USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 6
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Harry G. Counsman is indebted to the public school system of Omaha for the educational privileges which he enjoyed. At the age of eighteen years he became interested in the manufacture of brick and in 1883 he was appointed to the position of railway mail clerk on the Union Pacific Railroad between Omaha and Cheyenne. He served in that capacity until 1887, when he was made deputy city clerk, a position which he occupied until 1892, when he was appointed to the office of deputy city treasurer. For twelve years he continued in that position and then resigned in 1904 to enter the storage and brokerage business in Omaha, in which he continued until 1912, when he was elected county assessor of Douglas county and yet occupies that position. He has also made extensive and profitable investments in Omaha real estate and has won a creditable place in business and political circles. His support has ever been stanchly given to the republican
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party and he has fought earnestly and effectively to uphold its principles and inculcate its ideas.
In Omaha, on the 10th of July, 1884, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Counsman and Miss Yuba Kate Bailey, a daughter of Francis E. and Elizabeth Bailey. The father, who figured in public life as a member of the city council of Omaha from 1884 until 1888, was owner and manager of a brick manufactur- ing industry and was also a building contractor, being awarded the contract for the construction of many of the largest of Omaha's first business blocks and residences. To Mr. and Mrs. Counsman have been born two children, Harry Ginter and Maude Irene. The former wedded Josephine Swanson and they have become the parents of a son, Harry Ginter, a representative of the third generation to bear that name.
Mr. Counsman was baptized in the English Lutheran church and he now holds membership with various fraternal and social organizations, being a life member of St. John's Lodge, No. 25, A. F. & A. M .; a life member of Bellevue Chapter, R. A. M .; a member of Mount Calvary Commandery, K. T .; and a life member of Tangier Temple A. A. O. N. M. S. He likewise belongs to Sey- mour Camp, W. O. W., of Omaha, and something of the nature of his recrea- tion is indicated in the fact that he is identified with the Omaha Field Club and the Elmwood Park Golf Club, organizations in which his attractive social quali- ties have gained him popularity.
JOHN A. DOE.
John A. Doe, who in the year 1908 was called to his final rest, had been a resident of Omaha since 1882 and through all the intervening years had been a most prominent, active and helpful factor in promoting the business development and consequent growth and improvement of the city. He enjoyed the confidence and goodwill of his colleagues and contemporaries in the business world and his sterling traits of character won for him the warm regard of many friends. He was born in Washington, Maine, on the 10th of February, 1846, and in early manhood went to Boston, where for a time he occupied the position of superin- tendent of the Washington Market. He became a prominent and influential citizen there and for a period was superintendent of municipal charities, a position of large responsibility, demanding keen insight, discriminating judg- ment, ready tact and broad sympathy.
The year 1882 witnessed Mr. Doe's removal to the west and he first made his way to Kansas City, but the same year removed to South Omaha and became associated with the Nelson Morris Packing Company, taking charge of the ren- dering plant. From that time forward he was closely associated with the industrial and commercial development of the city and his efforts and activi- ties were far-reaching and beneficial. He built and operated the first electric light plant in South Omaha and was closely connected with various local improve- ments of a public character as well as those which had their root in business. In 1889 he was associated with H. H. Meday, A. C. Foster and H. C. Bostwick in organizing the South Omaha Ice & Coal Company, which established the first ice business in the city. They extended their business to Omaha. Careful management and unfaltering enterprise led to the development of their trade and they still further broadened the scope of their activities by organizing in 1894 the Council Bluffs Ice & Coal Company, after which they did the major portion of the business in all three places. In 1898 E. A. Cudahy, T. W. Talli- ferro and H. C. Bostwick, who had acquired the interests of Messrs. Meday and Foster, sold their holdings to Messrs. Doe and Talbot in the enterprise and the David Talbot Ice Company, the South Omaha Ice & Coal Company and the Arctic Ice Company were consolidated. In 1904 Mr. Talbot disposed of his
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interests to Mr. Doc and the business became the Omaha Ice & Cold Storage Company. In 1905 he added to his equipment a sixty ton artificial ice plant, the first ice manufacturing plant in Omaha, and later increased the facilities so that the plant had a capacity of one hundred and twenty tons production per day. After the death of Mr. Doe, Mrs. Doe became president of the company and H. A. Colvin, general manager, and they have erected still another plant of sixty tons capacity which has recently been completed. The plant is thoroughly modern in every way. Mr. Doe owned large ice houses on Carter Lake with a capacity of thirty-five thousand tons. He had the contract for supplying the railroad companies with ice. It was through his efforts that the business was established and it has since been built up to its present extensive and gratifying propor- tions and his interests became among the most important of the manufacturing and commercial concerns of the city. He was a member of the Western Ice Manufacturers Association. The business which he established is still being profitably conducted and furnishes employment to about one hundred and seventy-five people.
