USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 88
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On the 21st of November, 1889, Mr. Olmsted was united in marriage to Miss Beatrice Birkhauser, her parents being Mr. and Mrs. Peter Birkhauser, repre- senting a well known and prominent family of Omaha. Mr. and Mrs. Olmsted are the parents of two children, Florence, who was born in Omaha, December I, 1890, attended Brownell Hall and is now the wife of Bentley G. McCloud, cashier of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, by whom she has a son, Bentley G., born in Chicago. Robert H. Olmsted, Jr., who, was born in Omaha in January, 1900, is now a high school student.
The religious faith of the family is that of the Presbyterian church, to which they loyally adhere. Mr. Olmsted votes with the republican party, of which he is a stalwart champion, and in 1899 he was elected to represent his district in the state legislature, in which he served for one term. He was also city attorney of Florence for twenty-five years and in that connection made a most creditable rec- ord. He has attained high rank in Masonry, reaching the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and he is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He likewise belongs to the Fraternal Order of Eagles and was president of Florence Lodge for two years. His professional connections are with the County and State Bar Associations. In a review of his life record it will be seen that Mr. Olmsted's advancement is attributable entirely to his close application, persistency of pur- pose and laudable ambition. Choosing as a life work a calling in which advance- ment depends entirely upon individual effort and merit, he has made continuous progress and is today one of the well known and most highly repected of Omaha's attorneys, enjoying the good will and confidence of his professional brethren and the high regard of all who know him in every relation of life.
His work in behalf of young men would alone entitled him to mention among the representative citizens of Omaha. He has long been interested in the work of assisting boys and youths to develop character of worth, keeping them in good company and surrounding them with such influences as will call forth the best in their manhood. He has formed what is known as the Keystone Club of Florence. a musical organization having a membership of twenty-six, and he devotes all of his leisure time to the club, which he finances out of his own pocket. He is also president of the Boys Club and every summer he takes a large party of poor boys on a two weeks' camping trip in the country. His is the practical religion which recognizes the temptations of the individual and recognizes as well that the spark of divinity is in each one. He has followed the Browning admonition, "Awake the
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little seeds of good asleep throughout the world," and the older precept: "Train a child up in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." The weight of his influence, his encouraging words, his timely assistance and his example have constituted a force which has wrought for good in the development of young manhood in Florence.
JOHN PRENTISS LORD, M. D., F. A. C. S.
The distinctive office of biography is not to give voice to a man's modest estimate of himself and his accomplishments but rather to establish his position by the consensus of public opinion on the part of his fellowmen, and judged by this standard John Prentiss Lord ranks with the eminent American surgeons, his methods having in considerable measure partaken of a pioneer character in that he has wrought along original lines in the successful treatment of many notable cases and thereby established methods and standards which others have adopted. He has practiced continuously in Omaha since 1886, his life work including hospital as well as private practice and activity in the educational field.
