USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 62
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LYNN THOMPSON HALL, M. D.
Dr. Lynn Thompson Hall, physician and surgeon, although one of the younger representatives of the profession in Omaha, has already attained a measure of success that many an older practitioner might well envy. He was born in Davenport, Iowa, July 10, 1886, a son of Charles and Lora (Thompson) Hall. In both the paternal and maternal lines he is descended from carly Amer- ican families and in both lines one of his great-grandfathers was a Revolutionary war soldier. The father, Charles Ellsworth Hall, was born in Michigan in 1861 and in 1884 wedded Lora Thompson, also a native of that state. In 1911 they removed to Omaha, where they still reside, having in the meantime spent more than a quarter of a century in Iowa.
Dr. Hall completed a course in the Davenport high school and then entered Drake University at Des Moines, Iowa, where he completed his literary course with the class of 1907. He then entered its medical department and was grad- uated therefrom in 1911. The same year he received a diploma from the Uni- versity of Iowa. His initial professional experience came to him as interne in the Methodist Episcopal Hospital at Des Moines, where he remained for a year, at the end of which time he went to Harvard, where he further qualified for the practice of medicine by a year's study. He is numbered among the Harvard
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alumni of 1913 and since leaving Cambridge he has engaged in general practice in Omaha.
Dr. Hall exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the republican party and fraternally is a Royal Arch Mason. He belongs to the University Club and to a college fraternity, the Phi Rho Sigma, being con- nected with lota Chapter of Omaha. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church and is interested in all of those forces which work for the betterment of the individual and the community. His military connection covers member- ship with Field Hospital Corps of the National Guard of Iowa, while at the present time he is a first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps of the United States. He holds membership in the Omaha-Douglass County Medical Society, also in the Nebraska State Medical Society and the American Medical Associa- tion, and through the proceedings of those organizations as well as through independent reading keeps in close touch with the forward trend of the profes- sion in its efforts to check the ravages of disease.
WYNN M. RAINBOLT.
Wynn M. Rainbolt, vice president and trust officer of the Peters Trust Com- pany of Omaha, is widely known as one of the most reliable and progressive men who figure in connection with the financial interests of the city. He has been connected with the company since 1907, serving originally as secretary and since 1913 as vice president. He was born July 14, 1877, at Ames, Story county, Iowa. His father, N. A. Rainbolt, a native of Indiana, was of German descent. He prepared for the bar and devoted his life to the practice of law and banking. In 1882 he came to Nebraska, settling at Norfolk, where he continued in prac- tice for a long period but there passed away in 1912, at the age of sixty-nine years. At the time of the Civil war he responded to the country's call for troops, aiding in the defense of the Union, and on one occasion he was wounded. He afterward maintained pleasant relations with his old military comrades through his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic, and he also belonged to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and to the Congregational church. He was much interested in civic matters and gave loyal support to all those plans and measures which he deemed of value to the community. He wedded Mary R. Kingsbury, a native of New York and a representative of one of the old families of Elmira. She became the mother of two children, Wynn and Mrs. W. H. Bucholz. The mother still makes her home at Norfolk, Nebraska.
Wynn M. Rainbolt pursued his public school education in Norfolk, Nebraska, and his preparatory course in Andover, Massachusetts, where he was graduated with the class of 1895. He spent the succeeding five years at Harvard and won the A. B. degree in 1900. He also pursued a two years' law course in Harvard, after which he returned to Norfolk and entered the office of his father, who retired from active business, merely giving his attention to the supervision of his interests. Wynn M. Rainbolt, entering the Norfolk National Bank, filled the office of assistant cashier until 1906, when he resigned and returned to his father's law office. After a short time, however, he removed to Omaha in 1907 and became connected with the Peters Trust Company, which he aided in organ- izing. He became its first secretary and filled that position until 1913, since which time he has been vice president and trust officer, having much to do in shaping the policy and directing the activities of the company. He has passed through all branches of the banking business and is thoroughly conversant with every working principle of the trust company, being a highly efficient and expe- rienced officer. He is also conversant with legal principles, having been admitted to practice in the courts of Massachusetts after his graduation from Harvard
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and also admitted to practice at the Nebraska bar. His knowledge of law is of immense value to him in the conduct of his business interests.
