USA > Nebraska > Gage County > Portrait and biographical album of Gage County, Nebraska : containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 76
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Mr. Zimmerman is a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, where he was born on the 31st of Octo- ber, 1843. The names of the parents of our sub- ject were Jacob and Anna (Schmidt) Zimmerman. His father was by occupation a carpenter, and fol- lowed the same all his life. The father and hus- band died in his native country in the year 1851. The mother of our subject after the death of her husband removed with her three sons and came to the United States, settling in Wisconsin, where two other sons had settled in the year 1857. There she continued to live until her death, in 1879, at the age of seventy-three years. Both herself and hus- band were members of the German Catholic Church, of which communion our subject and wife are also adherents.
The reputation of Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman throughout the county is unquestionable, and they are the recipients of the entire respect of the com-
Un lucknett
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munity. Our subject is one who has taken great interest in building up the township and county, and made considerable effort in locating the station of Ellis on the Chicago, Kansas & Nebraska Railroad. In his political relations our subject is a Repub- lican, and holds the office of Treasurer of the town- ship, as he has also held that of Clerk. Among the people of his nationality in the county Mr. Zimmerman is perhaps the most prosperous, and he is certainly held in high regard and looked upon as one of the most valued citizens.
ILLIAM PLUCKNETT. One of the most extensive land-owners and prominent citi- zens of Grant Township, and at the same time one of its earliest settlers, is the gentleman whose biography is hierein sketched, and whose por- trait is given on the opposite page. He is the owner of 1,500 aeres of some of the best land in the county, situated for the greater part in Grant Township, and upon either side of the Big Blue River, a stream, at this place, of considerable importance. His residence is on that part of his property that is on section 33 of Grant Township, and is most pleasantly situated on the banks of the river, and amid surroundings natural and acquired that make it a most desirable position.
For the greater part of the time since his settle- ment our subjeet has lent his energies to farming, but for several years past has given considerable attention to stock-raising, and is the owner of quite a number of very fine and choice amimals. At present he raises and feeds about 200 head of cattle, and the other classes of stock in proportion. There are few if any who have been more successful in this ealling than he, and few are more particular, not simply in regard to the quality and breed of the animals. but also everything regarding their daily attention and care. Mr. Plucknett has been a resi- dent of this State sinee 1861; at that time the Indians still roamed where their own sweet will dictated throughout this portion of the country, and it was not unusual for depredations to be com- mitted, and occasionally a scalp taken without the owner's consent. Despite these somewhat discour-
aging features of life in this district. our subject took up his land and went to work with all the enthusiasm, pluck, and disdain of danger that char- acterize his countrymen.
Although rather enjoying the circumstances of his environment, which had sufficient of the spice of danger to give them a smack of pleasantness, our subject would not endanger his family; he sent them back to the older settlements, and remained himself upon the farm to take his chances. Ilis faith in the future of the country was unbounded. and he saw the time was not far distant when the whole valley would be peopled by a happy and prosperous community. That " Truth is stranger than fietion" we are somewhat inclined to doubt, in view of some more modern novel productions, and yet there are phases in the experience of Mr. Plucknett that would warrant the emphatic reitera- tion of the above platitude.
It is well-nigh impossible to find any more public- spirited and loyal citizen than our subject, or one more self-denying in his activities, and the cause must be sought for in the fact that he recognizes that he came to the country a comparatively poor man, one whose own country offered little or no prospect of advancement to either himself or family, and that this condition has been fully met by his adopted country, and that she is therefore worthy of any and every effort that it is in his power to make in return, seeing the success that has come to him and his is far more than they in their most sanguine moments had hoped.
