, hiring men to cultivate them while he devoted his time to the importation of horses, conducting his business in the town. On leaving Chester he went to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he resided for a year and afterward spent the winter in Creston, Iowa. On the expiration of that period, in 1894, he returned to Lincoln and purchased two farms near Burnham, conducting the same until Digitized by Microsoft ®
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1909, when he retired and took up his abode in the capital city. In 1908 he was elected president of the Economy Oil Company of Muskogee, Oklahoma, which he had organized. Ile was also a stockholder in the Lincoln Traction Company and was part owner of the York Brick & Tile Company. In Lincoln he pur- chased a fine residence at No. 1739 L street and there made his home until his death, passing away in January, 1915, after a long illness.
On the 3d of July, 1867. Mr. Wilson was united in marriage to Miss Addaline Wilson, a daughter of Thomas and Mary A. (Keith) Wilson, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Maryland. Mrs. Wilson was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal church when sixteen years of age. The father was a farmer who in early life removed to Illinois, where he was residing at the time of the outbreak of hostilities between the north and the south. He enlisted in the One Hundred and Fourth Illinois Infantry, with which he served for three years. He was called home on account of the death of his wife in 1864. Later he engaged in farming in Illinois for many years and subse- quently went to Adams county, Iowa, where he carried on farming for a few years. He then retired, moving into Corning, where his remaining days were passed. During the war he served as a teamster and on two occasions was captured but later was exchanged. He died in February, 1910. To Mr. and Mrs. O. P. Wilson were born five children, as follows: Ida M., the wife of Dr. G. B. Wolford, by whom she has a daughter, Bessie F .; Cora L., who gave her hand in marriage to T. H. Robblee and passed away in February, 1902; Oliver M., a resident of Lincoln, and to him and his wife, Florence J. Wilson, have been born a daughter and son, Addaline Alice and Oliver Perry ; Gertrude. who passed away in May, 1883; and Maude Valentine, the wife of F. G. Burnham, of York, by whom she has four sons-Sumner W., Oliver Ralph, Frank G., Jr., and Herbert Keith. One daughter, Glades Marie, is deceased.
Mr. Wilson voted with the republican party and was thoroughly conversant with the vital questions and issues of the day. He belonged to the Ancient Order of United Workmen and his religious belief was that of the Christian church. Ile was a man who cherished high ideals of duty and lived up to them and he constantly labored for the right. His friends miss him, but the memory of his genial and useful life, of his sincerity and simplicity, will not soon be forgotten.
ANDREW G. WOLFENBARGER, LL. B.
Andrew G. Wolfenbarger, for twenty-seven years a well known practitioner in the supreme court of Nebraska, has been intimately identified with the political and moral movements in this state for thirty-six years. He was the Digitized by Microsoft ®
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third son of William Warrick and Rachel B. (Hamilton) Wolfenbarger and was born in Greenbank, Virginia, March 24. 1856. His father was a pioneer merchant, a whig politician and school teacher, and was elected sheriff of Poca- hontas county, Virginia, serving eight years. The family moved north before the Civil war and settled in Lee county, Iowa, where the children were educated and four of the six became school teachers.
Young Wolfenbarger taught school for five years in Iowa and Nebraska. He appeared in York county of the latter state in the spring of 1877, taught a term of school and assisted in organizing and conducting the first teachers institute held in that county and was chosen secretary of the organization. In 1880 he took up his residence in Butler county. Nebraska, and for four years was editor and half owner of the David City Republican. In 1885 he established the New Republic, a state prohibition newspaper, in the city of Lincoln, and in 1890 was admitted to practice in the district and supreme courts and has followed the legal profession ever since. He is a member of the bar of the supreme court of the United States, a member of the American Bar Association, also of the state and county associations, and in 1916 he was named a member of the judiciary committee of the Lancaster County Bar Association.
For more than thirty years Mr. Wolfenbarger has been prominent in state and national movements for the prohibition of the liquor traffic and was a mem- ber of the committee of lawyers who drafted the prohibitory constitutional amendment to be voted on at the November election in 1916. When Dr. D. H. Mann was head of the International Supreme Lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars, he appointed Andrew G. Wolfenbarger as deputy right worthy grand templar of the western hemisphere, a jurisdiction larger than had ever before been assigned to any representative of the order.
Mr. Wolfenbarger has taken high rank as a temperance and prohibition orator and has spoken by invitation in thirty-four states, and in one engagement deliv- ered seventy-seven addresses in the dominion of Canada, and assisted in carrying the province of Ontario for the Prohibition Plebiscite by a majority of more than fifty thousand. He served for more than twenty years as a member of the prohibition national committee, was three terms a member of the national executive committee, for several years was vice chairman, and in 1904 was elected permanent chairman of the national prohibition convention at Indianapolis.
Mr. Wolfenbarger is a charter member of the Lincoln Commercial Club, was seven years president of the Nebraska Irrigation Association, has frequently been appointed delegate to important commercial bodies by successive governors, and has served on the official boards of Grace and Trinity Methodist churches of Lincoln and the First Methodist Church of University Place. He was mar- ried in 1880 to Capitola Williams, of Shelby, Iowa, and their family consists Vol. II-37
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of a son, Edward S., and a daughter, Ethel Goodrich, with two grandchildren in each branch of the family.
Mr. Wolfenbarger's favorite authors and writers are Tennyson, Longfellow, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas : and his political models are George Washing- ton, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. His favorite studies are history and philosophy. He graduated from the College of Law, University of Nebraska.
HON. WILLIAM M. GIFFORD.
Ilon. William MI. Gifford, from 1891 to 1893 a member of the state legis- lature from Pawnee county, and for many years receiver of the United States Land Office at Lincoln, is a Hoosier by birth, having been born in Parke county, Indiana, June 10, 1845. Hle was reared, however, on a farm near New London, Indiana, where the family home was established in October, 1845, by his father, William Gifford, who was a blacksmith as well as farmer and in following these pursuits provided for his family. He married Esther Wells and both were natives of Guilford county, North Carolina. They had been schoolmates and playfellows in childhood in the old North State, but they were married in Orange county, Indiana, having accompanied their respective families from North Caro- lina to Indiana at the same time. William M. Gifford is the youngest of a family of five sons and five daughters, but only two of the number now survive, his brother being James S. Gifford of Republican City, Nebraska. The father died in 1849, when his son William was but four years of age, and the mother sur- vived until 1875, at which time her remains were interred by her husband's grave in the New London cemetery of Howard county, Indiana.
At the time of the Civil war, William M. Gifford, then a youth in his teens, responded to the call for troops, enlisting as a member of Company G. Eighty- ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry with which he served for almost three years. He enlisted as a private and was promoted from time to time, becoming corporal, sergeant and finally first lieutenant of his company. His older brother, Bedford W. Gifford, was captain of that company and was killed in the battle of Yellow Bayou, Louisiana, May 18, 1864. William M. Gifford was fighting at his brother's side when he received the fatal shot and saw him fall. his death occurring almost instantly. In the same engagement, which occurred May 18, 1864, William M. Gifford was wounded while in the act of removing his brother from the field of battle, and on the 24th of June, 1864, he again sustained a wound when near Collierville, Tennessee, while being trans-
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ported on a flat car, together with many others of his comrades. The train was fired upon while in motion by rebel guerrillas in ambush. Out of twenty-seven men on the car on which Mr. Gifford lay, twenty-five were struck by bullets, many of them being killed. Ilis orderly sergeant had seven bullets in his body. In his right leg, just above the ankle, Mr. Gifford still carries the bullet which wounded him on that occasion. He was sent to a hospital in Memphis where he remained for three months and in September, 1864, being still wholly unfit for field service, he was allowed to return home. The wound caused a permanent injury to his right leg, and on the 17th of March, 1865, as he was unfit for further field duty, he was honorably discharged, having been at the front since August, 1802.
Mr. Gifford has been reared to farm life and had obtained a common school education, which was interrupted by his enlistment when he was seventeen years of age. In December, 1865, when a young man of twenty years, he made his way westward to Guthrie county, Iowa, where for nine years he engaged in farming. In 1874 he removed to Harlan county, Nebraska where he carried on farming from 1874 until 1876 and while there he killed the first buffalo that he ever saw running wild. From September, 1876, until November. 1900, he resided on a farm in Pawnee county, near Lewiston, Nebraska, and he still owns that place of two hundred and forty acres, which he developed from virgin prairie into highly cultivated and productive fields. In 1900 he retired from his farm and removed to Lincoln in order to give his children better educational opportunities and since that time he has devoted considerable attention to the real estate business. For eight years and four months he was receiver in the United States Land Office at Lincoln, having been first appointed to that position by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and reappointed by William Howard Taft in 1910. This is not the only public office that he has filled, for in I89t he became a member of the state legislature, serving until 1903.
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