On the 28th of June, 1905, in Norfolk, Nebraska, Mr. Rainbolt was united in marriage to Miss Margaret R. Weills, a native of New York and a daughter of the Rev. J. C. S. and Margaret (Isbister) Weills, both of whom are deceased. Her father was an episcopal clergyman of Norfolk, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Rainbolt have two sons, namely: Wynn Mack, Jr., who was born at Norfolk, Nebraska, October 24, 1906, and Duane Weills, whose birth occurred at Omaha, Nebraska, August 20, 1909.
Politically Mr. Rainbolt is a republican, well informed on the questions and issues of the day. He belongs to the University, Happy Hollow and Commercial Clubs and his religious faith is that of the Episcopal church. A man of liberal education, he has made it the source and stimulant of individual activity and in the direction of his labors he has achieved success and distinction as one of the representative financiers of Omaha.
GEORGE H. PAYNE.
George H. Payne, president and founder of the Payne Investment Company, is one. of Omaha's prominent citizens and a man who stands high in the busi- ness and financial circles of the city. Mr. Payne was born in Galesburg, Illinois, October 6. 1864, his parents being Charles H. and Sarah A. Payne, the former for many years a merchant in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where the family removed from Illinois when Mr. Payne was a small boy. After completing a common school course he studied for two years in the Iowa Normal College at Bloomfield and says that he secured the balance of his education in the university of experi- ence. It seems to have been a thorough teacher, for he is regarded today as an alert, enterprising business man, one who operates extensively and successfully in the field to which he has directed his labors.
Mr. Payne came to Omaha in 1885 as a young man whose sole capital was his energy and push. He was not afraid of work, neither was he particular about what it was as long as it was legitimate. His first position here was carry- ing water for a sewer gang working on West Q street, near the Armour Packing Company's plant. Then he took a job as clerk with the O. F. Davis Company at thirty-five dollars a month, and slept in the rear office. Mr. Payne began the real estate business in a modest way on January 1, 1891, and ten years later organized the Payne Investment Company, serving continuously ever since as its executive head and developing the foremost business of its kind in the west.
George H. Payne is truly an empire builder. His company has colonized large tracts of land in all parts of the country. It has sold scores of New York farms to western men, and in Louisiana, California, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado and Nebraska are thousands of acres, in some cases almost entire counties, which have been settled by this company. These large tracts are handled in their raw state, and whether in western Nebraska or in some distant part of the country, customers are taken in special trains to the land where they select their future homes. Only small cash payments are required and settlers are given long time and easy terms on the balance. In this way a tract of forty thousand or fifty thousand acres is sold in the course of a season or two. Towns spring up; the settlers' houses begin to dot the landscape; school houses and churches appear and a new American community has been born. What was before an unpro- ductive waste of wild prairie has, at the command of the empire builder, become a well settled, productive community of happy and prosperous homes.
Much of Mr. Payne's success as a colonizer is attributed to his policy-inflex- ible "as the laws of the Medes and Persians"-that no land shall ever be colon- ized by the company until it has been proved to his entire satisfaction that the
GEORGE H. PAYNE
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farmer of ordinary ability, after making a small cash payment, can make the staple products of the land itself meet the subsequent payments.
Some idea of the magnitude of the company's operations will be had when it is known that the sales of farm lands alone have amounted to over thirty-five million dollars in the last twenty-five years.
Besides this enormous colonization business, the Payne Investment Com- pany, through its city real estate department, has developed and sold out numer- ous city additions. It erected the first four large apartment houses here. It has acted as agent in the transfer of many business buildings, residences and lots in Omaha and maintains a well equipped and efficient rental department.
The company's loan department is a big business in itself, most of its loans being made on improved Nebraska farms. Besides selling mortgages to numer- ous savings banks and life insurance companies, it sells to many private investors. Mr. Payne is justly proud of the fact that during the past quarter of a century 10 purchaser of a Payne Investment Company farm mortgage has ever lost a dollar of interest or principal.
Mr. Payne was married at Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1887 and has two sons, Richard F. and Phillip W. He is a member of the Commercial and University Clubs, and also belongs to the Happy Hollow Club of Omaha and the Hamilton Club of Chicago. He is a member and trustee of St. Mary's Avenue Congrega- tional church and president of the House of Hope, a home for aged people. He is interested in various activities which have for their object the welfare and benefit of the city and the individual. During his residence of nearly one- third of a century in Omaha he has been active and helpful in about every movement that has had to do with the city's progress and betterment. There are few men of large private interests in the city who have felt a more hearty concern for the public welfare, and his activity in social and business circles is indicated by the high regard which is entertained for him.
CLAY C. CLIFTON.
South Omaha received from its early settlers an impetus toward its growth and progress that has not ceased to be felt. The city is especially indebted to the enterprising efforts of those men who in the early days became connected with the cattle and live stock industry here-an industry which has been the foundation of Omaha's greatness and prosperity and which has developed the city to its present high position as a center of the live stock trade of the country. The men who came here in an early day had foresight and courage and they laid the foundation for all that has since been wrought. The Live Stock Ex- change at the Union Stock. Yards of South Omaha has been the real source of wealth to Nebraska's metropolis and its organization was due to about fifty of the early pioneers who saw the possibilities for the establishment of a great cattle and live stock market here, in the midst of a country which in its very nature must perforce become a stock raising center. These men, working harmoniously, builded even better than they knew. Only two or three of the original number are still actively engaged in the live stock business and one of these is Clay C. Clifton, widely known in his business connections throughout the entire country having won an unassailable reputation for honesty and fair dealing wherever the name of the firm is known. The sound judgment which he has manifested in his transactions and his indefatigable energy have constituted the basis of his continually growing success.
Mr. Clifton was born in Columbia county, Wisconsin, on the 16th of May, 1848, a son of Levi and Sarah (Sowards) Clifton, both of whom were natives of the Buckeye state. They emigrated to Wisconsin in 1847 by way of the overland trail in a prairie schooner drawn by a pair of stout horses. The father Vol. II-26
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engaged in contracting and building in Wisconsin for several years and then removed to Peoria, Illinois, where he passed away in 1852, at the age of forty- eight. His wife survived until 1854 and died in Peoria at the age of forty-two. In their family were three children. One of the sons, Marion Clifton, at the out- break of the Civil war enlisted in the Forty-seventh Illinois Infantry as a vol- unteer, participated in a number of engagements and was killed in action at the battle of Corinth, Mississippi. He held the rank of corporal at the time of his death. The daughter, Sarah Ann, became the wife of John Amsler, of McLean county, Illinois.
The younger son, Clay C. Clifton, attended the country schools and afterward the city schools of Bloomington, and on starting out in life on his own account entered the live stock and grain business in the carly 'zos at Wahoo, Nebraska. Extending his efforts into other fields, he became one of the organizers of the Saunders County National Bank. He came to South Omaha in the early '80s. He was one of the organizers of the Live Stock Exchange and is registered as the forty-sixth member. He entered into the live stock commission business here under the name of the Clifton Live Stock Commission Company and from its inception the business has been a growing and profitable one. By judicious management he has weathered all financial panics through which the country has passed at various times and has so directed the interests of the company that it has maintained an unassailable reputation in business circles. Mr. Clifton has always been the president and advisory head of the company and there is no feature of the live stock industry with which he is not thoroughly familiar.
