continued on their way and all took up homesteads in the same neighborhood. Mr. Carr secured a half of section two, township nineteen, range nineteen, and on his farm laid out the town of West Union, serving as its first postmaster and also conducting a general store. In 1890 he acquired about fourteen hundred acres of land in West Union township and there established the postoffice and pleasure resort known as Doris. He erected and operated a flour mill, having a capacity of one hundred barrels a day, the power being furnished by Doris Lake, an artificial body of water fed from the middle Loup river. This is a handsome lake, surrounded by fine trees and having islands and rustic bridges to add to its beauty. It is a place where the entire countryside enjoys boating, fishing and skating in their proper seasons. Mr. Carr also erected and conducted the Doris hotel and dance hall, as well as a machine shop that was run by power furnished by the water in the lake. In 1887 the West Union property was almost entirely destroyed by fire, the loss amounting to about twenty-one thousand dollars, there being an insurance of only one thousand dollars on it. However, he rebuilt and continued in business there and still has various interests. In the summer of 1911 he sold his business to James W. Lundy, retiring from active life and purchasing a comfortable home in Sargent. He has always been known as a public-spirited and enterprising citizen, interested in all that benefited his locality. In establishing the village of West Union he furnished the first market for many miles around. He was the first notary public in the county and served in this capacity twelve years.
   Five children were born to Mr. Carr and wife; Alda, wife of William A. Coslor, of Sargent, has three children; Eben J. deceased; Stanley V., married and living Sargent, has six children; Rodney V., deceased; Cora J., wife of Henry Pointer, of West Union, has three children.
   Many of the earlier settlers were assisted by Mr. Carr and encouraged to continue as residents of the county and through his capacity as a public official and the sound advice and the offer of his money which he advanced, enabled many of them to file on their claims.

Rufus G. Carr.

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BARNEY McDOWELL.
(Deceased.)

   The McDowells were pioneers in Sherman county and are of the few families who still own the original homestead secured upon their coming to the region. They have done much toward the development and advancement of the community and have always stood for its best interests. The late Barney McDowell was well known throughout the county as an industrious farmer and a public-spirited citizen, who was always ready to do his duty in every relation of life. He was a true friend and kind neighbor, much esteemed for his sterling qualities. He was born in England and his wife in New Orleans, Louisiana, whence her father returned to England after a sojourn in the southern states. They were married at Whitehaven, England, in 1860, and came to the United States about 1866, moving from Pennsylvania to Harrison county, Iowa, in 1877. In the fall of 1882 Mr. McDowell went to Sherman county aud secured a homestead comprising the southeast quarter of section six, township sixteen, range sixteen. The following spring Mr. McDowell and his family located in their Nebraska home. Mr. McDowell improved and developed a fine farm, and the home place now contains three hundred and twenty acres of valuable land. He lived there the remainder of his life and passed away May 5, 1910, survived by his wife and six children. He was in his eightieth year, and his widow, though in advanced years, is well and active, and lives on the farm with her sons, Barney and James, who manage the place. One daughter, Bessie, is teaching in the district schools. The oldest daughter, Mary, is the wife of Edward McDowell, a sketch of whom appears in this work, and their farm adjoins the McDowell farm on the south. The other two daughters are Kate, wife of Phil Lynch, of Custer county, and Nellie, Mrs. John Sweeney, also of Custer county. The family are well known and popular in social circles and have many friends.

 

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HENRY HIRSCHMAN.

