las county, Illinois, in 1873, being the son of A, J. and Sidney (Campbell) West. The father was one of the gallant sons of this great country who responded to President Lincoln's call for volunteers to preserve the integrity of the Union when the United States was threatened with disintegration. He was born, reared and educated in Indiana, but before the outbreak of hostilities, had established himself as a farmer in Illinois and it was as a member of the Twenty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry that he entered the Union army, serving for three and a half years and thus participating in many of the hardest battles of that memorable conflict. Today Mr. West is still living a hale, hardy, well preserved man of seventy-seven and from the sunset years can look back along the decades and feel that he has played a worthy and important part in the history of his country. Sidney (Campbell) West was born in Ohio in 1844, is living at Osceola, Iowa. After the close of the war A. J. West moved to Iowa where he was able to get land for a reasonable price and there established himself as a general farmer and stock man. There are nine children in the West family: John, a farmer in Iowa; James, a locomotive engineer who went to Japan when the great Trans-Siberian railway was built and has since been associated with that company; Charles; Edward, the sheriff of Clark county, Iowa; L. S., who resides in Iowa; Nellie who is living at home with her parents; Minnie, the wife of True Wood, an Iowa farmer; George, a carpenter who was in the service of the government during the war with Germany, serving twenty months in France with the engineering corps; and Walter, who, is in the government mail service at Osceola, Iowa. Charles West gained his early education in the common schools of Illinois and while going to school also assumed many duties on the home farm, thus early becoming a potential business man while a youth in years. After finishing school he chose agriculture as the vocation toward which his inclinations turned also as the business with which he was most familiar but he was ambitious to get ahead in the world and as Iowa was so well settled up that land was high in price, decided to hazard his fortune in Nebraska and in 1905 came to Sioux county where he took up a homestead of eighty acres on which he proved up. Later he purchased the Royce place in township 23-58, section 10, which gave him a landed estate of four hundred and fifty-three acres of which two hundred acres are under ditch. Mr. West has made this one of the valuable farm properties of his neighborhood and engages in general farming and stock-raising. In 1912, was solemnized the marriage of Charles West and Miss Polly Johnson, the daughter of David Johnson, who was a resident of Iowa when his daughter was born. Both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are now deceased. Mrs. West is a member of the Baptist church, one of the substantial progressive women who are making their mark in this twentieth century and demonstrating that it is the woman at the wheel who helps make the world roll on to a greater and better development. Mr. West is a Republican in politics and his fraternal affiliations are with the Masonic order, beng (sic) a Thirty-second degree Mason and also a member of the Odd Fellows. JOHN BOATSMAN. -- Definite efficiency has characterized the service of the Boatsmann in the responsible office of president of the Farmers and Merchants State Bank of Morrill, and his administration has done much to conserve the success that has marked the history of this important and representative financial institution of Scottsbluff county, the while his personality and civic loyalty have gained for him an enviable place in the popular confidence and esteem of the residents of the valley. Mr. Boatsman was born in Iowa, September 5, 1875, being the son of Deark M. and Margaret (Menken) Boatsman, both of whom were natives of Iowa, where they were reared, educated and later met and married. There were five children in the Boatsman family four of whom are still living: Mangel; Fannie, the wife of Menhard Ehmen, who resides at Sterling, Nebraska; John, the subject of this review; Minnie, who married Henry Eilers of Sterling, Nebraska, and Carrie, the wife of Edward Johnson, Mr. Johnson himself is now associated with the management of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of that city of which D. M. Boatsman is president. The parents were members of the Evangelical Lutheran church, a faith in which the children were reared. The father was and adherent of the principles of the Democratic party with which he usually cast his vote. Margaret Menken Boatsman died November 12, 1899, leaving a sorrowing family and darkened home, as she had been a devoted wife and mother and worthy helpmate for her husband during the years of their married life. John Boatsman was reared in his native state and there in the common schools laid the foundation for the excellent practical educa- |
tion that has proved of inestimable value to him during the years of his commercial life. At an early age the boy determined upon a career in the realms of finance and as soon as his school days were over entered a bank to there learn the practical side of the business and soon became a business man of marked circumspection and progressiveness, so that success has come to him as a natural perogative (sic). That this choice of a vocation was a wise one needs no telling to the friends and business associates of this man who while yet young in years bears the responsibilities that so long were regarded as only to be held by the grey beards, but new blood was needed in financial circles and it has been such youthful bankers who have written history in the Panhandle and Nebraska. In 1909 Mr. Boatsman decided that a great future was in store for the irrigated sections of the Platte valley not only for the agriculturist but for allied interests and one of the most important of them was the banks, which play such an important part in opening up and developing any section of the country. With this idea in mind Mr. Boatsman located in Morrill where he became the prime mover in the organization of the Farmers and Merchants Bank and its heaviest stockholder assuming from the first the guiding hand in its policies as he was elected first president of the institution. The bank, founded the same year Mr. Boatsman came to the city, based-its early operations upon a capital stock of $25,000, has surplus of $20,000 and deposits of $25,000, an aggregate that is fairly large for a young institution and well demonstrates the able management that has established a policy which has given the bank the confidence and hearty support of the