In 1871 occurred the marriage of Clay C. Clifton and Miss Lyda Doyle, a native of Kentucky, who died in South Omaha in 1888. They were the parents of five children. Claude, who was born in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1872 and was graduated from the Wahoo high school, is now married and is a member of the Clifton Live Stock Commission Company. Maude, born in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1875, is the wife of Samuel Shrigley. Ray M., born in Wahoo, Ne- braska, in 1880, was graduated from the public schools of Omaha and is also connected with the Clifton Company. Lee Chester died at the age of three years and is buried at Wahoo, Nebraska. Imo, born in Wahoo in 1888, completes the family. In 1890 Mr. Clifton was again married, his second union being with Miss Emma Buse, of Omaha, and they have become parents of three children : Bess, who was born in Omaha in 1891 and is a graduate of the city schools ; Gale, who is also a graduate and who was born in 1894, and Martha, who was born in 1902 and is now attending high school.
In community affairs Mr. Clifton has ever taken a deep and helpful interest and at one time served as a member of the city council of South Omaha. His political allegiance has always been given to the republican party, of which he is a stanch advocate, although not an office seeker. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and his life has ever been guided by the teachings of the Christian church, of which he is a loyal member. In fact Omaha numbers him among its most highly respected and valued citizens as well as its representative and prosperous business men.
JOHN KRESL.
John Kresl, secretary and treasurer of the O. K. Hardware Company, incor- porated, doing business at 4831 South Twenty-fourth street in Omaha, is yet a young man but has already attained a place in commercial circles that many an older man than he might envy. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, May 17, 1887. His father, John Kresl, a native of Bohemia, made his way direct to Chicago on coming to America in 1882. After there residing for a number of years he removed to South Omaha, where he took up general work and is still
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active. He married Annie Knoll, a native of Austria, who came to the United States in 1883 and also went to Chicago, where she met and married Mr. Kresl. They became the parents of seven children.
John Kresl, the second of the family, was five years of age when the family came to Omaha, and attended the Lowell school on J street and afterward the Moser & Lampton Business College. When but eleven years of age he began providing for his own support, being employed in the tin shop of the Cudahy Packing Company, where he was first paid sixty-seven cents per day or four dollars per week. From that humble start he has steadily worked upward, be- coming today one of the representative men of South Omaha. That he was faithful and capable is indicated by the fact that he remained with the Cudahy Company for seven years. He was next employed at teaming, and with fifty dollars which he saved from his earnings he purchased a team of horses and a wagon, giving his note for the balance of the payment. Thus he entered upon his first business enterprise which proved successful, and he continued his team- ing business for four years, his earnings enabling him to continue his education in the business college as previously stated. After pursuing that course he obtained a position with the Rudolph Yechout Hardware Company, there learn- ing the business in principle and detail. He continued with that company and its successors for three and one-half years, during which he carefully saved his earnings until he was able to purchase the business, which at that time was con- ducted by Oswald Keuchenhoff. He formed a partnership with Jacob U. Ulrich and the relation is still maintained, Mr. Ulrich being president of the O. K. Hardware Company, with Mr. Kresl as secretary and treasurer. They are now conducting a good business, owning the building in which they are located and they have one of the leading retail hardware stores of Omaha and the leading establishment of the kind in South Omaha.
On the 24th of June, 1912, in Tabor, South Dakota, Mr. Kresl was married to Miss Annie Souhrada, a native of Tabor, South Dakota, and a daughter of John and Mary Souhrada, who were pioneers of that state and are still living. Mr. and Mrs. Kresl have a daughter, Lucille Katherine, who was born in Omaha, December 14, 1914. The parents are members of St. Mary's Roman Catholic church and Mr. Kresl is identified with the Knights of Columbus and the Holy Name Society. In politics he is a democrat. He belongs to the Commercial Club of Omaha and to the South Omaha Business Men's Association and he mani- fests a helpful interest in everything pertaining to the commercial development of the city.
LEE B. VAN CAMP, M. D.
Dr. Lee B. Van Camp, physician and surgeon, practicing in Omaha, his native city, and serving for the second term as county physician of Douglas county, was born in 1878. His father, Charles L. Van Camp, was a native of Bowmanville, Canada, born in 1852, and in 1861 he was brought to the United States by his parents, who established their home in Omaha before the present city had taken on metropolitan proportions to any degree. There he was reared and married Grace L. Bradley, who died in 1884.
