USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 37
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vania Volunteer Cavalry, which at the start was called Anderson's Cavalry. It was raised for special service, a mental as well as a physical examination being required, together with a special uniform. This resulted in a crack regiment and at the barracks in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, they were drilled by expert officers and there obtained their horses, after which they joined the Army of the Potomac and received their baptism of blood at Antietam. The regiment was then stationed at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, for scout duty in the valley but a week after becoming encamped there was ordered to Louisville, Kentucky, subsequent to which time it was placed in the vanguard of the Army of the Cumberland. From that time forward Mr. Weller was with his command in active and arduous duty. He participated in the battle of Antietam and skirmishes between Louisville, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee, including the engagements at Bowling Green, Perryville and Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Later he took part in both engage- ments at Nashville and in the battle of Stone River, following which the regi- ment was in camp for three months. Later he was in the battles of Stevenson and Bridgeport, Tennessee, and thence proceeded to Chattanooga. Then came the battle of Chickamauga and Mr. Weller was there serving on the staff of General "Pap" Thomas. He was also at Missionary Ridge and later his com- mand went to Knoxville, Tennessee, to relieve General Burnside. This was followed by the fight at Strawberry Plains, a terrific encounter, and then came other battles on the way to Virginia. The regiment then joined General Sher- man at Atlanta and just as he started on his march to the sea, the regiment to which Mr. Weller belonged was ordered to Lynchburg, Virginia, being a month en route to that place. From Lynchburg they started for Spartanburg, South Carolina, destroying everything on the way, especially in the Yadkin valley, the granary of the Confederate army. From Spartanburg they proceeded to Savan- nah, Georgia, and thence back to Nashville, Tennessee, where Mr. Weller was mustered out June 30, 1865, having a most creditable military record by his brave and loyal support of the Union cause.
When the war was over Mr. Weller returned to Beaver, Pennsylvania, where his sweetheart resided, and after a brief visit with her he proceeded to Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, where he entered Duff's College, in which he studied from the 10th of July until the 20th of September, 1865, there winning his diploma together with high compliment from Peter Duff, the president of the business college, in which he had specialized as a student in business law.
Once more he went to the home of his sweetheart, Miss Kate A. McElwaine, and on the 28th of September, 1865, they were married. They removed to Macon, Missouri, where Mr. Weller established a grocery business, but after six months he sold out there and removed to Quincy, Illinois. At that time he began travel- ing for a wholesale drug house and in 1871 was admitted to a partnership in the business, with which he was connected until 1873, when he sold his interest and removed to St. Louis. There he became connected with the wholesale drug firm of Richardson & Company, with which he continued for three years, when he returned to Quincy, Illinois, and with others embarked in the wholesale drug business, Mr. Weller becoming the silent partner in the firm, which was organ- ized under the name of Sommer, Lynds & Company. There he continued for three years, on the expiration of which period he sold out and again went to St. Louis, once more entering into business relations with Richardson & Com- pany, wholesale druggists, whom he represented upon the road. Two years later the business was incorporated under the style of the Richardson Drug Company and Mr. Weller became one of the directors. In September, 1887, a branch house was established in Omaha and he removed to this city to assume the duties of vice president and manager. In March, 1899, on the death of J. C. Richardson, who was president of the company, Mr. Weller succeeded to the presidency and still occupies that executive position, being at the same tinie general manager. He has since bought out the Richardson interests and now owns the entire business, although the name of the Richardson Drug Company
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is still retained. This is today one of the most important commercial enterprises of the city, carefully and wisely managed. Each department of the business is thoroughly systematized, and possessing in large measure that quality which has been termed commercial sense, Mr. Weller has gradually developed and broadened his interests and is today one of the foremost merchants of Nebraska's metropolis, while his ramifying trade interests cover a broad territory.
To Mr. and Mrs. Weller have been born eight children, as follows: Mary 1., the wife of John W. Fisher ; Harry S., who is a resident of Omaha ; Olive Elizabeth, the wife of Frederick W. Clarke, of Omaha; Charles Keyes, living in Omaha ; Emma Ruth, who gave her hand in marriage to Professor Charles B. Walker, of Syracuse, New York; Alice Elvira, the wife of Ralph E. Crandell, of Chapman, Nebraska; Agnes Garfield, who is the wife of Hugh B. Thomas, of Denver, Colorado; and Clifford R., who makes his home in Omaha. Mrs. Weller, the mother of these children, passed away April 27, 1911. and Mr. Weller was married again on June 29, 1912, to Mrs. Jane Adell Whittlesey, of Hartford, Connecticut.
