little son to the care of his elder sister and brother-in-law. He attended the public schools in his native state gaining a good rudimental education, but at an early age was forced to begin earning a living, first as a newsboy, so that he may be accounted among the self made men of his locality as he started out in life with only the equipment of ambition and ability as capital, and what he has achieved has been by his own unaided efforts. He has reared a family of children all of whom are splendid citizens, prominent in present day affairs, reflecting great credit upon their parents and the home from which they come, also constituting a valued asset to the community of which they are a part. As a youth in the east Mr. Young read of the life on the western prairies and determined that he would go west to seek and make his fortune and when only seventeen years of age started across the country, reaching Fremont in 1876, but a few years after Nebraska Territory had been admitted to statehood. Those were the days of the great cattle barons who owned vast herds of cattle that ranged free over the prairies, and after working on a farm for two years the young man joined a cattle outfit and became a cowboy, in Custer county for the Olive operators and was there when the famous desperados, Mitchell and Ketchum, were hung. For eight years he followed the life of the range, gaining invaluable knowledge of cattle, feeding, buying, and marketing, which induced him to decide upon a ranch for himself, and with this end in view he came to Scottsbluff county in 1886, took up a homestead and today is the owner and manager of his one hundred and fifty acre tract of highly improved land, where he has been engaged in farming and horse-rasing (sic). Mr. Young has not confined his activities entirely to agriculture, but has branched out. into other commercial lines, being the first man in the United States to erect a concrete ice house for storage purposes. This initial adventure received country wide notice for its unqualified success, being written up in Popular Mechanics magazine and other technical and scientific publications. The United States government sent to him information concerning plans, specifications and materials used in the construction of the building. Mr. Young also gained a small fortune by his keen business qualities as what he plans, he executes and the success that has come to him is the result of good judgment and years of persistent labor. In 1894, Mr. Young was married in Grand Island, Hall county, to Miss Ella M. Turpin, who was a native of Minnesota, who had been reared out on the Pacific coast. Her father was surveyor general of Minnesota, himself and wife both natives of Pennsylvania. There are three children in the family: Rex, who, has chosen agriculture as a pursuit and is on one of the home farms; James, who is in business in Denver, Colorado; and Daniel, who also is at home, in the law business. Mr. Young takes an interest in public affairs, keeps himself well informed and generally votes the Democratic ticket, while fraternal affiliations are with the Modern Woodmen. AMOS ELQUIST, one of America's adopted sons whose enegry (sic) and well directed efforts have within recent years in Mitchell resulted in the building up and development of a prosperous implement house and the placing of its founder in a position of financial independence. Mr. Elquist was one of the pioneer settlers of Cheyenne county where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits for many years before coming to Scottsbluff county and later locating in the city of Mitchell. The subject of this review is a native of Sweden, born February 19, 1853, the son of Christian and Anna Elquist, who had a family of four children: Amos, John, Andrew, deceased, and Joahanna, who lives in Sweden. The father was a farmer in the old country, a vocation he followed all his life, passing away in 1909, the mother surviving him but two years. Amos received an excellent education in his native country where the schools are supervised by the government. He attained his majority before severing home ties and embarking for the new world to seek and make his fortune, landing in the United State in 1875. He came west with no definite idea of the country and first located in Roseville, Illinois, obtaining employment in a mine, but he had not come to this golden land of promise to spend his life away from the light and sunshine and determined to come still farther west and obtain land by government grant. With this in mind he came to Nebraska, setling (sic) in Cheyenne county on a homestead. He had a cheerful outlook on life, an inherent faith in his own ability to accomplish anything, a faith that no discouragement could dim and it was as well for this carried him through the years of hardship caused by the drought. This self confidence has been more than justified, for today Mr. Elquist is one of the leading business men of Mitchell, the owner of a hardware house and the possessor of a valuable farm which pays substantial dividends. |