resident of the entire Morrill valley. As a broad minded and progressive citizen Mr. Boatsman manifests lively interest in all things touching the communal welfare and the development of the many and varied industries of this rich, teeming agricultural district that has so well demonstrated what the American farmer and business man can accomplish when they set out to pace the world in production and modern business. Mr. Boatsman is too wide guaged (sic) a man to be tied down by strict party lines in casting his vote in local elections though nationally he advocates the principles of the Democratic party with which he usually voted. His fraternal affiliations are with the Masonic order of which he is a member of high degree, being a Thirty-second degree member of that order and is also associated with the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of Scottsbluff. On September 5, 1899, Mr. Boatsman married Miss Emilie Ehmen, who was born in Illinois, and to this union one child has been born: Joy Sterling, who, after completing the high school course of four years entered the State University of Nebraska, where he expects to spend another four years and graduate with his Bachelor's degree. Mrs. Boatsman, a woman of refinement and culture is a leader in the social activities of her city, being the popular chatelaine of one of the most attractive and hospitable homes in Morrill, a position in which she is ably supported by her husband who has made a host of friends in the Panhandle and is held in high esteem by the many men of his wide and varied business acquaintance as well as the warm friends of Scottsbluff county, where he is winning an enviable position as one of the younger and progressive members of the banking fraternity. HENRY G. KARPF, cashier of the First National Bank of Morrill, is one of Scottsbluff county's young and progressive citizens who have created a favorable impression in banking circles and established themselves in positions formerly held by men many years their senior. Mr. Karpf is not a product of the Panhandle though he is a middle western man and thus has the push and energy that is the, most striking characteristics of men born and reared west of the Allegheny mountains. He is a native of the Buckeye state, born in Conneant, Ohio, July 22, 1891, being the son of Charles and Hattie (Daniels) Karpf, the former born and reared in Colorado while the mother like her son first saw the light of day in the Ohio valley and is a worthy representative of one of the hardy pioneer families that located in Ohio when that state was close to the American frontier. Three children formed the younger members of the Karpf family: Louise, who is married to O. K. Collerick, a resident of Ohio; Henry, the subject of this review; and Marion, who is still in Ohio. Charles Karpf was for many years a merchant in Ohio and still continues the business to which he has devoted his time and energies to a result that he is now one of the well known and substantial business men of his district. He takes an active interest in the civic and communal affairs of his locality and in politics is an adherent to the princples (sic) of the Republcan (sic) party. Henry Karpf was reared in his native state |
and as his parents lived on a farm was thus enabled to secure the best educational advantages during his youth in the community's public institutions and soon after completing his schooling started in to attain his business training in local banking institutions, where his early career reflected credit upon the schools in the excellent foundation that he had been enabled to establish and upon which his later financial career was erected. From first entering business life the influence of his early training has been of inestimable advantage to Mr. Karpf and his career thus far has in turn reflected credit on those who instructed him and also upon his own ability and character. Desiring a broader field for his endeavors while still a youth of sixteen, he determined to enter the realms of finance and believed that there were many more opporunities (sic) in the newer country west of the Mississippi river, came to Nebraska in 1907, to accept a position in the First National Bank of Mitchell where he became acquainted with this section of the country and the banking business at first hand and within a sort time had become established as one of the rising younger men in banking circles of the Panhandle. Devoting not only much time but deep study to the many problems that arose in his business Mr. Karpf became an authority on many of the intricate problems that arose in the bank. He was conservative in policy and at the same time was far sighted enough and also progressive in his ideas and methods that few opportunities for increasing the business and establishng (sic) the prestige of his institution escaped him so that in 1913 when he came to Morrill to accept the position of cashier of the First National Bank of this city Mr. Karpf had an enviable reputation and his high standing among the men of importance in the financial circles not only of the Panhandle but throughout western Nebraska and the neighboring states to the west and north. The First National Bank has a capital of $25,000, surplus of $5,000 and deposits of $400,000, which establishes it in the front rank of banks in the middle west. Mr. Karpf is a man of marked business ability, strict integrity, personal probity and sound citizenship, and he well merits the success and respect which he has won among the citizens of the Morrill valley and Scottsbluff county. In his political views Mr. Karpf is independent, not bound by close party lines when he votes in local elections, choosing the man best qualified to serve the community rather than a party candidate. His fraternal associations are with the Masonic order in which he has taken his Thirty-second degree. On August 21, 1916, Mr. Karpf married Miss Lodicea Babcock, a native of Colorado, where she was reared and educated. Mr. Karpf is one of the coterie of young business men who are making history in the Panhandle today and it is to them that we must look to maintain the high standard set during, the great war and which for the development of our country must be maintained in the future and this torch of success which they are so ably carrying will then be handed down the years to posterity. EDWIN A. BEARD, M. D., is one of the favored mortals whom nature launches into the world with the heritage of sturdy old colonial ancestry, a splendid physique, a masterful mind and energy enough for several men. Added to these attributes are excellent intellectual and professional attainments and the useful lessons of a wide and varied experience which he has stored away and which are within call whenever an emergency arises. He is the true type of the natural physician and gentleman, using the word in the older and best accepted sense, and today is a worthy representative of the best in professional and communal life, dignified and yet possessing an affability and abiding human sympathy that have won him warm friends among all classes and conditions of men in the Morrill valley and all over Scottsbluff county. Mr. Beard was born in the state of Wisconsin, February 3, 1871, being the son of Abraham and Sarah F. (Hays) Beard, the former being a worthy scion of one of the old colonial families of Virginia, where he was reared and received excellent educational advantages during his younth (sic) and upon attaining manhood's estate decided to seek his fortune farther west, he crossed the Allegheny mountains, then passed along the southern shores of the Great Lakes, but did not find that which he was seeking until the great pine forests of Wisconsin were entered and there in 1841, he became a pioneer of the Badger state. Nothing daunted by the work required to claim a home and farming land from the wilderness, Abraham Beard gradually cleared his land, planted his crops, erected a good though primitive home for his family and with the passing years became a man of prominence in his section. He was a hard worker, had excellent executive ability and with the passing years accumulated a comfortable fortune and in his later life could look down the passing decades and feel that his was a life well spent, that he had |
played no unimportant part in opening up and developing the west for settlement and the culture and civilization that have since become so firmly established in that great commonwealth bounded by two of the greatest bodies of fresh water in the world. It was such men as Mr. Beard who blazed the way for Wisconsin to become a state in which some of the best and greatest reforms of our great country have had their inception and later been adopted by other states and the nation itself. He was a staunch adherent to the tenets of the Republican party and a loyal member of the Presbyterian church, to which both he and his wife belonged. Passing away in 1890, Mr. Beard had lived long enough to realize that the work, privations and hardships of the pioneers had not been in vain and handed on to posterity, through his cihldren (sic) a heritage of inestimable value. Mrs. Beard was born in Indiana where she was educated and passed her girlhood; she proved a woman of courage and resource, as she accompanied her husband to the pioneer home in the wilderness of Wisconsin and there became the helpmate every man needs who is combating nature and the primitive and for all the years of his life was the one to encourage in dark hours and enjoy in the happy ones. She survived her husband, living beyond the psalmist's span of three score years and ten, as she was not called to her last long rest until 1903, a woman whose good deeds were as the number of her days. Edwin Beard was reared on his father's farm and attended the public schools where he laid the excellent foundation for his higher studies that proved of inestimable value when he entered college. While attending high school he had already determined upon a professional career. Having grown up in a frontier community he was mentally advanced far beyond his years due to the many decisions and occasions when he was required to think for himself and act quickly without the opportunity of consulting an older or more experienced person. After graduating from the local high school Dr. Beard entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Keokuk, Iowa, where he received his degree of M. D. in 1898, and the following summer located for the practice of his profession at Cobb, Wisconsin, where he remained three years, built up a good practice, of which he disposed to advantage when he sought a wider field and removed to the city of Milwaukee. For three years the doctor devoted his time, talents and energies to special branches of his profession in the city but came to realize that a young man had greater opportunties (sic) for varied practice in a newer settled country than Milwaukee county and decided to locate farther west. In 1904 he came to Nebraska, looked many towns over before settling in Stanton, where he opened an office and was soon enjoying a most gratifying practice both in the town and the surrounding country. Being a student of affairs as well as medicine and human nature, Dr. Beard sized up the conditions in this state very accurately. He realized that the independent man is the one who does not have to rely solely upon his fellow men for a living, that a land owner is freer than the city dweller, so after six years he determined to join the ranks of the landed class and being far sighted and a good business man availed himself of the practically free land yet to be obtained in the Panhandle and in 1910 came to Scottsbluff county to take up a claim in the Henry neighborhood. He lived on the land, made the required improvements, broke the soil, planted crops for the necessary supplies for the family and his animals and at the same time engaged in the practice of his profession throughout the valley, supplyng (sic) a great need for medical and surgical attention that the residents of the section had been forced to do without or else go a long distance to obtain. During the period on the farm Dr. Beard established himself highly in the esteem of his patients, his friends and business associates and within a short period was one of the most popular physicians in the Morrill district, enjoying a lucrative practice which many a city man would envy. When the town of Morrill was started he became its pioneer physician and as the town has grown so has his business until today he is one of the most prominent men of the medical profession in Scottsbluff county and the Panhandle, being called long distances for consultation on difficult and complicated cases. In his profession and as a man he is ever one to remember and aid "those who are forgotten," and he bears optimistic cheer and encouragement as well as professional administration to those in suffering or distress so it may well be understood that he is loved in this community in which he has lived and labored for a decade. September 8, 1902, Dr. Beard married Miss Alice A. Pooley, the daughter of Robert and Esther (Rapson) Pooley, both natives of England who came to the United States when small with their parents in about 1840. Robert Pooley was a farmer of considerable success and went overland to California in the early fifties. Miss Pooley was born at Scales Mound, reared and educated in Illinois and to them |
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