first eleven years of his life was spent. In 1856 the family removed to New Port, Wisconsin where he received a common school education supplemented with two terms in the preparatory department of Western Reserve College Ohio, and a six months' course in a business college in Milwaukee. He read law while clerking in a store and in the office of John H. Dawes, and was admitted to the bar in January. 1871. That same year he located at Crete, Nebraska and devoted himself to mercantile pursuits for six years. In 1877 he opened a law office. He was a member of a constitutional convention in 1875; in 1876 a state senator from Saline County; for six years chairman of the Republican state central committee; from 1880 to 1884 he served as member of the national republican committee; was a trustee and secretary of Doane college for seventeen years and served as governor from January 4, 1883 to January 6, 1887.

      JOHN M. THAYER settled in Omaha, Nebraska, in the fall of 1854, a few months after the territorial organization. He was born in Bellingham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts January 24, 1820. He possessed a good education and belonged to the legal profession. In 1857 and 1859 he was a candidate for congress and in 1860 was elected to the territorial council. In 1867 he entered the United States Senate for a term of four years and in 1875 was appointed governor of Wyoming Territory. From 1861 to 1865 he was Colonel and Brigadier General of the United States Volunteers. In 1886, was the Department Commander of the G. A. R. in Nebraska. As governor, he entered upon his duties in January 1887 and served four years in that capacity.

      JAMES E. BOYD was born in Tyrone, Ireland, in 1834, whence he came to Ohio, in 1844 and thence to Nebraska in 1856. He superintended a store at Kearney for a time and as a railroad contractor graded three hundred miles of Union Pacific track, He returned to Omaha in 1868 and organized the Northwestern railroad to Blair, building it and acting as its president. He was also engaged in cattle grazing in western Nebraska and Wyoming Since 1872 he has been banker and pork packer. He served as governor of Nebraska for one term, 1891 to 1893, having been elected by the Democrats. Before his election as governor he had been a member of the first State Legislature in 1866 and of two different constitutional conventions. He also served four years as Mayor of Omaha.

      LORENZO CROUNSE was born in Schoharie County, New York, January, 1834. He was admitted to the bar in 1856 and was married in 1860. In 1861 he became Captain of Battery K, First New York Light Artillery and was wounded at Cedar Mountain in 1862 and in the same year resigned and resumed practice till 1864, when he came to Rulo, Richardson County, Nebraska. From 1873 to 1877 he was a representative in congress and for six years prior to his election had been Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. In 1891 and 1892 he was Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury and January 13, 1893 delivered his inaugural address as governor of Nebraska.

      SILAS ALEXANDER HOLCOMB was born on a farm in Gibson County, Indiana, in 1858. He worked on the farm in summer and attended district school in winter, and at the early age of seventeen began to teach school. His father died in 1878, leaving Silas at the head of the family, and in 1879, with the family he came to Hamilton County, Nebraska, where after working on the farm a year, he entered the law office of Thummel & Platt, at Grand Island, to fit himself for the bar. After the usual two years reading he was admitted to practice, and in 1891 was elected judge of the Twelfth Judicial District of Nebraska. In 1894 he was elected Governor of Nebraska and reelected in 1896. He was married in 1882 to Miss Martha Alice Brinson, of Cass County, and in 1883 they removed to Broken Bow, where he practiced law until his election to the district bench in 1891.

      WILLIAM A. POYNTER was born in 1848 at Eureka, Illinois, where he received his education, graduating from Eureka College in 1867. W. C. Poynter, his father, was a minister. At Eureka, Illinois, in 1869, Mr. Poynter was married to Miss Maria McCorkle. They have one son, Dr. C. W. M. Poynter of Lincoln, Nebraska, and a daughter, Miss Josephine Poynter, a graduate of the University Conservatory of Music. He came to Nebraska from Illinois in 1878 and is at present a resident of Lincoln. Mr. Poynter was a member of the Nebraska Legislature in 1885 and in 1891, was President of the State Senate. He was Vice President of the Nebraska State Commission for the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in 1898 and that same year was elected Governor of Nebraska, serving one term.

     EZRA SAVAGE, the twelfth governor of Nebraska, was elected Lieutenant Governor in

1900. Upon the resignation of Governor Dietrich in March, 1901 to accept the United States Senatorship, Governor Savage assumed the duties of the chief executive of Nebraska. His native state is Indiana and the year of his birth is 1842. During the war of the Rebellion he served as soldier and scout under Generals Grant and Sherman. He was a member of the Seventeenth Nebraska Legislature and was the first Mayor of South Omaha. His term of office expired January 5, 1903.