   It would be impossible to give a sketch of the early history of the northeastern section of Nebraska, without including more than a few words concerning the above mentioned gentleman, who is one of the most prominent of the old settlers. He has an extensive acquaintance and is held in the highest esteem by all. He is a man of strong character and active public spirit and well merits his present high standing.
   Mr. Hirschman is a native of Wisconsin, and was born in 1854, the son of Francis and T. Hirschman. The parents came from Austria in 1852, being six weeks on the ocean in an old-fashioned sailing boat. Upon arriving in Amerca they came directly to Wisconsin and bought forty acres of land there. The father was a carpenter and part of the time worked at his trade, and part of the time, with the assistance of his family, worked on the little farm. Finally, in 1872, the family decided to join the migration westward. Accordingly, with a team of horses and a prairie schooner, they started to drive to Cedar county, Nebraska. They were on the road three weeks, and upon their arrival the father filed on a homestead in section eight township thirty, range three.
   In 1877, our subscriber married Miss Minnie Lisch, a native of Germany. During the first years of their residence in Nebraska the family suffered the usual hardships incident to a

pioneer's life in the west, and especially apt to trouble the settlers of this locality. For years they fought dangers threatening their crops by grasshoppers, prairie fires, and hot dry winds, and on more than one occasion sustained severe losses. In 1888, the subscriber lost most of his stock in the January blizzard, which was a heavy loss at that time. However, he persevered in his efforts to wrest a home from the wilderness and succeeded.
   Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hirschman, named as follows: John, Edward, Razina, Anne, Minnie, deceased ; Ida, Julia, and Henry.

 

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BELL E. BERRYMAN.

   Bell E. Berryman, one of the prominent business men of Merrick county, is known throughout the county as a man of exceptional ability and straightforward principles.
   Mr. Berryman was born in Hartford, Ohio county, Kentucky, December 25, 1847, and was the seventh of nine children in the family of Thomas and Jane (Bell) Berryman who had seven sons and two daughters. Mr. Berryman was not only the seventh child in the family, but was the seventh son of a seventh son.
   The Berryman and also the Bell family were of old English stock, coming to Virginia in the early years. Thomas Berryman, father of Bell Berryman, was a great grandson of Lord Berryman who came over from England in his own ship and settled in Virginia about the time of the revolutionary war. Thomas Berryman died in Kentucky in the fall of 1847, and the widow later married Benjamin Wallace. They moved from Kentucky to Indiana, the son, Bell E. Berryman going with his mother. About five years later the mother died. Our subject then returned to his old home town in Kentucky and grew up to young manhood in Hartford, receiving his education in the local schools.
   Mr. Berryman's brother, James, was a veteran of the civil war, being in the southern army, and was taken prisoner and sent to the Rock Island, Illinois, prison. In 1865 he was paroled, enlisting as a United States soldier for frontier service in the west, and making final settlement in Merrick county, Nebraska, about 1868, where Bell Berryman joined him in August, 1871. Then the brothers went into partnership in the general merchandise business which was known as J. H. Berryman & Brother. James H. Berryman died in Central City, about 1904. James Berryman put up one of the first buildings in Central City which was devoted to the general mercantile trade.
   Father Marquette's first sermon in Lone Tree was preached in this building, and the first court to convene in Merrick county was also held here. The original building is now a part of the Bell Berryman residence which is a commodious twostory frame house of sixteen rooms.
   From 1871 until about 1900 the Berryman brothers were in the general mercantile trade. About 1900 the firm dissolved and the brothers continued in business separately. Mr. Bell Berryman remained in business until 1905 at which time he retired from active mercantile business going into the bee industry and bee-supply trade.
   In the spring of 1873 Mr. Berryman returned to Kentucky and was married to Miss Ellen Riley at Owensboro, Kentucky, returning to Central City, Nebraska, immeadiately after marriage.
   Mr. and Mrs. Berryman have had four children born to them : William R., who is married and lives in New York City; Carrie, married to Mr. Fred Guthrie, has three children and lives in Omaha, Nebraska; Clyde V., married and living in Kansas; Mary Sue, the eldest born died in infancy. Mrs. Bell Berryman died in 1903.
   Mr. and Mrs. Berryman were one of the old time families, leaving their impression on the history of Merrick county, socially, educationally, and also in the business world. Mr. Berryman is a successful man of pleasing personality and high character.

 

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CALVIN KELLER.

   Judge Calvin Keller, now a resident of Creighton, has been a resident of Nebraska since the latter days of 1879, reaching the state on the 13th day of December of that year. He came here direct from Gallia county, Ohio where he was born in a pioneer log cabin on the 23rd day of November, 1857, near the place now known as Cadmus, a hamlet on Symmes' creek, where the old mill, that ground the wheat and corn of early days, is still situated. He was educated in the common schools and his primary lessons were recited in a log school house with a huge fire place, and he distinctly remembers that the seat on which he usually sat was a long puncheon bench running along one side of the room, with a desk equally long in front of it, and a seat for the smaller pupils in front of that. When a pupil sitting in the middle of the row on the puncheon bench wanted to get out he was obliged to crowd in front of the others, or walk on the seat behind, stepping between them. Crude as the equipment of those old school houses was, they turned out men and women better grounded in the fundamentals and better qualified to fight battles of life than some of the institutious of a later date that are supplied with all the modern appliances.
   Our subject is a son of Robert N. Keller and Adeliza P. Keller, both natives of Gallia county. Ohio. The former died in 1877 aud the latter is now living with her daughters near the old homestead, at the age of seventy-three years. Robert N. Keller served in the "hundred days service" during the civil war. The grandfather of our subject, on the father's side, emigrated

from Pennsylvania to the wilderness of southern Ohio, and was a "Pennsylvania Dutchman."
   At the age of nineteen Mr. Keller was teaching school in his native county, his leisure time being spent in working on the farm. He came west in 1879, stopping at Oakdale, Antelope county, which was then the terminus of the F. E. & M. V. railroad. Almost a steady stream of emigrants in covered wagons passed up the valley to settle in the open country farther west, and the railroad soon made its way to the Black Hills. He followed farming and teaching for a time; not being well equipped for farming, for a lack of funds, he took the civil service examination at Omaha with the idea of going into the mail service, and then went to clerking in a store in Neligh at a salary of $25.00 per month, where he remained a short time, when he received an appointment as railway postal clerk on the run between Creighton and Norfolk, and for seven years he traveled the route, a good share of the time on a slow, mixed train and was often on the road from before daylight until after dark for six days in the week. During his spare time while on the road and at home, he studied law under the tutelage of his friend, Hon. J. H. Berryman, who was one of the early petitioners of Knox county. Often when there chanced to be an attroney on the train Mr. Keller would spend his spare time conversing with him on the subject of law gathering much information in this way that was valuable to him, and he still holds in kind remembrance the attorneys who so patiently gave him assistance in this way. He was admitted to the bar in 1896 after a rigid examination before the Supreme Court commission, and soon after formed a partnership with G. E. Lundren at Wausa, Nebraska and together they carried on a law aud real estate business for a number of years.
   In 1905 Mr. Keller was elected judge of the county court of his county, which place he filled creditably and was re-elected for another term, serving four years altogether. His second term closed January 10, 1910, and he moved to Creighton to secure the benefit of the higher schools for his children. Here he purchased the law business of his old instructor and friend, Mr. Berryman, who, tired of the longs years of practice, was moving to Rock county to prove up on a homestead and go into the real estate business. During the time he has lived in Creighton he has enjoyed his full share of the legal business of the community. He has always taken a deep personal interest in the public good, sometimes laying aside his own interest for the purpose.
   While he is not a member of any church organization he has been accused of being a ''brother-in-law to the Methodist Episcopal church," which he attends and in which he has taught a class in sunday school for many years past. Judge Keller doesn't believe that it lowers a man's dignity or advertises a weakness to attend Sunday school, even at the age of fifty-three years. He is a firm believer in the gospel of the Nazarene as the saving quality of the race, and that our present state of civilization is due to the preaching of that gospel, and that in proportion as we as a nation adhere to the elementary principles of that gospel will our nation finally prosper. He is occasionally called on to address the young people's meetings, and his talk on the wrong of taking in vain the name of the Gallileean, King of Men, has been given in a number of different places.
   Mr. Keller was married in Gallia county, Ohio, to Miss Serenna A. Wright, who died near Oakdale, Nebraska, in 1890. Three children were born to them, two of whom survive, Maud, wife of W. T. Johnson, a prominent rancher of Colorado, and Madge, wife of Geo. L. Bosse, who is at the head of a large real estate firm in Denver. Mr. Keller was married the second time at Neligh, Nebraska, in 1902, to Miss Maggie J. Wright. He counts his mother-in-law, who was a native of Virginia, deserving a place among the humble heroines of the world for her lasting devotion to her family and her success in raising her nine children and educating them to lives of usefulness after the death of her husband; her source of income being what could be raised on a poor eighty acre farm in the hills of southern Ohio and her earnings at carding, spinning and weaving the ''jeans'' and ''flannels'' for the clothing of that day. The names of all the heroes are not recorded in the hall of fame.
   Two children were born to the second marriage, Eva, who is a graduate of the Creighton high school and now a teacher in the county, and Earl, who is a student in the Creighton schools. Mrs. Keller is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and an active church worker.
   In politics Mr. Keller is a republican, but refuses to be irrevocably bound by party traditions; he insists that the highest patriotism lies in electing to office the men who will best serve the people rather than a strictly party man, regardless of his fitness for the place. He believes the American saloon is a constant menace to America's manhood, a continual waste of the country's best resources, and a hindrance to national progress.
   He is a member of the Masonic lodge, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