Mr. Weller has long been a consistent member of the First Methodist Episcopal church and in his political views he has always been a stalwart republican, standing firmly by the party which was the defense of the Union during the dark days of the Civil war and has always been the party of reform and progress. His interest in community affairs is indicated by his membership in the Commercial Club and by the hearty aid and cooperation which he gives to all well devised plans and measures for the public good. He belongs also to the Happy Hollow Club and to the Omaha Club and maintains pleasant relations with his old comrades in arms through his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic, proudly wearing the little bronze button which is an insignia that any might well covet. He has ever been as loyal to his country in days of peace as in days of war, and while never an office seeker, has always displayed the same spirit of fidelity to his country and her best interests that he manifested when he followed the nation's starry banner o'er the battlefields of the south.
BYRON CLARK. 1
Byron Clark, solicitor for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at Omaha and thus a well known figure in railway circles, was born on a farm in Tazewell county, Illinois, April 24, 1856. His father, Timothy Clark, was born near Amity, Pennsylvania, in 1820 and was married in Rushville, Illinois, on the 29th of August, 1845, to Anna Benninger, whose father built the first iron forge in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. They came to Nebraska on the 3d of March, 1870, settling on a farm in Cass county, where the father died November II. 1901, having for six years survived his wife, who passed away June 25, 1895. During the Civil war, being incapacitated for active service, he acted as enrolling officer at Pekin, Illinois.
Byron Clark acquired a common school education in his native county, sup- plemented by a year's preparatory course in the State University of Nebraska and also a year's study in the high school at Weeping Water, Nebraska, after leaving college. He was twenty years of age when his textbooks were put aside and he later taught school in Cass county, Nebraska. In 1879 he removed to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, and there entered the law office of Smith & Strode, under whose direction he studied. In January, 1881, he was admitted to the bar and located for practice at Papillion. Sarpy county, where he remained for two years. He next removed to Plattsmouth, where he entered into partnership with one of his former preceptors under the firm style of Strode & Clark, Mr. Strode being at that time district attorney. while Mr. Clark acted as his deputy. The firm continued
BYRON CLARK
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in existence for four years, at the end of which time Mr. Strode removed to Lincoln and Mr. Clark continued in practice alone at Plattsmouth until 1912, when he was appointed Nebraska and Kansas solicitor for the Chicago, Burling- ton & Quincy Railroad Company with headquarters at Omaha, and to the duties of that responsible position he is now devoting his energies.
On the 5th of May, 1881, in Plattsmouth, Mr. Clark was married to Miss Minnie C. Murphy, who was a daughter of the late Michael B. Murphy, and who died in September, 1905, at Plattsmouth. Mr. Clark was married in 1908 to . Margaret T. Farley, then a teacher in the public schools at Lincoln, Nebraska. His children are: Earle, who married Ida B. Crum, of Fancitas, Texas, and has a son Allan Byron, born in February, 1916; and Helen M., who is the wife of Herman E. Kuppinger, also of Francitas. Both are graduates of the Nebraska State University.
Mr. and Mrs. Clark are members of the Congregational church and in politics he is a republican but has never sought nor held political office save that of city attorney of Plattsmouth. He is a Knights Templar Mason and a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He belongs to the Commercial Club, the Omaha Club, the University, Happy Hollow and Athletic Clubs of Omaha and the Commercial Club of Lincoln. His acquaintance is broad and the circle of his friends almost coextensive therewith. His friends speak of him as a genial, courteous gentleman whose companionship is always an enjoyable feature on social occasions. Omaha as a railroad terminal or division point has drawn to it in this connection many men of notable ability among whom may well be numbered Byron Clark, whose labors are indeed covering a broad field for the benefit of mankind and are at all times resultant forces.
WILLIAM COOLEY NORRIS.
