USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 5
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Mrs. Deuel yet makes her home in Omaha and with her lives her cousin, Mrs. Inez A. Haney, who has been a resident of Omaha since 1856. She is the widow of Edwin Haney, who came from St.Louis and for many years was connected with the Union Pacific at this point. He was a Civil war veteran and continued his residence here until his demise. Mrs. Haney is a daughter of John R. Porter, who was a very prominent and active citizen here in pioneer times, and both her husband and her father were widely and prominently known.
HON. DAVID H. MERCER.
Among Omaha's best known citizens is Hon. David H. Mercer, a man whose efforts and endeavors have done much for the advancement and growth of Omaha and Nebraska and who for ten years ably represented this district in congress. Mr. Mercer is virtually a Nebraska product, for save the time he resided in Wash- ington, D. C., as congressman, most of his life has been spent upon Nebraska soil, first in Nemaha county as a boy, then several months on a homestead in Brush Creek precinct, Saline county, where at the age of sixteen he taught his first school, and finally in Omaha, which has been his residence since 1886.
The Mercer family in the United States from which the subject of this sketch descended, first settled in Pennsylvania almost three hundred years ago. Three brothers migrated from the British Isles who were of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Amos Mercer, the great-grandfather of David H. Mercer. was a farmer residing in Arm- strong county, Pennsylvania. He married Mary Mitchell. Their son, David, born in Armstrong county, married Eva Cribbs. From this union came Amos Mercer, born in the same county on February 20, 1804, who also followed the pursuit of
HON. DAVID H. MERCER
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farming. He served two terms as county commissioner and for some time was brigadier general of the Pennsylvania State Militia. He married Rachel Rymer, a German woman through and through, and they reared a very large family. One of their sons, John Jackson Mercer, the father of David H., was born on a farm near New Bethlehem, Clarion county, Pennsylvania, on New Year's day of 1833. While yet in his teens and ambitious to be a man among men, John J. Mercer settled in Pittsburgh and learned the blacksmith trade. In 1853 he heard the call of the west and, responding thereto, he, after a most tedious and tiresome journey, be- came a pioneer in Benton county, Iowa, a few miles from Vinton. He there met and wedded Elizabeth Lamar Flora, a native of Pennsylvania and a descendant of the Lamars, Huguenots who were driven out of France by religious persecution and into Holland, where they were induced to flee to America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Some of the descendants settled in Pennsylvania and Mary- land but a larger number went farther south and made their homes in Georgia, Mississippi and adjoining states. On July 9, 1859, the subject of this sketch, David Henry Mercer, was born and in later years two sisters, Clara and Minnie, came to the Mercer household, they being born in Adams county, Illinois, where the family was living when the Civil war began. When President Lincoln called for troops, John J. Mercer and three brothers enlisted, one being killed in battle. John J. enlisted as a private and was honorably discharged at the close of the rebellion as a captain, having served his country faithfully for over three years as a member of Company E, Seventy-eighth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry. His brother Philip was first lieutenant in the same company. Captain Mercer was in many prominent battles, marched with Sherman. to Atlanta and the sea, never missed a day or had a furlough and refused a commission in the regular army when peace was declared. On his return home he engaged in mercantile pursuits and made the race for county treasurer of Adam's county. '
In 1866 he settled in Brownville, Nebraska, a promising town on the Missouri river, a rival of Omaha and Nebraska City for commercial supremacy and full of promise for the future. He engaged in the sale of-farming implements and con- ducted a machine and blacksmith shop. Captain Mercer prospered in his new home and in 1867 he had his family join him. While in Brownville he served as a member of the board of education, was elected to the legislature and in a brief time was recognized as one of the leading citizens of Nemaha county. In 1888 the Captain, wife and two daughters moved to Omaha, where the son David had been residing for some time. Captain Mercer became the leading Mason of Nebraska, serving in all positions and in every branch of Free Masonry, becoming grand master of the grand lodge of the state. He was an authority on Masonic law and tradition and left behind him an army of friends when he died on the 25th day of February, 1915, in Omaha, his wife, who was born May 30, 1833, having crossed the river of life April 26, 1906, and their daughter Minnie August 27, 1913.