 

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FRANK H. GREEN.

   Frank H. Green, a familiar name to all those residing in Nance county, Nebraska, is one of the truly self-made, successful farmers and business men of that region. He was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, on November 22, 1851, and was the second member in a family of four children born to Leander L. and Marilla Green.
   When our subject was a child of four years the family moved into LaSalle county, Ill., where he

grew to manhood, receiving a common school education. In the fall of 1868, Frank, with his father, mother two brothers and one sister, located in Livingston county, that state, and remained there for a number of years, our subject going alone to Iowa in 1872. During his residence in Livingston county, Illinois, he worked in a general store for about four years, gaining a good knowledge of the mercantile business during that time. Upon locating in Walnut, Iowa, he went into the hardware and implement business, which he carried on successfully up to 1886. At this time he came into Nance county, although he had previously been in the section in company with his brother, O. E. Green, they having been through the state in 1879, and in 1880 the latter purchased a large tract of land and engaged in the real estate business, with an office in Genoa, and our subject was also interested in this enterprise although Iowa remained his residence up to 1886. In the fall of 1883 the two brothers organized the Bank of Genoa, which was operated as a private bank for about twelve years and then merged into a state bank, and in May, 1889, it became known as the First National Bank of Genoa, since which time our subject has sold out his interest in the bank.
   In the spring of 1887, Mr. Green settled on a farm in section eight, township fifteen, range eight, purchasing nineteen hundred acres of land, which has remained his home place until the present time. He has been extensively engaged in farming and stock raising, and has a fine herd of pure breed Galloway cattle which are among the best of their kind in Nebraska, and are shipped into many different parts of the country.
   Mr. Green was supervisor of his district for four years, from 1902 to 1906 inclusive, and was also director of school district number four, for a number of years.
   Mr. Green was married in Harlan, Iowa, on September 24, 1877, to Elida Brown, she being a native of Livingston county, Illinois. They have seven children, named as follows: Gertrude Nora, Charles O., Ethel, William G., Mable, Hazel, Bessie Claire and Frances Elida. Three daughters are living at home, while the others are married and settled in different sections, all being well known and enjoy many friends in their home vicinities.
   The father of our subject died in Genoa, on September 8, 1906, in his eighty-second year, while his widow still resides in that city, and is a charming lady of over seventy-nine who has many friends. Leander and Marilla Green, with a daughter, followed our subject to Nance county in 1887, where the father was engaged in the lumber business for several years, and at his death was survived by the entire family, his being the first death in the Green family circle.

 

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M. A. BORRALL.