Among those active in real estate circles in Omaha is William Cooley Norris, who en'ered that field of business in 1907 and who in 1911 incorporated his inter- ests under the firm name of Norris & Norris, of which company he is the presi- dent. He was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1866. His father, Thomas Norris, a native of Culpeper, Virginia, was born in 1832 and in 1849 became a resident of St. Joseph. Two years later, or in 1851, he went to California, attracted by the discovery of gold on the Pacific slope, but later he returned to Missouri and continued to spend his remaining days in St. Joseph, where he served as a mem- ber of the Home Guards during the Civil war. He had a brother, Richard Norris, also a native of Virginia, who became a very prominent divine of the Methodist Episcopal church and spent the greater part of his life in preaching the gospel in Maryland and the District of Columbia. Following his removal to St. Joseph, Thomas Norris wedded Margaret Jane Louthan and there passed away in 1903, while his wife survived for six years, dying in 1909.
In the public schools of his native city William C. Norris pursued his educa- tion until he became a high school pupil and in 1886, at the age of twenty years, made his initial step in the business world by entering the ticket office of the Wabash Railroad in St. Joseph, where a year later he was made agent. In December, 1890, he came to Omaha, where he began business as a broker in railroad tickets and so continued until 1904, when he took up the business of gen- eral railroad contracting. He remained active in that field for three years and in 1907 began dealing in real estate, also handling insurance. The latter, however, is largely a side line, the greater part of his attention being given to his real estate operations, which are carefully and wisely directed. He thoroughly under- stands the real estate market, is correct in his valuations of property and has negotiated many important real estate transfers. With the growth of his business he incorporated his interests under the name of Norris & Norris, becoming Vol. II-16
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president of the company, with his brother, Ed B. Norris, as the secretary and treasurer.
In his political views Mr. Norris has always maintained an independent course, voting according to the dictates of his judgment. He is a Master Mason and is also connected with the Elks, exemplifying in his life the beneficent spirit of these orders, which recognize the brotherhood of mankind and the obligations thereby imposed.
COLONEL EDWARD W. GETTEN.
The record of a man who lives among us perhaps cannot be appraised at its true value. It is too near to give the right perspective, but the future will trace the tremendous effect of his labors upon society and the institutions of his time. The possibilities of high position afforded in the United States to industry and fidelity are splendidly illustrated in the case of Colonel Edward W. Getten. He came to Omaha as a youth, working for his living and dependent on his own hands for whatever the world was to bring him of enjoyment, success and honors, and he is now possessed of all those worth while things for which men strive.
He was born in Caledonia, Illinois, November 3, 1872, and comes of English ancestry. The founder of the family in the new world was Thomas Getten, who on coming to the United States from England, settled in Batavia county, New York, near Syracuse, where he conducted business as a blacksmith and farmer. Members of the family participated in the Revolutionary war, so that the present generation are all eligible to membership in the Sons and Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution. Albert C. Getten, father of Edward W. Getten, was born in New York and became a machinist. He possessed expert ability in that line and was the inventor of machinery for the manufacture of paper bags and thereby revolutionized that industry. He received royalties from his invention through- out his entire life and he was for years the general manager of the Union Bag & Paper Company of New York city, in which connection he occupied a position of notable prominence in business circles. At the time of the Civil war he espoused the cause of the Union and while in battle at the front was captured and sent to Libby prison. He was one of a company of seventeen who managed to effect their escape and, making his way northward, he joined his company. He was with Sherman on the celebrated march to the sea and participated in a number of the most hotly contested engagements. He joined the army as a private but rose to the rank of first lieutenant. At the time of his demise he was commander of the Glens Falls, New York, department of the Grand Army of the Republic. In business he was very successful and he was ever a man of high ideals whose upright life and notable achievements make his record an example well worthy of emulation. He married Julia Smith, a native of Beloit, Wisconsin, and a representative of a pioneer family of that state of Dutch descent, her ancestors having settled in the Mohawk valley at an early day. Mrs. Getten passed away in New York in 1912, at the age of sixty-six years, and Mr. Getten died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of seventy-two. They were parents of five sons: Frederick J., living in Glendale, California; Edward W., of Omaha; Ira C., of Boston, Massachusetts ; Ernest A., of Hudson Falls, New York; and Francis W., of Glens Falls, New York.
Edward W. Getten largely passed his boyhood and youth in Chicago, where he attended the public schools, being graduated from the Lakeview high school with the class of 1889. He made his initial step in the business world as an employe in the wholesale grocery house of W. M. Hoyt of Chicago, entering that house with a view to learning the business. He continued in that line for two years and was later with the McCord-Brady Company of Omaha, his asso-
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ciation with that firm continuing for twenty years and three months, during which period he rose from the position of office boy until he was assistant manager of three departments. He arrived in Omaha on the 10th of September, 1890, and in 1909 he resigned his position with the McCord-Brady Company to become manager of the Omaha branch of the wholesale cigar business of Rothenberg & Schloss of Kansas City. In 1910 he established the Getten Cigar Company, beginning business on a small scale but developing the trade until he now has the largest retail cigar stores in Omaha. In 1911 he was joined by Paul Wick- ham in a partnership under the name of the Getten & Wickham Cigar Company. They conduct five of the leading retail cigar stores in the state, three in Omaha, one in Lincoln and one in Alliance, Nebraska. Their business is now very exten- sive and is steadily growing. In addition to his cigar trade Mr. Getten has extensive interests in various other Omaha enterprises. He is a large stock- holder in the Western Druggists Supply Company, doing a wholesale business at 1806 Harney street, and is the southern manager for the Hull-Grummond Com- pany, cigar manufacturers of New York city. He likewise has other invest- ments and business interests and is the holder of extensive properties not only in Omaha but also in Los Angeles and elsewhere. He has a home at Hollywood, California, where he spends the winter, and he has an extensive orange grove in that section of the state. His is a notable career inasmuch as he started out in life a poor boy and came to Omaha an entire stranger to make for himself a place in its business circles. Gradually he has worked his way upward and through the steps of an orderly progression has reached a position of notable prosperity and prominence.
On the 17th of June, 1895, Mr. Getten was married in Omaha to Miss Mabelle Claire Cheney, a native of this city and a daughter of Charles C. and Margaret (Fleming) Cheney, who are still living in Omaha. To Mr. and Mrs Getten have been born two daughters: Margaret Claire, born in Omaha in June, 1897; and Julia Mabelle, in December, 1899. The religious faith of the family is that of the Episcopal church. In politics Mr. Getten is a democrat, interested in political and civic matters. He has attained the Knight Templar degree in Masonry, and is a noble of the Mystic Shrine, and he also belongs to the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. the Eagles, the Royal Arcanum and the United Commercial Travelers. He is also a member of the Travelers Protective Association and of the United Commercial Travelers is a past grand councilor. He has membership with the Omaha Athletic Club and for five terms he has served as colonel on the governor's staff, having filled the position through five administrations, being one of only two who have served through that entire period. In the course of his life he has attained almost everything that men covet as of value and he has won it all by his own unaided exertions. He has also found time for the finer things which our self- made men are so prone to overlook-aid in money and personal attention to schools and churches, collection of rare objects of beauty and the artistic adorn- ment of his city and of his home.
FREDERICK J. FARRINGTON.
Frederick J. Farrington, manager of the John Deere Plow Company, is a man whose constant energy and achievements are a source of wonder to his business associates and colleagues. He displays the keenest grasp of situations, accompanied by determination to accomplish the maximum in the situations offered, and along the lines indicated he has won advancement to his present position of administrative direction and executive control in connection with one of the important commercial interests of Omaha. He was born in Romeo, Michigan, August 20, 1876, his parents being Levi and Maria (Young) Far-
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rington, who in 1882 removed from Michigan to South Dakota, settling at Aberdeen. Both are now deceased, the father passing away in the state of Washington in 1910, while the mother died in Omaha in 1914.
Frederick J. Farrington began his education in the schools of Aberdeen, South Dakota, and afterward attended high school at St. Thomas, North Da- kota, Hamline University at St. Paul, Minnesota, and also pursued a course in a business college in that city. In 1903, when a young man of twenty-seven years, he came to Omaha and entered into active connection with the John Deere Plow Company, which he has since represented. Working his way steadily upward, he has ultimately reached the position of secretary and manager and is regarded as a keen, farsighted business man.
