USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 90
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JAMES C. ROBINSON.
James C. Robinson, a seedsman of Waterloo, has developed a business of mammoth proportions that finds a prototype in the tiny seeds which he handles in their development into great productive plants. Meeting the public demand . for the best seeds that nature and cultivation can produce, he has built up a business that is countrywide in its scope. His life history cannot fail to prove of interest. He was born in the town of Hebron, Washington county, New York, November 7, 1861. His father, John A. Robinson, was a native of the town of Argyle, Washington county, and was of Scotch-Irish descent. He devoted his life to the occupation of farming and was also prominent in local affairs, being well known as a writer on political and religious subjects for papers in his community. He married Emeline E. Coy, who was born near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and was of English lineage, representing one of the old families of New England.
In the acquirement of his education James C. Robinson attended the West Hebron Union high school and the Fort Edward Collegiate Institute of Fort Edward, New York. While still a resident of the Empire state he engaged in farming and in school teaching, there remaining until 1886, when he removed westward to Douglas county, Nebraska. He taught school for one year in the west before engaging in the wholesale seed growing business. He conducted the seed business under his own name and as sole proprietor until 1904, when he incorporated the J. C. Robinson Seed Company, capitalized for one hundred thousand dollars, the capital stock being in possession of himself and family. A little later he incorporated the J. C. Robinson Real Estate Company, which is handled as a holding concern only for the family. They own about two thousand acres, used for the production of their seed crops, and they utilize from fifteen to twenty thousand acres annually under the contract system for the growing of seeds. Something of the immense volume of their business is indicated in the fact that they now have five large warehouses in Waterloo and another at Rocky Ford, Colorado. Today their shipments go to all parts of the country and their interests have become one of the best known commer- cial enterprises of Douglas county. From handling the product of a few acres, the company today utilizes the product of twenty thousand acres, and the sell- ing end of their business covers the United States and Canada, while a representative of the house is also found in Europe. About seventy men are employed in preparing the seed products, which are handled in the most careful and businesslike manner. Aside from his connection with the seed business Mr. Robinson is a director of the Bank of Waterloo in his home city and a director in the Conservative Savings & Loan Association of Omaha. His standing in business circles and the high reputation which he enjoys as a leader in his line are indicated in the fact that he was chosen for the presidency of the American Seed Trade Association in 1909 and 1910, being elected at the convention held at Niagara Falls, Canada, in the spring of 1909, continuing in that office until the close of the regular convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1910.
On the IIth of January, 1888, in Granville, New York, Mr. Robinson was
Corunion.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
TILDEN FOUNDATION3
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united in marriage to Miss Mary C. Temple, a daughter of Luther R. and Delia M. Temple. Her father was a prominent and prosperous farmer of Granville, New York, also a bank director, one of the supervisors of his town and a prominent worker in and member of the Baptist church. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson became parents of two sons and two daughters: Delia M .; Edward Temple, who was married October 17, 1912, to Tress McCoid, of Logan, Iowa, who died November 18, 1916; Laurence R., who was married August 17, 1916, to Blanche Fenton, of Rocky Ford, Colorado; and Grace M. The family are adherents of the Presbyterian church. In politics Mr. Robinson has been a lifelong republican, and was nominated for presidential elector at the state repub- lican convention at Lincoln in the year that Theodore Roosevelt was nominated for president. He belongs to the Commercial Club of Omaha and he is widely known as a representative of the Masonic fraternity, holding membership in Waterloo Lodge, No. 102, A. F. & A. M., of which he is now senior warden ; Nebraska Consistory, No. 1, A. & A. S. R., of Omaha ; and Tangier Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Omaha. He also belongs to Waterloo Lodge, No. 226. I. O. O. F., and Apollo Encampment at Fremont, Nebraska, and is identified with Center Lodge, No 72, K. P., of Elkhorn, Nebraska. There is no record in this volume which indicates more clearly the fact that "peace hath her vic- tories 110 less renowned than war." In this age when Europe is engaged in destructive warfare, cutting down her best citizenship and all of her best indi- cations of an advanced civilization, America is still intent on the effort to upbuild rather than to destroy. In the business career of James C. Robinson he has always followed constructive methods and his path has never been strewn with the wreck of other men's fortunes. He has never feared legitimate com- petition, knowing that merit and ability win, and he has based his success upon a straightforward representation of the product which he has handled. The few acres which he had in the beginning have expanded into the twenty-thousand acre tract now utilized in his business, and his name as a seedsman is known throughout the length and breadth of the continent and at various European points as well.
