USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 52
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in which he has since successfully operated. He handles a large amount of property, is thoroughly conversant with realty values and the real estate market and is now conducting a business of gratifying proportions. Since September, 1901, he also represents the Omaha Loan & Building Association at South Omaha.
In Everest, Kansas, in 1885, Mr. Kopietz was married to Miss Mary Lich- novsky, a native of Texas and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Lichnovsky, who removed from Texas to Brown county, Kansas, in pioneer times. The mother is now living but the father has passed away, and Mrs. Kopietz died in South Omaha in 1901, when but thirty-six years of age, leaving three daughters: Julia A .; Emily, the wife of HI. HI. Holst, of South Omaha; and Theresa M., a teacher of domestic science in the South Omaha schools.
Politically Mr. Kopietz is a democrat and for four years he has served on the South Omaha park board, being at one time its secretary. He belongs to the Roman Catholic church and has membership with the Knights of Columbus and Knights and Ladies of Security. He is also a member of the Seymour Lake Country Club and of the South Omaha Historical Society. These connections indicate the nature of his interests and the breadth of his activities. His life has been characterized by honorable purposes and laudable ambition, and his well directed efforts have brought him the success which is his.
ALBERT A. PATZMAN.
Energy and eternal vigilance are the price that we must pay for success. Recognizing this fact, Albert A. Patzman is so directing his efforts that his busi- ness as a dealer in real estate and farm loans is constantly growing. Nebraska numbers him among her native sons. He was born at Beatrice, February 25, 1883, his father being Fred F. Patzman, a native of Germany, who in the early '6os came to America, first settling at Springfield, Illinois, where he followed agricul- tural pursuits and also engaged in the lumber business and in contracting. He arrived in Nebraska in 1869 or 1870, establishing his home in Beatrice among its earliest settlers. He there successfully engaged in contracting for some time and afterward removed to Jefferson county, where he carried on farming, continuing to cultivate the fields until his death, which occurred in 1905 at the age of sixty- two. In politics he was a stanch democrat, very active in the support of his party, and he was widely known and popular among the people in the district in which he lived. He married Lizette Workman, a native of Illinois and a repre- sentative of one of the old families of that state. of German lineage. She became the mother of ten children, of whom Albert A. was the sixth. Mrs. Patzman passed away more than a decade before her husband, her death occurring in 1892.
Albert A. Patzman acquired his primary education in the country schools of Jefferson county and afterward attended school in Lincoln and at Grand Island, being graduated from the Grand Island Business College. His youthful exper- iences and training were those of the farm bred boy and he early learned the eternal principle that industry wins. He started out to provide for his own sup- port when a young man of twenty years and became clerk for the Chicago Lumber Company at Grand Island, continuing with that firm for eighteen months. He later became connected with the Citizens National Bank at McCook, Nebraska, where he filled various positions, remaining there for more than two years. He then came to Omaha and has been continuously engaged in business on his own account since 1905, handling farm loans and real estate. His previous experience well qualified him for the step which he has taken in this direction and his close application, unfaltering energy and honorable methods have won for him sub- stantial success.
He is an active supporter of the democratic party, with which he has voted since age conferred upon him the right of franchise, and his religious faith is that
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of the English Lutheran church. He is a self-made man, owing his advancement entirely to his own efforts, and his ability and even paced energy have carried him into important relations.
COLONEL PATRICK C. HEAFEY.
Long connection with the business interests and the public activities of Omaha has made Colonel Patrick C. Heafey well known in this city. He was born in Ballylongford, Ireland, amid the lakes of Killarney, on the 17th of March, 1861, his parents being Thomas and Deborah (Carmodey) Heafey, who spent their entire lives on the Emerald isle, where the father engaged in farming and cattle raising. He died in the lake district of Killarney in 1909, at the very venerable age of eighty-seven years, while his wife passed away at the early age of thirty-eight years. They were the parents of eight children, of whom five are yet living: Morgan J. and Mrs. James McCloud, both residents of Omaha ; Patrick C .; and Cornelius and Mrs. Mary Scannell, residents of Ireland.