Dr. Lord was born near Dixon, Illinois, April 17, 1860, a son of John L. and Mary Louise (Warner) Lord, both of whom were descended from old New England families. After attending a district school Dr. Lord continued his education in the North Dixon high school and in the Ferris Academy at Dixon, while in preparation for a professional career he entered Rush' Medical College of Chicago, from which he was graduated with the class of 1882. He then opened an office in Creston, Illinois, where he remained in active practice until 1886, when he entered the Post Graduate Medical School of New York. On the completion of his course there he removed to Omaha and has devoted his atten- tion exclusively to surgery since 1893. In the preceding year he was appointed to the chair of anatomy in the Creighton Medical School and in 1893 became professor of surgery in that institution and attending surgeon to St. Joseph's Hospital, thus continuing until 1912, when he resigned those positions. In the same year he became professor of orthopedic surgery in the medical department of the University of Nebraska and so continues, being regarded as one of the ablest educators in the medical field in the middle west. He has been surgeon in chief of the Nebraska Orthopedic Hospital at Lincoln since its establishment in 1905 and he is attending surgeon to the Clarkson Hospital and attending gynecologist to St. Catherine's Hospital. Dr. Lord did notable work as one of the first to make practical the application of skin grafting in large bone cavities, which had been first suggested for early healing in mastoid operations. He used this method to heal extensive cavernous defects in the upper part of the tibia and his work has attracted the wide attention of the profession. His contributions to professional literature are regarded as most valuable. He was for several years on the editorial staff of the Western Medical Review, a medical journal of Omaha, which he was chiefly instrumental in establishing, and his writings appear frequently in other medical journals. Among the many valuable papers which he has read before medical and surgical associations may be men- tioned "Conservative Amputations," "Lead Ileus Mistaken for Appendicitis," "Traumatisms of the Contents of the Abdominal Cavity," "Congenital Hip Mis- placements," "Leucocytosis as a Factor in Surgical Diagnosis," "Conservative Foot Amputations without Flaps, the Skin Defects Covered by Skin Grafts," "Enterostomy in Intestinal Obstruction," "Improved Technic," "Adjustable Loop Splints for Interrupted Plaster Casts in the Treatment of Compound Fractures," "Variations from Routine Necessary in Hernia Operations," "The Surgery of the Paralyses," "The Choice of Treatment in the Cure of Nevi," "The Prevention of Deformity," "Operation to Prevent Recurrence in Intussusception," "The
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Treatment of Severe Crushing Injuries of the Extremities," "The Treatment of Compound Fractures and Objections to the Use of Foreign Material," "Meato- tomy Plus Meatorraphy," "Free Fat and Fascia in Anthroplasty of the Inter Phalangeal Joints."
Dr. Lord's high standing among his colleagues ánd contemporaries is indicated in the honors which have been conferred upon him in the various medical societies to which he belongs. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons and was honored by being made one of its first Nebraska governors. He was president of the Nebraska State Medical Association in 1911, the Omaha Medical Association in 1899, and the Western Surgical Association in 1910, and is a member of the American Medical Association, the Nebraska State Medical Association, the Omaha Medical Association, the Southwestern Iowa Medical Association, the Sioux Valley Medical Association, the Medical Society of the Missouri Valley, of which he was president in 1915, the Elkhorn Valley Medi- cal Association, the Western Surgical Association, the American Orthopedic Association, the American Railroad Surgeons' Association, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Surgical Association, the Illinois Central Surgeons' Association, and the American Association of Clinical Surgeons. He is a life member of the Rochester Surgeons' Club and a member of the National Society for Prevention of Tuberculosis. He is local surgeon for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, district surgeon for the Illinois Central Railroad Company and a member of the medical reserve corps of the United States Army. He is frequently found as an interested attendant at clinics both in Europe and in America.
In 1886 Dr. Lord was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Urilla Swingley, a daughter of Upton Swingley, of Rockford, Illinois, and they have two chil- dren, Upton Prentiss and Frances Louise, the latter the wife of Roger T. Vaughan, of Chicago. Dr. Lord is a Congregationalist in religious faith and an active worker in St. Mary's Avenue church. He has also been a director of the Young Men's Christian Association for many years and he is serving on the board of trustees of the University of Omaha. Something of the nature and breadth of his interests is further indicated in the fact that he has membership in the National Geographic Society and the Society of Colonial Wars and is an earnest supporter of the purposes and plans of the Commercial Club of Omaha and a member of its executive committee and chairman of its city health and hospitals committee. He likewise belongs to the University, Palimpsest and Happy Hollow Clubs. His life is strong, purposeful and resultant and his career the expression of talents most wisely used for the benefit of his fellowmen. .
GEORGE MESERSHMIDT.
George Mesershmidt, who organized and is still head of the Omaha General Iron Works, manufacturers of structural steel fire escapes and ornamental iron work of all kinds, is one of the younger business men of the city and is fast coming to the forefront in industrial circles. He was born in Germany, October 18, 1880, and is a son of Frederick and Barbara Mesershmidt, also natives of the fatherland, where they remained until called by death, the father in 1909 and the mother in 1912. The father was a farmer by occupation.
