when he came to the county, he, like others of that time, went through some hardships. His first home and all the buildings on his farm were made of logs hauled from the nearby canyon. On June 17, 1877, Mr. Trowbridge was married to Miss Emma Sherman, who died October 10, 1889. Her parents were Harry and Marion (Tubbs) Sherman, residents of Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Trowbridge became the parents of five children, the following surviving: Lora, who is the wife of L. W. Cox, of Barclay, California; Stella, who is the wife of Frederick Gillman, of Reddington, Nebraska; Blanche, who is the wife of William Thienhardt, of Banner county; and Grace, who is the wife of John Bybee, lives in Kimball. Mr. Trowbridge has. been somewhat active in local politics and has served in precinct offices. G. LEE BASYE, the popular and efficient county attorney of Box Butte county is a native son of Nebraska and almost one of the county as he came here when only six months old and belongs to the younger generation of professional men in the Panhandle who are carrying responsibilities and honors that used only to be accorded to the greybeards. Mr. Basye was born near Minden, Nebraska, December 1, 1886, the son of George S. and Cora (Rhodes) Basye, the former a native of Ohio, while the mother was born in Illinois. Lee was the elder of the two children in the family as he had one sister, Lenna. George Basye was a ranchman who came to the Panhandle when his son was an infant, and took a pre-emption and homestead northwest of Alliance, where he became a well-to-do farmer and cattle-raiser. On this farm the family lived for some ten years during which time the boy attended the country school two miles from his home, walking back and forth each day so that he grew up sturdy and healthy. Mr. Basye well remembers the first money he earned when only eleven years of age, taking care of cattle for a neighbor a month in the summer, for which he received five dollars, a sum that looked very big to him then and it was, for money was not plentiful on the prairies. The next winter a heavy snow fell throughout this section of the country and cattle perished by the thousands all over the plains and the boy went out when the storm had passed to skin the dead carcasses. He sold the hides and thus secured enough money to buy himself a cowboy saddle and a pair of high heeled boots and when a kindly neighbor gave him a pair of spurs he felt himself to be a full fledged cowboy though only twelve years old, for he was an excellent rider and quite able to ride with the best of the boys on round-up and herd. The first school he attended was the typical "soddy" of the plains, furnished with home made benches and desks, but there was a good teacher so the children really gained excellent knowledge. In 1901 Mrs. Basye moved into Alliance and Lee entered the city schools, finished the grammar grades then graduated from the high school. He had early decided upon a professional career and though he would have to help himself to secure a higher education, was nothing daunted by this prospect. He worked in the shops of the railroad company during the summer vacations and during the school year spent his afternoons in a shoe house, thus making a goodly sum of money. In the fall of 1908, Mr. Basye matriculated in the arts and science course at the State University, Lincoln. He specialized in public speaking and oratory, in addition to the general arts course and had the honor in his junior year of winning the Hastings prize in the State University Oratory Contest. June 13, 1912, Mr. Basye received his A.B. degree from the college of letters and science and the following fall entered the law school; pursued a two year course there and on June 11, 1914, garduated (Sic) with the degree of LL.B. and was admitted to practice. During his senior year in the law school he was elected Ivy Day orator of the class of 1914 and took his part in the Class Day exercises and the planting of the class ivy. Immediately after commencement he returned to Alliance and opened an office. Prior to graduation Mr. Basye had filed as candidate for county attorney on the Republican ticket and was elected by a substantial majority at the general elections in November, 1914. He proved so efficient a county official that he was re-elected in 1916, and again for a third term in 1918, which proves not only his personal and political popularity, but testifies to his standing as a lawyer in the community. During the first eighteen months Mr. Basye was in office he tried more cases under the prohibition law than in any other county in the state excepting Douglas county in which Omaha is located. When war was declared against Germany Mr. Basye became a member of the Box Butte County council of Defense and chairman of the Box Butte Legal Council of Defense. He was called in the first draft on October 22, 1918, to entrain for Fort Kearney, San Diego, California, but |