David H. Mercer was educated in the public schools of Brownville, finishing the prescribed course in the high school, then one of the leading educational insti- tutions in the state. While in the Brownville school, he and his fellows organized a debating society, The Lyceum, published an amateur newspaper by the same name and helped develop a city library. David for some time was correspondent from Nemaha county to the Omaha Herald, then owned by Dr. George L. Miller, and part of one year he edited the Nemaha County Granger of Brownville. He loved athletic exercise and took a leading part in all outdoor sports. After teach- ing school one winter in Bedford precinct he entered the spring term of the Nebraska State University in 1877, graduating in June, 1880. As a university student he took a leading part in all of its activities. He was elected president of the Palladium Society, captain of the baseball team, editor of the college paper and captain of the University Cadets. In fact he held almost every office within the gift of his fellow students. After graduation, young Mercer returned to Brown- ville and began the study of law in the office of Judge Stull. He was admitted to
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the bar in April, 1881, and in September of the same year he went to Ann Arbor, where he was admitted to the senior law class of Michigan State University upon examination by Hon. Thomas M. Cooley, the dean of the law school. Graduating in March, 1882, with the degree of LL. B., Mercer returned home and opened a law office. He served for a time as city clerk and police judge and refused the office of mayor. He was assistant secretary of the Nebraska state senate in 1885. In 1884-5 he served as secretary of the republican state central committee and materially assisted in managing two campaigns. In 1886 he came to Omaha and entered the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad but at the expiration of a few months he reengaged in private practice. During his first year in Omaha he was nominated for county judge over Judge McCulloch and became chairman of the republican city central committee. He was appointed special master in chancery of the United States district court by Judge E. S. Dundy and served until he was elected to congress. In 1891 he was elected chairman of the republican county committee of Douglas county and his management of the campaign reversed political conditions in that county. In 1898-9 he was chairman of the republican state central committee and during the famous gold and silver fight in 1896 he served as secretary of the national republican congressional committee with head- quarters in New York and Washington, D. C. After the census of 1890 Nebraska doubled her representation in congress, increasing the membership from three to six, and the state had to be redistricted, Douglas, Sarpy and Washington counties comprising the new second congressional district. In 1890 Douglas county was in the first district, W. J. Bryan having carried the county as a candidate for congress in that year by a plurality of seven thousand. Evidently the republican legislature conceded to democracy one congressional district in the state when the new second district was created, for Douglas and Sarpy were strongly democratic, while the vote in Washington county was very close as between the republican and demo- cratic parties. In 1892, the year of the Grover Cleveland landslide, the republicans of the second district after a lively convention nominated David H. Mercer for congress. His opponent was Judge George W. Doane, then on the district bench, to which he had been elected in 1891 by a large majority, carrying Douglas county by over four thousand majority. Judge Doane had often been a candidate for office and never defeated, was a popular judge and his election to congress seemed certain. Dave Mercer's campaign slogan was, "Give the boys a chance," an Abe Lincoln quotation, and with the young men behind him he made a memorable and successful canvass. For five consecutive times he was elected to congress, defeat- ing, besides Judge Doane, Ex-Governor James E. Boyd, Judge E. R. Duffie, Gilbert M. Hitchcock and Judge Edgar Howard, and the belief is prevalent that Mercer would have been successful in his sixth campaign if the present election law had then been upon the statute book. For a decade Mr. Mercer served in congress -- the fifty-third, fifty-fourth, fifty-fifth, fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh con- gresses-and in that period he secured almost five million dollars in appropriations for Omaha and Nebraska. He served six years as chairman of the important com- mittee on public buildings and grounds and was a member of other influential committees. When President Mckinley sent for Mr. Mercer and suggested that the old Freedmen's Bank building on Pennsylvania avenue, which occupied land belonging to the government, was in a dangerous condition and should be taken down, Attorney General Griggs had been before Mr. Mercer's committee urging a new building for the department of justice upon the bank site. Mr. Griggs said that if he could be authorized to construct the building he would have the work done for one million dollars and in twelve months' time. Mr. Mercer introduced and passed through congress a bill in harmony with the attorney general's sugges- tion. The bank building was razed. After more than a year had elapsed, the attorney general came to Mr. Mercer, showed him his plans and requested another million. Mr. Mercer told him that a "skyscraper," contemplated by the plans and specifications, would dwarf the treasury building on the opposite side of Pennsylvania avenue, that the attorney general had failed to keep within the
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original limit of cost and that he intended to repeal the law and cover back into the treasury the one million dollars already appropriated. This he did.