In early boyhood Colonel Heafey attended the schools of Ireland and at the age of sixteen years and nine months came to America. He was for six months in Brooklyn, New York, and on the 24th of June, 1878, arrived in Omaha, where he entered the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad Company as receiving clerk. There he remained for five years and in 1883 he took up the undertaking business. Under the direction of his uncle, Mr. O'Connor of Brooklyn, New York, he had previously acquainted himself with the business and in Omaha he succeeded to the interests of Charles McCarthy and Mr. Donnelly in September, 1884. Since then he has become the leading undertaker of the city. His brother Morgan, formerly connected with the Paxton & Gallagher Grocery Company, became his partner in 1885 and they have since won a position of leadership in their line in both Omaha and South Omaha. Colonel Heafey is also connected with the Power-Heafey Coal Company, of which he was president for eight years and is now treasurer. His business affairs have ever been most carefully and wisely directed and his success is the direct and legitimate outcome of persistent, earnest and honorable effort. He is president of the County Undertakers' Association, a social organization with which he has been thus connected for the past seventeen years. He also belongs to the Nebraska State Embalmers & Funeral Association.
On the 18th of November, 1892, Coloned Heafey was married in Council Bluffs by Father Martini, a relative of Pope Leo, to Katherine Irene McDermott, a daughter of John McDermott, who lived in Stanberry, Missouri, and afterward became a resident of Council Bluffs. Mrs. Heafey passed away in Council Bluffs, July 22, 1905, dying in Mercy Hospital after an illness of three months' duration, when thirty-six years of age. On the 9th of November, 1910, Colonel Heafey wedded Miss Margaret T. Maloney, of Omaha, daughter of Thomas and Eliza- beth Maloney, the former a retired farmer of Iowa. Mrs. Heafey is a graduate of the Sacred Heart Academy of Omaha, and they were married in the private chapel of Bishop Scannell.
Their religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic church and Colonel Heafey was made a member of the committee to receive Archbishop Harty, who in December, 1916, was installed bishop of Omaha. He is a charter member of the Knights of Columbus, in which he has attained the fourth degree. He is a life member of both the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Fraternal Order of Eagles and he has been a member of the Field Club and of the Rotary Club since their organization. He also has membership with the Ancient Order of Hibernians, is a past county president and a member of the Emmet Monument Association and the Robert Emmet Club and for two years has been president of the Omaha Good Fellowship Club. He is also a member of the Douglas County Association of Nebraska Pioneers. In politics he is a democrat and for six years
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he was a member of the Omaha police board. He also served on the water board for a period of six years and has been a member of the fire and police commission. He was also coroner of Omaha for two years and served as a member of the staff under four governors-Warner, Shallenberger, Morehead and Neville. He has thus been brought into various prominent public relations and his popularity and worth have firmly established him in public regard.
DAVID C. PATTERSON.
David C. Patterson, attorney at law, was born in Huntingdon county, Penn- sylvania, February 26, 1857. His father, the late Captain George W. Patterson, was a Pennsylvania farmer and at the opening of the Civil war enlisted a com- pany and went to the front as the captain. The founder of the American branch of the family was James Patterson, of Salisbury, England, who came over in 1714, and took up land in Lancaster county before William Penn was given the state or colony. He was the father of Captain James Patterson 2nd, of the Colonial war period who built Patterson's Fort at Mexico, Pennsylvania, which was the base of supplies for the colonial troops during 1756 and the year fol- lowing, and he was the father of James Patterson 3rd, the grandfather of the said George W. Patterson, who was wedded to Sarah Cunningham, a descendant of one of the first settlers of William Penn's colony.
David C. Patterson was one of a family of seven sons. His early life was spent upon the farm and in the schools of Pennsylvania. When seventeen years of age he began teaching school and at the same time read law. He was admitted to practice in the state, supreme, and federal courts of Nebraska in 1878. He began the practice of law in Wayne county, dealt in real estate, and in 1880 organized a bank called the Logan Valley Bank, which he changed later to the First National. Later he organized the Cedar County Bank at Hartington. now the First National. He moved to Omaha in 1885 and has practiced law and dealt in real estate since that time. He is accounted one of the most sub- stantial business and professional men of the city. He came to Nebraska with- out means or assistance and his success must be attributed entirely to his own efforts and ability
He was married to Maude Gamble, a daughter of W. O. and Mary (Widney) Gamble, of Wayne, in 1884. They have three children, namely, Lieutenant D. C. Patterson, Jr., U. S. N., Miriam Boyce and Eugenie. The son was gradu- ated at Annapolis in 1908 and was lately the executive officer of the United States Destroyer Sampson. He now is flag lieutenant on the staff of Admiral Knight at the Asiatic station. David C. Patterson is a Knight Templar, belongs to the Bar associations and the Commercial and Happy Hollow Clubs and in politics has always been a democrat.
ALFRED S. MATTSON, M. D.
Dr. Alfred S. Mattson, a homeopathic practitioner and a graduate of the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, his native city, was born September II, 1859, his parents being Charles H. and Catherine (Simmons) Mattson, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of New Jersey. The father spent his entire life in Philadelphia and was connected with commercial interests there as a wholesale grocer. He died in that city in 1861, at the age of thirty-seven years, while his wife survived until 1864, passing away at the age of forty.
Alfred S. Mattson was thus left an orphan when a little lad of but five years, after which he was reared by his aunt and an older sister. He attended the
DAVID C. PATTERSON
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Quaker high school at Fifteenth and Race streets in Philadelphia and was gradu- ated in June, 1873, when but fourteen years of age. He then devoted his atten- tion to farm work until he reached the age of eighteen years, when, having determined to enter upon a professional career, he matriculated in the Hahne- mann Medical College of Philadelphia, in which he completed his course by graduation with the class of 1880, before he had reached his majority. The succeeding year and a half was devoted to hospital work, after which he entered upon the private practice of medicine in Philadelphia, where he remained until 1902, when on account of impaired health he retired. He did not resume active practice until November, 1903, when he opened an office in Omaha, where he has since built up a large practice of a most important character. He belongs to the Nebraska Homeopathic Medical Society and also to the American Institute of Homeopathy. In 1901 he attended the New York Post Graduate School and he has always kept in touch with the trend of modern scientific thought and investigation through reading and study.
In October, 1885, Dr. Mattson was married to Miss Eliza N. Frederick, of Philadelphia, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Frederick. She passed away in Philadelphia in 1894. There are five children of that marriage. Mrs. Ethel (Mattson) Heald, born in Moorestown, New Jersey, was graduated from an academy at Moorestown and from Bryn Mawr College. Charles L., also a native of Moorestown, was graduated from Oberlin College of Ohio after com- pleting the high school course in Omaha, where he is now living. Alfred S., also born in Moorestown, supplemented his high school course by a year's study at Oberlin. Lloyd H., born in Moorestown, was graduated from the Omaha high school and Oberlin College. Donald F., born in Moorestown, completed the high school course in Omaha, afterward received the B. S. degree from the University of Wisconsin and is now a teacher in its agricultural department.
For his second wife Dr. Mattson chose Gertrude Huston, of Moorestown, New Jersey, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Huston, and they have one child, Gertrude, who was born in Moorestown and is now a student at the Uni- versity of Wisconsin.
In politics Dr. Mattson is a progressive republican but has never been an aspirant for office, preferring to concentrate his energies. upon his professional duties and interests. He worked his own way through college and his advance- ment has resulted entirely from his capability, laudable ambition and determina- tion. Step by step he has progressed until his position as a leader in homeopathic circles is a foremost one.
COLONEL STONEWALL JACKSON HENDERSON.
Colonel Stonewall Jackson Henderson, well known in Omaha as a promi- nent figure in insurance circles and widely known throughout the state as propri- etor of Henderson's Alfalfa Seed Farms at Benkelman, Nebraska, has made valuable contribution to the wealth of the state through his practical demonstra- tion of the fact that alfalfa may be profitably raised in Nebraska. He was born in Wood county, West Virginia, May 14. 1864, and is descended from Alexander Henderson, who came to America in 1607 and was one of the early settlers of Jamestown, Virginia. One of the representatives of the family was a warm personal friend and companion of George Washington and a man of prominence in the south. The family comes of Scotch lineage, the ancestral line being traced back for over four hundred years, and members of the family have throughout this period lived in Fife, their chief seat being Fordell, Scotland. The name Henderson or Fordell is one of distinction, well known throughout the kingdom. Robert Henderson was a man of prominence in the reign of James III and was also a distinguished figure at the time of James IV, serving as lord justice and Vol. II-22
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king's advocate. He received a charter under the great seal and for generations the family has had its coat of arms. Representatives of the family were closely associated with various other rulers of Scotland to the time of Mary Queen of Scots. With the founding of the family in America the Hendersons became prominently associated with plantation life in Virginia and James Henderson, the grandfather of Stonewall Jackson Henderson of this review, was a leading and well-to-do planter and slaveholder of that state. His son, Richard Henry Henderson, who was born in West Virginia, became a steamboat captain, making trips between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati on the Ohio river. At the time of the Civil war he served as carrier of troops with his boats but took no part in regular military actions. For several years prior to his death he was a resident of Waterloo, Iowa, and there passed away in 1910 at the age of eighty-four years. He married Maria Shanklin, a native of West Virginia and a member of one of its old families. She passed away in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1912, at the age of eighty-three years.
Stonewall Jackson Henderson was the seventh son in a family of ten chil- dren. He pursued his education in the public schools of Parkersburg, West Virginia, and of Marietta, Ohio, and when seventeen years of age started out to earn his own living, being first employed as clerk on an Ohio river steamboat. He devoted about three years to that work and subsequently became a traveling salesman in mercantile lines, devoting fifteen years to that pursuit. He became a resident of Waterloo, Iowa, where for seven years he successfully engaged in the insurance business, and in 1906 he removed to Omaha, where he opened an insurance office, and has since won a large clientage in this connection.
One of the interesting chapters of his life record covers his efforts to develop the Henderson Alfalfa Seed Farms near Benkelman, Nebraska, a work in which he has gained splendid success. He has thoroughly demonstrated the possibilities for profitable alfalfa growing in the west and he handles the Grimm alfalfa seed. His nonirrigated farms are situated about a mile south of Benkelman, in the beautiful Republican valley, where the soil and climate are rich with the elements that are necessary to produce vigorous alfalfa seed. Mr. Henderson has had twenty years' experience in the growing of alfalfa and after a thorough study of the question he became convinced that for the production of vigorous, hardy seed that will germinate freely one must have cold winters and long, hot, dry summers interspersed with extreme sudden changes. He found the necessary conditions in Dundy county and there acquired his farms, which are now devoted to alfalfa seed production, specializing in Grimm alfalfa because of its superior hardiness and yield. The government and state agricultural farms have made careful tests of the various strains of alfalfa in order to ascertain which is the hardiest and in practically every case where a thorough test has been made Grimm alfalfa has proven to be superior in hardiness, in quality and in yield. Moreover, it sprouts earlier and furnishes later pasture in the fall. Mr. Hender- son's success in this undertaking is notable and it has meant much to the farmers of Nebraska and the west.
In Bloomfield, Iowa, in 1890, Mr. Henderson was married to Miss Belle Carruthers, a native of Iowa and a daughter of the late Hon. Samuel S. Car- ruthers, a prominent lawyer and judge of Davis county, Iowa. Her mother bore the maiden name of Lucretia Kcnaga. Mr. and Mrs. Henderson have one son. Sam C., who is also engaged in the insurance business in Omaha.
In his political views Mr. Henderson is a democrat, somewhat active in the party, and he won his title of colonel by service on Governor Morehead's staff for four years. Recently he has been appointed for similar service on the staff of Governor Neville. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the Knight Templar degree, and he also has membership with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Omaha Athletic Club, associations that indicate much of the character of his interests and the rules which govern his conduct. His has been a well spent life fraught with high ideals and honorable
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purposes and the results which he has achieved are most substantial and gratify- ing. Moreover, with his material prosperity has come that good mame which is rather to be chosen than great riches.