the call was cancelled (sic) on account of the Spanish influenza. He was called again on November 12, but as the armistice was signed November 11, this call was also cancelled (sic). June 16, 1915, Mr. Bayse was married at Lincoln, to Miss Alta M. Kates, who was born near Hickman, Lancaster county, Nebraska, the daughter of Morris and Katharine (Stein) Kates, the former a native of New Jersey as was also the mother, On November 19, 1919, a son, Wendall Morris Basye was born to them, and who will possibly be a partner with his father in after years. Mr. Basye has great faith in the future of this section off Nebraska which he has demonstrated by becoming a land owner, for he bought a hundred and sixty acre tract four miles north of Alliance, all of which is under cultivation. He is forced to be a farmer by proxy as his duties keep him in the city, but he is progressive in his ideas and methods and keeps abreast of the development of agricultural industry and finds that his land is a paying proposition. Mr. and Mrs. Bayse are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In politics Mr. Basye is a staunch adherent of the priciples (sic) of the Republican party, while his fraternal affiliations are with the Masonic order and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He owns a fine modern residence in Alliance at 614 Big Horn Avenue, where he and his wife and son dispense a cordial hospitality to their many friends. JAMES W. MILLER, the present efficient and popular sheriff of Box Butte county came to Nebraska with his parents in the late seventies and thus must be accorded pioneer honors. During his tenure of office Mr. Miller has established and maintained a record for loyalty, fidelity to duty and courageous and diplomatic handling of the important work that has been assigned to him, with the result that he has gained a secure place in the confidence of the citizens. Mr. Miller was born in the heavily timbered country adjoining Toledo, Ohio, November 23, 1866, the son of William and Tabitha (Jeffers) Miller, the former a native of that land of hills and heather, who brought the rugged Scotch characteristics of his race to America when he immigrated to this country and in turn transmitted them to his son. Mrs. Miller was a native of the Keystone state, being reared and educated in Pennsylvania. There were two children in the family, Anna, who married a man named Jeffers and James W. William Miller was one of the gallant adopted sons of the Union who responded to President Lincoln's call for men to preserve the country at the opening of the Civil War, as he enlisted in Company I, Fourteenth Ohio Infantry in 1861. He participated in some of the most severe engagements of that memorable conflict and saw service under General Thomas. His horse was shot from under him and he was wounded at the battle of Mission Ridge and he was again wounded, being shot through the neck at the Battle of Shiloh. In the fall of 1865 there was an Indian uprising on the plains and Mr. Miller with the members of his company started for the seat of disturbance but by the time they reached Omaha, the affair was over and being returned to Washington, D. C., the company was mustered out of the service. James grew up on his father's farm, early learned the practical side of farm business and during the winters attended the district school which was conducted in a log building two miles from his home. While yet a young boy he began to earn money by riding a horse around on the barn floor for his uncle in order to thresh flax, later it was further threshed by men with wooden flails. For this service he received a twenty-five cent "shin-plaster" note, the paper money of the war days, and spent it when his father took him to Toledo to buy a cap. James remained on the farm with his parents, and when old enough assumed many of the responsibilities and duties of farming to aid his father. The boy helped clear land for his father; hauled the rocks, stumps and brush away from the clearing when William Miller would break the sod, plant and sow the crops. In 1879, the Miller family came to Nebraska, locating on a homestead near Phillips, in Hamilton county, where James continued to attend school during the winter time. His father became an invalid soon after this and the whole burden of running the frontier farm and supporting the family fell on the slim shoulders of the son, but he was a stout hearted man and willingly put his strength to the task which would have daunted many an older person. James remained on the farm taking care of his parents until his father died in 1895. He had been out to look the country in Box Butte county over four years previously, and when it became possible for him to move he sold the old place and with his mother came here permanently, locating in Alliance. Almost at once he accepted a position in the railroad shops of the Burlington Railroad where he entered as an apprentice to the boiler maker's trade, served his time at it and became |
