Frederic Babcock
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| 588 | The History of Platte County Nebraska |
Nebraska, March 29, 1923. After his graduation from high school in Los Angeles, he was enrolled at the Colorado A. and M. College, at Fort Collins, where he was graduated.
During World War II, he served in the Veterinary Corps of the United States Army with the rank of captain.
Following his discharge from service, he was enrolled in the medical school at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, from which he was graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree. He is a member of the national Nu Sigma Nu Medical Fraternity.
On October 8, 1945, Doctor James Edwin Anderson was married to Nancy Anderson, of Fort Collins, Colorado. They established their home in Los Angeles, California.
Charles Jamison Anderson was born on September 9, 1927, in Norfolk, Nebraska. After finishing Fairfax High School, in Los Angeles, he served in the United States Navy.
Following his discharge from the Navy, he was enrolled at the Los Angeles City College, where he was graduated with a degree in Business Administration, and holds membership in the Los Angeles chapter of the Kappa Tau Delta Fraternity.
In 1949 he was a representative of the American Can Company, with offices in Los Angeles.
Alfred W. Angell, son of Henry and Anna Krueger Angell, was born at Ulysses, Nebraska, on May 26, 1903. His father was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in September, 1858, and his mother was born in Brandenburg, Germany, October 22, 1873. After their marriage, his parents established a home near Ulysses, Nebraska, where Henry Angell was engaged in farming. He later returned to Rhode Island, where he died, June 29, 1929.
Alfred W. Angell attended the Ulysses schools, and after graduation from the Ulysses High School, he enrolled at the University of Nebraska, at Lincoln, where he spent two years in study. He then engaged in farming until 1931, when he came to Columbus. Here, he worked on the railroad for a time, before he entered the grocery business. From 1934-1949 he owned and managed the Angell Grocery, at 1823 Fifteenth Street.
Mr. Angell and Henrietta Luchsinger, daughter of Peter F. and Anna lossi Luchsinger, of Columbus, were married on July 18, 1931. After their marriage, they established their home in Columbus. Mr. and Mrs. Angell have two children: Rita Anne, who is enrolled at Kramer High School, and Richard, born April 13, 1935.
The Alfred Angells are members of the Evangelical Protestant Church in Columbus. Mrs. Angell has been active in Parent-Teachers Association and Girl Scout work, and is a member of the Columbus Women's Club. Mr. Angell is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and is affiliated with the Democratic Party.
Edward Arndt, son of the pioneer farmer and land owner, Frederick William Arndt, was born at his father's home in Platte County, October 10, 1875. Frederick Arndt was born in Germany, January 16, 1840, and emigrated from Berlin to Platte County, in 1873. He homesteaded on eighty acres of virgin land, which he purchased for four dollars an acre. Over a period of years, he purchased additional lands, ranging in price from nineteen to seventy-three dollars an acre, which increased his holdings to seven hundred acres. Some of this land is still farmed by his son. He died in Platte Center, in 1904. His wife, the former Carolina Rosenfeld, a native of Karlshof, Germany, was born August 2, 1843, and died February 2, 1895. Edward Arndt has two brothers and one sister. William, the eldest, died in Columbus, May, 1944; Ernest is a retired farmer living in Columbus; and Emma is married to Ferdinand Wachter.
Edward Arndt received his early education in the District 11 rural school, where he also spent the night, during the blizzard of 1888. Since that time, he has engaged primarily in farming, although he has done contracting work, banking, and been connected with the manufacturing business. On March 15, 1904, he married Mathilda Peterson, daughter of Carsten and Margaret Hollman Peterson. Mrs. Arndt died August 13, 1935. There are seven children in the Arndt family:
Herbert, born March 22, 1905, is married and lives in Platte Center; Edmund and Raymond, twins, born August 13, 1906; Walter, born April 7, 1908, is now farming; Leona, born November 11, 1911, is married to Henry Buss; Reuben, born January 19, 1914, is farming; and Marcella, born May 24, 1916, is married to Albert Loseke.
Edward Arndt is a member of the Lutheran Church and a member of the Lutheran Laymen's League. Politically he is affiliated with the Republican Party.
Raymond William Arndt, son of Edward and Mathilda Peterson Arndt, was born August 13, 1906, on a farm one and a quarter miles south of Platte Center, Nebraska. Raymond's grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick William Arndt, settled in Platte County in 1873. Edward Arndt was born on that farm, October 10, 1875. His maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Carsten Peterson, arrived in Platte County in 1867 and 1869, respectively. Mathilda Peterson Arndt was born June 12, 1875, and died August 15, 1935.