It was in Peabody, Massachusetts, in 1877 that Mr. Doe wedded Miss Anna F. Mockler and they had one child, John F., now deceased. The husband and father passed away April 24, 1908, when in the prime of life, being then but sixty-two years of age. His many friends felt the deepest regret at his passing, for he had endeared himself to all with whom he had come in contact.' He was a man of. strong character and a very public spirited citizen. He belonged to the Ak-Sar-Ben and was interested in all of its projects for the exploitation and improvement of Omaha. His life record shows what may be accomplished when one possesses perseverance, determination and business initiative. Step by step as he advanced he broadened his interests and the community benefited by the conduct of his business affairs, while his enterprise and diligence were rewarded with substantial success.
GEORGE APPLETON HOAGLAND.
George Appleton Hoagland, head and founder of the firm of George A. Hoag- land & Company, promoters of the pioneer wholesale lumber business of Omaha, was born in Boonville, Missouri, on the 20th of May, 1843, a son of George Tunis and Nancy (Gale) Hoagland, the father a native of Trenton, New Jersey, and the mother of Massachusetts. In 1852 they removed from Boonville to St. Joseph, Missouri, and in that state spent their remaining days.
George A. Hoagland attended the public schools of Weston, Missouri, and pursued a college course in Liberty, Missouri, for a year. In the spring of 1861 his father established the lumber business in Omaha in partnership with George Bebbington under the firm name of George T. Hoagland & Company. Their initial stock comprised a few car loads of lumber which was offered for sale upon the site of the Millard Hotel at the northeast corner of Thirteenth and Douglas streets. In the summer of 1861 George A. Hoagland arrived in Omaha, coming from St. Joseph, Missouri, and entered the employ of the firm in a cler- ical capacity. He soon displayed marked aptitude in the business and in 1865 he and his father acquired the interests of Mr. Bebbington and the firm then became George T. Hoagland & Son, the son assuming the position of manager and resident partner. At that time building was active in Omaha and the Union Pacific Railroad was also in process of construction. Mr. Hoagland was often called upon to supply large quantities of lumber used in railroad building. He brought his lumber to Omaha by river steamers and it was carried to the point where it was to be used by team. Purchasers came with their wagons for lumber for a distance of two hundred miles. About 1871 Mr. Hoagland determined to establish at Omaha a distributing center for lumber and each initiative step in
GEORGE A. HOAGLAND
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his business brought enlarged and satisfactory results. In 1874, therefore, he was able to purchase the interests of his father in the business and continue the undertaking as sole proprietor. His prosperity continued uninterruptedly until the great flood of 1881 swept away or destroyed about twenty thousand dollars' worth of his stock. As new communities sprang up, Mr. Hoagland established branch yards to supply their needs and now maintains yards in most of the important towns of the state and at the same time has large lumber interests in Iowa. His operations in the lumber field indeed cover a very wide territory and the firm of George A. Hoagland & Company is one of the foremost in that field in the state. He is also interested in banking as president of the Hoagland Loan & Investment Company, of St. Joseph, Missouri.
On the 22d of May, 1864, in Omaha, Mr. Hoagland was united in marriage to Miss Iantha C. Wyman, who was born in Madison, Wisconsin, a daughter of William W. Wyman, at one time a prominent Omaha journalist. Mr. and Mrs. Hoagland have become parents of seven children, four of whom are yet living : William W., who is associated with his father in the lumber firm of George A. Hoagland & Company ; Laura M., the wife of Dr. John E. Summers, one of the leading surgeons of the west, residing in Omaha; Paul I., a member of the firm of Bullard, Hoagland & Benedict, dealers in lumber and building materials; and Helen L., the wife of Captain D. L. Stone, of the United States army, now located in Honolulu.
He is a member of the Congregational church and is interested in matters relative to public welfare but preeminently is a business man, giving the major part of his time, thought and attention to the conduct of his growing interests, which have constituted an element in the state's material advancement and prog- ress as well as the basis of his individual success.
GEORGE FORGAN,
George Forgan, well known in financial circles in Omaha, has advanced step by step in his business career until he now handles the interests of a large and important clientele under the name of the Forgan Investment Company. He was born in Bo'ness, Scotland, July 1, 1871, and is a son of Peter L. and Grace (MacMillan) Forgan, who were also natives of the land of hills and heather. The father was born in 1834 and for twenty-three years was actively and suc- cessfully engaged in banking in Bo'ness before coming to the United States, after which he practically lived retired. It was in 1886 that he brought his family to the new world, settling at Norfolk, Nebraska, whence in 1887 he removed to Omaha. He died on the 7th of May, 1915, at his old home in Scotland, whither he had gone on a visit, and his widow now makes her home with their son George in Omaha.
In schools of his native land George Forgan pursued his education to the age of sixteen years and then accompanied his parents to the new world. On the establishment of the family home in this city in the year 1887 he entered the employ of Cummings & Neilson, wholesale dealers in paints, with whom he continued until the spring of 1888, when he made his initial step in financial circles as an employe of the American Loan & Trust Company and American Savings Bank with which he continued until the fall of the year 1897 when he became manager of the Anthony Loan & Trust Company of Omaha. After three years, or in 1900, he resigned to enter the farm loan business on his own account as the senior partner in the Forgan-Haskell Company, which connec- tion was maintained until 1905, when Mr. Haskell retired and took up his reši- dence in California. Since that time Mr. Forgan has conducted the business alone under the name of the Forgan Investment Company, which was later incor- porated in 1913. He has handled extensive and important financial interests
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throughout this period and has a large clientage for which he has made most satisfactory and profitable investments. He is thoroughly acquainted with every phase of the business and an excellent judge of property values. At the present time and for the past three years his company has been the financial corres- pondent of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York city for the purpose of negotiating farm loans for that large life insurance company in the state of Nebraska.
On the 12th of June, 1894, in Omaha, Nir. Forgan was united in marriage to Miss .Mabel Cole, her father being David Cole, who is deceased. To them has been born a daughter, Marjorie Mae. Mr. Forgan votes with the republi- can party. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church, while frater- nally he is a Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine and a mem- ber of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. His interest in the welfare and upbuilding of the city is indicated in his membership in the Commercial Club and his cooperation with its well defined plans for the city's benefit. He is also a member of the Omaha Athletic Club and finds recreation through his membership in the Omaha Field Club, being an enthusiastic golfer, inheriting as it were the fondness for that ancient Scottish game from his relatives in St. Andrews, Scotland, celebrated golf club makers there. He has many friends both within and without those organizations, for throughout his entire life he has displayed sterling qualities of manhood and citizenship which have won for him the high regard and goodwill of all with whom he has been brought in contact.
RALPH E. PARROTT.
Ralph E. Parrott, of Omaha, manager of the Oliver Chilled Plow Company, proves in his business career the fact that success is not the result of genius or of fortunate circumstances, as sonie contend, but is rather the outcome of clear judgment, wisdom, experience and industry on the part of the individual, for starting out in life empty handed, he has worked his way steadily upward and each forward step has brought him a broader outlook and wider opportunities. He was born upon a farm near Danville, Iowa, March 21, 1874. The family name was originally spelled Parriott but several generations have adopted the
present form. Descended from Virginian ancestry, his grandfather and his great-grandfather, both of whom bore the name of William Parrott, were natives of the Old Dominion. The former became a farmer of that state, owning a large plantation and a large number of slaves, but long prior to the Civil war he liberated his negroes and removed to Iowa in 1833, settling on a farm in Des Moines county. At one time he owned a large portion of the land now within the corporation limits of the city of Burlington and was one of the pioneer residents there, contributing to its early development and assisting largely in promoting the interests of civilization in that region. His son, Christopher C. Parrott, was born on the old homestead farm near Danville, Iowa, on the 17th of February, 1839, and in that state was married to Miss Lydia A. Clark, who is now living with her son Ralph in Omaha, Mr. Parrott having passed away on the 15th of February, 1900.
The youthful experiences of Ralph E. Parrott were those of the farm bred boy who works in the fields through the summer months and in the winter sea- sons attends the district schools. He thus pursued his education in Des Moines county, Iowa, to the age of sixteen years, when he entered the Orchard City Business College at Burlington, where he studied for a time. His initial step in commercial circles was made as a clerk in a store in New London, Iowa, where he remained for two years, and later he became a clerk in a dry goods store in Burlington, where he also spent a similar period. He then returned to New
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London and for a year engaged in teaching school. In 1902 he entered the employ of the Deering Harvester Company at Ottumwa, Iowa, where he con- tinued for a year, and the succeeding two years were spent in charge of a retail implement business which he owned at New London, lowa. He remained pro- prietor of the establishment for six years although he did not give personal supervision to it for four years of that period. In 1905 he went to Chicago and became purchasing agent for the large mail order house of the John M. Smyth Company, spending two years in that connection. He was afterward with the D. M. Sechier Implement & Carriage Company of Moline, Illinois, as traveling salesman in Iowa, representing that house upon the road for nine years, at the end of which time the factory was taken over by the Oliver Chilled Plow Company and Mr. Parrott opened a branch for that corporation at Des Moines, having charge there for a year. On the expiration of that period he was sent to Omaha to open a branch in this city and he is now manager of the business at this point. He is a man of marked enterprise, whose constantly expanding powers have brought him larger opportunities and greater responsibili- ties and today he figures prominently in the commercial circles of this city.
On the 26th of November. 1896, in New London, Iowa, Mr. Parrott was married to Miss Blanch Knickerbocker, a daughter of Emory S. and Amanda M. (Williams) Knickerbocker. the former a native of New York and the latter of Iowa. Her paternal grandparents were Philo and Abbie M. (Flint) Knicker- bocker, also natives of the Empire state.
Mr. and Mrs. Parrott are members of the Presbyterian church and in poli- tics he is a democrat, but while interested in the success of the party he has never become an active worker in its ranks, preferring to concentrate his undivided attention upon commercial interests. Keenly alive to every new avenue opened in the natural ramifications of trade, he has passed through the pitfalls into which unrestrained progressiveness is so often led and has thus been able to focus his energies in directions where fruition is certain. His course, too, has been characterized by a native justice expressing itself in correct principle and practice.
JAMES ROY JAMISON.
James Roy Jamison, manager of the Willys-Overland Company of Omaha and thus an active representative of the automobile trade in the city, was born in Frankfort, Ohio, July 6, 1878. The ancestral line is traced back to two brothers who came from the north of Ireland in 1760 and settled in Culpeper county, Virginia. A branch of the family was afterward established in Kentucky, where Samuel Jamison, the grandfather, was born. He removed to Ohio and it was at the old family homestead at Frankfort that Samuel Jamison, father of James Roy Jamison, was born in the year 1827. He devoted his life to the occu- pation of farming in that locality. In 1862 he married Eleanor Haynes Worthing- ton, also a native of Frankfort, Ohio, and throughout their remaining days they continued their residence in that district, the mother passing away in 1903, while the father survived until 1909.
