USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 49
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He also participated in the Grand Review at Washington, D. C., at the close of the war.
Melville DeLeal Cameron attended school in his native state and in Colfax county, Nebraska. He also studied in the graded schools of Schuyler, Nebraska, and in 1883 was graduated from the Nebraska Wesleyan Seminary at York, Nebraska, which is now the Nebraska Wesleyan University of University Place, Nebraska. After leaving college he accepted the position of deputy county treas- urer in Colfax county and thus served for two terms. In 1887 he was elected county clerk and recorder of Colfax county and the acceptable manner in which he discharged his duties in that connection led to his reelection so that he remained the incumbent in the office for four years. In 1892 he became associated with the Schuyler National Bank as vice president, remaining in that capacity for ten years; also engaging actively in the real estate and mortgage loan business. And through a period of ten years controlled a constantly growing business in that connection, but in 1902 closed out his interests there and came to Omaha, where he entered into partnership with R. C. Peters under the firm style of R. C. Peters & Company for the conduct of a mortgage loan and investment busi- ness. In 1907 they incorporated their interests under the name of the Peters Trust Company and Mr. Cameron was made vice president and treasurer. still acting in the dual office. Experience has been to him a thorough teacher and has found in him an apt pupil. From the prompt and faithful performance of each day's duties he has found inspiration, courage and strength for the labors of the succeeding day and throughout his entire business career opportunity has ever been to him the call to activity.
Mr. Cameron has been married three times. His first wife was Miss Mattie Brigham of Table Rock, Nebraska, whose death occurred in 1891 in Schuyler,
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Nebraska. In 1893, in York, Nebraska, he wedded Miss Florence Wyckoff, who passed away the following year, their only child, a son, dying in infancy. In 1898 in Schuyler, Nebraska, Mr. Cameron wedded Miss Viola Jennings, daughter of the late Rev. Jesse W. Jennings, D. D., Presiding Elder of the Omaha District of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and later Manager of the Kansas City Depository of the Methodist Book Concern in Kansas City, Missouri.
Politically Mr. Cameron is a republican, having endorsed the principles of the party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He has attained the thirty-second degree in Masonry and belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is also identified with the Commercial Club, the Happy Hollow Club and the University Club. He is an active member and liberal supporter of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Omaha and since 1899 he has been a trustee of the Nebraska Wesleyan University, doing everything in his power throughout the intervening years to develop and promote its interests. He is now vice pres- ident of the board, chairman of the executive committee and chairman of the finance committee. While his business interests have become extensive and of an important character he has never allowed them to so monopolize his time that it has excluded active participation in projects looking to the intellectual and moral development of the communities in which he has resided. In fact, he counts those things most worth while and has ever felt, as Lincoln expressed it, that "There is something better than making a living-making a life."
L. SEYMOUR FIELDS, M. D.
Dr. L. Seymour Fields, physician and surgeon practicing at Omaha since June 1, 1915, has gained a creditable position for one of his years, being yet a young man. He was born in Clay county, Kansas, January 3, 1886, a son of Alex- ander J. and Jennie Rebecca (Harmon) Fields .. . The father is a native of Jones county, Iowa, and represents one of the pioneer families of the eastern part of that state-a family of English origin that was founded on American soil in Potter county, Pennsylvania. Early representatives of the name also lived in Cortland, New York. Alexander J. Fields, however, was reared and educated in eastern Iowa and throughout his life has followed agricultural pursuits. In 1880 he went to Kansas, becoming an early settler of Clay county and later moving to Jackson county, where he still resides. His wife, a native of Ohio, was taken to Iowa in her infancy. They have become parents of six children, three sons and three daughters, of whom Dr. Fields was the first born.