Raymond has four brothers and two sisters: Herbert, married to Meta Landwehr; Edmund, a twin brother, married to Pauline Lutz; Walter married Lois Bartels; Leona, wife of Henry Buss; Reuben married Barbara Reins; and Marcella is the wife of Albert Loseke.
Raymond attended District 11 Grade School, Concordial Teachers College, in Seward, Nebraska, the University of Wisconsin, and also completed a course in accounting, with the Alexander Hamilton Institute.
On August 25, 1931, at Columbus, Nebraska, he married Luella Hellbush, daughter of Eilert and Ella
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Johnson Hellbush. Mr. Hellbush was born in Germany, in 1867, and died in Columbus, December 20, 1927.
Mrs. Hellbush was born January 12, 1868 in Gillespie, Illinois, and lives in Columbus.
Raymond and Luella Arndt have one daughter and two sons: Lois LuRae, born July 10, 1932, in Columbus; Roland Ernest, born November 23, 1934, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Leslie Raymond, born June 20, 1942, in Columbus. Lois was a member of the Class of 1950 at Kramer High School, where she was a majorette for the Kramer High School Band. Her hobby is making her own clothes. Roland's hobbies are fishing and hunting. He attends Kramer High School, and is a drummer in the school band. Leslie is a pupil in Grade School.
Raymond William Arndtis General Manager of the Habco Manufacturing Company, in Columbus. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce.
Politically, he is affiliated with the Republican Party. He is a member of the Immanuel Lutheran Church, and belongs to the Lutheran Laymen's League.
In 1824, in Steuben, New York, Henry T. Arnold was married to Maria Rose.
She was born in Steuben, New York, on August 15,1801, and received her early education there.
Henry T. and Maria Rose Arnold had five children, two sons and three daughters: E. W. Arnold, Albert J. Arnold, Mrs. James E. North, and Mrs. Ira Mullen. Rose North Evans (Mrs. C. D. Evans, Sr.), was their granddaughter and was named Rose for Mrs. Arnold's family name.
In 1837, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold moved from New York to Indiana. Twenty years later, in 1857, Henry T. Arnold died there. S
In 1863, Mrs. Maria Rose Arnold came to Nebraska with her daughter, Nellie, and her son, Albert J. Arnold. Albert J. had come to Nebraska in 1857, and located first at Florence. In the spring of 1858, he permanently located at Columbus, and his sister resided with him in Columbus.
Mrs. Maria Rose Arnold died in Columbus on November 24, 1875, when she was seventy-four years old.
Albert J. Arnold was born in Tyrone, Steuben County, New York, on August 23, 1831. He was a brother of Nellie Arnold North, the wife of James E. North, and an uncle to Mrs. C. D. Evans, Sr., of Columbus.
The North and the Arnold families first lived at the inland town of Cleveland, Nebraska, near Columbus. Albert Arnold came to Columbus from Florence in the spring of 1858, and entered a claim. That summer, he was employed at the Rickly Mill sawing lumber, and in the fall, he took charge of the old immigrant ferry.
In 1862, he fought the Indians, and in 1864, received orders to raise a company of cavalry. He was later assigned to Company C, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, as a first lieutenant. In the summer of 1866, he was a captain under Major Frank North. He later fought the Sioux Indians and while engaged in a battle with them twenty-five lodges of the tribe surrendered. Albert Arnold at one time served as an assistant provost marshal for Western Nebraska, with headquarters at Fort Kearney.
On April 26, 1865, at Monmouth, Illinois, Albert Arnold was married to Amanda Polly, a native of Youngstown, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold had four sons: Henry J., known as Doctor Harry Arnold, Albert G., Arthur, and Evans Arnold a grandson, Doctor Chad Arnold, a son of Doctor Harry Arnold, was in St. Louis, Missouri, taking post-graduate work in internal medicine in 1949.
Mr. Arnold was the first jeweler in Columbus. His store for some years occupied the site of the Telegram Company's Building on Twenty-seventh Avenue.
In 1872, Mr. Arnold was elected Sheriff of Platte County. In 1873, he represented the 22nd District in the House of Representatives, and was chairman of the standing committee on Internal Improvements and a member of the Committees on Privileges and Elections, Public Lands and Agriculture.
In the late 1880's Mr. and Mrs. Arnold moved to National City, California, where Mr. Arnold died around 1916. Mrs. Arnold died in March, 1923.
Fred W. Asche, a resident of Platte County for eighty years, was born in Oldenburg, Germany, September 27, 1864, and came to Platte County in 1869 with his parents. The Asche family located on a homestead near Creston, Nebraska, where their first home was in a sod house. Fred W. acquired his education in the church school, during the winter months, and during the summer helped his father on the farm.
One of a family of twelve children, his brothers and sisters are: Gerhard, Carl, Otto, August, Mrs. Henry Mackenstadt, Mrs. Ben Mackenstadt, Mrs. Adolf Vasek, Mrs. Fred Wendt, and Mrs. William Wurdeman. Two brothers, John and Louis, are deceased.
On April 7, 1892, at Leigh, Nebraska, Mr. Asche married Martha Dasenbrock. They had ten children: Walter, born February 17, 1894, a veteran of World War I and a conductor on the Union Pacific Railroad since that time, is married and lives in Omaha; Paul, born November 13, 1895, and Arthur, born May 10, 1898, are farming the home place near Leigh; Fred, Jr. married to Evelyn Houser, was born March 1, 1900, and farms near Columbus; Olga attended school in Columbus; Martha, now Mrs. Charles Bogenreif of Omaha, attended Kramer High School in Columbus and the Van Sant Business School in Omaha; Hildegard, wife of John Clausen, lives on a farm near Lindsay, Nebraska; Harry, born February 17, 1908, a veteran of World War II, served with the amphibious engineers in the Southwest Pacific, was in the service four and a half years, and is now engaged in farming; Minnie, a graduate of Kramer High School, is an assistant cashier at the Central National Bank, in Columbus; Thelma, a graduate of Kramer High School is married to N. W. Richards and lives in New York City, where
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her husband is an engineer with the American Gas and Electric Company. All of the Asche children were born on the farm, near Creston, Nebraska.
Mrs. Asche died at the farm home in 1913, and in 1917 Mr. Asche married Mrs. Emile Krueger, who died in Columbus, September 28, 1944.
While living near Creston, Mr. Asche served on his district school board, and took an active part in community and farm affairs. In 1916, he retired from the farm and moved to Columbus, where he has since resided.
Mr. Asche was a member of the board of the Columbus National Farm Loan Association for ten years. His political affiliations are with the Democratic Party, and he is a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church.
Frederic Babcock |
Frederic Babcock, Chicago Tribune Editor of Magazine of Books, was born October 31, 1894, in Ord, Nebraska. He was the son of Henry Ernest and Jennie Powell Babcock. The Babcock family came to Platte County from Ord, in 1897, and moved to Columbus from Monroe, in 1898. Frederic's father, an attorney, was born in July, 1862, at Dakota, Wisconsin, and died in Los Angeles, California, in 1917. His mother, born October 18, 1863, in Battle Creek, Michigan, died in Columbus, in 1913. Frederic has four brothers and one sister; Dora, who is the wife of W. R. Ewing, of Rancho Santa Fe, California; and his brothers are; Heman, John, Earl, and George Babcock.
Frederic has lived in Ord, Monroe, and Columbus, Nebraska, and in Wheaton, Illinois. He was graduated from the Columbus High School and the University of Nebraska.
On October 20, 1935, at Glen Ellyn, Illinois, he was married to Helen Reber. They have one daughter, Susan, born in Chicago, April 19, 1946.
During World War I, Mr. Babcock served six months in the United States Army, in 1918, at Camp Lewis and Camp Hancock.
His hobbies are chess and reading. He is the author of "Blood of the Lamb," published in 1932, and is now at work on a second novel. Active in the newspaper business for many years, he is well known for his editorial work with the Chicago Tribune.
Frederic Babcock is a member of the Authors' League of America, the Society of Midland Authors, the Alpha Sigma Phi and Sigma Delta Chi Fraternities, the Thoreau Society, the American Legion, and the Masons. He is a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers) Church, and politically, is an Independent.
Heman Ernest Babcock, son of Henry Ernest and Jennie Powell Babcock, was born October 11, 1888, in Ord, Nebraska. His father was born in Dakota, Wisconsin, in July, 1862, and was an attorney and promoter. He was interested in the promotion of the Loup River Public Power Project for a quarter of a century.