Reference has been made above to the coming of our subject to the United States. He and his family are of pure English descent, and he was born on the 13th of March, 1827, in Somersetshire, England, and in the same county the family history can be traced for several generations. They appear to have been an agricultural people, of strictest honor, integrity and loyalty, of unimpeachable up- rightness and spotless reputation. The father of our subject, who bore the given name of William, was united in marriage with Elizabeth Brown, of the same county, who, like her husband, had been brought up in the faith of the Church of England. Mr. Plucknett died in 1861, aged fifty-three years. llis wife, the mother of our subject, survived her
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husband until Christmas Day of 1884, at which time she was seventy-seven years of age. During the Angust previous she had been greatly rejoiced by a visit from her son, the subject of this writing, from whom she had been separated for twenty-eight years; and during the rapidly speeding days of that visit she seemed to take a renewed interest and pleasure in life, as, with him, she rejoiced in his life's success and welfare. This is to our subject, also, a bright memory, that after so long a separa- tion it should have been his happiness to spend those days in the old home, so soon to be broken.
Our subject is the eldest of seven children, four of them being sons. He received the best education obtainable in the parish school at his home, and remained a resident of his native shire until he was twenty-six years old, when he came to this country and located in Ohio, where he was a resident in Ashtabula County for four years, and then returned to England. During his visit he in- duced quite a number of his old neighbors and country-people to emigrate to this country, and as instructed by our subject they went to Illinois and located in Hancock County, where he also made his home. Later several of the families removed to this State, and added their names to the honora- ble roll of its pioneer settlers.
While in Hancock County Mr. William Plucknett was united in marriage with Miss Caroline Hawlett, a native of Yarmouth, the renowned shipping point and headquarters of the North Sea fishing fleet of England. In that city she was born in the year 1837, and came to the United States with her par- ents, Samuel and Charlotte Hawlett, in the year 1854, who, after living some time in Hancock County, removed to lowa, where both her parents died in Andubon County, well advanced in years, having passed the allotted threescore years and ten. In common with almost all the English colo- nists of that party, they had been brought up ac- cording to the religious tenets of the State Church (Episcopal). Mrs. Plucknett presented her husband with eight children, two of whom are now deceased, viz: James, who died in infaney, and Herbert at the age of thirteen years. The surviving members of the family are as follows: John W., George A., Robert, Jane E., Emily and Mary. The eldest son,
who is an extensive and enterprising farmer in Chey- enne County, Kan., is the husband of Sarah Reed, of Iowa; their second son is one of Grant Town- ship's valued citizens and enterprising farmers, and is united in marriage with Olliva Benjamin; Robert is at home; the eldest daughter is happily married to John Hawse, the owner of a good farm in Saline County ; her sister Emily is now Mrs. Crosier Rogers, of DeWitt, and her husband is a relative of the well-known business man of that name in the same town; Mary, the youngest, continues to make her home with her parents.
After marriage our subject rented land in Han- cock County, Ill., and after a period of about two and one-half years he removed to Iowa, where he made his home in Shelby County; then, in pur- suance of plans made several years before, he came to this State and built up a home in the midst of the prairie. From that time until the present he has continued with unflagging, zealous enterprise to push forward every undertaking that meant ad- vancement for his adopted State, and has been abundantly rewarded by the unprecedented prog- ress made.
From his earliest connections with this country as a citizen, and his study of its political economy, Mr. Plucknett has continued a firm Republican, and considers all efforts in behalf of that party oppor- tunity well utilized. The foregoing compendium entirely precludes the necessity of any merely com- plimentary eulogy. His history reveals character, mental power and manliness, with all those qualities and attributes that are incidental component parts of the higher types of manhood.
OHN ORTMAN. One of the most pleasant homes and admirably conducted farms in Midland Township is that of Mr. Ortman, which is situated on section 16. His resi- dence in the township dates from 1882. He is a native of Lancaster County, Pa., where he was born on the 15th of October, 1842, to Joseph and Martha Ortman, likewise natives of that State. In the year 1850 a dark shadow overhung that Pennsylvanian home; the all-powerful Conqueror
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crossed the threshold, and removed the husband and father. The mothier, recovering from the first shock of ber affliction, began to live more than ever for her children, and employed her best powers in mak- ing a home for them, and sending them forth into the world fully equipped for whatever might befall. She, however, had to face the additional sorrow of the death of two of her children within a few days of that of her husband, the cause being typhoid fever. This left her two children, whom it has been her happiness to see occupying honorable positions in life, respected by their neighbors and friends. These are our subject and his brother Levi, who is living in Lancaster County, Pa., where also Mrs. Ortman makes her home.