In the public schools of Atchison county, Kansas, and the Atchison County High School in the city of Effingham, Kansas, L. Seymour Fields pursued his education until graduated with the class of 1906. While his youth was spent upon a farm amid the usual experiences and training of farin life, his great ambition from boyhood was to become a physician. With that end in view he entered the Eclectic Medical University of Kansas City, Missouri, in which he completed a four years' course in 1914 with the M. D. degree. Following his graduation he did considerable hospital work in Kansas City, Missouri, and then entered upon private practice in Omaha, June 1, 1915. In the two years which have since come and gone he has made steady professional advancement and his practice has shown that he is in touch with the latest scientific researches, discoveries and methods. He is now a member of the Omaha-Douglas County Medical Society, the Nebraska State Medical Association and the American Medical Association.
On the 15th of January, 1908, Dr. Fields was married in Horton, Kansas, to Miss Bertha Kissinger, a native of that state, who died in Kansas City, Missouri, March 31, 1913, leaving two children : Elma Bernice, born in Atchison, Kansas, November 15, 1908; and Lola Esther, born in Kansas City, Kansas, May 16, 19II. On the 19th of May, 1915, Dr. Fields was married in Omaha to Miss Eva
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M. Porter, of Mynard, Nebraska, a daughter of William B. and Alva (Shaw) Porter and a direct descendant of Anthony Wayne, the distinguished Revolution- ary war hero of New York. Hers was an old pioneer family of Cass county, Nebraska, where location was made in 1854, and of that family Mrs. Fields is a representative in the third generation. Her grandfather was at one time president of the Nebraska Grange, was a thirty-second degree Mason and was quite promi- nent in Nebraska politics as a democratic leader.
Dr. Fields also belongs to the Masonic fraternity, having been made a Mason on the 25th of September, 1916, in Capital Lodge, No. 3, A. F. & A. M. He is also connected with the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Patriotic and Protective Order of Stags. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party. He deserves much credit for what he has accomplished. He worked his own way through the university. After spending some time as a teacher in the public schools of Atchison county, Kansas, he entered the railway mail service in April, 1907, and was thus engaged until he finished his medical course, receiving a salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year when he left the mail service. He carried out his ambition, however, of becoming a member of the medical fraternity and the sterling traits of his character argue for a successful future.
CHARLES HANSEN.
Charles Hansen, water commissioner of Benson, is a native of Denmark, his birth having occurred at Fyen on the 24th of May, 1857, his father being H. H. Hansen of that place. The father was interested in various business enterprises, having at different times been engaged in the grocery, real estate and banking businesses. He also held government positions and was a leader in his community. He was decorated by King Christian IX with the Cross of Dannebrog in recogni- tion of long and faithful service, and this cross was saluted by every soldier who met the one wearing it. His family numbered seven children, of whom one died in infancy.
Charles Hansen, the eldest son, was educated in a kindergarten and in private schools of his native country between the ages of seven and twelve years, after which he went to the public schools. Later he again attended a private school, in which he completed his education, after which he began learning the trade of dye- ing, serving a five years' apprenticeship. He then made his way to North Schles- wig and managed a dyeing plant there for a period of five years. The opportunities of the new world, however, attracted him and in August, 1882, he came to the United States, making his way direct to Omaha, where he was employed at various tasks. In 1883 he entered the Union Pacific railroad shops and there continued for almost a quarter of a century or until 1907, occupying various positions in that connection. He then accepted the position of water commissioner for the sity of Benson and took charge of the pumping plant which pumped the water for the entire city. Something of the development of the system is shown in the fact that when he assumed charge there were one hundred and seventy-five taps on the main pipe lines and today there are over one thousand. The water is drawn from wells and an ample supply of the purest water is secured at three hundred feet. The water from three wells is pumped into the reservoir and from the reservoir into the standpipe. Two pumps lift the water, and one by air system forces the water into the reservoir, while two triplex pumps lift the water from the reservoir into the standpipe. The capacity is nine hundred gallons a minute. All machinery is operated by electricity, the power being obtained from the Omaha Electric Light & Power Company. The waterworks system of Benson is now self- sustaining, the receipts more than meeting the expenses of operation. The plant is kept in excellent condition, extreme neatness characterizing every department, while the most sanitary conditions are maintained.