a master boiler maker. For eighteen years he was connected with the company in various branches of construction work, then resigned to take up carpenter work, that he might be out doors more and not so confined as in the shops. Mr. Miller was a skillful mechanic and it was not long before he was a success in the new vocation from which he gained a very good income. He bought land and erected a good comfortable home in Alliance and in 1918 was elected sheriff of Box Butte county on the Republican ticket. His early training specially fitted him for such a position of responsibility which he has filled in a meritorious manner to the entire satisfaction of the citizens. On September 2, 1900, Mr. Miller was married at Kearney, Nebraska, to Miss Esther Crowell, a native of that city, the daughter of Daniel and Sarah (Cassaday) Crowell, both natives of Pennsylvania. One child has been born to this union, Herbert, a student in the Alliance high school. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are members of the Methodist church, while Mr. Miller is a Thirty-second degree Mason and a Republican in politics. CALVIN L. HASHMAN, one of the popular and efficient commissioners of Box Butte county who is serving a third term in this responsible office was born near Mercer, Missouri, April 25, 1866, the son of William and Ruth (Mobley) Hashman, the former a native of Ohio. Calvin was next to the youngest in a family of eleven children and grew up self reliant and strong. William Hashman was a farmer, so his children were reared in the strict discipline demanded by farm life and each and every one of them began to assume duties around the home place when their age and strength permitted. Calvin was sent to the district school near his home, and there laid the foundation of a good practical education that has been of value to him in his business life. While yet a boy he was an experienced and practical farmer, having learned the business from his father. While yet a small lad he began to earn money, a habit which he has kept through life. The first work consisted of riding a horse and hauling hay to the stack. A rope was attached to the saddle and the other end was looped around a hundle (sic) of hay and then pulled to the desired location, and for the work the boy received thirty cents a day. Calvin remained at home until he was eighteen, then decided to establish himself independently as a farmer for he had chosen the vocation of husbandman for a life work, as it was one to which his tastes turned and already a business with which he was well acquainted. In 1884 he came to Boone county, Nebraska, one of the pioneers of this state and the next year located in Dawes county on a homestead S. E. one-quarter, section fifteen, township twenty-five, range forty-nine, ten miles north-west of the present city of Alliance. Later a part of Dawes was erected at Box Butte county and Mr. Hashman found himself a resident of the new division. He put his new land under cultivation, built good and permanent buildings for his stock and erected a good frontier home for his family. As fortune favored and he was able to dispose of his crops Mr. Hashman demonstrated his belief in the future of this section of the Panhandle by buying more property until today he is the owner of a landed estate of two thousand acres of "good Nebraska land," all of which can be cultivated. This magnificient (sic) fortune has been made by the unaided efforts of Mr. Hashman himself who is the architect of his own prosperity and can look with well deserved pride upon the accomplishment. He has been engaged in general farming and stock raising since first locating here. In the early days when money was not so plentiful and his farm smaller, Mr. Hashman employed his spare time as a freighter, moving immigrants from Hay Springs, the end of the railroad, to their new homes on claims taken by them in the new country south and west. When the railroad was being constructed he freighted for the contractors, bringing supplies to the construction camps established beyond the rail-head and at one time brought in all the necessities required when the tunnel was drilled through Pine Ridge. He followed the building of the road as far west as New Castle, Wyoming. On November 29, 1883, Mr. Hashman married Miss Cora Jay, in Mercer county, Missouri, and two children were born to them: Bessie, who married Frank Vaughn, a farmer and stockraiser of Box Butte county, and Arthur C., who married Myrtle Heartley and has six children. They live on a farm near Alliance where the father is engaged in general farming and stock raising. Mrs. Hashman died and in the early nineties Mr. Hashman married Miss Ella M. Lapham. They raised a family of seven children; Amy, the wife of Floyd Tryne, a farmer near Hemingford and they have two children; J. Leo, also married and now a farmer near Alliance; Ada, at home with her father; Frank C., Lester A., G. Wesley and A. Roy, all at home. Mrs. Hashman |