H. E. Babcock also organized the Babcock Irrigation Company which, around 1900, built a waterway through the south part of Platte County, Nebraska, crossing the Monastery Road near the W. T. Ernst land north of Columbus, and running east and south through the farms in that section to the Colfax County line. The water from this canal was used for land irrigation by the farmers along its right-of-way.
Heman Ernest has four brothers and one sister: John P., of Paris, Illinois; Frederick L., of Wheaton, Illinois; Earl, of Duncan, Oklahoma; George E., of Battle Creek, Michigan; and Dora E., the wife of W. R. Ewing, of Rancho Santa Fe, California.
"Heme" was graduated from the Columbus High School in 1908, and the University of Nebraska, School of Agriculture in 1910.
On August 10, 1917, at Albion, Idaho, Heman Ernest Babcock was married to Ellen M. Griswold, the daughter of F. E. and Amanda Seyffert Griswold. Mrs. Babcock's father is a newspaper man. She has three brothers and one sister.
"Heme" and Ellen Seyffert Babcock have four daughters and one son; Marie, born at Burley, Idaho, June 20, 1919; Alice, born at Burley, February 13, 1921; Geraldine, born at Burley, January 29, 1923; Betty, born in Oregon, May 24, 1924; and Henry, born in Newport, Oregon, on September 29, 1927. They were all graduated from high school in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Heman Ernest Babcock has done various kinds of work. He has been a dealer of bottled gas, worked as a bond salesman, and has been engaged in the business of farming. He also invented many useful articles.
Mr. Babcock served eighteen months during World War I, as a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery.
Politically, he is affiliated with the Republican Party.
Fred W. Babka, land bank appraiser, was born June 22, 1900, at Thornburg, Nebraska, and came to Columbus July I, 1938. His parents were natives of Czechoslovakia. Fred has one brother, Frank, Jr., a farmer, and one sister, Amey C. Russ.
On June 16, 1923, in Lincoln, Nebraska, Fred W. Babka married Ethel A. Van Waning, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob J. Van Waning. Mrs. Babka has eight brothers and one sister.
Mr. and Mrs. Babka have two sons, both of whom were born in Belvedere, Nebraska: Leonard W., born May 24, 1926; and Edward A., born January 8, 1928. They are both graduates of Kramer High School, in
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Columbus. Leonard served in the United States Army Air Corps, and Edward was in the Navy V-5 Air Corps Program.
Fred Babka's hobbies are hunting and fishing. Politically, he is an Independent. Fred and Ethel Babka are members of the Federated Church in Columbus.
Arthur Henry Backus, son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Backus, was born August 18, 1880, in Allmakee County, Iowa, and died in July, 1947, at Rochester, Minnesota.
His parents moved to Holt County, where A. H. Backus spent his boyhood years on a ranch. He later attended the public schools of a then frontier county.
His career as a successful printer and publisher started when he found employment in the shop of the Holt County Independent, while still in his teens. In November, 1898, he became a partner of A. M. Church, publisher of the Stuart, Nebraska, Ledger. He sold his interest in 1901, and meanwhile, founded the Naper News. In 1901, he purchased the Lindsay Post, which he published until 1903, when he sold it to become assistant publisher of the Atkinson Graphic. In 1904, he bought the Pierce Leader, and was owner-publisher until he sold it in 1918. Then, still a resident of Pierce, he traveled on the road for the Western Newspaper Union, until 1919, when he purchased Lloyd Swain's interest in the Telegram Company. Moving from Pierce to Columbus, he became secretary-treasurer of the company and served as business manager of the Daily Telegram, in which capacity he served until 1940, when he sold his interest to Z. H. Loomis, and retired.
From 1904-1918, he served as a member of the Pierce Volunteer Fire Department, and for eight years as a member of the Pierce Board of Education. During World War I, while at Pierce, he was field representative for the Federal Food Administration, in eighteen northeast Nebraska counties. From 1926 to 1934, he was a member of the Columbus Public Library Board. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Loup River Public Power District from its organization, June 3. 1933, until January 5, 1939. On September 30, 1940, Governor Cochran appointed him as a member of the Platte County Selective Service Board. He served as its first chairman, and although resigning the chairmanship in 1942, he continued as a member throughout most of World War II, until 1944, after his election to the County Board of Supervisors, as the first member from the new District . He was reelected in 1946.
On June 15, 1904, at Lindsay, Nebraska, A. H. Backus married Elizabeth Thomazin, daughter of Thomas and Mary Ann Roberts Thomazin, a Platte County pioneer family. Mr. and Mrs. Backus had one daughter, Ramona, now with the Rockefeller Foundation, in Chicago, and one son, Edgar, who was an FBI agent, on duty in the FBI headquarters in Washington, when he died on April 20, 1935. Edgar was married to Muzetta Blair.
A. H. Backus was a member of the Nebraska Press Association and the National Editorial Association during his newspaper career. He was a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge and Modern Woodmen, at Pierce; the Elks Lodge, at Columbus, of which he was a trustee for eighteen years; in the Masonic Order, he Was a member of Lebanon Lodge Number 323, Cebal Council Number 2 Royal and Select Mason; Orient Chapter Number 18, Royal Arch Masons; Gethsemane Commandery Number 21, Knights Templar, Columbus and Tangier Temple, Mystic Shrine, Omaha. He was a member of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce for many years, and of the Rotary Club, of which he was president, 1931-1932. On March 31, 1947, he was elected by the directors of Equitable Building, Loan and Savings Association, to fill a vacancy on the board. He was a member of the Methodist Church of Columbus.
Mrs. Arthur H. Backus lives in Columbus.
Paul Baer was a shoe merchant in Columbus for fourteen years, prior to 1932.
In 1917, Mr. Baer bought an interest in the Reece Retail Shoe Store. In 1922, when the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Baer and W. F. Schram opened another shoe store here in the Schiltz Building on Twenty-sixth Avenue.
In 1924, Lyndal Carter formed a partnership with Mr. Baer which continued until September 15, 1931, when Mr. Carter bought Mr. Baer's interest. The Paul Baer family then moved to Beverly Hills, California.
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Baer had two children: William married Doris Boyd, the daughter of Thomas and Cora Bell Scott Boyd. They live in Missouri Valley, Iowa. They have four children: Marlene, Jean, Sandra, and William, Jr. Paule Ann Baer lived with her parents in California.
Paul Baer died March 23, 1939.
Reverend I. A.* Bahnsen, pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Sherman Township, was. born on May 31, 1884 in Schleswig-Holstein. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm Bahnsen, natives of Germany, and one of a family of four. His two brothers, Siegfried and Peter, died in Germany, and his sister, Sophie, is a housewife.
Reverend I. A. Bahnsen received his formal education in a grade school, and preparatory school in Germany, and later attended college and the seminary at Atchison, Kansas, at the completion of which he was ordained a minister of the Lutheran church.
Reverend I. A. Bahnsen was married to Miss Ida Christine Carstens, who died on August 26, 1939. They had one son, Gerhart, who was born on December 4, 1911, at Lodge Pole, Nebraska. Gerhart Bahnsen married Miss Jessie Sundermeier. They live in Los Angeles, California, where he is employed with the Greyhound Bus Lines.
On October 6, 1940, at Leigh, Nebraska, Reverend I. A. Bahnsen was married to Mrs. Minnie Boade Gersib.
* In America his initials are J. A.
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the widow of George Gersib. Mr. Gersib died July 18, 1929, at Emerald, Nebraska.
Minnie Boade Bahnsen was born in Missouri. She is the daughter of August and Anna Boade. Mrs. Bahnsen, a graduate nurse, has two sons and one daughter, George, Jr., Anna, and Arthur Gersib. George, Jr. was born February 5, 1914, in Riverdale, Nebraska. He attended college at Fort Collins, Colorado. He is married to the former Miss Esther Klug. They live at Des Moines, Iowa, where he is employed by the Sunderland Lumber Company. Anna, Mrs. Kenneth Heiliger, attended the University of Nebraska. She is a dietitian at the Sunny Brook Farm in Lincoln. Arthur, born August 18, 1919, in Rocky Ford, Colorado, served in World War II. He is married to Miss Shirley Hoessel, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hoessel. He is employed at Levine Brothers store in Columbus.
In June, 1932, Reverend I. A. Bahnsen came to St. Paul's Church from Ohiowa, Nebraska, where he had served a pastorate of over nineteen years. He succeeded Doctor Otto Bergfelder, who took charge of a Lutheran Church at Wakeeney, Kansas.