   Like many another business man of the northwest, Mr. M. A. Borrall, has been a Nebraskan from his youth up; his father having settled in the state when the lad was in his early teens. He was born in Mahaska county, Iowa, on June 20, 1870. His parents are Henry and Nancy M. Borrall, the latter now residing in Butte, Nebraska, while her husband departed this life in June, 1907.
   The Borrall family came to Cass county, Nebraska, in 1874, but owing to the grasshopper pest which destroyed all their crops, were obliged to leave their farm and return to Iowa, going to Peoria, and remained up to 1882, in June of that year again crossing the Missourri river into Nebraska and locating in Polk county. For several years their time was divided between Osceola and a ranch on Snake creek, a mile north of the falls. In the former place our subject learned the meat business and was engaged in that work until the family moved to Boyd county in the fall of 1891. Here the father and M. A. Borrall filed on homesteads six miles west and one mile north of Butte. In February, 1893, our subject relinquinshed his claim, afterwards leasing the land from the friend who took the relinquishment, and farmed the place for about three years. On leaving the farm he established a freighting business between the inland cities of Fairfax, Naper, Butte and Gross, the railroad towns Stuart and Atkinson on the south, and the river points, Porters and Scalp Creek Landings, on the east. These lines of freight traffic were kept going winter and summer until the fall of 1901, when on acconut of the failing health of Mrs. Borrall, he drove through the country to Oklahoma and Texas, returning the following summer after spending three months in the open, from which she was thought to have received some benefit. He followed freighting another year, then went with his family to Grant's Pass, Oregon, arriving there in August, 1903, and remaining until July 4, 1904, when they started for South Dakota, Mrs. Borrall and the children stopping at Doniphan, Nebraska, where her death occurred, July 12, 1904, at the home of her uncle. Mr. Borrall followed freighting up to 1908, and on January first of that year, purchased the meat business of Brittle & Company, at Butte. He has been very successful in his venture here, and has prospered in this vocation which he had learned early in life but discoutinued for a number of years.
   Mr. Borrall was first married near Butte, in 1893 to Mary A. Caldwell, and they became the parents of four children, namely: Bertha May, Vera Ione, Mary Pearl and Leah Gertrude.
   On February 19, 1908, Mr. Borrall married Miss Grace Taylor, of Butte, daughter of Fred and Della (Wood) Taylor, and of this union a son, Ray, has been born.

   Mr. Borrall is a republican, and always looks to the best interests of his community. He is a good citizen, and enthusiastic about the country of his adoption, believing like many others who have settled in Nebraska, that there is no place where he could be more contented, or where the people are more cordial, courteous and wholesouled. He enjoys a liberal patronage in his business, and the fact that he handles the best goods obtainable, gives him the trade of the best people in the town.

 

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GURNEY R. PITTENGER.

   Gurney R. Pittenger, a prominent business man of Albion, has been prominent in the upbuilding of the commercial and other interests of that city, and also along political lines, since taking up his residence here some fifteen or more years ago.
   Mr. Pittenger was born in Hardin county, Iowa, on January 10, 1862, and was the third child in the family of Thomas and Minerva Pittinger who were the parents of four boys and four girls. In the fall of 1875, the family settled in Red Oak, Iowa, and made that their home for about nine years, then three of the boys and two girls moved to Wayne county, Nebraska, and in the spring of 1894, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Pittenger and three sons came into Boone county, locating on a farm near Albion, where Thomas Pittenger died in 1898. The mother, three daughters and two sons survive, all living in Nebraska, the former making her home with her son, Gurney.
   Gurney Pittenger finished his education in the Red Oak high school and afterwards taught several winter terms of school in Wayne county. He then started in farming and has followed that occupation continuously since that time, also being interested in different lines of business.
   Mr. Pittenger has a wide circle of friends, is prominent among the different secret orders and lodges in his town, and takes an active interest along all lines for the upbuilding of his county and state, also in educational and moral matters. He resides in Albion, having a pleasant modern home, and the family are among the leading citizens of that place.
   Mr. Pittenger is president and manager of the Albion Electric Light Plant, and County Commissioner of Boone county, having been elected to the latter office in the fall of 1904, on the republican ticket and re-elected in 1907 and 1910. With his brother, our subject has always been associated in the different enterprises under the firm name of Pittenger Brothers, carrying on stock and grain farming, also the implement business for many years.
   Our subject was married in Red Oak, Iowa, on October 22, 1886 to Miss Emma C. Heckel, she being a native of Illinois. They have seven children all living at home, named as follows: Myrtle Inez, who is a teacher in the public schools of Albion; Minerva Elizabeth, formerly a teacher but now the wife of C. C. Branson of Clear Lake, Iowa; Thad H., a bookkeeper at the First National Bank of Albion, May, Ione, Clarence and Dorothy, forming a most interesting and charming family group.