George Mesershmidt is the youngest in a family of six children and received his education in Germany, where he remained until he was eighteen years old, when he emigrated to the United States. After living for a time in Jersey City, New Jersey, he went to Baltimore, where he worked at various things, and later he was employed in the iron business in Pittsburgh. He followed the same line in Cleveland, Ohio, and in Chicago, Illinois, and subsequently went to Texas, remaining for a time at San Antonio, Austin and Dallas. In 1906 he returned
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to Chicago, where he worked at his trade for about two years, but in 1908 he came to Omaha and was connected with several companies working in iron. In 1912 he organized the Omaha General Iron Works, of which he is still presi- dent and which in the intervening five years has grown rapidly, being now one of the leading enterprises of the kind in the city. The company manufactures structural steel fire escapes and also makes ornamental iron work of all kinds, and its products are well known to the trade as being of uniformly high quality. The concern is incorporated and the other officers are: Thomas Cockin, vice president; and D. B. Van Every, secretary and treasurer. Mr. Mesershmidt deserves much credit for the success of the business, for he has, to a great extent, determined the policy of the company, and his thorough knowledge of the technical phases of the business has been of the greatest value in the man- agement of the foundry. He is not only president of this company but is also connected with the commercial life of the city as a member of the Builders Exchange.
In March, 1908, Mr. Mesershmidt was married to Miss Annie Rothcliff, of Omaha, a daughter of Joseph and Minnie Rothcliff. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Mesershmidt, namely: Edna, whose birth occurred in 1910 and who is attending the public school; and Frederick and Helen, born respectively in 1912 and in 1915.
Mr. Mesershmidt votes for the candidates and measures of the democratic party, as he is convinced that its policies are in harmony with the principles of good government. He is not indifferent to any phase of the public welfare but has never taken a very active part in civic affairs. Fraternally he belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen and within and without that organiza- tion has many loyal friends. The gratifying success which he has gained is the measure of his energy, his business acumen and his executive ability, for he came to this country a poor boy and has at all stages in his career been depend- ent entirely upon his own resources.
T. TENNYSON HARRIS, M. D.
Omaha has every reason to be proud of the medical profession as represented within her borders, for the number includes many thoroughly trained and highly proficient physicians and surgeons. In a calling where advancement results entirely from individual merit Dr. T. Tennyson Harris has made for himself a most creditable place. He was born in Cuba, Illinois, November 17, 1882. His father, DeWitt Harris, a native of Illinois, belongs to one of the old families of that state of English lineage. Among representatives of the family are those whose loyalty has been proven in times of war as soldiers in the War of 1812, the Mexi- can and the Civil wars. For a long period DeWitt Harris was connected with the Indian service of the United States government and is now at Williamsburg, Virginia, with the department of agriculture. For many years he has followed educational work and has been a professor in leading colleges in various states. He married Sarah Barlow, a native of Kentucky and of English lineage, and they became the parents of two children, the younger being Dr. Ray B. Harris, also a physician of Omaha.
The elder, Dr. T. Tennyson Harris, pursued his early education in the public schools of Des Moines, Iowa, and after leaving the high school there studied at Drake University of Des Moines and in the Iowa State College at Ames. He next entered Creighton University and won his Bachelor of Science degree in 1907, while in 1910 his M. D. degree was conferred upon him. Prior to taking up the study of medicine he engaged in educational work, teaching in the West high school of Des Moines for two years. While at Ames he studied electrical engineering and followed electrical construction work in Omaha prior to his
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graduation from the medical school. When qualified for the profession, however, he at once entered upon active practice and has since devoted his time and energies to his professional interests. For the past six years he has been serving as chief police surgeon for the city of Omaha. He makes a specialty of X-ray work and is Roentgenologist for St. Catherine's Hospital of Omaha. In fact his practice is limited to X-ray and bone work and he is also instructor in that branch at the Creighton Dental College and instructor in surgery in the Creighton Medical Col- lege. He belongs to the Omaha-Douglas County Medical Society, the Nebraska State and the American Medical Associations, to the Omaha Roentgen Society, the National Geographic Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Harris votes with the democratic party but has never been a politician in the sense of office seeking. He has membership with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has taken the degrees of the Scottish Rite, and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member Phi Beta Pi, a medical fraternity and in the national organization has held office. That he is appreciative of the social ameni- ties of life is indicated by his connection with the Carter Lake Club, and that he is not unmindful of individual responsibility in promoting higher moral standards is evidenced in his membership in the First Christian church. Dr. Harris largely provided the means for his college and university course and is recognized as a man of marked strength of character, actuated in all that he does by a laudable ambition. He has ever attempted to reach the highest professional standards in his chosen life work and he is today considered one of the most expert Roentgen- ologists of Nebraska.