Mr. Elquist is a tireless worker and from the day he became the proprietor of land began its improvement, at first in a primitive way as did all the pioneers, but he never let up; each year saw some new ground broken, some new cattle bought or some new building erected so that in less than a decade, from 1887 to 1893, he sold his homestead for $200 an acre, having brought it to a high state of cultivation. The latter year he came to Scottsbluff county, bought land which he still owns on which he for a time carried on farming and stockraising before he opened his present mercantile establishment in Mitchell, where he conducts a general hardware and implement business, in which line he has shown himself equally as good a manager as on the farm. He built up a good trade, in the development of which his pleasant personality has played a large part. The family belongs to the Federated church. Mr. Elquist is a Republican in politics, and while he takes an active part in communal affairs has never desired to hold office but is interested in all civic improvements and gives liberally to their support. In 1875 occurred the marriage of Amos Elquist and Miss Anna Andersen, and eight children have joined the family circle: Charles, living at Torrington, Wyoming; George, also a resident of that state; Theodore, of Torrington; Alvin, all in the hardware business in that city; Reuben, a soldier who served with the American Epeditionary (sic) Force in France; Fred, associated with his father in the implement business in Mitchell; Anna, married Lester Morgan of Livermore, California; and Aneti, married, living in Lingo, Wyoming. JOHN E. KEEBAUGH has been a resident of Nebraska since his early childhood and his father was not only a pioneer of this state but had also previosly (sic) gained pioneer experience in the state of Minnesota, where he was identified with large lumbering operations for several years. He whose name initiates this paragraph is the owner and active manager of the Rexall drug store at Mitchell, Scottsbluff county, and this has the distinction of being the largest and best equipped establishment of the kind in any town of not more than a thousand population in the entire state. In addition to being one of the representative business men and influential citizens of Mitchell, Mr. Keebaugh is also the owner of a well improved farm property near this village. John E. Keebaugh was born in Blue Earth county, Minnesota, on the 15th of May, 1868, and is a son of George W. and Sarah (Ward) Keebaugh, the former of whom was born in Ohio and the latter in Illinois, from which latter state they removed to Minnesota in the pioneer period of the history of that commonwealth. Of their six children four are living: William, resides near Portland, Oregon; Ida, lives in Oklahoma; Mrs. Mary Wood, resides in Oregon; and the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth of these surviving children. George W. Keebaugh continued to be identified with the lumber industry in Minnesota until 1871, when he came with his family to Nebraska and took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, in Butler county, he reclaimed this land from the virgin prairie and developed it into one of the productive farms of that county. He had given valiant service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war, as a member of Company C Forty-second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, a regiment comprised of pioneers in the Gopher state. In later years Mr. Keebaugh vitalized the associations of his military career by maintaining affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. His political allegiance was given to the Democratic party and he and his wife, both of whom died in the year 1908, were earnest members of the Christian church. Their names merit enduring place on the roll of the honored pioneers of Nebraska. John E. Keebaugh was about three years old when the family home was established on the pioneer farm in Butler county, Nebraska, and there he was reared to adult age, was afforded the advantages of the public schools of the locality and period and supplemented this educational training by a course in the school of pharmacy of Northwestern University, in the city of Chicago. After completing this technical course he, returned to Nebraska, and for about three years thereafter he was employed as a drug clerk in Butler county. He then opened a drug store of his own, at Shelby, Polk county, and there he remained five years. He conducted a drug store at Surprise, Butler county, during the ensuing five years, and he then went to David City, the judicial center of that county, where he was manager of the office and business of a local telephone company in which he had become a stockholder. There he remained until 1906, when he removed to Scotshluff (sic) county and took up a homestead, besides which he purchased the Rexall drug store at Mitchell, which well ordered establishment he has since conducted most successfully, as shown by the large and representative patronage which it |
commands. He has been the owner of this drug store since 1911, and in the meanwhile he has made the best improvements on his homestead, which is now one of the valuable farms of the county and which is situated four and one-half miles distant from Mitchell. Loyal and public-spirited as a citizen and a staunch Democrat in politics, Mr. Keebaugh has had neither time nor ambition for political office. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, Mitchell Lodge No. 263, Consistory, Scottish Rite and Shrine of Omaha, Nebraska. In 1889 was solmenized (sic) the marriage of Mr. Keebaugh to Miss Myrtle Hamm, who was born in the state of Illinois, and of the three children only one is living--Clyde A., who is a field boss for the Great Western Sugar Company. EDWARD H. REID is associated in the ownership of about twelve thousand acres of land in western Nebraska and is prominently identified with ranching enterprise upon a most extensive scale, his place of residence being the attractive Village of Mitchell, Scottsbluff county, where he is known and valued as a loyal and progressive citizen of marked public spirit. Mr. Reid is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of the Hawkeye state, and thus his earliest experiences were those gained in the vital and progressive western portion of our vast domain. He was born in Page county, Iowa, December 20, 1859, and is a son of Joseph A. and Margaret (Long) Reid, both of whom were born and reared in Greene County, Ohio. Joseph A Reid became one of the successful agriculturists and stock-growers of Iowa, where he established his residence in the early pioneer days and where he won substantial prosperity through his well directed endeavors. He was one of the honored pioneer citizens of Iowa at the time of his death, in 1906. and his widow there passed away in 1908, both having been active members of the United Presbyterian church. They became the parents of seven children: James Harvey, is deceased; John Franklin, is a resident of Torrington Wyoming; Anna Laura, resides at Colorado Springs, Colorado; Edward H., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Julia Elizabeth, maintains her home at Casper, Wyoming; William Lincoln, is a resident of Mileston, western Canada; and Jessie Wilson, is deceased. After completing the curriculum of the public schools of his antive (sic) state Edward H. Reid completed a higher academic course at Amity college, located at College Spring, Iowa. After leaving college Mr. Reid identified himself with ranch enterprise, and for some time he was associated with the celebrated Rankin Ranch, in the state of Missouri, Mr. Rankin having been one of the most extensive cattle men of the west and having fed more cattle on his own land than any other man in the business, as may be inferred when it is stated that at times he fed as many as ten thousand head of cattle on his own grazing land and from corn raised on his own land. After severing his connection with this great enterprise Mr. Reid went to Denver, Colorado, where he became associated with the Continental Trust Company, in the position of inspector of cattle and farm lands. From Colorado he went to Wyoming, and about the year 1910 he established his residence at Mitchell, Nebraska, where he has since been a prominent and influential factor in the exploiting of ranch industry upon an extensive scale, his operations having contributed much to the advancement of agricultural and live-stock industry in western Nebraska, and his broad experience making him an authority in all things pertaining to the development of new land. He is a broad-minded and liberal citizen, is a Republican in his political allegiance and both he and his wife hold membership in the Federated church at Mitchell. The year 1882 recorded the marriage of Mr. Reid to Miss Mary Elizabeth Maiden, a native of the state of Missouri, and concerning their children, the following (sic) brief data is available: Earl H., is a resident of Torrington, Wyoming; Margaret is the wife of Lester Collins, of Mitchell, Nebraska; Jessie, is the wife of Edward P. Grant, who is in government service at Washington, D. C., his home being at Kensington, Maryland; and Dorothy, is the wife of Lee Ashbrook, Jr., who is associated with his father and lives on the Ashbrook Ranch in Sioux county, Nebraska. WILLIAM C. REDFIELD figures as one of the representative exponents of financial enterprise in Scittsbluff (sic) county, where he is cashier of the State Bank of Haig, of which institution he became the founder in June, 1916, and to the active management of which he has since given his attention. This bank has developed a substantial business and affords facilities to a goodly number of appreciative patrons who are prominent in the various fields of industrial and business enterprise in the northern part of Scottsbluff county. |