THOMAS ALFRED FRY.
Thomas Alfred Fry, financier and merchant, has been closely associated not only with interests which have contributed to the business development of Omaha but also with interests which have advanced municipal progress and promoted high standards of citizenship. The spirit of western progress and enterprise which has been a dominant factor in the upbuilding of the middle west has ever been manifest in his career. He is a western man by birth, training and pref- erence. He was born in Lawrence, Kansas, September 3, 1860, a son of Samuel and Matilda (Peters) Fry, both of whom were natives of England, where they were reared and married. The father was born in 1832 and it was about 1852 that he crossed the Atlantic to the new world, establishing the family home in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1854. During the period of the Civil war he served as a member of the Home Guards and was on one occasion captured by troops under General Price but managed to make his escape. For many years he engaged extensively in business as a railroad contractor and was directing the building of a railroad in Texas when he passed away in 1873, his widow surviv- ing until 1884.
Thomas A. Fry, having completed the course of instruction in the schools of Lawrence, Kansas, afterward spent two winter seasons as a student in Sel- leck's Military Academy at Norwalk, Connecticut, and still later he entered the State University of Kansas, where he completed the work of the junior year in 1876. He then went to St. Louis, where he spent two years with an uncle in the oyster business. In 1879 he entered the employ of A. Booth & Company. the most prominent oyster dealers of the country and continued with that firm and its successors at their St. Louis branch from 1879 until 1887. In the latter year he came to Omaha for the firm, opening a branch house in this city, of which he was made manager, continuing uninterruptedly in that business unti! 1912, when he resigned. In the meantime, however, larger responsibilities were entrusted to his care, for in 1902 he was given charge of all of the interests of the A. Booth Company west of the Mississippi river and managed the vast volume of business done in that territory for an entire decade. In 1908 he was made receiver for the company in connection with nearly all of their business west of the Mississippi river. On the Ist of October, 1912, Mr. Fry became president of the Cole & Fry Company, dealers in fish and oysters, and so con- tinued until June 26, 1915. He has never concentrated his efforts along a single line, however, and his powers have proven adequate to the demands for suc- cessful management in connection with various important business concerns. He has been continuously engaged in the retail shoe trade in Omaha since 1894 and is now president of the Drexel Shoe Company, the Fry Shoe Company, the Stryker Shoe Company and the Shoe Market. He is likewise an influential factor in financial circles and for sixteen years has been a director of the United States National Bank and since 1896 has been president of the Nebraska Sav- ings & Loan Company.
On the 21st of May, 1884, in St. Louis, Mr. Fry was married to Miss Betha B. Milford, a daughter of Richard Milford, of England, and to them were born the following named: Elizabeth M .: Anna C .; Alice; Daisy Jane : Ethel M. : and Helen Marie, who died August 18, 1913, at the age of twelve years.
The parents hold membership in the Good Shepherd Episcopal church, of which Mr. Fry is a vestryman. His political endorsement is given to the repub- lican party and while he has never been active in the public life of the com-
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munity as an office holder he has done effective and far-reaching work for the benefit of the city in many ways. He was one of the organizers of the Ak-Sar- Ben, of which he served as president for eight years, and in that connection he did much to exploit Omaha and its advantages. . He is also serving on the Omaha school board, of which he has been a very active and helpful member, and through his identification with the Commercial Club he has supported many well formulated plans looking to the upbuilding of the city, the expansion of its trade interests and the development of those projects which are working toward a bigger and better Omaha. He has membership with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and also belongs to the Omaha Club, the University Club, the Country Club and the Happy Hollow Club. His life record contains many chapters of interest, showing what may be accomplished when enterprise and laudable ambition lead the way. His connection with any undertaking ensures a prosperous outcome, for it is in his nature to carry forward to successful completion everything with which he becomes associated. He has earned for himself an enviable reputation as a careful man of business and in his dealings is known for his prompt and reliable methods, which have won for him the deserved and unbounded confidence of his fellowmen.
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