TRIMBLE BROTHERS.
Trimble Brothers is Omaha's leading fruit and vegetable house.
EMMET A. ERWAY.
Emmet A. Erway is now practically living retired in Valley, although he gives personal supervision to his invested interests, which include farming lands in Nebraska and in North Dakota. He was born in New York, October 8. 1850, a son of Ezra and Charlotte (Gardner) Erway, who were natives of Pennsylvania and New York respectively but have now passed away, the father having died in Madison, Wisconsin, while the mother's death occurred near Valley, Nebraska.
Emmet A. Erway left home at the age of twelve years to earn his own living. and whatever success he has achieved or enjoyed is attributable to his own efforts intelligently directed. He worked upon the home farm in his youth and at the age of twenty years he began railroading, being first employed at Sedalia, Missouri. Later he was yardmaster at Galveston, Texas, and for some years was upon the run between Denison, Texas, and Muskogee, Oklahoma. Later he engaged in railroading in Colorado on the Denver & Rio Grande but in 1889 removed to Valley. He still owns farming lands in this state and South Dakota, and after taking up his abode in Valley he bought and shipped stock for two years. At the present time, however, he is living practically retired, enjoying the fruits of his former toil.
In Missouri Mr. Erway was united in marriage to Miss Lovina Martin, a native of that state, by whom he has one son, R. M., who is engaged in the drug business at Valley, Nebraska. Politically Mr. Erway is a democrat but has never been a seeker after office, preferring to give his attention to his business
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affairs. His has been an active and useful life and his energy and determination have enabled him to work his way steadily upward until he has reached the goal of substantial success.
GEORGE A. ROHRBOUGH.
George A. Rohrbough is best known as one of the proprietors and managers of the Omaha Commercial College from 1884 until 1908, and since 1911 as presi- dent of the American Security Company and vice president of Home Builders, corporations all located in Omaha, Nebraska.
Mr. Rohrbough is a graduate of a Lutheran college of high standing in Illinois, of which state he is a native, his birth having occurred in Hancock county on the 28th of January, 1859. His teachers at the Lutheran college included : Dr. D. L. Tressler, president ; Professor L. F. M. Easterday in the department of mathe- matics, who later was called to the University of Nebraska ; Dr. Richards, profes- sor of languages, who afterwards was called to the Lutheran Seminary at Gettys- burg, Pennsylvania, as professor of philology; Dr. E. F. Bartholomew in the chair of natural science, an expert in chemistry, who was later called to the presi- dency of the Augustana College at Rock Island, Illinois ; and Dr. Giese, philologist. teacher of German, Hebrew and Sanskrit.
After finishing the classical course, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Mr. Rohrbough came to Omaha and being associated with his brothers, became manager, secretary and treasurer in 1884 of the Omaha Commercial College, then a small school under the management of A. L. Wyman, with a daily attendance of forty pupils, two hundred annually. In this school a normal department was established where pupils were prepared for high school, colleges and universities and as teachers. Mr. Rohrbough had charge of this department until 1891, when he took a course in business and finance at the Rochester Business University, Rochester, New York. There he had as teachers Professor L. L. Williams, who was appointed by the United States as plenipotentiary to England, Professor Rogers, and his assistants, Professor King and Professor Osborn, editor and publisher of the Williams & Rogers Series of Commercial Textbooks, the most widely adopted series in the United States.
