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he started in business for himself at Sterling, being just twenty-one years old, opening a general merchandise store. He ran this place up to 1903, then sold out and came to Sidney, Cheyenne county, Nebraska. Here he opened up in the same line of business and has built up a good patronage. He has a nice store building with a frontage of 50x135 feet and occupies two floors, carrying a large and complete line of merchandise.

     In 1901 our subject was married to Mary Firee. Mr. Fishman is looked upon as one of the city's substantial and successful business men, and is always active in local affairs promoting the commercial or educational interests. He is a member of the city council, and is now serving in that capacity. In 1907 he was elected mayor of Sidney, and is one of the best public officials the town has ever had, highly esteemed by all.

     Perseverance and integrity are the stepping stones by which many men have reached a success, but of the early settlers in the west these characteristics were required in a greater measure than usually falls to the men of a more settled region. Here they had little incentive to perseverance when their every effort was almost fruitless for so many years, and the blasts of winter or storms and pests of summer destroyed the results of their toil. Those who remained through the pioneer days and witnessed a most radical change in the landscape and conditions are worthy of great praise for their work as developers of the country, and are citizens of whom their fellowmen may feel justly proud. Such a man is Robert S. Carothers, and he now resides in Perkins county, where he has a finely developed farm and valuable estate. A portrait of him will be found on another page.

     Our subject's first dwelling was a sod shanty, and in this he led a bachelor existence up to 1891, then was married to Miss Nellie Coates. She was born in Wisconsin, the family settling in Keith county in 1885, and later her father, C. C. Coates, located in North Platte, where he opened a real estate office. During the construction of the C. B. & Q. Railway through the county Mr. Carothers helped survey the line through Perkins and Chase counties. He spent some time subsequently in Colorado and Kansas in company with surveying parties, roughing it on these trips, and passed through several exciting experiences. At one time near Sterling, Colo., a blizzard struck the camp and blew their tents away, and they had a hard time to save themselves from severe suffering trying to find shelter, for two hours wandering around seeking an abandoned shack in which to pass the time until the storm abated, finally succeeding in locating the shanty and saving themselves from exposure and possible death by freezing.

     In 1893 and '94 our subject met with severe crop losses on his farm and during these times was compelled to work away from home in order to make a living for his family. After these times passed he gradually got ahead, improved his place in good shape and added more land to his original homestead until he became proprietor of a section of good farm and range land, which is supplied with good buildings, including a comfortable dwelling, commodious barn 28 x 54 feet with 14-foot posts, besides sheds, etc. He has 200 acres cultivated and uses the rest as pasture and hayland for a large herd of stock. It will be of interest in this connection to say that in the spring of 1894 our subject hauled hay from near Keystone, on the North Platte river, thirty-five miles away. In the spring of 1886 hay was hauled from the South Platte.

     Mr. and Mrs. Carothers have a family of six children; namely: Roy N., Glen, Rex,

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Fern, Ray and Robert, and their home is one of the pleasant spots to be found in the community.

     Mr. Carothers is a populist. In early days he was actively interested in the Farmers' Alliance and was secretary and treasurer of the Perkins county organization.

      Mr. Carothers relates many incidents of pioneer life that are interesting. On January 12, 1888, there was a school exhibition in the neighborhood, when the blizzard of that date occurred, and the people were compelled to spend the night in the sod house where the exercises took place. Mr. Carothers' father, Robert L. Carothers, was justice of the peace of his neighborhood for ten or twelve years in early days. It is related that when he performed his first marriage ceremony in pioneer times, the bridegroom called him out after the ceremony and asked for a chew of tobacco and told the magistrate that he was financially "strapped" and would have to postpone paying the fee. For years this first marriage fee that Mr. Carothers received was a standing joke in the neighborhood.

     J. S. Hoagland, a prominent resident of North Platte, Nebraska, of the firm of Hoagland & Hoagland, attorneys at law, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1847. He is a son of W. V. F. Hoagland and Sarah L. Hoagland, his father at that time being engaged in the drug business in New York City in partnership with Dr. J. H. Schenk, of Philadelphia, and it was at the latter's request that our subject was named J. Schenk Hoagland.