Dr. Van Camp, having attended the public schools of Omaha, studied medi- cine in the University of Nebraska and was graduated with the class of 1898. His theoretical training was then put to practical test through service as interne in the Douglas County Hospital for two years, at the end of which time he opened an office and entered upon private practice. Already he has gained a notable place as a successful physician and surgeon and in 1912 he was appointed county physician of Douglas county, which office he filled for three years, and was then reappointed in January, 1915, so that he is the present incumbent. For
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some time he has been chief surgeon for the McKeen Motor Car Company and is also surgeon for the Omaha Guards and he belongs to the Omaha-Douglas County Medical Society, the Nebraska State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
On the 22d of June, 1915, in Omaha, Dr. Van Camp wedded Miss Ethel M. Jenkins. They are members of the Episcopal church and are prominent in social circles. Dr. Van Camp exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the democratic party and fraternally is a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and is a charter member of the Field Club, through which connections he obtains recreation from the arduous professional duties which now claim the major part of his time and energies.
J. H. FORREST.
J. H. Forrest, a member of the Forrest & Meany Drug Company, of South Omaha, was born in Au Sable, Michigan, June 25, 1881, a son of Logan M. Forrest, a native of Nova Scotia and of English and Irish descent, and Mary Forrest, a native of Ireland, whose maiden name was Mary McGrath.
In the public schools of his native city J. H. Forrest began his education, which he continued in the University of Michigan, and on removing to Omaha in 1903 he entered Creighton College department of pharmacy, from which he was graduated in 1905 with the degree of Ph. G., having completed the full phar- maceutical course. For five years thereafter he was employed as pharmacist by the Melcher Drug Company of South Omaha and in 1910 he entered upon his first independent business venture, forming a partnership with J. P. Fenton, under the firm name of the Forrest & Fenton Drug Company. Their business was located at No. 3602 South Q street at the corner of Thirty-sixth and Q and was there successfully conducted for two years, at the end of which time Mr. Forrest sold his interest and established his present business at No. 4841 South Twenty-fourth street, entering into partnership with his nephew, Clarence Meany, under the style of the Forrest & Meany Drug Company. Their place of business is located on one of the most prominent corners of South Omaha and a liberal patronage is accorded them.
Mr. Forrest is a member of the Omaha Commercial Club and of the Seymour Lake Country Club. In his political views he is a democrat but has never been an aspirant for office. His religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic church. Mr. Forrest is a square deal advocate and his thoroughgoing business methods and sterling worth have gained to him a large circle of friends. While he started out in business in a small way he has gradually increased his trade through reliable, enterprising methods that have brought him to a creditable position in the mercantile circles of the city.
OAK CHATHAM REDICK.
Oak Chatham Redick is known as a man of marked public spirit and as a patron of art and music as well as a prominent business man, occupying a position of distinction as an attorney and capitalist of Omaha, his native city. He was born on the 8th of October, 1870, a son of Judge John Irvin and Mary E. (May) Redick, additional mention of whom appears elsewhere in this work.
In the schools of Omaha Oak Chatham Redick acquired his preliminary education, which was supplemented by study in Creighton College and in the Shattuck Military College at Faribault, Minnesota. He also attended the Los
OAK C. REDICK
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Angeles University at Los Angeles, California, and following his return to Omaha was admitted to practice at the bar of Nebraska in 1893. He has since continuously been a representative of the profession in this city and his clientage has been of a most important character, connecting him with many notable liti- gated interests. He has furthermore extended his efforts in large measure into other fields and something of the nature of his activities is indicated in the fact that he is president of the Nebraska & California Real Estate Company and president of the City Trust Company of Omaha, which he controls. One of the notable points in his business career has been his ability to quickly recognize opportunities, combined with a thorough understanding of every phase, every point of advantage and every point of difficulty connected with any undertaking. His sound judgment has prevented all unwarranted risks in the business world and his even paced energy has carried him forward to successful completion in whatever he has undertaken.
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