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In October, 1883, Mr. Hansen was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Tonder, a native of Schleswig, Germany, to whom he was betrothed in the old country and who made the voyage to America on the same boat which brought him. They became the parents of nine children, as follows: Mary, Ilum and Mary, all of whom died in early life; Halvor, who was accidentally killed by a shotgun when eighteen years of age; May, who is now the wife of John Laurritsen and resides in Benson; Betty, at home; Carl Ilum, who is a linotype operator in the employ of the World-Herald; Emma, also at home; and Henry, who is employed as a linotype operator on the Omaha Daily News.
Fraternally Mr. Hansen is connected with the Ancient Order of United Work- men. He has become well known in Benson and Douglas county and as a public official has ever been found to be most trustworthy, capable and efficient.
GEORGE H. BREWER.
One of the best known men of South Omaha is George H. Brewer, who became one of the early representatives of business activity in his part of the state, taking up his abode there in 1888. Since then he has been constantly and actively identified with business and public affairs looking to the betterment and upbuilding of his locality and his efforts have been far-reaching and beneficial. Mr. Brewer was born in Norwich, New York, his natal day being March 20, 1856. His parents were H. W. and Emeline (Day) Brewer, who were also natives of the Empire state, the father's birth occurring on the same farm on which George H. Brewer first saw the light of day, and upon that place the maternal grandfather was also born. H. W. Brewer lived upon that farm for fifty-five years and devoted his life to general agricultural pursuits. He passed away only a short distance from his birthplace in 1896, when he had reached the age of seventy-one years, and his widow died in 1911 in Norwich, New York, at the age of seventy-eight years. In their family were four children, all of whom are yet living: George H .; B. Z., a resident of Hartford, Connecticut; M. D., whose home is at Canton, Ohio; and Mrs. May Moore, of Binghamton, New York.
In his youthful days George H. Brewer attended an academy at Norwich, New York, and after leaving school he traveled for a number of years. Eventu- ally he located in Chicago, where he engaged in the business of manufacturing bedding for a number of years. In 1888 he came to Omaha and entered into partnership with W. G. Sloane in the furniture, undertaking and livery business. This he conducted in a highly profitable and successful manner for ten years, at the end of which time the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Sloane took over the furniture business, while Mr. Brewer became proprietor of the livery and under- taking business. He continued to engage in the livery business until 1906, at which time he disposed of his stables and concentrated his entire attention upon under- taking. This business he has since conducted along successful lines. In addition to his office he has built a fine chapel in which funeral services may be held and he is one of the directors of the Graceland Park Cemetery Association.
On the 20th of February, 1891, Mr. Brewer was united in marriage to Miss Etta Young, of Minden, Nebraska, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon Young, who were pioneer settlers of lowa. They have become the parents of a daughter, who is now Mrs. Edith Kunold. She resides in South Omaha and has one child, Dorothy Kunold.
Mr. Brewer votes with the republican party and in 1908 filled the office of county coroner. He is prominently known in lodge circles, having membership in the Scottish Rite of Masonry, also in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and in the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He likewise belongs to the Seymour Lake Country Club and he and his family are members of the Presbyterian church.
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His has been an active and well spent life measuring up to the highest standards of manhood and citizenship and today he is one of the self-made men of South Omaha, where he also ranks as a leading citizen.
GEORGE HOLMES.
George Holmes, municipal judge of Omaha, his native city, was born on the 18th of October, 1861, when the city had not yet completed the first decade of its existence, and throughout all the intervening years he has been an interested witness of the changes which have occurred and of the transformation that has been wrought by time and man. His parents, George and Katherine ( Harrington) Holmes, were natives of Ireland and in early life came to the United States, and theirs was the seventh marriage celebrated in Omaha. The father engaged in farming where the South Omaha Stock Yards are now located and at length sold his land to the present stock yards company. He died in this city in 1902, at the age of seventy-eight years, while his wife, surviving for four years, passed away in 1906 at the age of eighty. In their family were five children, of whom one is deceased, the others being: William, now a resident of Sumatra, Montana ; George ; Mrs. Helen Brennan, of Bascom, Montana; and Mrs. Mary Anderson, of Lincoln, Nebraska.