     In 1857 Mr. Hoagland moved to Bunker Hill, Illinois, and remained there up to 1872, then came to Nebraska, locating at Lincoln. He was educated in Illinois, studying law at Bunker Hill and at Lincoln, Nebraska. In February, 1865, he enlisted in the 152nd Illinois Infantry and served his country as a private for nine months.

     Mr. Hoagland was married in 1868 to Miss Maria L. Waples, of Madison county, Illinois. They have two sons, one of whom, W. V., is in partnership with his father in his law business, and A. B. Hoagland, a prominent merchant of North Platte.

     Mr. Hoagland is a strong Republican. He has been judge of Lincoln county, and was elected a member of the Nebraska State Senate in 1895. He has been the representative of Nebraska to the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows since 1889, and recognized as one of the most faithful and efficient members of this splendid body of representative men. He is a gifted orator and eagerly sought as a speaker on all occasions in the different cities in which they meet by the order itself and also other orders by which the Grand Lodge is entertained.

     Logan county lies just west of Custer and north of Lincoln counties and was organized in 1885 by a soldiers' colony of about three hundred members who settled upon government lands under the homestead and timber culture act of Congress. The colony was organized in 1883 at the office of J. S. Hoagland, then a practicing lawyer in Lincoln, Nebraska. Several veterans of the Civil war designing to enter upon government land consulted with Mr. Hoagland as to where such land could be found. They were advised that such information could be obtained by organized effort at much less expense than if each one attempted to ascertain such information for himself. A date for a meeting was fixed and the Lincoln papers printed a notice that there was to be a soldiers' colony organized at Mr. Hoagland's office at a certain time. At this appointed time there were two hundred and twenty ex-soldiers on hand and joined the organization, each paid in one dollar and a committee of five members was selected to go out and find a good location where government land could be obtained. All railroads offered free transportation to the members of the committee and one-half fare and one-half the regular freight rates for members of the colony. The committee after having carefully examined the country in the northwest, southwest and central western portions made its report to a meeting of the colony called to act upon such report and it was decided almost unanimously to locate in the unorganized territory where Logan county is now situated. The valleys and table lands are very productive and the prosperity of many members of the colony is shown by the comfortable houses, barns, splendid stock, fertile fields and growing trees. The people have prospered without the aid of a railroad as no railroad company has yet constructed any line through this coun-

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ty. Land there is selling from ten to thirty dollars per acre because of its great productiveness. The farmers ship but little grin because of the long haul necessitated in the marketing of their product. Mr. Hoagland, the organizer of the colony, went with his comrades to their new home, procured a patent from the government for his quarter section of land in 1885 and is now one of the leading lawyers in North Platte. Logan county will probably have railroad in the near future and so lands will rapidly increase in value. A daily mail runs between North Platte and Gandy, the county seat of the county, and nearly every resident of the county has his telephone service. The raising of the best breeds of cattle, horses, hogs and sheep is the principal industry. They have good schools and churches and the people are happy even though they do not hear the whistle of the locomotive and the rumble of the railroad trains.

     Among the leading citizens and prominent business men of Holdrege, Nebraska, none occupies a higher position than the gentleman herein named. Mr. Hall has been engaged in the practice of law for the past twenty-five years, and is closely identified with every movement which has been inaugurated for the benefit of his locality, and his name will figure prominently in the history of the region.

     Mr. Hall is a native of Morgan county, Illinois. He studied law at Jacksonville, Illinois, after having received his earlier education in the public schools, and was admitted to the bar in 1884. In that year Mr. Hall located at Holdrege, and at that time there was not a school building, church or a sidewalk in the town. He was the second mayor, elected in 1889, and served one term. In 1898 the population of Holdrege was 1500, and it is now 4000. There are now two ward schools, a high school, eleven churches with many fine residences and altogether it is one of the most up-to-date towns of the state.

     Our subject served five terms as city attorney in the '90's, and also during 1904 and 1905. He has an extended practice throughout this section of the country in all courts of the state, and is recognized everywhere as a man of superior ability and sound judgement.

     In June, 1906, Mr. Hall was appointed postmaster, and is now serving in that capacity, proving a most popular and efficient official.

     The gentleman herein named has for many years been devoted to the interests of his community in public matters, displaying an enterprising spirit and the exercise of good judgement in a manner that commends him to all as a worthy citizen. Mr. Wilbert resides near Ainsworth, Nebraska, where he has a pleasant home and is proprietor of a large farm and ranch, to which he devotes all of his time and attention.

     Mr. Wilbert was born in Pennsylvania in 1847. His father, Israel Wilbert, was of old American stock, a farmer by occupation, who died when our subject was a boy, leaving a family of six children and a widow, who was Elizabeth Eakert, of Pennsylvania Dutch blood. Of these six children, he is now the only one living. His mother, now in her eighty-third year, is living at Dustin, Holt county, Nebraska. When he was thirteen years old he enlisted in the army serving in Gen. Sheridan's cavalry troops for three years and nine months. Was at the battle of Appomattox, Five Forks, and other campaigns, and was present at Lee's surrender, but most of the time was spent in the Shenandoah valley.

     After he left the army he spent one year at home, then traveled through the south for three or four years, and about the year 1870 went to Bismarck, North Dakota, where he scouted for the government, and also hunted and trapped. He took part in all the preliminary surveys of the Northern pacific railway from Bismarck to Musselshell, Montana, and spent five years in that country. He next came to the Niobrara Valley in Holt county, and hunted and trapped for five years, and in the spring of 1881 moved to Brown county before it was organized, where he settled on a homestead in section 13, township 31, range 23. At that time there were only a few ranchers in this county, and the land abounded in wild game which very nearly supplied all his wants, which were few and simple. He built a log house and started to build up a ranch, but for the first few years had a hard time getting along, experiencing many losses in ....

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crops and stock, going through several dry seasons and destructive hail storms. He stuck to the work through all disappointments, and now has a farm of 1,480 acres, of which 650 are cultivated, and he engages in stock raising and ranching. He runs about 150 cattle, thirty-five horses and three hundred and fifty hogs. His place is well improved with good buildings and fences, and he has a very valuable property and is well known throughout this part of the country as a successful and prosperous ranchman and farmer. Mr. Wilbert was married while living in Holt county in 1877, and the wedding was the first ever held in that county. His bride was Miss Martha A. Berry, born in Boonesboro, Iowa, and came to Holt county in 1873 with her parents. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wilbert, namely: Mabel, born in Holt county in 1879, and Hattie, born on the present homestead in 1886. Mr. Wilbert has been prominent in political circles for many years past, and was a strong Peter Cooper man, a greenbacker, later deeply interested in the union labor question and anti-monopolist. He was a member of the Farmers Alliance and supporter of the populist party, always taking sides with the reform parties. He has never held any remunerative office of any kind, but for several years was postmaster at Mabelo, which has since been discontinued. Our subject is a man of superior intelligence and great energy of mind, and a truly self-made man, never having attended an English school. He is among the oldest settlers in Brown county and this part of the state of Nebraska, his nearest neighbor as a pioneer, being ten miles away. His first garden was also ten miles from his house, and the nearest postoffice when he was first married was Paddock, Holt county, Nebraska.

   Walter P. Mann, a prosperous ranchman and worthy citizen of Dawes county, Nebraska, is a man of wide experiences in business pursuits who has met with pronounced success and enjoys a comfortable home and the respect and esteem of a large circle of acquaintances as a result of his integrity and sterling character. Mr. Mann resides in Chadron, where he is engaged in business.

   Mr. Mann was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1869, of American stock. His father, Elias Mann, was a dentist. He married Miss Harriet Ballard, and came with his family to northwestern Missouri when our subject was an infant, settling in Nodaway county at the county seat, which was then Maryville, and there our subject was raised and educated. When he was fifteen years old he ran away from home and came to Dawes county, Nebraska, with a freighting outfit, the party camping out nights and roughing it generally. He then put in ten years on different ranches in Wyoming, working as a cowboy, and saw all that country, including the Dakotas and parts of Montana, making Chadron his home and headquarters during all of the time. He grew familiar with the whole western country, and liked Nebraska better than any part of the west, so finally bought a ranch situated fifteen miles northwest of Chadron which he operated for some time and still owns and personally manages the place.

   Mr. Mann is recognized as one of the leading pioneers of western Nebraska, and has done his full share in building up the region where he chose his home. He has always taken an active interest in every movement that tended to the advancement of the interests of his community, and deserves a first place among those who have helped make this country what it is to-day. In political sentiment he is a Democrat.

   Geo. F. Scott, postmaster and influential merchant of Taylor for the last twenty-four years, coming here in 1884, is a native of Minnesota, and was born near Albert Lea, February 12, 1857. His father, L. T. Scott, was one of the pioneers in Minnesota and was in the state during the Indian massacre. In early life he was a farmer, but, later, turned his attention to banking and the mercantile business. Our subject's mother was Marion Purdy before marriage and was of Scotch descent.

    Geo. F. Scott grew up on a frontier farm and was used to the hard work and the rough life of pioneer life. He came to Nebraska in 1878, locating in Furnas county, where for six years he was engaged in the mercantile business. He then removed to Taylor, where, in company with C. F. Wheeler, he opened a store with a small capital of about $2,000. For twenty-four years Mr. Scott has been successfully carrying on his large business which has increased as the years went by. He is interested in a store at Burwell which was opened in 1891, and the management of that business is in the hands of our subject's nephew, L. A. Howard.

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   Geo. F. Scott was married in 1885 to Miss Della Farrand, a native of Michigan. Her father, A. Farrand, was a pioneer of Furnas county, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Scott have one child, a daughter named Aural.

   Mr. Scott was appointed postmaster of Taylor, in 1885, and has held the position ever since. He has become thoroughly identified with the interests of Taylor, and also of Loup county, and has done his share in building up the prosperity of the community. He has proven eminently successful as a business man and has merited the esteem in which he is held by his fellow citizens.

   Eugene H. Hill, residing in the thriving town of Grant, is well known throughout western Nebraska as a business man of exceptional ability, who has for the past many years been extensively interested in the financial and commercial affairs of the region. He is at present engaged in the real estate business, handling land all over Nebraska and also in Colorado. Mr. Hill was born in Richland county, Wisconsin, June 15, 1862. In the paternal line he is descended from an old eastern family, who resided in Lewis county, New York. Goodwin John Hill, father of our subject, was born in Louis county, New York, in March, 1824, where he was reared on a farm and lived with his parents until he was married in 1843 to Miss Caroline Matilda Hubbard. They emigrated to Wisconsin in the pioneer days of that state, settling in Richland county, where there was born to them three sons and two daughters, the oldest son being Ralph K. Hill, now a resident of Hardy, Nebraska; Mortimer W. Hill, now residing on a farm near Alexandria, Nebraska, and Eugene Hartwell Hill. Mrs. Fannie Stanclift, one of the daughters, passed away in 1886 and the other daughter, Mrs. Lillian Jackson, is now residing in Spokane, Washington. Goodwin J. Hill died March 28, 1884. His wife survived him and passed away July 10, 1899. She was the daughter of William Hubbard, who was a soldier in the war of 1812, and died at the age of ninety-three years. His wife's maiden name was Caroline Elizabeth Bush.

    Our subject was raised in Richland Center to the age of eight years, then the family emigrated to Nebraska, locating in Jefferson county in 1870, driving the entire distance from Wisconsin with a two-horse team and covered wagon. After arriving in Nebraska they settled right among the Indians, living on the old Farrell ranch near Big Sandy River in Jefferson county, and there our subject grew to manhood. In 1883 he left home and started for himself, having previously learned the printer's trade, and followed the work considerably from that time on, employed on different newspapers through eastern Nebraska. He came to Grant in April, 1888, purchased the Grant Enterprise in partnership with L. S. Lacey, and ran this paper for about four years, acting as editor and publisher. This was the first newspaper published in Perkins county. He sold the organ in 1892 and went into the real estate business, also in the stock business in 1898, carrying on both enterprises up to 1903, owning at different times large tracts of land, and running from 4,000 to 6,000 head of sheep on his ranches. He opened his present real estate establishment in 1903, and has been successful in making some large deals, and has induced many settlers to this part of the state. He is at present owner of a ranch containing one thousand one hundred and eighty acres situated four miles north of Grant, and on this place he carries on stock raising and farming, having several hundred head of cattle, horses and hogs.