Under the management of Mr. Rohrbough and his coworkers the Omaha Commercial College grew to the fifth position in order of the largest institutions of its kind in the United States, with an average attendance of over one thousand annually, covering a period of twenty-six years, enrolling students who in later years have become prominent as doctors, lawyers, ministers, judges, bankers, merchants and financiers. The measure of Mr. Rohrbough's accomplishments is best determined in the success of the many thousands of pupils who are to be found in almost every city in the United States in all the various walks of life. The value of an influence such as that wielded by Mr. Rohrbough in his school work would be difficult to estimate, and its far-reaching effect is reflected in the success of thousands of young men and young women, who as pupils under him laid the foundations for their subsequent success in the business and professional world. No better evidence of the keen appreciation and deep gratitude mani- fested by Mr. Rohrbough's former pupils for his efforts in their behalf could be asked than the many expressions of this character from them in a dozen different states, which limited space prevents being quoted here.
Mr. Rohrbough is of German descent, and in religious faith is a Methodist. He is a direct descendant of the Anthony Rohrbough, of Germany, who in colo- nial times settled on the eastern slope of the Alleghany mountains and who brought with him the religious faith of the State Church, then in power. On his mother's side of the house he is a direct descendant of the Jacksons, of whom Stonewall Jackson was a representative. His great-grandfather, Anthony Rohrbough, who
GEORGE A. ROHRBOUGH
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settled on the slope of the Alleghany mountains, in what is known as West Virginia, many times entertained George Washington as a guest.
Mr. Rohrbough is a member of the Masonic order, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree, the Happy Hollow Club, the Commercial Club, the Real Estate Exchange, and of the Methodist church, of which he has been a member during his residence in Omaha, being a member of the official board many years. He has also been a stanch supporter of the Young Men's Christian Association and active in religious work.
Since 1911 Mr. Rohrbough has associated himself with several other local reputable business men and organized the Home Builders and The American Security Company. The Home Builders, under the management of its officers and directors, has already taken a position among the leading financial institu- tions of Omaha and the middle west. Many of the beautiful homes, hospitals and apartment houses have been built by the Home Builders.
Mr. Rohrbough is yet in health, energy and ambition a young man. He was reared on his father's farm, situated in Hancock county, Illinois. Notwithstand- ing he had an opportunity to live the life of a farmer and stock raiser, he decided early in life in favor of the profession he entered into, much to the displeasure of his father, who wanted his assistance in the management of the farm.
In 1887 Mr. Rohrbough was married to Miss Della Felgar, daughter of John Felgar, of Minden, Illinois. Of his home family are three children, Gracie I., Merrill C. and Byron F., who are all graduates of the University of Nebraska. The daughter is married to Wilhelm B. Bonekemper and lives in Portland, Ore- gon. The elder of the sons, Merrill C., married Miss Helen Heaton, daughter of Robert A. Heaton, of Wahoo, Nebraska, a banker of that city.
The one satisfying pleasure that arouses interest most with Mr. Rohrbough is the memory he has of the twenty-six thousand boys and girls, men and women, who were with him daily in the class room and labored day and night while in school, and for months and sometimes years after leaving school, thus weaving together personal interests that will never be forgotten.
WALTER O. HENRY, M. D.
Dr. Walter O. Henry, specializing in the practice of surgery, in which con- nection he has won a well earned and enviable reputation, was born in Columbus, Adams county, Illinois, in 1858. His father, Dr. Samuel Henry, was born in the north of Ireland in 1828 and was one of a family of twelve sons and four daughters, all of whom came to the United States with the exception of one son. All, however, have now passed away. Dr. Samuel Henry in 1849, when a young man of twenty-one years, bade adieu to friends and native land and sailed for the new world. He located at Columbus, Illinois, and afterward took up the study of medicine, being graduated on the completion of a course in Dartmouth College. He then returned to Columbus, where he engaged in active practice and up to February, 1916, followed his profession at Camp Point. He had reached the eighty-eighth milestone on life's journey, when on April 14, 1916, he passed to 'his final reward. He was married in Adams county, Illinois, to Harriett Newell Wells, a native of Elmira, New York, who died in 1911.
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