LEE McGREER.
Lee McGreer, a prominent contractor and builder of Omaha, was born in Rock Island county, Illinois, August 18, 1862, of the marriage of Louis and Jennie (Pullen) McGreer. Louis McGreer was born in Indiana and accom- panied his parents to Illinois shortly after the Black Hawk war, the family being pioneers of Rock Island county, as the father, John McGreer, had pre- empted land in the southern part of that county. In the Prairie state Louis McGreer grew to manhood and received his education. He devoted his life to farming and acquired a substantial competence. His death occurred in Rock Island county in 1901. His widow survives and makes her home in Topeka. Kansas, with a daughter. She has three children: Lee; Elbert, who resides in Rock Island county, Illinois ; and Hattie, the wife of Dr. J. H. Close. of Topeka, Kansas.
As a boy Lee McGreer attended the public schools of Rock Island county and he secured his preparation for a business career as a student in a commer- cial college in Keokuk, Iowa. For some time he clerked in a dry goods store at Muscatine, Iowa, after which he was employed in a planing mill in that city. After his arrival in Omaha in 1882 he was connected with the planing mill business here for ten years, but at the end of that time disposed of his mill in order to devote his time and attention to contracting and building. In the
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twenty-five years that have elapsed since that time he has erected some of the fine buildings of Omaha, thus contributing to the material expansion of the city.
Mr. McGreer was married in Omaha in December, 1883, to Miss Hattie Gotham, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Gotham. Three children, all natives of Omaha, have been born of this marriage, namely: Harry Cody, who was born in 1886 and is a high school graduate; Lula, who was born in 1892 and completed a course in Boyle's Business College; and Gladys, who was born in 1906 and is attending the public schools.
Mr. McGreer is a stanch democrat but has been content to perform his duties as a citizen in a private capacity. He belongs to the Fraternal Union and also to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and he is characterized by marked public spirit, feeling a deep interest in all that affects the development of Omaha whether along the lines of moral, civic or commercial progress.
JAMES T. ALLAN.
James T. Allan, an architect who has designed many notable buildings in Omaha, his native city, has through the steps of an orderly progression reached his present position, where the quality and attractiveness of his work secure for him a liberal patronage. He was born July 24, 1889, a son of Henry B. and Helen (Young) Allan, both of whom were natives of Scotland. In January, 1914, he began the practice of his profession independently, establishing offices in the Brandeis Theater building. It required a little time to gain a start but after the preliminary struggle was over his business grew rapidly and satisfactorily and today he is well known as the designer of some of the notable buildings of the city, including the Morris Apartment Hotel, the Ford Hospital and others.
Mr. Allan holds membership with the Woodmen of the World, also with the Commercial Club, the Field Club and the Omaha Athletic Club, which member- ship relations are indicative of the nature of his interests outside of the field of business, in which he is making steady progress. Without financial assistance at the start, he has worked his way steadily upward and with a broad knowledge of the principles of architecture as the basic element of his success he has won for himself a creditable place in professional circles.
DELLIZON ARTHUR FOOTE, A. M., M. D., F. A. C. S.
I was born in Leroy, Ohio, the only child of Lieutenant Seth and Amorette Rich Foote. My father was born on a farm in Huron county, Ohio, and moved to Clayton county, lowa, where he engaged in merchandising. In 1860 he took an emigrant ox train across the plains to Denver and Pike's Peak. With the outbreak of the Civil war, however, he enlisted as a private in Company A, Eighth Kansas Volunteer Infantry at Leavenworth, Kansas. He rose to the rank of lieutenant, was transferred west and was engaged in some very strenuous Indian soldiering at Fort Kearney, Fort McPherson and Fort Laramie. He was sent as quartermaster to build Fort Bridger near Salt Lake City. Upon his request he was returned to his regiment and served as aid-de-camp for General Hegg at the battle of Chickamauga and ordnance officer at Missionary Ridge, where he was mortally wounded.