died February 16, 1916 and for his third wife Mr. Hashman choose Mrs. Jennie M. Condon nee Erickson, and one boy, Cecil B., has been born to the union. Mr. Hashman was elected county commissioner in 1911, on the Republican ticket and at the present time is serving his third term in this office, which demonstrates his efficient service. He is a man of modern ideas and methods, is progressive in his ideas and takes and earnest and active part in all affairs of the county as well as civic and communal movements for the development of local enterprise. He supports with money and time every movement that will develop the county and Alliance. He was a member of the board when the Box Butte county court house was erected and it was due to his business sagacity and the fact that he was constantly supervising the work that the building was completed without a dollar's worth of graft, though he had many an uplesant (sic) encounter with the grafters to accomplish his end. On agricultural subjects the commissioner is an authority, especially alfalfa, and has contributed a valuable monograph on the raising of this valuable crop in Nebraska. He has one hundred and eighty acres himself in the county, runs an average of a hundred and fifty to two hundred head of cattle yearly and cuts about two hundred tons of alfalfa in addition to general farm produce, and two hundred tons of wild hay. Mr. Hashman is a true type of American farmer, the greatest producer on earth. JAMES H. H. HEWETT, chief clerk in the United States Land Office at Alliance has filled this and many other public offices of the county with marked efficiency, honesty and loyalty that is unusual in this day of haste and hurry, when most men are chasing dollars rather than devoting themselves to the welfare of others. Mr. Hewett was born in Brownville, Nebraska, July 23, 1862, the son of Obadiah B. and Mary W. (Turner) Hewett. The father was a native of Hope, Maine, and transmitted some of his sturdy New England qualities to his son. Mr. Hewett's one brother lives in Arkansas, where he has a thousand acre rice farm, while his sister, Mrs. Catherine L. Davis has for many years been a teacher in the schools of Los Angeles, California. Obediah Hewett was a lawyer and served as district attorney. When Nebraska was divided into three districts he was given charge of the southeastern district where he gained an enviable reputation as a jurist. He took an active part in the affairs of his county and the community where he became a man of prominence. Mr. Hewett was a member of the state normal board for years, was first president of the Nebraska State Teachers' Association and was one of the prime movers in the organization and building of Hastings College. He was one of the country's gallant sons who served during the Civil War to help preserve the integrity of the Union as a member of Company M, Second Nebraska Cavalry. He was commissioned first lieutenant but as the captain was disabled Mr. Hewett filled his place as first officer of the company. James Hewett finished the public schools of Brownsville, then matriculated at the Peru Normal School where he graduated in 1883. The next fall he entered Hastings College, receiving the degree of A.B. in 1885. That winter he found employment in the Government Land Office as clerk and served for a year before being transferred to McCook as clerk in the land office there. A year later he was again transferred to Bloomington, and on July 11, 1888, was married to Miss Maude L. Kelley of that city, who was born at Roanoke, Indiana, the daughter of James E. and Margaret J. (Lawrence) Kelley. Two children were born to this union: James K., a graduate of the Alliance high school in 1908, entered the State University in the fall and after pursuing an extended course in electrical engineering graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science and Electrical Engineering in 1913. Before going to college the young man had learned the trade of printer. On his return home after commencement he joined the force of the Alliance Times, where he spent some years learning the editorial end of the newspaper business and in 1916, feeling that he was now in a position to handle a paper, he purchased the Broken Bow Republican, where he is now in business. He married Miss Anna M. Veith, the youngest daughter of Henry Veith of Lincoln, Nebraska, and they have one child, Helen. The second child of James H. H. Hewett is Helen Bernice, also a graduate of the Alliance high school, in 1915. She entered the State University that fall and graduated in 1919. While in the university Miss Hewett was a champion woman athlete and since leaving the university has been instructor in physical education in the Lincoln high school. Mr. Hewett came to Box Butte county in the fall of 1888, locating at Hemingford for the purpose of practicing law, but when the United States Land Office opened at Alliance in 1890, |
he was appointed clerk and moved to that city to assume his governmental duties. He had been chosen chief clerk of the office as he was the only man in the county who had had experience in a land office and had shown marked ability in conducting the affairs of the government while serving in the same capacity in other offices in the state. Mr. Hewett remained in charge here until the spring of 1894 when he resigned to engage in the practice of his profession in partnership with R. C. Noleman, a prominent attorney of this section, who had made an enviable reputation for himself as a jurist. Two years after opening his office Mr. Hewett was elected county judge on the Republican ticket at the November elections of 1896. In addition to his judicial duties he acted as deputy county clerk, filling the two offices four years, then in January, 1900, he was appoineted (sic) chief clerk of the land office, accepted, and has since remained there working for the government. Mr. Hewett is one of the prominent and progressive business men who have played an important part in the development of the Panhandle where lie has seen the great changes that transformed the so called "American Desert" into a wealthy farming community that produces abundantly. He is one of the best known and liked citizens of the county, having been a resident for nearly thirty years. He has always been ready and willing to give his time and money to help with county or municipal affairs and as a result of this popularity had the honor in July, 1919, to be chosen by unanimous vote at a non-partisan mass meeting of the citizens of Alliance as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Nebraska, held in December of that year at Lincoln, to frame a new constitution for the state. Mr. Hewett is a prominent member of the Masonic order. having been the Worshipful Master of Alliance Lodge No. 183 A. F. and A. M., eight terms. He is also a member of Sheba chapter No. 54 R. A. M., is a Past Commander of Bunah Commandery No. 26 K, T., and a member of Adoniram Lodge No. 6 Scottish Rite and Nebraska Consistory No. 1 A. and A. S. R., Omaha. For years Mr. Hewett has been a member of Box Butte Camp No. 733 of the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Hewett owns a fine modern home in Alliance where he and his wife dispense a cordial hospitality to their many friends. JESSE M. MILLER, one of the prosperous and progressive business men of Alliance is the owner and manager of the Alliance Hotel and Cafe, enjoying a clientele of the best citizens of the town and the traveling public. Mr. Miller was born in Peru, Indiana, January 13, 1879, the son of John A. and Lucinda (Nell) Miller, the former born in Ohio and the mother a native of Peru. Jesse was the second child of the four born to his parents. As his father was a Dunkard minister the family moved from town to town as the minister assumed different charges and thus the children went to school in the institutions of the various localities where the family lived in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, but they managed to lay the foundations for good, practical educations. Jesse's first, work was shoveling grain in an elevator. After finishing the elementary schools Mr. Miller attended a commercial college at night to further prepare himself for a business career, and his first position was with the firm of Marshal Field and Company of Chicago when he was twenty-one, where he remained eighteen months before going to New York to enter the service of the H. B. Claflin Company, wholesale dry goods house. It was while working there that Mr. Miller's whole career was changed, when Mr. Claflin, president of the company said to him "Jesse, a man of your temperament should be in business for himself, even if it was nothing but a peanut stand. I would do that myself if I had nothing else." Mr. Miller decided from that day never to work for another corporation, as a man on a salary never gets ahead in the world. Soon after this he resigned, took a trip to England, Belgium and France, and while this was not a success from a financial point of view, as he arrived in New York broke, it was a great and broadening experience of value. He worked his way, back to his old home in Indiana, was employed on a farm for a month, then decided to head for the "land of opportunity," the west, and came to Nebraska, locating in Crawford, July 28, 1905, with just a dollar in his pocket. Almost at once he secured work on the ranch of Antone Mechem, where he remained a year and a half, busy at all kinds of farm work. He saw that the best thing was to secure land of his own and took up a homestead on Sand Creek, in Sioux county, placed good and permanent improvements on his place and engaged in farming until 1908. October 3, 1908, Mr. Miller was married at Chadron, to Miss Anna Lux, born in Sioux county, the daughter of Carl Lux, a native of Germany, and Rena (Fellows) Lux, who was born in Illinois. Mr. Lux was one of the first settlers of Sioux county and held office |
as county treasurer four terms. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Miller, Martha K., in school in Alliance. After his marriage Mr. Miller went to Crawford, started the Owl Cafe, which he made a success but sold at the end of two years and then bought the Gate City Hotel there in 1910. After establishing it on a sound basis he disposed of it at a satisfactory figure in 1914 and came to Alliance. At first he rented the Alliance Cafe which he rebuilt in 1916 and bought the old Burlington Hotel that year. The following year he purchased the Alliance Hotel building and in 1918 rebuilt the Burlington which he uses as an annex to the cafe. Mr. Miller has displayed his faith in the Panhandle by investing heavily in land as he is the owner of a quarter section of the finest land in Box Butte county, where he is considered one of the best all around farmers of the section, producing the butter, milk, and vegetables for his hotel and the cafe so that his guests get the benefit of fresh, home grown products, a very unusual thing now days. Mr. Miller is an up-to-date business man in every respect, keeps abreast of all the latest movements and improvements in hotel business and adopts all that are of benefit to him. He is a supporter of all civic and municipal movements and very popular with the residents of his city. He is a Mason and Shriner and also belongs to the Elks. ANTON UHRIG, county commissioner of Box Butte county, was born in the Province of Nassau, of the German Empire, February 2, 1847, and has through his life demonstrated the fine qualities of industry and thrift for which the German people have gained high standing. His parents were Franz and Anna M. (Miller) Uhrig, both natives of Germany. The father of the family was a merchant who ran a grocery store and by this means supported his family of three boys and three girls, of whom Anton was the second oldest boy. In addition to his commercial affairs Mr. Uhrig also owned a farm and thus was more able to care for the children than were many of his compatriots. Anton attended the public schools in his native land until he was fourteen years old when he was apprenticed to a harness maker, served three years at the trade and became a journeyman. It was then that he earned his first money by working for his employer for two dollars a week and board. The young man was ambitious, he had heard of the success of many of his countrymen who had emigrated from the native land and determined that he, too, would seek his fortune in the new world. When twenty years old, accompanied by his sister, Anna M., and a friend who had already lived in the United States for some years, George Gundlach, who had been sheriff in his adopted country and who afterwards was elected to the United States Senate from Carlisle, Clinton county, Illinois, Anton set sail for America. He had relatives in Clinton county, Illinois, among them an uncle who owned a soda factory. After his arrival the young man drove one of the wagons while he was learning the language and customs of the country. When the season for summer drinks was over Mr. Uhrig worked at his trade of harnessmaker at various places and then secured steady employment at Council Bluffs, Iowa, for three years. During this time he attended night sessions in a commerical (sic) college to learn American methods which proved very valuable to him in later business life. Having laid aside some capital he opened a harness shop and factory of his own at Mondamin, Iowa, but disposed of it after three years to become a traveling salesman for a St. Louis furniture factory and in 1885 came to Box Butte county. He was so favorably impressed with the western push and energy of the pioneer settlers that while in Valentine, Nebraska he decided to locate in this state, and filed on land near Hemingford in the fall of 1885. The towns of Hemingford and Alliance were not in existance (sic) then but Mr. Uhrig, his brother Fred and brother-in-law shipped what supplies and goods they needed to Valentine and then with two teams drove to Box Butte across the country in true pioneer style, locating in what was nearly a wilderness. They proceeded to locations near the present town of Hemingford and were forced to use the cover of their "prairie schooners" for tents in which to live until they could haul logs and put up log and sod houses on their claims. Mr. Uhrig took a pre-emption and timber claim and in the fall of 1885 returned to Mexico, Missouri, where he was married in January, 1886, to Augusta Basse. Returning almost immediately to Hemingford with his bride, Mr. Uhrig brought with him a stock of goods bought while east, which consisted of hardware, saddlery, harness, farm implements and furniture and then opened the first store in Hemingford. This was really the start of the town of Hemingford, for from that time, the fall of 1885, people began to settle there and when the tide of immigration set in soon afterward, it became a flourishing village. Mr. Uhrig owns about six hundred acres of fine, arable land |
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