The early life of our subject was fully occupied with farm and school duties; he has been engaged in the innumerable details and various parts of the farming industry from his childhood up, and is, therefore, quite proficient and practical. It will have been noticed in the foregoing paragraph that our subject was but eight years of age when his father died. When fourteen years old, in company with an old neighbor, he went to Carroll County, Ill., to work by the month on a farm. When about nineteen years of age, in the year 1861, he enlisted in Company I, 34th Illinois Infantry, and went to the front. Two years later, when the first pioneer regiment was organized, our subject was chosen as a member, transferred to the same, and served during the remainder of his term for three years. This period having expired, he re-enlisted, and shortly after a regiment known as the 1st United States Veteran Volunteer Engineers was formed, our subject chosen as a member thereof, and in it served throughout the remainder of the war. He was in the battles of Shiloh, Resaca, Buz- zard's Roost, Kenesaw Mountain, Corinth, and many minor engagements. The war being over, he re- ceived an honorable discharge at Nasliville, Tenn., and returned to Carroll County, Ill.
Upon the 30th of August, 1870, Mr. Ortman was united in marriage, in Whiteside County, with Miss Elizabeth Potter, a daughter of Jacob and Julia Ann Potter. Miss Potter was born in Carroll County, Ill., March 28, 1847, and was brought up and educated in her native place, making her home
with her parents until her marriage. Her marriage has been blessed and the current of its joy widened and deepened by the birth of three children, who have received the following names: Willie Benton, Fred L. and Edith E.
Upon his marriage our subject removed to Red Oak, Iowa, where he purchased a farm and made his home for about ten years, increasing from year to year in wealth of storehouse and barn. In 1880 he sold that property and removed to this State and township. Here he took up eighty acres of land and went to work to make a farm ; he has devoted much care and attention to its cultivation, and mneh thought and labor upon the erection and beautify- ing of his home. His farm is provided with all the usual and necessary out-buildings, which have been erected with a view to accommodation, conveni- ence and practical utility, rather than adornment; but even this has not been entirely overlooked.
The political sympathies and sentiments of our subject are such as lead him to the ranks of the Republican party, and he is a strong advocate and a stanch friend of the same. His quiet, manly in- dependence and industry, high character, his intelli- gent and energetic enterprise upon his farm, and his honor in matters of business, receive their rec- ognition from his fellow-citizens, who accord to our subject and family hearty estcem.
R. ALEXANDER C. SABIN, physician and surgeon at Beatrice, is a native of Knox County, Ohio, and was born near the town of Bladensburg. When a lad of thirteen years, his parents removed to Bloomington, III. Ilis father, Dr. Daniel Sabin, was a native of Virginia, and his paternal grandfather was born in New En- gland. The mother in her girlhood was Miss Rhoda Williams, a native of Greene County, Pa., and the daughter of Abraham Williams.
The subject of this sketch continued to live with his parents in Bloomington, Ill., where his father pursued the practice of medicine a short time. In 1882 he, with his family, came to Nebraska, locat- ing in Beatrice, where both parents passed away, the father in 1887. The household circle consisted
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of eleven children, seven sons and four daughters, of whom there are now living six sons and two daughters. Of these our subject is the eldest son and third child. His father being the owner of a farm, his boyhood and youth were passed amid the quiet scenes of rural life, and he pursued his early studies in the district school. Later he became a student of Eureka College, in Woodford County, Ill., where he spent three years.
Soon after leaving college our subject entered upon the study of medicine under the instruction of his father, and began practicing that same year, 1862. He, however, became also interested in farming and stock-raising, to which he also gave considerable time and attention until 1873, then, disposing of these interests, resolved to give his best efforts to his profession. He located in Bloom- ington, Ill., at which place, however, he remained only one year, thence removing to Farmer City, where he sojourned three years. He attended lectures later at Bennett Medical College in Chicago, from which he was graduated in the spring of 1882. Previously to this, however, he had decided upon a location in Burlington, Iowa, and later took up his residence there. In June, 1883, he came to Beatrice, and in the course of time built up a busi- ness extending not only throughout this county, but the whole State.
Dr. Sabin, not being able to dismiss his interest in live stock, perfected his arrangements for em- barking extensively in the breeding of fine horses, and now has some of the choicest trotting stock in the West. One of the colts in which he takes most pride is "Sabin Counselor," a year old, which won the first money from the State Breeders' Association, which held its exhibition at Lincoln, Aug. 16, 1888, the purse being $275. This animal made the re- markable time of 3:10 after one month's training, making three seconds over any previous record upon the grounds, and the Doctor was offered $5,000 for him, which he refused. He has twelve head of as fine animals as are to be seen in Southern Nebraska, and in his care and keeping of them ex- hibits a peculiar adaptability to the business. For this purpose he invested a portion of his capital in 510 acres of land, upon which he has erected the buildings necessary for his convenience and the
proper care of his stock. He put up a handsome and substantial residence two stories in height, and of modern style of architecture, comprising all the latest conveniences and finished in the finest style of the builder's art. This is located at the corner of Eighth and, Lincoln streets. An extensive lawn assists in completing the beauty of a most attractive home.
The wife of our subject, to whom he was mar- ried Nov. 15, 1862, was in her girlhood Miss Elma Garretson, of McLean County, Ill. Mrs. Sabin is the daughter of Talbott Garretson, and came to this county with her parents when a little girl. Of her union with our subject there have been born nine children, seven of whom are living, namely : D. T., Olive Belle, Robert Grant, Rhoda May, Hudson Burr, Alex C., Jr., and Daisy Cornelia.
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ON. GEORGE B. EVERITT, attorney-at- law, and a leading member of the bar in Beatrice, is of Southern birth, and was born in Goldsboro, N. C., Nov. 10, 1850. The eldest son and second child of a family of ten children, he has now only one brother and one sis- ter living. His parents, David B. and Sarah (Car- ney) Everitt, were also natives of North Carolina, and both were of Scotch and English ancestry. The father was a planter by occupation, and rested from his earthly labors in January, 1885, The mother is still living. The maternal grandfather of our subject was James Carney, Esq., who was a native of Virginia, and spent his last years in Goldsboro, N. C.
The subject of this sketch remained in North Carolina on his father's plantation until a youth of eighteen years, his studies having been conducted in the Everittville schools. He now entered Trinity College. from which he was graduated with honors in the class of '73. Young Everitt commenced the study of law under the instruction of Chief Justice Smith, of Raleigh, N. C., who still holds his exalted position upon the bench. He was admitted to the bar in January, 1874, and commenced the practice of his profession in Concord, N. C. In the spring of 1877 he removed to Winston, and in the
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fall of 1878 was elected to the State Senate of North Carolina for the counties of Forsythe and Stokes. In the campaign of 1880 he was the candi- date of the Republican party for elector of the State at large. In June, 1881, he was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the Fifth District of North Carolina, and in June, 1883, under the administra- tion of President Arthur, was appointed Register of the land-office at Mitchell, Dak. This position he held until March, 1888.
In June following Mr. Everitt came to Beatrice and resumed the regular practice of his profession. Although his residence here has been comparatively brief he has fully established himself in the esteem and confidence of the community. He was married, in December, 1875, to Miss Mary Graves, a native of his own State, and the daughter of Dr. Calvin and Caroline M. (Foust) Graves, also natives of North Carolina, and at that time residents of Trinity. Of this union there were born two children-Malcom G. and Mary M. Mrs. Everitt died in November, 1882. The present wife of our subject, to whom he was married in July, 1884, was formerly Miss Martha Davis, of Philadelphia, Pa. She is the daughter of Allen and Helen (Smyth) Davis, of Beaufort, N. C., and of this marriage of our subject there have also been born two children-George B., Jr., and Anne S. Mr. Everitt is a stanch Repub- lican, and a man of broad and comprehensive views on the great questions of American nationality. He is a pleasing, graceful and eloquent speaker, aud a lawyer of fine ability.