The bank in incorporated with a capital stock of $10,000, its deposits are now in excess of $50,000, and it maintains a surplus of $1,800. It constitutes one of the most valuable adjuncts to the business life of the community in which it is established and its success is proving notably cumulative, a fact which attests its able management and also the confidence reposed in its able and progressive founder. Mr. Redfield was born in Peoria county, Illinois, on the 30th of December, 1860, and is a son of F. A. and Mary E. (Aldrich) Redfield, of whom a record appears elsewhere. William C. Redfield acquired his preliminary education in Illinois and supplemented this discipline by attending the public schools of Johnson county after the family removal to Nebraska. As a young man he became actively concerned with independent farm enterprise in Johnson county, and there he gained inviolable vantage place in popular esteem, as shown by the fact that in 1905 he wes (sic) elected county clerk, an office of which he continued the incumbant four years, after which he served five years as county treasurer. He continued his residence in that county until August, 1915, and moved to Lincoln and then in June, 1916, he removed to Scottsbluff county and founded the vital banking institution of which he has since been the executive head. Mr. Redfield has become a zealous advocate of the principles of the Republican party and has been influential in its local campaign activities. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, as were also his parents. In 1885 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Redfield to Miss Mary E. Barrett, who, was born at Brockport, New York and who was a girl at the time of the family removal to Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Redfield became the parents of two children: Mattie, who became, in 1915, the wife of William W. Lockwood, died in December, 1917, and her only child, Marguerite, is being reared in the home of her maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Redfield; Franklin, only son of the subject of this review, entered the United States navy in connection with the nation's participation in the late World War, his enlistment having taken place in June, 1917, and he having been assigned to service in the electrical department of the submarine work, at San Pedro, California, where he continued to be stationed until the close of the war; he is now employed by the telephone company at Scottsbluff. HARVEY BEEBE, whose well improved ranch property is situated in the north central part of Scottsbluff county, where Mitchell is his postoffice address, is to be definitely credited with pioneer honors in this section of the state, where he took up his abode in 1887, when Scottsbluff county was still an integral part of old Cheyenne county. His individual success and advancement have kept pace with the splendid development of this section of the state and he is one of the leading men of his community--a substantial agriculturist and stockgrower and a citizen who takes loyal interest in all things that conserve civic and industrial growth. Mr. Beebe was born in Monroe county, Iowa, September 22, 1865, and he is a posthumous son of Jeremiah Beebe, who was one of the pioneer farmers in the Hawkeye state, where he died fourteen days prior to the birth of the subject of this review. He was a native of Illinois and his wife, whose maiden name was Vaneta Chidester, was born in Virginia, she having passed the closing years of her life in Iowa and having been a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, while her husband was a staunch Republican in his political proclivities. Of their six children, the statement above implies, Harvey, of this sketch, is the youngest; Eliza, is the wife of Lorenzo Warner, and they were residing in Cloud county, Arkansas, at the time when Mr. Beebe last ehard (sic) concerning them; Eli continued to reside in Monroe county, Iowa, where he is a, successful market-gardener; John is a prosperous farmer near Albia, that state; Richard is deceased and was a resident of the state of Washington at the time of his death; and Isaiah died at Gering, Scottsbluff county, Nebraska, in which vicinity he owned land and had instituted the development of a farm, his widow now being a resident of Wyoming. Reared under the conditions that marked the pioneer period in the history of the Hawkeye state, Harvey Beebe early gained fellowship with honest toil and endeavor, as is evident when it is stated that when he was but thirteen years old he began to provide for himeslf (sic) and assist his widowed mother by hauling coal with team and wagon. He made good use of the advantages afforded in the public schools of his home county, but naturally his attendance in school was somewhat irregular, owing to the heavy responsibilities that were early placed upon him. He continued his residence in Iowa until 1887, when, |
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