 

 

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W. A. JONES.
(Deceased.)

   Among the prominent citizens of Wayne county, may be mentioned the above gentleman, who, at the time of his death had resided here for more than forty years. He was the owner of a fine farm, and after a lifetime of great toil, was enjoying his ease in his comfortable home.
   Mr. Jones was a Canadian, and was born in 1853, his parents being Thomas and Marie Jones. His father was English and his mother Scotch. They came to Canada after their marriage. For the first ten years of our subject's life, the family lived in Canada, but in 1863 they moved to Ohio, where they lived for three years. The following three years were spent in Chicago, but in 1869 they joined the stream of migration going to the west and came to Omaha. They remained here only a month, then drove from that point to Wayne county where the father filed on a quarter-section in section thirty-five, township twenty-five, range four.
   This done, a sod house was first made, which served as a home for about a year, when an adobe house was built. This edifice in its turn has been superseded by a more modern dwelling. Mr. Jones lived on this homestead at the time of his death.
   The first few years were a desperate struggle for them, as was the case with most of the early settlers. It must really have seemed sometimes as if all the forces of Nature were in league against the handful of hardy pioneers. Many became so discouraged that they left their homesteads and returned to the east, if they had means enough to enable them to do so. However, those who remained have been well rewarded for their efforts in developing the boundless resources of this country.
   Amongst the old settlers, Mr. Jones was ever a conspicuous figure because of his untiring industry, his shrewdness and thorough integrity, which won the confidence of all. His part in the development of the community was nobly done, and he was respected and esteemed by all with whom he came in contact. He was counted among the most prosperous farmers in this section of the state.
   In 1892, he was married to Miss Lena Nelson, of Cuming county. Five children were born to them, William, Lloyd, Jesse, Elizabeth and Theodore.
   Mr. Jones died at the Presbyterian hospital at Omaha, on April 7, 1911. He had gone there for

treatment for gall stones, and died the third day after the operation.

 

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F. A. SCHWEDE.

   F. A. Schwede, a leading farmer and stockman of Stanton county, Nebraska, is a native of the county, born on his father's homestead, which has always been his home, in 1876. He is one of three children born to Fred and Augusta Schwede, both born in Germany. The parents spent their early lives in Ommeron, Germany, and in 1867 sailed to the United States, spending eight weeks on the voyage, and landing at New York. The father was a farmer by occupation, and they located first in Wisconsin and spent three years in that state. In 1870, they drove a team to Nebraska, bringing their household goods with them, and purchased the Finske Wright place, on section nineteen, township twenty-four, range one, of Stanton county. They were among the early settlers in that region, and at first had few neighbors and suffered the usual hardships and privations of pioneers, but the father at once commenced improving his estate, and this work has since been continued by him and his son, until it is now one of the best grain and stock farms in the region. At first they were greatly annoyed by the loss of crops which followed the depredations of the grasshopper, but were triumphant over all difficulties, and eventually won a very fair degree of success. Many times in the early days they were obliged to fight prairie fires to preserve their crops, stock and buildings. In those times they used a team of oxen, but the estate now contains many modern farming appliances and contrivances.
   F. A. Schwede is now the owner of the home place, in all, four hundred acres.
   Mr. Schwede received his education in the early country schools of the neighborhood and was reared to farm labor, beginning to help his father as soon as he was old enough to be of service. He is an enterprising and progressive farmer and active in the welfare and progress of the community.
   He was marned in 1898 to Miss Martha Gall, and they are parents of two children, Nelsa and Clarence. Mrs. Schwede is a daughter of Fred and Bertha (Maass) Gall.