My mother. Amorette Rich Foote, lived in the little town of Fayette, Iowa, where, as a war-widow she struggled with poverty for many years before the United States government awarded her a pension which, with my efforts in various avocations as a school boy and student made us a comfortable home. In 1882 I graduated from the Upper Iowa University at Fayette. After two or
DELLIZON A. FOOTE, A. M., M. D., F. A. C. S.
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three years' residence in Huron, South Dakota, during the boom days, I went to Chicago where I acquired my degree of MI. D. from the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College and spent a year and a half as interne in the West Side Hospital of Chicago. My mother entered the deaconess work under the supervision of Lucy Ryder Meyer of Chicago, and she continued in deaconess work until the time of her death, a period of over twenty years. The last years of her life were spent as superintendent of the deaconess work in Los Angeles, California.
I located in Omaha upon the completion of my interneship in Chicago, which also included an experience of several months as house physician and surgeon in the Illinois penitentiary at Joliet. After two years' practice in Omaha I took post graduate work in Dr. Martin's Clinic in Berlin and did some special surgical work in Vienna and London. I have been in Omaha twenty-eight years and my work grows more interesting to me constantly and I trust to round out at least fifty years of work in Omaha.
On the 24th day of September, 1891, in Holly, Michigan, I was united in marriage to Miss Milla H. Baird. We have three children, Marjorie Baird, Arthur Newman and Mildred Amorette. We are all members of the Hanscom Park Methodist church.
ALVIN FREDERICK JOHNSON.
A modern philosopher has said "not the good that comes to us, but the good that comes to the world through us, is the measure of our success." Judged by this standard, the life of Alvin Frederick Johnson has been a most successful one, for his labors have been directly resultant in bringing about benefit for his fellowmen. He is a stanch believer in the principle that we are here, not only to work out our own salvation, but to render the best service in us to the public at large and to the community in which we live, and that it is every citizen's duty to give at all times a portion of his time and his energy serving the public.
Alvin Frederick Johnson is a native son of Omaha, and was born January 6, 1877. His father, Andrew Frederick Johnson, was an early Omaha pioneer, arriving in this city in the year 1871. For thirty-five years he was in the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad Company. He passed away in June, 1914. The mother of Mr. Johnson is Anna Mortenson Johnson, who is still a resident of Omaha. Mr. Johnson is of Swedish ancestry, both on his mother's and father's side.
During his youthful days under the parental roof, Alvin F. Johnson passed through consecutive grades in the public schools, and continued on through the Omaha high school. After leaving high school. he was employed in the auditing department of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and at the same time studied law at the night school conducted by the Omaha School of Law. He later con- tinued his law studies and took a selected course in the Nebraska State Univer- sity, graduating therefrom with his LL. B. degree in 1901. He then returned to Omaha and began the practice of law. During the first year of his practice he was associated with Charles S. Elgutter. The next four years he spent with the law firm of Woolworth & McHugh, composed of James M. Woolworth and Judge W. D. McHugh, where he received very valuable training in his profession. After the death of Mr. Woolworth, Mr. Johnson was associated with Warren Switzler for one year, and since that time he has been actively engaged in the practice of law by himself. It is the theory of the law that a lawyer's duty is to aid the court in the administration of justice, and there is perhaps no member of the profession in Omaha who has been more careful to conform his practice to that high standard of professional ethics than Mr. Jolinson. He never seeks to lead the court astray in a matter of fact or law, and ever treats the court with the studied courtesy which is its due, and indulges in no malicious criticism if
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it arrives at a conclusion in the decision of a case, different from that which he hoped to hear. Notwithstanding this, Mr. Johnson is a persistent and aggressive fighter for his client, and his cause when just. Calm, dignified, self-controlled, free from passion and prejudice, he gives to his client talent, learning and unwearied industry, but he never forgets there are certain things due to the court, to his own self-respect, and above all, to justice and a righteous admin- istration of the law, which neither the zeal of an advocate nor the pleasure of success will permit him to disregard. Mr. Johnson enjoys a very large acquaint- ance, and the confidence of his clients, which, with his ability, has enabled him to build up a very successful law practice. He has the universal respect of the courts and the members of the bar.