     JOHN H. MICKEY, the thirteenth governor of Nebraska, took the oath of office January 5, 1903. He was born September 30, 1845 near Burlington, Iowa, and received his education in that state in the public schools and at the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. He enlisted in Company D, Eighth Iowa Volunteer Cavalry in 1863 and served until the close of the war. September, 1868 found him in Polk County, Nebraska, among the earliest settlers of the county. Since 1879 he has been engaged in banking and also has farming and ranching interests. For ten years he was treasurer of Polk County and in 1881 and 1882 was a member of the House of Representatives in the State Legislature.

State Officials

Geo W. Marsh     E. O. McGilton     Frank N. Prout
W. K. Fowler     Peter Mortensen     Geo. D. Follmer     Chas. Weston

STATE OFFICERS.

     FRANK N. PROUT was born in New Jersey in 1852 and was educated in Illinois, where he practiced law for six years. In 1881 he came to Nebraska and located at Blue Springs where he was City Attorney for seven years. Then he removed to Beatrice, where he held the same position two years. In 1898 he was elected Senator to the Nebraska State Legislature and served on two committees. He is now serving his second term as Attorney General and his nomination in 1902 was unanimous.

     CHARLES WESTON, Auditor of Public Accounts, was born July 4, 1853. When a boy he came to Illinois and graduated from the

University of Illinois in 1876. After teaching school for two years he entered upon the study of law and was admitted to the bar in Illinois in 1879 and practiced for five years in Chicago. After spending two years in Washington Territory, he came to Nebraska in 1886, locating at Hay Springs, where he engaged in the mercantile and banking business, having been president of the Northwestern State Bank. In politics he has always been a Republican and was a regent of the State University from 1894 to 1900. In 1900 he was elected State Auditor and re-elected in 1902.

      WILLIAM K. FOWLER, Superintendent of Public Instruction, was born in 1864, in New Jersey of Scotch parentage. He graduated from the New York City public schools and entered the College of the City of New York sixth in rank out of nearly 1,200 applicants. In the spring of 1883 he came to Nebraska and located in Dodge County, where he began teaching school; two years later he spent a year in study at Monmouth College, Illinois; while yet twenty-one years of age he was Principal of Schools at Scribner, Nebraska and in 1888 visited Europe, taking a special course in the University of Edinburgh. He was editor and publisher of the Scribner News and North Bend Argus for a short time and again assumed the position of Principal of Schools at Scribner for three years. He was then made Superintendent of the Blair City schools. In 1889 he was married to Miss Ada Parker of Scribner and they have two sons and two daughters. Mr. Fowler was elected State Superintendent in 1900 and was re-elected in 1902.

      PETER MORTENSEN, Treasurer of the State of Nebraska, is a native of Denmark, born October 8, 1844. He came to America in 1870 and after remaining in Missouri for a short time, commenced farming in Valley County, Nebraska, in 1872. From 1875 to 1884 he was County Treasurer of Valley County; was assistant Cashier and then president of the First National bank, and one of the stockholders in the Woodberry Milling Company at Ord, Nebraska. He is an extensive real estate owner and gives much attention to agriculture and live stock. lie was married in 1878 to Jennie Williams of Illinois, and has one son.

      GEORGE W. MARSH was born of Pennsylvania Dutch parentage in 1852. At the time of his birth his parents were living in Missouri and seven years later the family removed to Nebraska, being one of the early settlers of the state. He attended the State Normal School two years and taught school and farmed until 1884. He served two terms as County Clerk and two terms as County Treasurer, after which he engaged in the mercantile business, which he disposed of and then became part owner and editor of the Falls City Journal. He is now serving his second term as Secretary of State, having been elected in 1900 and reelected in 1902.

      GEORGE D. FOLLMER, having served his second term as Commissioner of Public Lands and Buildings of Nebraska, was one of the early settlers of Nuckolls County, having located there on a homestead in 1871, where he was engaged in farming and stock raising. lie is largely interested in real estate. Pennsylvania is his birth place and the date 1844. He was elected to his first term in 1900 and re-elected in 1902.

     EDMUND G. M'GILTON was born in Wisconsin, in 1859. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1883 and later graduated from the law department of that institution. In 1888 he came to Omaha, Nebraska, where he has practiced law ever since. At first he was in partnership with H. P. Stoddard, later with Cavanaugh and Thomas, and then with McCabe and Elmer, after which he attended to his practice alone, he never held a city or county office until elected Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska, which position he is holding at present. He was married in 1889 and has one daughter. His father was one of the pioneers of Wisconsin and his mother was descended from an old New England family, founded by Edmund Burke of Massachusetts, who was born about 1640.