In St. Thomas, North Dakota, on the 21st of October, 1899, Mr. Farring- ton was united in marriage to Miss Katie G. Van Camp. They attend the Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Farrington belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, also to the Omaha Field Club and the Athletic Club of Omaha. He is likewise a valued member of the Commercial Club and for two years was chairman of its traffic board. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and he carefully studies the questions and issues which are of vital importance to the commonwealth. He has never allowed a desire for office, however, to swerve him from the strict path of business and his constant energy has resulted in notable achievements. Said one who knows him well: "While many of his undertakings may fail, yet his ability to foresee these failures and discount them, and the enormous success of his projects which win establish him in my mind entirely in a class by himself. He is an optimist of the highest order where optimism counts and is a pessimist as strong where . his foresight leads him. His energy is akin to marvelous. His ambition to attain his purpose, which he maps out in the most minute detail, is filled with dynamic force and his retention and grasp of the smallest data relative to the question at hand has challenged my admiration to perfect wonderment of the man."
DANIEL THOMAS QUIGLEY, M. D.
Dr. Daniel Thomas Quigley, who is accorded a position of eminence as a surgeon of Omaha, was born in Edgerton, Wisconsin, June 27, 1876. His father, Thomas Bartlett Quigley, a native of Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, was born in 1841 and in 1849 came with his father's family to the United States. After two years spent in Buffalo, New York, he became a resident of Edgerton, Wisconsin, and after the outbreak of the Civil war enlisted for service with the Union troops as a member of the Army of the Tennessee. He served for three years and was in the Vicksburg campaign under General Grant, taking part in the charge on Fort Hill at Vicksburg. He suffered a sunstroke at the foot of the fort and lay there until night, when he was discovered by the Union troops. He was an officer in the regiment and proved himself a loyal and courageous soldier, never faltering in the face of danger. In 1879 he removed from Wis- consin to Lennox, South Dakota, and there passed away in 1899. His widow, who bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Durnin, is now residing at Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Dr. Quigley was a little lad of but three years when the family home was established in Lennox and there he completed his high school education. Having determined upon the practice of medicine as a life work, he entered Rush Medical College of Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1902. His first professional service was that of interne in the Chicago Hospital and later he was interne in the Englewood Hospital of Chicago. In 1903 he located for practice at North Platte, Nebraska, where he remained until 1913, when he went abroad
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DR. DANIEL T. QUIGLEY
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for post graduate work in the capitals and medical centers of Europe. Upon his return he located in Omaha in 1914 and now concentrates his energies upon surgical practice, for which he is eminently fitted, having directed his studies largely along that line. He possesses a steady hand and cool nerve, added to comprehensive scientific knowledge, and his labors have been attended with a notable measure of success.
On the 15th of June, 1904, in North Platte, Nebraska, Dr. Quigley was united in marriage to Miss Helen Seyferth, a daughter of the late Edward Seyferth, and they have one child, Thomas Bartlett, born May 24, 1908.
Dr. Quigley is a republican in his political belief and fraternally is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Elks. He also belongs to the leading clubs of Omaha, including the University, the Happy Hollow, the Carter Lake and the Omaha Athletic Clubs. He is likewise a member of the Commercial Club, which is indicative of his interest in community affairs and municipal progress. His attention, however, is chiefly concentrated upon his professional duties, which are constantly growing in volume and importance. He belongs to the Omaha- Douglas County Medical Society, the Elkhorn Valley Medical Society, the Missouri Valley Medical Society, the Sioux Valley, Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the American College of Surgeons. For six years he was councillor in the State Medical Society and was then elected vice president, while in 1914 he was made chairman of the surgical section. In 1908 he organized the Nebraska State Health officers, the first society of the kind in the United States, and for three years served as its president. Among the articles on surgical subjects which he has carefully prepared are the following: "Rheumatism as a Surgical Disease," 1907, one of the first contributions on the relationship between focal infections and rheumatism; "Use of Sphygmomanometer by General Prac- titioners and Surgeons," 1908; "Tuberculosis of Bone"; "Complications following Operations"; "Suprapubic Operation for Removal of Prostate Gland"; "Rela- tions between Radium and Surgery"; "Prevention of Death from Cancer"; "A Neglected Point in the Etiology of Foot Diseases"; "Abortion as a cause of Cancer of Uterus"; "A Review of the Surgical Clinics of Europe"; "The Diagnosis of Coxa Vara"; "The Neglected Anus"; "Therapeutics of Radium"; and one of the first contributions on the subject of blood pressure. He has attained very high professional rank and has ever advocated the highest pro- fessional standards, recognizing fully the obligations and responsibilities which devolve upon the physician and surgeon.
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