Reverend I. A. Bahnsen has traveled extensively in Europe and the United States. His hobby is fishing. Politically, he is a Republican.
Lee Norfleet Bailey, son of James A. and Mary V. Payne Bailey, was born June 27, 1891, in Sussex County, Disputanta, Virginia, and came to Columbus in December, 1919.
His father was born in Virginia in 1856, and died there on August 20, 1912. His mother was born December 5, 1862, in Maryland, and died in Waverly, Virginia, in May, 1926.
Lee attended a country school near his home in Virginia, after which time he worked on his father's farm and later learned the carpenter trade. He was engaged in farming until he came to Columbus in 1919, when he was the plant engineer and fireman at Swift and Company. Later, he was engaged in the trucking business, farmed, and conducted a package delivery system in Columbus.
On October 4, 1920, Lee Norfleet Bailey married Emma Louise Ingold, daughter of Gottfried and Susan Urech Ingold. They have two daughters: Dolores Virginia, Mrs. Max Mattison of Omaha, a graduate of Kramer High School; and Maureen Lois, born June 19, 1933, who attended the Columbus grade schools, and was a student at Kramer High School.
The Baileys are members of the United Lutheran Church in Columbus, and are active in church work. Mrs. Bailey is a member of the Ladies Sewing Circle and Women's Missionary Society of that church. Politically, L. N. Bailey is a Republican.
Henry Bakenhus, son of John Henry and Anna Wilke Bakenhus, was born May 6, 1871, in Platte County. His father was born in Ahlorn, Germany, on February 22, 1841, and died April 2, 1910, in Platte County. His mother was born June 25, 1848, at Sage, Germany, and died in Platte County, on February 11, 1897, John H. Bakenhus immigrated to the United States in 1869 from Oldenburg, Germany. He came to Platte County that year and settled on a homestead in Shell Creek Township, on which he was engaged in farming and lived continuously until his death in 1910.
Henry Bakenhus had three brothers and five sisters: Louis; John, who was married to Lena Buss; Edward, who was married to Meta Buss; Elise, the widow of Henry Buss; Minna; Bertha, the widow of William Wurdeman and Emma and Anna who lived with Henry Bakenhus at 2022 Fifteenth Street. Louis, John, Edward and Minna are deceased.
Henry attended school at District 35, in Shell Creek Township and the Christ Lutheran Parochial School in Bismark Township. He early learned the business of farming and stock-raising. He lived and worked in Shell Creek Township for seventy-four years.
On August 16, 1945, he retired from active farming and moved into Columbus, where he and his sisters lived together. He owns and manages his farm in Shell Creek Township.
Politically, Henry Bakenhus is affiliated with the Republican Party. He and his sisters are members of the Christ Lutheran Church in Bismark Township.
Oscar Lehman Baker, better known as "Ottie," was born in Columbus, Ohio, November 21, 1858. His father, Jacob Baker, came to Columbus, Nebraska, early in 1857, and managed the American Hotel. This was the first hotel here following the "Columbus Town Company House," which housed some of the brave men who spent the first winter of 1856 and 1857 in the little town.
Previous to his coming here Jacob Baker had known some of the early Columbus settlers in Ohio. After his death, his wife, Rosina C. Baker, succeeded her husband as manager of the American House. She later married J. B. Wells, and they had one son, Joseph, also well known in Columbus. Rosina C. Baker Wells died February 21, 1871, at the age of thirty-eight.
"Ottie" Baker's first business venture was the dray and transfer business, which he established before he was eighteen years old. At the age of twenty-one, he came into possession of his property and then spent some years in farming.
He served two years as Deputy Sheriff, under Sheriff Dan C. Kavanaugh. Following this, he entered the livery business, which he conducted for many years. He founded the Baker Ice Company and developed it into a big business, this being before the day of artificial ice manufacture and privately owned electric refrigerators.
On January 13. 1880, Oscar Baker married Laura Paynter, of Columbus and Omaha. They had four children: William Lowe, born in Columbus in 1881, was married in Omaha and had one son, Frank. He left
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Columbus around 1916, and died in August, 1931. Fred Baker was associated with his father in the ice business. He was married and had four daughters. He died November 14, 1947, at Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Ethel Baker is Mrs. Karman, of Kansas City, Missouri. Oscar L., Jr. lives at Wichita, Kansas. His daughter, Lois, lived in Topeka, Kansas, with her mother, Freddie Stenger Straley, and later moved to Denver, Colorado, where she is employed.
