member of the state board of examiners, and, beginning in 1891, he creditably filled this position for five years. Mr. Haller was married at Blair, November 24, 1885, and has two children. In politics Mr. Haller is a staunch republican. In the state legislature, sessions of 1893 and 1895, he represented his home county, Washington, comprising the eleventh representative district. His popularity with the general public is emphatically attested by the gratifying majorities by which he has been selected in every instance where he has asked the people for support. Of the fraternal organizations, he has attached himself to none except the Masonic order. Senator Haller is a member of the following committees: State prison, medical societies, manufactures and commerce, and claims.

ON. JOHN W. HEAPY represents the sixteenth senatorial district, consisting of the counties of Buffalo and Sherman, with a population of about 27,000. He was born November 27, 1854, in Huron county, Province of Ontario, Canada. His parents were pioneers and took part in the reclamation of the unbroken forests, laying the foundations for that now

prosperous country. At the age of eighteen be began work at the carpenter's trade and continued in that business until 1878, when he married Miss Grace, the second daughter of John Hill, Esq., one of the most respected and well-to-do farmers in Grey township, Ontario. Their honeymoon was spent on an emigration trip to Nebraska. They settled on a homestead in Sherman county, and began housekeeping in a little sod-house. By dint of perseverance, strict integrity, and economy, Mr. Heapy has established for himself and his family a comfortable home and a reputation of the highest character with the people of his district. There are five children in the senator's family, three boys and two girls. For eighteen years he has been actively engaged in farming and stock raising. He served three consecutive terms as county supervisor, and was twice elected chairman of the board. He was nominated for state senator by the populist convention in Ravenna last September, and was elected by a handsome majority. Senator Heapy is chairman of the committee on live stock and grazing, and a member of the committees on public lands and buildings, agriculture, highways, bridges, and ferries, internal improvements, counties and county boundaries, and miscellaneous subjects.

ON. EDWARD E. HOWELL, democratic senator from Douglas county, was born in Canada in 1860 and came to Omaha when a mere boy, and has resided there for more than thirty years. He received a common school education and started in life for himself as wholesale and retail dealer in coal, succeeding to the business of his father. His rank in the commercial community is unquestioned as to ability, integrity, and competence. In 1890 he was elected to the Omaha city council and became at once a leader in that body. In 1893 he was re-elected and became president of the council, though his party was in the minority. He was active and earnest in advocating retrenchment and economy in public expenditures. The council expressed its unanimous appreciation of his courtesy and fairness as a presiding officer, upon his retiring. He has from the beginning been one of the foremost advocates and promoters of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition. In the senate he is universally recognized as a man of convictions and liberal independence. He has ably served as chairman of the committee on municipal affairs, and has also discharged with credit his duties as a member of the committees on public lands and buildings, miscellaneous corporations, miscellaneous subjects, soldiers' home, and claims.

HE contest which resulted in the seating of Hon. John Jeffcoat as one of the senators from Douglas county was one of the most important political episodes in the history of the legislature of 1897. Mr. Jeffcoat was born February 22, 1836, on a farm in Clark county, Illinois. His ancestors came from England and settled at Shawneetown, Illinois Territory, in 1816, later removing to Will county, where the boy, who is now senator from Douglas county, secured his education in the public schools, supplemented by a two years' term in a private academy at Kankakee. In 1858 he made an adventurous trip across the plains to the Pacific coast. He entered the service of the government and drove a team with a large train to Camp Floyd, near the present site of Salt Lake City. Returning from his Pacific coast trip, he sailed for New York by way of Panama, and reached Washington in time to witness the first inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. August 12, 1862 he was commissioned as second lieutenant of Company B, 113th Illinois Volunteers, and was twice afterwards promoted, becoming captain of his company and assistant provost marshal at Memphis, Tennessee, from July, 1864, to the close of the war. After the war he located in Omaha in 1865 and engaged in freighting and contract-