 

 

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FRANZ BROCKMOLLER.

   Prominent among the citizens of Antelope county, Nebraska, is Franz Brockmoller, who since the year of 1897 has made this region his home and done his share in the developing of the agricultural resources of this section of the country. Mr. Brockmoller lives in section fourteen, township twenty-six, range eight, Antelope county, where he has built up a fine property and home.
   Mr. Brockmoller is a native of Germany, born in the village of Boetzenberg, province of Mechlenburg, Schuerin, January 8, l856. His father died when our subject was but thirteen years of age. After he grew to his youiig manhood, Mr. Brockmoller served three years in the German army. He also had two brother's who fought in the Franco-Prussian war. On September 30, 1883, he sailed from Hamburg on the steamship ''Harmonia" and after a voyage of thirteen days he landed in New York City and immediately started for the west, arriving in Dodge county, Nebraska, where he worked out on a farm for one year. He then rented for six years, also rented in Washington county for five years. From there he moved to Stanton county, and then from there to Antelope county.
   In the year 1866 Mr. Brockmoller was united in marriage to Miss Anna Femmerling, who is also a native of Oldenburg, Germany, and Mr. and Mrs. Brockmoller are the parents of fourteen children whose names are as follows: Mary, Anna, Freda, Rosa, Dora, Olga, William, Herbert, Louis, Fred, Francis, Edward, Adelia, and Louis. They are a fine family and enjoy the respect and esteem of all who know them.
   In the year of 1897, Mr. Brockmoller came to Antelope county. He rented for three years aud then bought his present farm of two hundred acres, with a splendid grove, of fine orchard of two hundred trees and vineyard. Mr. Brookmoller takes an active interest in all pertaining to the welfare of his community, and has the good will and well wishes of his neighbors and friends.
   Mr. Brockmoller has prospered but has like all others in his vicinity, occasionally met with reverses. In June, l905, a severe hail storm, which passed over this locality, knocked all the shingles off Mr. Brockmoller's house and did quite a little other damage to his buildings and crops. Mr. Brockmoller, having learned to be a butcher in the old country, found it to be of good use to him as he was able to make quite a little extra money during the hard times he experienced after coming west. On January 12, 1888, he was helping some neighbors butcher when the great blizzard of that day came on and he was storm bound and for several days was not able to get home.

 

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ASA B. BISHOP.

   Asa B. Bishop, city marshal of Plainview, was born in Staunton county, Nebraska, September 22, 1871, and is a son of Curtis and Eliza (McFarland) Bishop, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. With the family, he resided two years in Missouri, and his father's death occurring soon after their return to Staunton, the responsibility of the family devolved upon Asa, the eldest of a family of four. Being a dutiful son, Mr. Bishop remained with his widowed mother after the younger sons had left the home nest, and has kept her with him since.

He was the last of the four sons to abandon bachelorhood.
   Mr. Bishop was married in Antelope county, July 1, 1903, to Miss Rena Tolles, bringing his bride to Plainview, where he had established a home the year before. Mrs. Bishop is a daughter of George and Mary (Johnson) Tolles, natives of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, respectively. She was an only child and was born in Mazomanie, Wisconsin, coming with her parents to Nebraska in 1884, by way of Yankton, South Dakota, to where they came by rail and drove thence across the country to Antelope county, where they settled on the homestead where they still reside.
   Mr. and Mrs. Bishop are the parents of three sturdy children: George, Mary and Thomas.
   During the early days, besides suffering seven succesive years from the grasshopper plague, the Bishops lost their entire crop in the notable hailstorm of June, 1890. During the fearful blizzard of January 12, 1888, Mr. Bishop braved the storm to bring his younger brothers home from school, making in safety the trip that in many places cost the lives of those so unfortunate as to be out in the blinding storm.
   Mr. Bishop is now reaping the harvest of his early responsibilities and faithfulness, being a highly respected citizen. He is, in national politics, a republican but in state and local elections is, like most men of the west, independent of party lines, casting his ballot for the best man. He is a member of the American Order of Protection.
   He has been engaged in teaming since moving to Plainview, and in January, 1910, was appointed city marshal to complete the term of W. S. Fisher, resigned.

 

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CHARLES SEEBER.

   Charles Seeber recognized as one of Howard county's most substantial citizens and upright business men, is also alive to the best interests of his fellowmen. He makes his home in Boelus, where with his family he enjoys a fine home and wide circle of friends.
   Mr. Seeber was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, on March 19, 1846. When he was eleven years of age his parents moved to Wisconsin and settled on a farm. He lived at home up to August, 1862, at that time enlisting in Company D, Thirty-third Regiment of Wisconsin Infantry, and served until the end of the war, all of that time being spent under the command of Generals Grant and Sherman. The principal battles, in which he took part were Coldwater, Mississippi, fought on April 19, 1863, Siege of Vicksburg, from May 20th, until its surrender, July 4, 1863, and the engagement at Jackson, Mississippi, July 12, 1863. He was with General Sherman on his Meridian expedition through Mississippi, the Red River expedition, and under General A. J. Smith's command met the enemy in the following hotly contested battles: Fort DeRussy, Pleasant Hill Landing, Clourtieville, Bayou Bouff, Marksville, and Yellow Bayou, Louisiana, including a number of skirmishes during these expeditions. He was also under General Smith at Tupelo, Mississippi, on July 13, 14 and 15, 1864, and in the month of October following, was with General Mower on his march through the swamps and bluffs of Arkansas aud Missouri in pursuit of the rebel General Price. On the 15th and 16th of December, 1864, his regiment was at Nashville, facing the rebel band under General Hood, where they captured six hundred prisoners, then continued the pursuit to Eastport, Mississippi. They also made a raid to Corinth, Mississippi, in Jannary, 1865, and on the 6th of the following month, started for Mobile via Cairo, New Orleans and Dauphine Island. His regiment took an active part in the Siege of the Spanish Fort, in Alabama, and in the reduction of Mobile.
   During our subject's service in the army he traveled over nine thousand miles, of which twenty-four hundred miles was made on foot.
   On August 9, 1865, Mr. Seeber received his honorable discharge and he boasts of the fact that he was never wounded during his career as a soldier. After returning to his home in Wisconsin he followed farming, and was married on January 30, 1867, to Lizzie Mary Burton, a native of Michigan. They settled on a farm in Grant county, Wisconsin, lived on it for about six years, then came to Howard county, Nebraska, homesteading a quarter section, also taking up one hundred and sixty acres of timber. He worked hard and succeeded in building up a good farm in the six years he occupied the place then sold out and purchased over six hundred acres situated one mile south of the town of Boelus, known as the Keystone Stock Farm, which was a splendidly improved and equipped farm, used mostly for stock raising. This Mr. Seeber operated personally up to 1906, when he retired from active farming and removed to Boelus, purchasing a fine home, and is now enjoying the fruits of his early labors. Mrs. Seeber died at the home in Boelus on October 17, 1909.
   Mr. Seeber is a republican politically, and during the years 1889, '90 and '91, served as county commissioner. In the early days he was elected director of school district number twenty, serving for over thirty years, and he is at present chairman of the Boelus school board, which office he has held for several years. In the spring of 1907 he was elected a member of the Boelus city council, serving up to the spring of 1909. He has also held the office of road supervisor for a good many years.
   Mr. and Mrs. Seeber have had twelve children, eight of whom are now living, named as follows: Edward, Henrietta, Mattie, William, Fred, Laura, Lettie and Henry, all married excepting the last two mentioned.
   Mr. Seeber is a prominent member and commander of Canby Post number eight.

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