A course in Central College at Danville, Kentucky, supplemented the public school training which James R. Jamison received in Frankfort, Ohio, and in 1902 he was graduated from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, so that liberal educational advantages qualified him for an active business career. When his textbooks were put aside he went to Chicago and for a year was connected with the insurance business in that city. He later spent three years in the insurance business in Denver and in 1905 he returned to Ohio, entering the employ of the Pope Motor Car Company at Toledo, with which he was connected for a year and a half. Since that time he has been continuously identified with the automobile
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trade in one branch or another. In 1908 he entered the service of the Michelin Tire Company at New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he remained for three years, when he returned to Toledo and became a representative of the Willys- Overland Company. In July, 1914, he arrived in Omaha, where he organized the Overland-Omaha Company, of which he became president, and the firm built up a business of very large proportions. On July 1, 1916, the business of the Overland-Omaha Company was purchased by the Willys-Overland Company of Toledo, Mr. Jamison becoming manager of the new concern.
On the 19th of October, 1910, in Frankfort, Ohio, Mr. Jamison was united in marriage to Miss Martha Hughey, a daughter of Bernard Hughey, and their children are Bernard Worthington and Jane Seymour. Mr. and Mrs. Jamison attend the Presbyterian church and already they have gained many warm friends in this city. Mr. Jamison is a republican and broad reading keeps him in close touch with the political situation of the country. He is a well known Scottish Rite Mason and Mystic Shriner and he belongs also to the Ak-Sar-Ben, an organization largely composed of members of the Mystic Shrine who have banded themselves together to promote the interests of Omaha, utilizing as one means of the city's exploitation a fiesta similar to the Mardi Gras at New Orleans. Mr. Jamison is also a member of the Commercial Club, giving active aid to various measures put forth by that organization for Omaha's benefit, and along more strictly social lines he has become identified with the Omaha Athletic Club and the Omaha Field Club.
GEORGE WARD HOLDREGE.
A prominent figure in railway circles is George Ward Holdrege, general man- ager for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company west of the Mis- souri river. He was born in New York City, March 26, 1847, and his record is a verification of the statement of Roosevelt that the strongest men of the country are those who have been born and bred in the cast and have sought the middle west as a field of labor, utilizing its opportunities in the development of the great business interests of this section of the country. He is a representative of a family of English origin that was established in New England at an early epoch in the development of the new world. His grandfather, Henry Holdrege, was a native of Connecticut and became captain of a ship sailing between the United States and England. His father, Henry Hoidrege, who was also born in Con- necticut, became a merchant of New York city. He was married in Massachusetts to Mary Russell Grinnell, a native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and it was subsequent to their marriage that they became residents of the eastern metropolis, where the father passed away in 1874, while the mother died in Milton, Massa- chusetts, in 1886.
During the early boyhood of George Ward Holdrege the family horne was established at Irvington-on-Hudson and there he attended school until he entered Harvard, within whose classic walls he pursued a course that brought him to graduation in 1869, at which time the Bachelor of Arts degree was conferred upon him. Immediately afterward he came to Nebraska and at Plattsmouth entered the employ of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company in a clerical capacity. He has since continued with that road and its successors, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, advancing through intermediate positions to that of general manager of the division west of the Missouri. He has acted in that capacity since 1882, during which period the business of the road under his jurisdiction has developed to mammoth proportions, attributable in large measure to his initiative and executive force. He has studied every phase of the business, being familiar with every detail as well as the major principles of railroad develop- ment and control. Mr. Holdrege has made extensive investments in farm
GEORGE W. HOLDREGE
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property in western Nebraska, whereon he raises live stock, this side issue of his business being probably his most pronounced "hobby."
On the 12th of February, 1872, in Boston, Massachusetts, Mr. Holdrege was married to Miss Emily Cabot Atkinson, who died February 16, 1873, leaving a son, Henry Atkinson Holdrege, who is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and who was married in Belmont, Massachusetts, September 26, 1899, to Miss Anne Mumford Hunt, by whom he has three children-Emily, George Chandler and Charles Francis. On the 23d of April, 1878, in Omaha, George W. Holdrege was married to Frances Rogers Kimball and they became parents of three daughters: Mary, the wife of Edward Augustus Holyoke; Susan, the wife of Dr. Robert R. Hollister; and Leeta Arabel, at home.
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