After mastering the branches of learning taught in the district school at South Omaha, George Holmes entered the University of Nebraska and also spent three terms as a student in the normal school at Shenandoah, Iowa. He later took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1894, after which he entered upon active practice in his native city and has since risen to a high place in the legal profession. He was elected municipal judge of Omaha in the election of Novem- ber, 1916, on the non-partisan ticket, being one of the first judges to have been elected under the new municipal court law, and assumed the duties of the position on the 2d of January, 1917. The large majority accorded him indicated his per- sonal popularity and the confidence reposed in him by his fellow townsmen.
On the 23d of December, 1896, Mr. Holmes was married to Miss Sadie Felix, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Felix, who were representatives of well known families of Reading, Pennsylvania. Judge and Mrs. Holmes are members of the Roman Catholic church and fraternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America, while professionally he is identified with the County Bar Association. He is a self-made man, owing his advancement entirely to his own efforts, ability and ambition, and he became one of the well known and leading attorneys of the city.
JOHN ARTHUR CAVERS.
Volumes have been written concerning the causation of success but careful analysis always reaches the conclusion that the elements thereof are comparatively few. Thorough mastery of a business, persistency of purpose and reliability in method are the indispensable concomitants toward the attainment of prosperity in a given field. It is through the employment of those three elements that John Arthur Cavers has won his present position as the head of a leading commercial enterprise of Omaha-the Cavers Elevator Company, of which he is the president and which has now developed its trade to large proportions. Mr. Cavers was born in Ontario. Canada, in 1868. His father, James Cavers, a native of Scotland, went to Canada with his parents when but nine years of age and there continued to reside until called to his final rest in 1909.
John Arthur Cavers obtained his education in Canadian schools and crossed
JOHN A. CAVERS
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the border into the United States in 1888, when a young man of twenty years. He made his way at once to North Dakota and was employed as telegraph operator by the Great Northern Railroad Company for five years. He afterward went to St. Paul, Minnesota, in a similar capacity but in 1893 left that city and came to Nebraska. He settled first in Lincoln, where he was employed as telegraph operator by the Burlington Railway Company. For four years he remained in that position, spending the last two or three years, however, in Omaha. He was then made chief inspector for the Western Railway Weighing Association and Inspection Bureau and so acted for seven years or until 1905, when he embarked in the grain trade in Omaha, organizing the Cavers Elevator Company, of which he is the president. A local publication said: "There is in Omaha, perhaps, no better example of the results of straightforward effort directed into approved channels, the success of a business based on the principle of solidity, than in the Cavers Elevator Company, receivers and shippers of grain." The business of this corporation has grown steadily along most substantial lines and today the company occupies fine new offices in the Omaha Grain Exchange building and the members of the company are among the most progressive members of the Exchange. Sound judgment, keen sagacity, unfaltering commercial integrity, combined with knowledge gained from long years of experience in the grain trade, have won for John Arthur Cavers the success which is now his. He is also a director in the Whitehall Land & Irrigation Company of Whitehall, Montana, and he is likewise the owner of a ranch in Manitoba whereon he raises stock and engages in general farming.
In October, 1893, in Juniata, Nebraska, Mr. Cavers was united in marriage to Miss Alice May McDonegal, by whom he has three children, Douglas G., Keith M. and Marjorie Alice. Mr. Cavers has given his political allegiance to the republican party since becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States. He has a membership on the Chicago Board of Trade .. and belongs to the Chicago Athletic Club, while his local connections are with the Omaha Commercial Club, the Omaha Club, the Country Club, the Omaha Automobile Club and the Athletic Club of Omaha. He is likewise identified with the Council Bluffs Commercial Club and the Council Bluffs Rowing Club. There is perhaps no record in this history which indicates more clearly the force and effectiveness of persistency of purpose and laudable ambition when intelligently directed. Starting out in life with a public school education as equipment for meeting the duties and respon- sibilities of the business world, John A. Cavers has steadily worked his way upward, finding in the faithful performance and mastery of each day's duties inspiration and strength for the efforts of the succeeding day.
CHARLES A. RICHEY.