His value to Nebraska as a legislator is evidenced by the federal buildings at Omaha, South Omaha, Blair, Hastings, Norfolk, Grand Island and York; quar- termaster's supply depot of the United States army at Omaha, one of the largest in the country ; city hall for Lincoln ; battleship named Nebraska ; enlargement of Fort Crook; extensive improvements at Fort Omaha; Indian supply depot and the division headquarters for rural free delivery at Omaha ; two hundred thousand dollars for Missouri river improvement at and near Omaha, Florence and Council Bluffs ; animals from Yellowstone Park for Riverview Park; old Spanish cannon for Hanscom Park; charter for First National Bank; military training in Omaha high school; free city delivery for York; three branch postoffices in Omaha and rural free delivery in every county in the district; the Trans-Mississippi Exposition and the Indian Congress. His bills for a bridge at South Omaha and a military school at Fort Omaha both passed congress but President Cleveland vetoed the school bill on the same day he signed the exposition bill, saying to Mr. Mercer, who was in the White House at the time: "I do not favor expositions but I cannot, on the same day, veto two bills in which you have shown so much interest, and for which you have made so strenuous a fight, so I will sign the exposition now." And he did. Mr. Mercer had the old Omaha postoffice building on Dodge street and Fifteenth renovated for army headquarters and secured for Paxton & Vierling the steel work in the new postoffice building in the face of a lower bid from a Milwaukee firm. In Washington, D. C., he left many monuments to his ability and activity, notably the handsome municipal building on Pennsyl- vania avenue, the agricultural, bureau of standards and engraving and printing structures and the monument to General U. S. Grant near the Capitol building. He excluded barbwire fences from the District of Columbia and introduced in congress the first bill to compel street railroads in Washington to vestibule their cars. His work for pensions, labor, irrigation and general legislation covered a wide field and was very effective. He forced the Trans-Mississippi bill through the house by holding up the Aldrich-Underwood election contest case, and although he refused to vote in favor of unseating Oscar W. Underwood, he discontinued his opposition to a consideration of the contest when Speaker Tom Reed assured him that he would be recognized to pass the Trans-Mississippi bill. Mr. Mercer has visited every county in Nebraska, every state in the Union, all our territorial pos- sessions, including Alaska, and has been around the world twice.
When the cyclone did its destructive work in Omaha and a few thoughtless people wired east that no aid was needed or wanted, Mr. Mercer, who was in Wash- ington, D. C., at the time, called upon Miss Mabel Boardman and General Davis, then representing the Red Cross, and succeeded in obtaining from that source fifty thousand dollars, which sum materially aided many unfortunates who had lost their all in that calamity. Mr. Mercer is a member of several clubs, societies and fraternal organizations, a Sigma Chi and thirty-second degree Mason.
In June, 1894, Mr. Mercer and Miss Sarah Abbott of Minneapolis were mar- ried in Washington, D. C., at St. John's Episcopal church. Laura Jeannette Mercer is the only child. Mr. Mercer resides in the old homestead near Hanscom Park and his law offices are in the Ware block.
JAMES FORSYTH.
James Forsyth, one of the early merchants of Omaha, was for many years actively identified with the drug trade in this city. He was born in New York city, March 6, 1838, and in early life learned and followed the carpenter's trade. At length he determined to try his fortune in the middle west, hoping that in this growing section of the country he might have better business opportunities. He
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reached Omaha in 1864, having made the journey westward by way of the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Here he learned the drug trade, entering the employ of Thomas Martin, a druggist, with whom he continued until 1865. He afterward formed a partnership with Frank Kennard, which association was continued from 1877 until 1880. The following year he bought the store of C. F. Goodman on Sixteenth street and Capitol avenue and there conducted business on his own account for twenty-one years, or until 1902, when he sold out to Samuel Howell and retired from active connection with commercial inter- ests. The store which he conducted was a well appointed establishment, neat and tasteful in its arrangement, while its stock was large, including all lines of drugs and druggists' sundries. He was always careful in selecting the personnel of the house and at all times conformed his business to the highest standards of commercial ethics. In addition to the drug trade he became one of the original promoters of the Forest Lawn Cemetery Association, of which he was at one time secretary, while from the beginning until his death he served as one of its trustees.
In Omaha, in 1867, Mr. Forsyth was united in marriage to Miss Jennie A. Brown, who arrived in this city in May, 1857. She is a daughter of James Brown, who came from Michigan with his family, making the journey by wagon. He afterward engaged in freighting between Omaha, Denver and Salt Lake City and had many interesting experiences in that connection. He also traveled by team to California in 1853 when the gold seekers were yet making their way across the country in large numbers. Afterward, however, he returned to Omaha, pur- chased property and resided here until a few months before his death, when he removed to Papillion, Nebraska, and there died at the age of fifty-eight years. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Forsyth was blessed with one daughter, Fannie M.
The husband and father passed away October 16, 1913, when seventy-five years of age. His political allegiance had long been given to the republican party and he lent the weight of his aid and influence to all projects and plans that recognized the needs of Omaha and attempted to meet them. He became a charter member of St. Mary's Avenue Congregational church and he did every- thing in his power to promote its growth and extend its influence. In a word his efforts proved effective forces in furthering the cause of public progress and improvement and he gave generously wherever his aid was needed to advance the public good. His life was upright and honorable and his memory is revered and cherished by all who knew him.
BYRON BENNETT DAVIS, M. D.
Dr. Byron Bennett Davis, who has won distinction in the field of general surgery, has practiced in Omaha continuously since 1894, in which year he re- turned after studying in Berlin. and other European centers. He was born upon a farm near Fayette, Wisconsin, June 14, 1859, and traces his ancestry back to William Davis, his great-grandfather, who was born in Greenwich, Massachusetts, and served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He was a brother of Isaac Davis, who became a captain in the Continental army and was the first man to be killed in the conflict, falling on Lexington Green, where a monument has been erected to his memory. Silas Davis, grandfather of Dr. Davis, was born in Ver- mont in 1768 and died in Wisconsin in 1857. His son, William Bennett Davis, was born in Jericho, Vermont, in 1809 and at Underhill, that state, in 1837, wedded Martha E. Haywood. They removed to Wisconsin in 1853, settling on a farm in La Fayette county, and after sixteen years, or in 1869, they became resi- dents of Richardson county, Nebraska, where they lived for many years, the father passing away in 1889 and the mother in 1894.
Dr. Davis attended the public schools of Wisconsin to the age of ten years and
DR. BYRON B. DAVIS
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afterward continued his education in the schools of Richardson county, Nebraska, and in Nebraska State University, from which he was graduated on the completion of a classical course, winning the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1882. Two years afterward, or in 1884, he was graduated from the Minnesota Hospital College at Minneapolis, which institution later became the College of Medicine of the Minne- sota State University. For one year he acted as interne in the hospital connected with that college, gaining thereby broad and valuable practical experience. He spent some time as a student in the New York Polyclinic, after which he prac- ticed medicine in McCook, Nebraska, until 1893, when he went abroad and con- centrated his attention upon surgery in Berlin, having the benefit of instruction from some of the most eminent surgeons of that country. In the fall of 1894 he returned to his native land and settled in Omaha, where he has since concentrated his efforts upon surgical practice, in which connection he has won high distinction and merited honors, for he displays marked skill in the performance of the multi- tudinous delicate duties that confront the surgeon in his efforts to restore health and prolong life.
On the 7th of June, 1887, in Beatrice, Nebraska, Dr. Davis was married to Miss Sophia Myers, a daughter of P. J. Myers, now deceased. They have one son, Herbert Haywood Davis, who was born in Berlin in 1894, and is a member of the class of 1917 at Cornell University.
Dr. and Mrs. Davis hold membership in the Congregational church and he is a Knight Templar Mason and a Mystic Shriner. He also has membership with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and is identified with the Omaha, Uni- versity, Field, Country and Commercial Clubs. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and from 1887 until 1893 he was regent of the Nebraska State University but otherwise has held no public office, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his professional duties, which have been of constantly growing importance. He has been a close and discriminating student of everything con- nected with surgery and that he has kept thoroughly informed concerning advanced thought in the profession is indicated in the fact that he holds membership in the Western Surgical Association, the Omaha-Douglas County Medical Society, the Missouri Valley Medical Association, the Nebraska State Medical Association and the American Medical Association. In all professional relations his vision is broad and his duties are performed with a sense of conscientious obligation.
COLONEL B. D. CRARY.
Colonel B. D. Crary, deceased, was for many years a valued resident of Omaha, in which city he took up his abode in 1866. A native of Albany, New York, he spent the period of his minority in the east and was graduated from Union College with highest honors on the completion of a thorough course in law. He then opened an office in New York city, where he engaged in practice until throat trouble forced him to abandon his profession, at which time he sought business opportunities in the west. For a time he was located at Rock Island, Illinois, and thence removed to Omaha in 1866. Immediately after his arrival in this city he became connected with Kountze Brothers, with whom he was actively and prominently associated for many years. He located all of the land for Kountze Brothers in Texas and was a man of very sound and dis- criminating business judgment, so that the investments were wisely and judi- ciously made and brought good financial returns. Mr. Crary took a contract to furnish many ties for the Union Pacific Railway Company at the time the road was being constructed. He conducted an extensive business under the name of the Texas Tram Lumber Company in Texas, being one of the owners of the enterprise, and for about thirty years his time was divided between the personal management of his affairs in that state and his home in Omaha, but Vol. II-3
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throughout the entire period he always made Omaha the place of his residence. He was thoroughly familiar with every branch of the lumber trade, studied closely the market conditions and by reason of his keen discernment so controlled and managed his interests that success in substantial measure came to him.
In New York Mr. Crary was united in marriage to Miss Anna A. Littlejohn and they became the parents of five children : Charles T., now residing in Beau- mont, Texas; Mary Ella, who married Charles Chiverick and resides in Omaha ; Anna Maria, who is living in Omaha; Nathan N., who lives in Beaumont, Texas; and William H., of Omaha.
Soon after his arrival here Mr. Crary purchased the John I. Redick home on St. Mary's avenue, the house being surrounded by more than two acres of ground. His daughter, Miss Anna M. Crary, owns this property, a notable place by reason of the beauty of the spacious lawn and the fine old trees which are still standing upon it. Mrs. Crary's death occurred in 1895 and Mr. Crary, sur- viving her for twelve years, passed away in April, 1907, at the age of eighty-nine years. He had long been a valued and honored citizen of Omaha, maintaining his residence within its borders for more than four decades. Wherever known he was held in the highest respect, for his life was ever upright and honorable. He was always loyal to the high principles which he made the standard of his life and his entire career was the expression of most commendable ethical prin- ciples. As the day with its morning of hope and promise, its noontide of activ- ity, its evening of successful and completed effort, ending in the grateful rest and quiet of the night, so was the life of this good man.
HARRY GINTER COUNSMAN.
Harry Ginter Counsman, who since 1912 has filled the office of county asses- sor of Douglas county, has been almost continuously a public official since 1887 and the record which he has made in office has at all times been creditable and commendable. Omaha claims him as a native son, his birth having here occurred on the 24th of August, 1861. His paternal grandfather, William Counsman, was a native of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, devoted his life to farming and passed away in his native state. The father, Jacob Miles Counsman, born in Hollidays- burg, Pennsylvania, in 1838, was there reared and in 1858, at Altoona, Pennsyl- vania, wedded Arabella Redman, who was born in Hollidaysburg in 1839. He learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner in Pennsylvania and in 1861 removed to the west by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and thence up the Missouri river by boat to Omaha, where he arrived in the month of May. Here he took up his permanent abode and became one of the leading contractors and builders of the city, his operations also extending to other western cities, where many evidences of his skill and handiwork are still seen. He put aside the cares of active business life in 1900 and is now enjoying well earned retirement. For two years he was a member of the Omaha city council from the fifth ward.
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