The Jacob Baker residence, later the O. L. Baker residence, was at the northwest corner of Olive and Fourteenth Streets, now the site of the Platte County Court House, which was built in 1920.
"Ottie" Baker was prominent in several fraternal and social orders, including the Orpheus Society, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, Woodmen of the World, and the Columbus Fire Department.
Oscar Lehman Baker died in Columbus, September 19, 1910, and his wife, Laura Paynter Baker, died in 1916.
Edward J. Baker was born in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, in 1842, where he lived until 1861. He then came west to Fort Madison, Iowa, where he remained until 1865.
After the close of the War of the Rebellion, he engaged in the mercantile business in Jackson, Tennessee, for five years.
In 1870, he came to Columbus, Nebraska, and engaged in the grain and mercantile business, which he prosecuted successfully for a number of years, adding to it the cattle business, the ranch for the latter being located on the Loup River.
Edward J. Baker was also connected with the wholesale grocery business of Baker and Johnson, at Cheyenne, Wyoming.
In 1871, he married Mary W. Jones, a native of Vernon, Ohio, who died in 1876, leaving three children, Mary, Gertrude, and Edward.
Edward J. Baker was a member of the Wildey Lodge 49, I.O.O.F., at Columbus.
Doctor Arno Albert Bald, physician and surgeon at Platte Center, was born April 8, 1886, at Aurora, Nebraska. His parents were Louis G. and Mathilda Kemper Bald.
Doctor Bald attended Aurora High School, and was graduated from Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa. In 1911, he was graduated from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, and served his internship at Wise Memorial Hospital at Omaha. He was a member of Delta Tau Delta, and Nu Sigma Nu, fraternities.
On June 13, 1913, at Aurora, he was married to Alice Newton. They had one son, Arno, and a daughter, Mila Mathilda, who is married.
Doctor Bald began practicing medicine in Platte Center in 1912, as surgeon for the Pacific Railroad.
During World War I, he was Chief Medical Examiner of Platte County.
He is a member of the Platte County American Red Cross, the Platte County Medical Society, the school board at Platte Center, the Nebraska State and American Medical Associations, the Wayside Country Club, the Izaak Walton League, and is vice-chairman of the Boy Scouts of America Troop 117, director of the Lions, and chairman of the village board. His hobbies are ornithology, fishing, and motion pictures.
Among the pioneer teachers in Columbus, we find the name of Helen Ermina Ballou, born in Warren, Vermont, December 2!, 1828.
She attended the New England schools of that day and was prepared for teaching. Later, she studied nursing, and was enlisted in the United States Army, at the time of the Civil War, as a nurse. Due to ill health, however, she was forced to seek a change in work, and at the time of the Monitor-Merrimac engagement in Hampton Roads, she was teaching under enlistment at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, her pupils being colored children who had been freed from slavery.
Mrs. Ballou was married at the end of the war and came to Columbus with her husband in 1874. Mr. Ballou was a carpenter.
They had two sons: Edward P. and J. E. Ballou, of Columbus, and Mr. Ballou's two children by a previous marriage: W. G. Ballou of Columbus, and Mrs. H. L. Small, of Omaha.
Mrs. Ballou was the primary teacher in Columbus at the Field School, in the First Ward for eighteen years. Several prominent Columbus people received their first instruction from her.
Stephen Banasch, son of Theodore and Magdalena Gawrich Banasch, early Platte County settlers, was born in Germany, December 11, 1864. His father was born in Germany April 23, 1837, came to Platte County in the summer of 1878, when he settled in Columbus Township, and died in Columbus on March 5, 1917. Stephen's mother, also a native of Germany, was born July 24, 1839, and died November 19, 1895, in Columbus Township.
Stephen had two sisters: Bayne, the eldest, was the wife of John Wozney, and died November 18, 1945; Julia is the widow of Charles Mitera.
Stephen Banasch spent his life in Platte and Colfax Counties. He attended the District 44 rural school, in Platte County. In August, 1905, he married Stella Peters, daughter of Julius Peters.
Mr. and Mrs. Banasch had two daughters: Frances, born December 5, 1909, is the wife of Herbert L. Abts; Margaret, born June 28, 1906, is the wife of Alex Gottberg. They both attended the St. Anthony's Parochial grade school and St. Bonaventure's High School in Columbus
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