    Mr. Hill was married December 27, 1889, to Miss E. Alice Sexson, of Grant, Nebraska, who was born on a farm in Center township, Green county, Indiana, October 11, 1856, a daughter of John Granvill and Martha S. (Walker) Sexson. She emigrated with her parents to York, Nebraska, March, 1883, where she taught school until 1886, when she accompanied her parents on their removal to Perkins county, Nebraska, where she again resumed her profession as teacher and was principal of the Grant high school at the time of her marriage to Mr. Hill. Her father was born in Kentucky April 27, 1825, and in early childhood moved to Greene county, Indiana, with his parents, to whom were born sixteen children. This family moved west on horseback all of that distance. He was married in 1850 to Miss Martha S. Walker and passed away March 13, 1896, while his wife died May 15, 1896. She was born in Bledsoe county, Tennessee, November 16, 1823, and moved with her parents to Monroe county, Indiana, when a young girl, where she was reared amid the scenes and environments of pioneer life. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Granvill Sexson were as follows: Mary Abigail, who was born in 1851 and died May, 1852; Joseph Joel was born January 4, 1854, and is employed in the mail

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service running from Hastings to Omaha: E. Alice was born October 11, 1856; Edward Hanigan and Edgar Harris were born June 3, 1858. Edward, who lived in Greeley, Colorado, died January 6, 1899. Edgar served in the capacity of county treasurer of Perkins county, Nebraska, two terms, but is at present engaged in ranch business; Rebecca Cornelia was born August 2, 1860, is engaged in the millinery business in Grant; Viola Florence was born May 9, 1862, died January 26, 1890; Carol Speed was born August 11, 1864, engaged in farming and stockraising in Perkins county, Nebraska; John Granville, Jr., was born August 9, 1867.

   Mr. and Mrs. Hill have become the parents of a son, Eugene Harold, born August 11, 1893. Mr. Hill was made a Mason in Plumb Lodge No. 186, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in 1889 and is now a member of Ogallala Lodge, Ogallala, Nebraska. He and his family are members of the First Methodist Episcopal church, of Grant, Nebraska.

   Henry J. Lowe, a leading business man of Mullen, Nebraska, has been closely identified with the development of Hooker county for many years past. He is proprietor of the leading general store in that town, carrying a large line of merchandise, lumber, coal and farm machinery, and enjoys a good trade from the surrounding country. Mr. Lowe is a man of much enterprise, and no one is more highly esteemed as a worthy and deserving citizen than the gentleman above named.

   Mr. Lowe was born at Cambridgeshire, England, in 1861. His father, Henry, Sr., was a carpenter by trade, and came to America in 1872 with his family, settling in Marshall Village, Michigan, where our subject grew to manhood. At the age of seventeen he left home and emigrated to Iowa, remaining there but a short time, then determined to go farther west, traveling by team and covered wagon, and finally settling in Goodland, Sherman county, Kansas, landing at that place in March of 1885. He settled on a pre-emption and later took a homestead, and started to build up a home. During that year the Indians had begun troubling the settlers, and while they were considered extremely dangerous, our subject stayed on just the same, spending in all ten years in that region, and succeeded in establishing a good ranch and home.

    Mr. Lowe was married there in 1889 to Mary Kudrua, whose parents were early settlers in that state, and she grew up there. The young couple began on a small scale and went through the usual pioneer experiences, and lived in a dugout the first six month, working faithfully to accumulate a comfortable home, but, in 1894 they, with many other settlers, left the region on account of the hard times and unfavorable conditions. They came to Hooker county, Nebraska, settling on a ranch situated ten miles west of Mullen, and after living on the place for a year traded a bunch of horses for a stock of merchandise valued at $500, which was his start in the business world. He put in a large line, and constantly extended his patronage throughout the county, and is now considered one of the leading merchants of his county, his trade at the present time amounting to $50,000 per year. He has a handsome and modern building, equipped with the most complete line of goods in this part of the state, and his floor space covers an area 25x60 feet, containing his smaller goods, while the shed, 14x70 feet, is used for flour and other goods. The machinery and lumber occupy a half block west and adjoining the main store. The upper floor of his store is used as a town hall.

    Besides his mercantile business Mr. Lowe owns a fine ranch situated three miles northeast of Mullen, on which he runs from 700 to 800 head of cattle and about 125 horses, also 700 sheep, and he personally superintends the operation of this extensive ranch.

    Mr. Lowe's family consists of himself, wife and two children - Lewis, aged seventeen years, and Elliot, aged fifteen years. They have a beautiful home, and are well liked by all with whom they come in contact, occupying a foremost place in the social life of the town.

    Mr. Lowe is a stanch Republican in political views, and was county treasurer for four years. He was appointed postmaster at Mullen, and held that office for eight years.

   J. W. Jackson, of Loomis, is one of the largest landowners of Phelps county, Nebraska, being proprietor of two thousand one hundred and eighty acres, a part of which is located very near Holdrege and the balance near Loomis, all of which is improved land. Mr. Jackson is one of the progressive and up-to-date agriculturists of this region, and it is

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through his good management and enterprising spirit that he has reached the success he now enjoys. A portrait of him is presented on another page of this work.

   He first came to Nebraska in 1884 and settled in Phelps, section 3, Laird township. In 1884 he bought this land in Laird township, having $2,500 capital, which was the proceeds of a fifty-acre farm near Lincoln, Illinois. The following year he built and operated the first store at Loomis, the railway having made that a station. He also petitioned for a postoffice, and was appointed the first postmaster, holding that office for nine years. From 1893 to 1901 he was engaged in the lumber business with one August E. Anderson, and they also put up the first grist mill and elevator at Loomis, with a capacity of fifty-five thousand bushels, the building costing thirty thousand dollars. He has since sold out his interest in this business.

   For four years he operated a general store at Loomis with an eight thousand dollar stock of goods, and during the dry years when so many became discouraged he went right on buying farms and farming with success. In those years he grew mostly rye and had big crops. At that time land in that vicinity was worth from fifteen dollars to twenty dollars per acre, and the same land is now worth sixty to one hundred dollars per acre, and he is still buying Phelps county land at these increased prices. Mr. Jackson rents out his land in three hundred and twenty-acre farms, and thus, at one outlay, has better buildings and conveniences, giving his tenants a chance to do well and remain with him for several years. He believes in grain raising and only keeps stock enough for farming and domestic purposes. His annual grain crop is about fifty thousand bushels, which is his one-third interest in the farms rented.

    Mr. Jackson is an authority on farming lands all over the west. He has investigated farming lands with a practiced eye all over Texas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Colorado, Kansas, etc., and considers western Nebraska the best of all. The soil here is very productive and can raise any kind of grain if properly tilled and cared for. His idea is to cultivate and keep cultivating the surface of the land, keeping it level; if allowed to become ridged up it willl not hold moisture in dry seasons. In 1889 he bought a farm, broke it up and put in a crop of wheat, and the first year's crop paid for the land. Then came on a dry spell, and while other farmers were sticking to wheat and getting nothing out of it he planted rye and got a yield of thirty-five bushels to the acre, and kept at this, keeping the land absolutely level by harrowing and keeping the ground floated down, and his opinion is that this country will stand dry and wet spells better than any place he knows of. He advocates plowing under cornstalks, as they hold the moisture, whereas stubble should be burned off and not plowed under, as this tends to make the ground dry and the burning also kills all insects of wheat and oat stubble. As an example, plant trees with cornstalks or any rubbish under them and they will grow much better, as the ground is kept moist.

    In 1892 Mr. Jackson erected a fine farm residence in which he and his family lived up to the fall of 1906, and he also owns considerable property in the town of Holdrege. He was married in 1872 to Miss Annie Bruner. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have a family of seven children, namely; Alfred C., of Holdrege; Albert, deceased; Andrew and Loda, Ada, Nellie and Lina. The younger children are all attending school.

   Prominent among Cheyenne county's worthy citizens is the gentleman above mentioned, as he has been largely instrumental in bringing about the present financial and commercial prosperity. Mr. Gapen located in this county in 1887, and since that time has done his full share in building up the section in a business way, giving liberally of his time and money to every movement which tended to improve conditions here. Cheyenne county is free of all debt and everything is run on a cash basis, and to Mr. Gapen great credit is due for this state of affairs. He resides in Sidney, where he is engaged in the practice of law, and his clientage (sic) extends throughout Cheyenne and the adjoining counties.

   Mr. Gapen was born in Wayesburg, Pennsylvania, September 19, 1863. His father was William E. Gapen, a prominent attorney, and judge of the municipal court at Bloomington, Illinois, where the family moved when our subject was three years of age. William E. Gapen was a delegate at the first convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President of the United States, and also a delegate to the national convention nominating James A. Garfield. He was well known all

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over the country, and was a college mate of James G. Blaine. He married Miss Helen Minor, also a native of Pennsylvania. Henry Gapen grew to manhood in Illinois, receiving a common school education, and after leaving school he began studying law in his spare hours with his father. In the fall of 1885 he came west, locating in Deadwood, South Dakota, where he took a position as clerk in the government land office, being obliged to travel from Chadron, Nebraska, to Deadwood by stage through a perfectly wild and unsettled country. He remained at Deadwood until the spring of 1887, then came to Sidney in June of that year, where he had secured the position of chief clerk in the government land office, which was opened in July, 1887. Here he served for seven years, then began the practice of law, and in the fall of 1895 was elected to the office of county attorney, and has been re-elected for four successive terms, at present serving his fifth term in that capacity. He has done a general law and land business, and has stumped and canvassed Cheyenne county many times in different political campaigns. He is recognized as one of the leading old-timers and foremost barristers of this section of the country. and enjoys an enviable reputation as a business man and good citizen. Politically he is a Republican.

   Charles G. Elmore, a leading physician and surgeon of Chadron, Nebraska, is an exceedingly proficient member of his profession and has an extensive practice throughout Dawes and the adjoining counties. He is a man of keenest perception and superior ability, and has gained an enviable reputation by his strict attention to his work and for his unfailing sympathy and aid in times of need to his patrons.

   Dr. Elmore was born in Alamo, Montgomery county, Indiana, in 1858, of American stock, Scotch-Irish descent. His father was a merchant and farmer, and our subject was reared in the state of his birth, attending the academy at Alamo, from which he was graduated at the age of twenty. He immediately began the study of medicine, devoting three years to this work at Crawfordsville, and also attending the medical department of Butler University at Indianapolis for two years. He remained in the vicinity of the latter place and practiced for a time, then returned to school, taking a course of study at the University of Tennessee, and graduated from that institution in 1887. In that year he came to Nebraska, locating at Gordon, where he opened an office and built up a good practice through that region. He constantly kept up his studies and received a diploma from the New York Polyclinic School, this being post-graduate work, and he is considered one of the best read men in the profession. He also has attended John Hopkins University and done post-graduate work in Chicago. When he first settled in Gordon, that now thriving town was a regular "wild west" town, and he took an active part in building up the place and was one of the pioneers of the region, his practice in those days extending all through that section of the country, covering Pine Ridge Reservation and for many miles in each direction.

   Dr. Elmore came to Chadron in 1896 and opened an office, which he has maintained ever since, enjoying a good practice and an enviable reputation as the leading physician of the county. He has been coroner of Dawes county for a number of years; surgeon for the C. & N. W. Railway, and the United States pension examiner for years at this point.

   W. L. Black, residing in Prairie township, Phelps county, farmer, stock shipper and dealer in Jersey Red Duroc hogs, pure-bred, is one of the leading stockmen of this locality. He is an authority on this subject, and has made a pronounced success since he has been engaged in the work.

   Mr. Black is a native of Illinois. His father, John L. Black, was born in Schuyler county, Illinois, and a sketch of his brother, Richard S., appears in this volume. The father was a soldier in an Illinois regiment during the Civil war and lost his life in defense of the Union. Our subject came to Phelps county in March, 1897, purchasing a farm of eighty acres adjoining the town of Holdrege and another of seventy-six acres near by. The places were supplied with good buildings, and he paid ninety dollars per acre for the land containing eighty acres and one hundred for other property, and it is worth much more today. Prior to this he lived in Harlan county for nine years, where he farmed over eight hundred acres, most of it in small grain and corn. There he fed cattle and hogs during the winters, and made a success of the business. In 1906 he sold the land, consisting of two hundred and ninety acres, for sixteen thousand dol-

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