F6 RANK MOSELEY. The wonderfully rapid development of Gage County could only have been brought about by men of great force of character, much ability, and sturdy powers of endurance. The gentleman whose name stands at the head of this brief biographical sketch is a fine representative of such men, who came to this part of Nebraska a few years ago and settled in Paddock Township, although he is not one of the earliest comers. Since taking up his residence here in 1883, locating on the wild, unbroken prairie land, comprising 240 acres (160 on section 21 and eighty
on section 28, Paddock Township) of which he then became the owner, he has developed it into one of the most desirable farms in this vicinity. All of his landed property that is not devoted to pastur- age is under a high state of cultivation, and well repays by abundant harvests the care and time that he has bestowed upon it. He has erected comfort- able buildings, and everything about the place denotes that he is a practical, methodical man. He has paid much attention to raising cattle and hogs, and his farm is now well supplied with stock of good grades.
Mr. Moseley was born in Lee County, Ill., Oct. 1, 1852, a son of Joseph and Margaret (Moore) Moseley, natives of England and Pennsylvania. Mr. Moseley, father of our subject, closed a long and useful life in Illinois, June 22, 1886. He was a man of unimpeachable integrity, of good common sense, and was much respected by his neighbors and friends. The worthy mother of our subject, whose maiden name was Margaret Clintob, was twice mar- ried, her first husband's name being Moore. Her sons, John Moore and William Moseley, served in the late war, being members of Company A, 75th Illinois Infantry. They were in the army two years and eleven months, but both escaped from the perils of battle unwounded. Mrs. Moseley is now spending her declining years in Thayer County, Neb.
Our subject was reared and educated in his native county ; he went to Page County, Iowa, in 1876, and he was there married, Nov. 26, 1879, to Miss Lovisa A .. daughter of William Beers, of Page County, Iowa. Four children have been born of their marriage-Nellie M., Fred R., Ida J. and an infant, Paul. In the fall of 1879 Mr. Moseley came with his bride to Thayer County, this State, which he had previously visited the spring before his mar- riage, and they lived there until the spring of 1883, when Mr. Moseley removed with his family to Gage County, and settled on his present farm. Mr. Moseley and his wife richly deserve the esteem and respect in which they are held. They have a pleas- ant home, and whoever erosses its threshold is sure of a cordial welcome and hospitable entertainment. Mr. Moseley is a man of upright, straightforward character, of great capability, and with energy enough to put through what he has once begun.
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As a good citizen should he takes great pride in his township, and has taken a prominent part in its growth. Politically, he champions the Republican party.
AMES W. SHELLEY has been endowed by nature with a splendid physique, great mental force and moral strength-the requi- sites of a truly grand character. He has passed through a long period of eventful pioncer experienee, in which the sterling qualities of man- hood were developed and formed into graceful attributes of a truly noble character, while his zeal- ous efforts toward the developing of the natural re- sources of this State and the fostering of the public institutions of his county are worthy of the highest commendation. His parents, Francis and Fanny (Hollingworth) Shelley, were born in England, the former in Staffordshire and the latter in Derbyshire. The father was a shoemaker by trade, and removed with his family to America in the year 1855, making his home in Portage County, Wis. He worked for a time on a farm near Stevens' Point, and in 1861 he brought his family to Nebraska, taking up a homestead on section 19, Rockford Township, where he prospered well. He died May 25, 1884, at the age of seventy-two years, but the mother of our subject still lives in Holmesville with her son Ernest, the youngest of her six children, who bear the names of Myra, James W., Thomas, Robert, Joseph and Ernest.
Our subject was born on the 5th of February, 1843, in Derbyshire, England, and was but twelve years old when he left his native country. There he had enjoyed excellent advantages for obtaining an education, but during his residence at Stevens' Point, Wis., the educational advantages were ex- tremely limited and of an inferior grade. When his parents came to this State he was eighteen years old, and manifested his courage and intrepidity by driving a yoke of oxen all the way from his former home to this State. Here he found plenty of op- portunities to develop the real worth of his young manhood, and in 1864 he took up a homestead claim of 120 acres, working and improving it, and
making his home with his parents for the six years succeeding his purchase.
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