Charles A. Richey, conducting business at Omaha under the name of the Richey Sand Company, is a native son of Iowa, his birth having occurred in Afton, May 6, 1873. His father, Francis M. Richey, a native of Ohio, came of Scotch ancestry, the founder of the American branch of the family arriving in the new world about 1775. The father was a successful lumberman of Platts- mouth, Nebraska, where he took up his abode in 1881. In politics he was a republican and he took an active part in local political affairs and civic matters. The regard which his fellow townsmen had for him personally and the recognition of his public spirit and ability as an official was indicated in the fact that they kept him in the office of mayor of Plattsmouth for six years. He died in January, 1913, at the age of seventy-two, and Nebraska lost one of its substantial and rep- resentative citizens. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Pauline Dickinson, was also born in Ohio and her death occurred in Plattsmouth in 1884, when she was forty-four years of age.
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In the family were eight children, of whom Charles A. Richey was the fourth. He acquired a public school education in Plattsmouth, to which city he went with his parents when a little lad of eight years. At the age of twenty he started out to earn his own living and first became connected with the lumber and grain trades, starting out for himself on a very limited capital. The undertaking, how- ever, proved quite successful and he continued in the business in Louisville, Nebraska, for a period of eighteen years. In 1908 he entered the wholesale pro- ducing sand business, having plants at Fremont and at Louisville, and has con- tinued exclusively in that line. In 1914 he established headquarters at Omaha and from this point has since managed the business, which has grown steadily in volume and importance until it has now reached a large annual figure.
On the 18th of February, 1896, in Louisville, Nebraska, Mr. Richey was joined in wedlock to Miss May Dutton, a native of Plattsmouth and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S. W: Dutton, carly pioneer settlers of Nebraska. The father has passed away, but the mother still survives and makes her home in California. Mr. and Mrs. Richey have three children, Katherine, Pauline and Mary.
In politics Mr. Richey is a republican, taking active part in the effort to pro- mote republican successes because of a firm belief in the party platform. For four years he was chairman of the local board at Louisville. Fraternally he is a Mason and an Elk and he holds a life membership in the Omaha Athletic Club. Starting out for himself when twenty years of age, he has proven the value of close application and unremitting diligence in the conduct of business affairs. He has also ever followed the old axiom that honesty is the best policy, his life being an expression of modern commercial enterprise resulting in success.
BERT C. RANZ.
Bert C. Ranz, actively engaged in the banking business at Benson as cashier of the Farmers & Merchants Bank, was born in Claytonville, Iroquois county, Illinois, June 22, 1885, a son of William J. and Matilda ( Pielstick) Ranz, the former a native of Iowa and the latter of Illinois. The paternal grandfather, Joseph Ranz, came from Germany to America, accompanied by his wife, and settled near Dubuque, Iowa, where he engaged in farming, becoming one of the pioneer residents of that part of the state. He afterward removed to Illinois, taking up his abode in Iroquois county, being numbered among the early settlers of that locality. He there followed farming for a long period and he lived to be more than eighty years of age. His son, William J. Ranz, turned his attention to mercantile pursuits and for a time conducted business in Iroquois county. In 1887 he came to Nebraska and remained at Atlanta, Nebraska, until he retired from active business in 1906. He took up his residence in Emerson, Iowa, but indolence and idleness were utterly foreign to his nature and once more he became connected with general mercantile pursuits, in which he remained until about 1908. He then once more retired from business and he passed away in March, 1914. He never sought to figure prominently in any public connection but gave his attention to his business affairs and to his home.
Of a family of five children Bert C. Ranz. was the eldest. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Atlanta, Nebraska, and he passed through consecutive grades to the high school. Later he pursued a course of study in the Capital City Commercial College at Des Moines, Iowa, and when his textbooks were put aside he entered the employ of the Emerson State Bank at Emerson, Iowa, with which institution he was connected for three and one-half years. Subsequently he became an employe of the Red Oak National Bank at Red Oak, Iowa, there spending six months, after which he accepted a position with the Bank of Benson, becoming assistant cashier, in which position he remained for five and one-half years. He then bought a controlling interest in the Farmers &
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