On the 27th day of November, 1906, in Toledo, Ohio, Mr. Johnson was joined in wedlock to Miss Marie Stanfield Bryant, by whom he has two children. Stanfield Bryant, born November 8, 1907, and Marian Elizabeth, whose natal day was November 16, 1914.
Mr. Johnson belongs to two college fraternities, the Phi Delta Phi and the Phi Delta Theta. In politics he is a republican. He was chairman of the board of insanity commissioners of Douglas county, in 1912 and 1913, and is again serving in that position now, having been reappointed in 1916. He is a member of the University Club and the Commercial Club. At one time he was a member of the commission appointed by the supreme court to examine applicants for admission to the bar.
As has been previously stated in this sketch, Mr. Johnson, although a busy lawyer, has given unsparingly of his time and energy to matters of public interest and welfare. In local politics he has been very active for a number of years in a fight to secure good clean government and honest elections, and to that end has served in various capacities, from that of a challenger and inspector of elections in the noted "third ward," to acting as manager of campaigns. He has never been a candidate for political office. He used his influence and con- tributed his efforts towards securing the "Honest Election Law" for Omaha, and to secure legislation of various kinds for the benefit of Omaha and Douglas county, including the law permitting the establishing of a public workhouse, a law to better the selection of juries, and legislation, both state and national. regulating the traffic in "dope" and providing severe penalties for violations thereof. He has been a very active member of the Commercial Club, and has served for years on its municipal affairs committee, and is now vice chairman thereof. In his activity on this committee, he has given much of his time and efforts toward the solution of many civic problems confronting Omaha and Douglas county. As a member of the insanity commission, he has taken special interest in the handling of dipsomaniacs, in an effort to redeem unfortunate victims of the drug and liquor habits. His activities along this line began early in his practice, and before he was a member of the insanity commission, when he was assigned by the court to defend a messenger boy of eighteen, with a widowed mother, who was charged with burglary. Upon investigating the case, Mr. Johnson discovered that this boy was a victim of the cocaine habit, and was impelled to commit crime in order to obtain money to buy drugs. Mr. Johnson had the boy paroled to him, and took personal charge of him, and as stated by the World-Herald, "during his efforts to help the boy. Johnson became acquainted with the extent of the evil. He spent days and many nights at different times, hunting for his young charge in the alleys of the big city. Finally after a long, useless struggle, in which the boy tried time and again to recover himself, and during which Johnson constantly helped him the best he could, they had to give up. The odds were too great against them. Some of the boy's escapades, many of them of a criminal nature, would make a thrilling story." Wherever the boy was sent, either to jail or to a state hospital, he seemed to be able to procure his "coke." All of this made such a distinct impression upon Mr. Johnson's mind, that he began further investigations, and found that habit-forming drugs were
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sold freely, not only to adults, but to minors, and a large per cent of the mes- senger boys were addicted to the use thereof. He thereupon began a long, earnest fight against this terrible vice, during which he took charge of many persons addicted to the habit, in his efforts to reform them, and began a cam- paign of publicity in the crusade. He prepared and secured the passage of proper legislation by the state legislature, making it, instead of a misdemeanor, a felony, punishable by fine of one hundred dollars to sell, give away, or handle habit-forming drugs, or their derivatives, or compounds containing any of them, and also contributed his efforts and influence towards securing the national law on the subject, to the end that this unholy traffic has been largely lessened.
Along other lines he has also put forth earnest and effective effort, and belongs to that public-spirited, useful and helpful type of man, whose ambitions and desires are centered and directed in those channels through which flow the greatest and most permanent good to the greatest number.
GUSTAVE W. DISHONG, M. D.
Dr. Gustave Dishong is specializing in the treatment of nervous and mental diseases, following years of thorough training and successful practice along that line. While the trend of emigration has always been westward Dr. Dishong comes to this city from the far west, his birth having occurred in San Francisco in 1873. His father was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1830 and in early manhood came to the United States. He enlisted for service in the Civil war, was promoted to a lieutenancy and by active duty at the front proved his loyalty to his adopted country. Again he gave practical demonstration of his devotion to American interests and ideals when he went to the Philippines, dying there in the naval service in 1907, when seventy-seven years of age. His wife had passed away in Lincoln, Nebraska, some time before.
Dr. Dishong was but an infant when the family home was established in Lincoln, Nebraska, and there he was reared and educated, completing a course in the University Place high school by graduation with the class of 1887. He then entered the academic department of the Wesleyan University and was graduated in 1900. It was seven years later that, having carried out his purpose to prepare for a professional career, he was graduated from the medical depart- ment of Creighton University at Omaha and he afterward pursued a post graduate course in the Cook County (Ill.) Hospital, which brought him broad medical experience. He also did special work in the Psychopathic Institute at Kankakee, Illinois. He afterwards went to London, England, and studied neurology at the National Hospital for Paralyzed and Epileptic. His work along the line of his specialty has been far-reaching and effective. He was pathologist and assistant superintendent at the State Hospital for the Insane at Norfolk, Nebraska, for three years in all and under civil service he was assistant physician at the State Hospital at Watertown, Illinois, for a year. He later became connected with the State Hospital for Nervous Diseases at Little Rock, Arkansas, in the position of alienist or chief of staff, continuing there for eighteen months and in the fall of 1913, upon his return to Omaha from study abroad, he entered the practice of the treatment of nervous and mental diseases. He is at present (1917) professor of nervous and mental diseases at Creighton Med- ical College. He has advanced knowledge along this line, keeping in close touch with the latest scientific investigation and research.
On the Ist of January, 1903, Dr. Dishong was married at University Place, Lincoln, to Miss Lena L. Beck, a daughter of the Hon. Charles W. Beck, now deceased, who served as a soldier of the Civil war from Illinois, and was a judge in the courts of Red Willow county for six years. Dr. and Mrs. Dishong have a daughter, Grace Jeanette.
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The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and Dr. Dishong belongs to the Phi Rho Sigma, a medical fraternity. His, political endorsement is given to the republican party but he has never been ambitious in the line of office holding, feeling that his professional duties demand all his time and ener- gies. He is a member of the Omaha-Douglas County Medical Society, the Elkhorn Valley Medical Society, the Nebraska State Medical Society and the American Medical Association and the proceedings of those organizations keep him in touch with the trend of modern professional thought and discovery. Thoroughness in preparation, close application, indefatigable energy and laudable ambition have already gained for Dr. Dishong a creditable place in the ranks of neurologists in the United States.
REV. DANIEL EDWARDS JENKINS, PH.D., D. D.
It has been said that the number and character of the educational institutions of a community are a sure indication of its ideals and standards of life. Thus judged Omaha stands high, for her citizenship has founded and nurtured a number of most excellent institutions of learning which are exerting an increasing influence for learning and uplift over a wide territory. At the head of one of these beneficent institutions, the University of Omaha, is Dr. D. E. Jenkins. A native of Wales, he was born in Flintshire, near the old city of Chester, England, December 13, 1866, and was the second son of the Rev. John M. Jenkins and Jane Edwards Jenkins. His Grandfather William Jenkins, a native of Wales, came to the United States in 1864 and died in April, 1879. His father was born in Wales, March 21, 1839, and died March 10, 1909, at Nottingham, Pennsylvania, where he was pastor of the Presbyterian church and instructor in theology in Lincoln University, near Nottingham. He had been a resident of this country since 1866 and for forty-one years had taken a prominent part in the building up of Presbyterianism spiritually and educationally.
Dr. D. E. Jenkins was first and for almost two years a student at Wooster University, Wooster, Ohio, and subsequently entered Melbourne University, at Melbourne, Australia, from which he was graduated with high distinction in 1889, receiving the B. A. degree. He immediately entered upon post graduate studies for the Master's degree and enrolled for final honor examinations, in which he won first place and was awarded a five hundred dollar prize and elected senior scholar in the school of logic and philosophy for the current year. Returning subsequently to the United States, he completed his theological studies at Prince- ton Seminary, at the same time pursuing extra-curriculum philosophical studies at Princeton University. He received his degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Washington-Jefferson College and his doctorate in theology from the University of Pittsburgh.
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