ers William and Thomas. From Mendota they made their way by wagons to the mountains, and arrived in Gilpin County, Col., seven weeks later, where our subject engaged in mining and prospecting. From the first he realized very good results, but the latter incurring heavy expenditures rather offset his profits. He, however saved some money, and in 1870, seeking once more the bounds of civilization came to this county, and located upon the land which he now occupies. It was then in an uncultivated state, and two years passed away before he succeeded in raising any crops. In 1874-75 he suffered like his neighbors from grasshoppers, chink bags and drouth, but the men of those days seemed to possess more than ordinary courage and perseverance, and Mr. Weatherhogg was not lacking in any of these qualities.
   Mr. Weatherhogg contracted a second marriage, with Miss Nina Conger, in Bureau County, Ill. Her parents, Calvin and Aranda (Horton) Conger, were natives of Syracuse, N. Y., and are now residing in Illinois.

ON. JAMES HARRIS MASTERS, the pioneer nurseryman of Nebraska. occupies an honorable place among the able, energetic and enterprising men who reclaimed this part of the country from the "Great American Desert," and helped to give it its present proud position among its sister States as a great and prosperous commonwealth, whose wonderful growth and development have excited the marvel and admiration of the world. Mr. Masters came here in December, 1854, shortly after Nebraska had been organized as a Territory, and since that time he has been closely identified with its best interests.
   He engaged first at his trade as carpenter, and worked on the second brick building ever erected in Nebraska City. The Territory was at that time a reservation of the Indians, and there were but very few white inhabitants in any part of it, it being a wild, unsettled Country, the hunting-ground of the red men, where they chased the buffaloes, the deer, antelopes and other wild game. In 1854 he bought a claim which is included in his present farm, the northeast quarter of section 21, Four Mile Precinct, three miles from the court-house in Nebraska City, and as soon as the land came into the market in 1857 he entered it at the land-office in Nebraska City. In March, 1855, he commenced to remove his fruit trees from his nursery in Atchison County, Mo., and on the 16th of the month set out the first apple trees ever planted in the South Platte country, and, doubtless, the first in Nebraska. At that time his sales were few and slow, as the settlers were not many in numbers and were scattering, and their financial condition was such that they were unable to buy trees; but he gradually established his business on a sure foundation, his trade increased and extended further West, and in after years became very profitable, so that he became one of the leading nurserymen of the State. He is now closing out his nursery business. He is a prominent member of the State Horticultural Society, which was organized at the first Territorial Fair which was held in Otoe County in 1864. He holds a life membership in the society, and was its first President, serving in that capacity for eight years, and it is largely due to his zeal, influence and rare judgment that it has proved such a valuable auxiliary to the agricultural interests of Nebraska. His aid and counsel have been sought in the administration of public affairs, and as a member of the State Legislature in 1872, when he served as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, and of the committee that had charge of the railway and public land interests of the State, the ripe wisdom and sound common sense that characterized his views on important questions favorably impressed his fellow legislators, and bore much weight in their decisions.
   Mr. Masters was born Aug. 15, 1819, in Warren County, Ky., ten miles from Bowling Green, and four miles south of Shakertown. His father, Richard C. Masters, was born in Orange County, N. Y., and his grandfather, Richard Masters, was a native of England, and was there reared and married to a Miss Campbell, a native of Scotland. They came to America in Colonial times, and with them a brother, and settled in New Jersey. The grandfather of our subject lived in that State for a time, and then moved to Orange County, N. Y., and was

a pioneer there. At the breaking out of the Revolution he immediately entered into the service of the Colonists, and throughout the entire conflict was an active and efficient soldier. He was a bearer of dispatches, and received for his pay continental script, which depreciated until it was of no value. He was a wagon-maker, and had a shop on his farm in which he did repairs when not engaged in agricultural pursuits. Directly after the war he removed to Virginia, but it is not known where he first located in that State. He subsequently settled in Greenbrier County, where he had bought a tract of land. In 1808 he left Virginia for Kentucky, the removal being made with teams, and he became a pioneer of Warren County. He was quite well along in years, and made his home in that State with his son Charles until his death.
   The father of our subject was a young man when his parents went to Virginia, and he accompanied them, and there met and married Agnes Cochran, a native of the State. He learned the trade of wagon-maker from his father, and removed with him to Kentucky in 1808. He bought a tract of land in Warren County on which was a log cabin, and in that humble dwelling the subject of this sketch was born. There were a few acres of the land broken, and Mr. Masters erected a log building for a shop, and worked at his trade in connection with farming. The life that he and his family led there was the most primitive imaginable, as they were pioneers in a pioneer country. The mother had to do her cooking by the fireplace as she had no stove, and she used to spin and weave wool, cotton and flax, carding all the wool and cotton by hand, and for years she made all the cloth used in the family, to say nothing of making it up into clothes. In 1828 the father of our subject rented his place, and removed to Illinois, his family and household goods being conveyed in two wagons drawn by two yokes of oxen and one pair of horses. He settled at Springfield, Sangamon County, which was then only a small village, before the location of the capital there. He entered eighty acres of Government land, which is now included within the city limits. He built a log house, and resided there until 1835, when he sold and moved to Bureau County, Ill., and was a pioneer there, settling nine miles northeast of Princeton, where he made a claim, and as soon as the Government threw the land on the market, entered it at the land-office in Galena. There were then no railways in the State, and Chicago, 110 miles distant, was the nearest market. Mr. Masters improved a farm, and resided on it until 1853, and then made his home with his son, a few miles distant, until 1860, when he removed to Minnesota, and died at Waterford in that State, in the fall of 1861, at the home of his son Robert . Thus, at a ripe old age, after an honorable and useful life, he was gathered to his fathers. His amiable and devoted wife had preceded him in death, in 1856, at their home in Princeton, Ill. There were nine children born of their marriage, of whom the following six grew to maturity: Robert, John; Elvina, wife of T. J. Cole; our subject; Archer C. and William H.
   James Masters, of whom we write, was nine years old when his parents moved to Illinois, and remembers well the incidents of the journey, and of the pioneer life there. He worked in the shop with his father, and having a natural aptitude for mechanics became very handy with tools, and at the age of eighteen commenced to learn the carpenter's trade, which he followed in Illinois until 1853. In that year he moved to Atchison County, Mo., his intention being to cross the river to Nebraska (which at that time was an unorganized Territory and an Indian reservation) as soon as the Indian titles to the land should be abrogated by the Government, and start a nursery. So during his residence in Atchison County, Mo., he grew seedlings and root grafts for that purpose, and in December, 1854, as before stated, came to Nebraska City to make his future home in Otoe County, and we have already noted how he has prospered in his undertakings.
   Mr. Masters has been three times married: First in 1844, April 10, to Miss Ann E. Pierce, who was born in New Hampshire, Sept. 27, 1826, and died Oct. 19, 1846, leaving one child, Abbie E., now the wife of William Harrison Wilson, of Lincoln. The second marriage of our subject was to Elizabeth Keiser, July 4, 1847. She was born May 28, 1825, and died June 9, 1861. Four children were born of that union three of whom are now living, namely: