lected. He is affiliated with the Populist party. June 17, 1901, he was married to Miss Vera I. Force of St. Paul, Nebraska. They have twin daughters.

      FRANK J. TAYLOR came to Sherman County, Nebraska in 1879, where he lived before coming to Howard county in 1886. He was born at Ashton, Ill., February 12, 1866. He was graduated from the law school of Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the class of 1891 and also studied law in the office of Darnall and Kendall at St. Paul. He was admitted to the bar in 1890 and served as County Attorney from 1893 to 1899. At present he is holding this same office, having beep reelected in 1903. His father served one year in the Civil War and was discharged on account of sickness. Mr. Taylor was married to Miss Byrdie West of St. Paul, June 27, 1895.

      GEORGE PYNE came to Howard County with his parents when he was four years old. He was born in Chicago, Ill., on the sixth of April, 1878. He was graduated from St. Paul High School in 1896. During the Spanish-American war he served in company B, Second Nebraska Regiment. On his return from Chickamauga with his regiment he was taken sick with typhoid fever at Omaha and was not able to continue his service when his regiment was again mustered out. He held the office of Deputy County Clerk for four years and is now serving his first term as Clerk of the District court. He is a democrat and was elected on the Fusion ticket.

      JOHN WYSOCKI was born at Pelplin, Great Dukedom of West Prussia, Poland, October 27, 1855. His father was a Prussian soldier and in 1846 was sentenced to life imprisonment as an active member of the revolutionary organization which was trying to free Poland. He was liberated two years later through the rebellion of the citizens of Berlin who forced the king to pardon all political prisoners. The father came to the United States in the fall of 1872 and was followed soon after by his family. They came from New Jersey to Nebraska in 1881 and have lived in Howard County ever since. He now holds the office of County Clerk and was Clerk of District Court from 1899 till 1904. He is a democrat.

     MAHLON D. SMITH is a lawyer by profession, having been admitted to the bar in 1872. He attended the Stockwell Collegiate Institute of Indiana and studied law in an office at Crawfordsville, Indiana. He was born in Montgomery County of this state June 17, 1842. He practiced law at Fowler, Indiana, before coming to St. Paul, Nebraska in 1888. While in Indiana, he was Clerk of District Court in Benton County for four years. He became Judge of Howard County in 1888 and has been elected to that office three times since, being the present County Judge. In politics he is a democrat. In 1876 he married Miss Anna Burditt of Oxford, Indiana, who died in 1893.

      WILLIAM CHARLES ALEXANDER has made Howard County his home since he was an infant. He was born in Clinton County, Iowa, on the twenty-first of October, 1870. His father was one of the first settlers of Howard County and still lives on the homestead near Elba, which he took in June of 1871. Mr. Alexander was engaged in the machinery business as expert mechanic for the Deering Harvester Company for five years. He is the present County Sheriff and is affiliated with the Populist party.

      J. A. ZIEGLER came from Franklin county, Virginia to South Dakota in 1867, where he took a pre-emption. He next took a homestead in Cedar County, Nebraska, in 1870, and lived there for fourteen years. He located at Howard county in 1886, which has since been his home. He was born April 24, 1847. Teaching is his vocation and he was principal of the Boelus schools for six years and of the Dannebrog Schools for four years. While in Cedar County he was Representative two terms and also County Judge one term. He is a Populist. In 1886 he was married to Mary McNeal of Cedar County. He was a soldier in the Civil War, serving ten months in the Fifth Battalion, Virginia State Reserves.

      D. M. HENDRICKSON was born in Brookville, Indiana, January 18, 1864. His parents moved to Illinois in 1868 and farmed there until 1886, when they came to Sherman County, Nebraska. Thirteen years later they moved to Howard County, which has since been their home. He was graduated from the Bement High School of Illinois in 1882 and afterward attended the University of Illinois at Champaign. He is a teacher and surveyor by profession. He has taught eighteen years, eleven years of which he has acted as principal. He is serving his first term as County Surveyor and is affiliated with the Democratic party. He was married to Nora Fair, June 6, 1895.

      A. J. BOLLINGER is among the earliest settlers of the county. Born 1838 in Butler County, Pennsylvania, he moved to Warren County, Illinois, in 1858. In 1862 he enlisted in the army, serving in Company A 102 Illinois Volunteers, under Sherman in the campaign through Georgia and was on duty for three years. He emigrated to Nebraska in 1872, where he took a homestead near St. Paul. At that time there was but one building in the town and no railroad. In 1877 he went into the hardware business in St. Paul. Mr. Bollinger is affiliated with the Prohition (sic) party.

      FRED GRIFFIN was born January 4, 1880 in Nodaway County, Missouri, whence he came with his parents to Lancaster County, Nebraska, in the spring of 1884. After a residence there of fifteen years on a farm, he moved to Howard county in 1898. He was educated at the High School and the Normal and Business College at St. Paul, Nebraska. He now holds the office of Deputy County Clerk, and politically is a Populist.

      D. A. GEIL attended school at Shenandoah, Iowa, for one year and at York College during two years. His vocation is teaching. His birthplace is near Lancaster, Ohio, born September 14, 1872. His parents moved to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1880; to Hayes County in 1885; to York County in 1895, and finally to Howard County in 1897. Mr. Geil spent three years as a cow-boy on the range in Western Nebraska. He is now serving his third year as Deputy Treasurer and is affiliated with the Populist party. November 9, 1898, he married Carrie Boliman.

 

      The people of Jefferson County devote a great deal to educational interests. There are 108 schoolhouses which have been built at an expense of $86,365, and the school supplies are especially good. There are 5,390 children of school age, and at the close of last year 70 pupils received common school diplomas. The surface is undulating, having an average elevation of 1,200 feet, and is quite hilly along the streams. Ninety-three per cent of the land is productive and the rest comprises bluffs, ravines and stony tracts. Land has doubled in value in the last five years, and the best land sells for $60 per acre. Over 200 farms have been sold since 1900. The largest crop of the county is the corn crop, which covers 94,871 acres, producing 1,729,661 bushels. The county live stock in 1900 was valued at $2,093,078, and the hog market makes up the principal part of this valuation. Fruit, vegetables, cereals and tame hay are the principal products. In 1899 this county was first in the state in the producing of sorghum and cane. The sugar beet industry is just getting a start. The soil in the bottoms is very fertile and the streams are bordered with considerable natural timber The county is supplied with limestone quarries, from which good lime is produced, and there is plenty of clay for vessel and brickmaking. Rose Creek has good water power, and the first mill and also the first settlers were established on this stream. The county has 119.60 miles of both telegraph and railway connections. Jefferson County was organized in 1857. The population is 15,196, and Fairbury, the capital, has 3,140 residents. In 1857 the settlers were all ranchmen, who sold supplies to the Pike's Peak fortune hunters. The first actual settlement was made by Daniel Patterson at the point where the Big Sandy empties into the Little Blue. D. C. Jenkins and the Helvy family, who came in 1858, were important factors in the county history. A settlement of Germans, headed by Newton Glen, was made on Rock Creek in 1860. In 1874 a colony of Russo-Germans, from the vicinity of the sea of Azov, in Southern Russia, took up 27,000 acres. In this year the terrible grasshopper plague came. Trains were actually stopped by the heaps of oily bodies.

     O. N. GARNSEY was born in Walworth County, Wisconsin, July 1, 1869. He came to Hastings, Nebraska; in 1872 and received his education in the common schools. Mr. Garnsey is a bookkeeper by profession and was assistant clerk for three years. He is now serving his first term as Clerk of the District Court, being elected by the Republican party. He married Miss Winona Hanchett in 1898, and they have one daughter, aged five years. His father was an old soldier.

      C. C. BOYLE, now serving his fifth term as Judge of Jefferson County, was born in Richland County, Ohio, July 20, 1845. He lo-

cated at Fairbury, Nebraska, in 1869, where he has since made his home. He attended the Iowa Lutheran College of Albion, Iowa, and taught school before he began to study law. His father was a captain in the Mexican war. Mr. Boyle was married to Luna C. Mason in 1864 and they have four children. He was one of the first settlers in this section of the state, having come to Fairbury when there was only one little building there.

      OLIVE TRUE was born in Richmond, Indiana, September 9, 1864. In 1879 she came to Nebraska. Being left in 1897 with four children to support, she began teaching in the Fairbury schools. She occupied this position until elected County Superintendent on the Democratic ticket in 1903. She is a graduate of the Peru State Normal and has a state teacher's certificate for life.

      CYRUS E. CASE is a native of Kansas, having been born in Brown County June 1, 1871. When a young man of twenty years he came to Jefferson County, engaging in farming. He graduated from the Beatrice High School and worked for the United States Pension Office for two years. He is affiliated with the Republican party and is Sheriff of Jefferson County.

      ROBERT A. CLAPP is a native of Minnesota, having been born in St. James, January 31, 1872. When ten years old he removed with his parents to Wisconsin, thence to Clay County, Nebraska, Salt Lake, Utah, Fairfield, Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, and came to Fairbury in 1897. He received his education in the common schools of Wisconsin, Fairfield College, and the University of Nebraska. He is afflilated with the Republican party, has been Mayor and City Attorney of Fairbury and has been elected to the office of County Attorney.

      FRANK A. HOUSTON was born in Wamego, Kansas, March 31, 1874, of Scotch parentage. In 1897 he came to Fairbury, engaging in railway business and was clerk for the Rock Island System for five years. He received a common school education and is a graduate of Musgrave's Business College of Manhattan, Kansas. He is associated with the Republican party, has been Deputy County Clerk of Jefferson County for three years and was elected County Clerk in 1903.

      W. W. WATSON was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in December of 1844. He came from Michigan to Bellevue, Nebraska, in 1854, and settled at Fairbury in 1872, where he now resides and fills the position of City Engineer of Fairbury and County Surveyor of Jefferson County. Mr. Watson is a Democrat and was the Clerk of the House of Representatives in the last Territorial Legislature of Nebraska. He was married in September of 1886 to Miss Ida Thorp of New Orleans. Mr. Watson has been a railroad contractor and a builder of bridges and large buildings; has also been in the mercantile business. He is a member of the State Historical Society.

     W. PERRY, serving his first term as Coroner of Jefferson County, was born in Troy, Kansas, June 4, 1864. His father, A. Perry, was a lawyer. Dr. Perry was educated in the University of Kansas and the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. He was married to Lula Corrill in 1899 and came to Fairbury, Nebraska, in 1894, where he has been practicing medicine for the past ten years. He is the local surgeon for the B. & M. and St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroads.