 BERT J. SEGER. |
as a member of the board of trustees of the church from the time of its organization and is a gracious figure in the representative social life of her home community. On August 31, 1883, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bower to Miss Sylvia Thomas, who was born in Pennsylvania, but was reared and educated in Kansas, where her parents settled in the pioneer days. She is a daughter of Lorenzo D. and Mary Thomas, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Ohio, and both were residents of Kansas at the time of their death. Mr. and Mrs. Bower have two children: Zulah, is the wife of William F. Gumaer, a merchant at Oshkosh, and Beulah is the wife of Charles L. Tomppert, editor and publisher of the Garden County News, at Oshkosh. BERT J. SEGER, who is officially identified with the great irrigating projects under government control in the Panhandle of Nebraska, came to Scottsbluff county in 1906, and took up his residence at Scottsbluff in 1910. He is secretary and treasurer of the North Platte Water Users Association, and secretary of the Farmers Irrigation District. Bert J. Seger was born in Polk county, Nebraska, February 13, 1874, the eldest of the seven surviving children of Andrew and Julia (Palmer) Seger, both of whom were born in Illinois, and came from there to Nebraska in 1872. The father homesteaded near Osceola and lived there until the spring of 1910, when removal was made to southwestern Kansas. In the fall of 1915 Andrew Seger and his wife established their home at Scottsbluff. Besides Bert J., their children are the following: Wilbur, operates a garage at Kinnard (sic), Nebraska; Elmer, a farmer northeast of Mitchell, Nebraska; Harry, a stenographer employed in a sugar factory at Scottsbluff; Charles, an engineer employed by the state in road building; Lester, a photographer at Lexington, and Vera, the wife of Howard Jennings. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Bert J. Seger received his elementary education in the schools of Osceola, following which he took advance courses at the Stromsburg and Fremont normal schools, and for twelve years was a teacher in his native state. He is a veteran of the Spanish-American War entering military service in June, 1898, and accompanied his regiment to the Philippine Islands where he participated in numerous engagements. He was discharged in August, 1899. In 1906 Mr. Seger came to Scottsbluff county and took up a homestead. In 1910, when appointed secretary of the North Platte Water Users Association, he came to the city and has lived here ever since. At the present time this government project has 1300 water users. He is also secretary of the Farmers Irrigation District, which includes about 65,000 acres. These enterprises are of such vast importance that only men of proved ability are entrusted with their management. In 1900 Mr. Seger was united in marriage with Miss Carrie C. Camp, who was born at Ashland, Nebraska. They have two sons: Arthur H. and Don, aged respectively seventeen and six years. Mr. Seger and family are members of the Church of Christ. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias, and politically he is a Democrat of considerable local prominence. Since 1915 he has been a member of the Democratic county central committee. ANGNST (sic) SUDMAN, an honored pioneer merchant of Oshkosh, to whose development and upbuilding he has contributed in large measure, has also assisted in the industrial advancement of the county which was still a part of Deuel county when he came here. Mr. Sudman is still extensively interested in ranch operations in this county and at Oshkosh is interested in a lumber business, besides being one of the chief stockholders of the First State Bank. Mr. Sudman was born in the province of Hanover, Germany, on October 6, 1865, and was reared in his native land, where he received excellent educational advantages. After he came to western Nebraska, as an ambitious and spirited young pioneer, he attended school at Lodgepole, Cheyenne county, in the winter of 1884-85, for the purpose of familiarizing himself with the English language. At the age of seventeen years Mr. Sudman set forth to seek his fortunes in America. He landed at New York City on June 14, 1882, and made his way to western Nebraska where for the first year he was employed on a sheep ranch in the vicinity of Lodgepole, Cheyenne county. Later he passed about a decade as an employe on a large stock ranch in that part of Cheyenne county now comprised in Deuel county, and during this period he assisted in driving two large bands of sheep over the trail from Utah to Julesburg, Colorado, six months having been required to make each trip, one time about eight thousand head of sheep were driven, and on the other sixteen thousand head. In 1888, Mr. Sudman took a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, six miles east of Chappell, and after proving up engaged in |
farming until 1897, when he sold the land, for twenty-two thousand dollars. In 1893, he returned to his native land to visit his widowed mother and renew the associations of his boyhood days. He remained only a few months in Germany and after his return to Nebraska went to live at Oshkosh, in May, 1894. He engaged in the mercantile business, as a member of the Sudman Company, his associates being his brother Fred and B. E. Fish. A large general merchandise business was developed by this company, Mr. Sudman being the manager of the enterprise for sixteen years. He then disposed of his interest in the business. The Sudman Company purchased land in the early days in which was included the townsite of Oshkosh, which was platted by the company. The coroporation (sic) conducted extensive operations in the raising of cattle, horses and other live stock, and when the company sold the mercantile business to August Sudman purchased his partners' interests in the ranch enterprise. The Sudman company established the first lumber yard and implement business at Oshkosh, and in the early days it was necessary to freight all goods overland from Chappell, about thirty miles away. Mr. Sudman was the second postmaster at Oshkosh and when he succeeded to the individual ownership of the land held previously by the Sudman Company he found himself in possession of about twenty-nine hundred acres, all within three miles from Oshkosh. This included a thousand acres in the valley, the remainder being grazing land. Mr. Sudman has since disposed of a portion of his holdings, but he purchased other land and has done much to further the industrial development of his home county. Here he now has a half section of wheat land, a thousand acres of hay and corn land, and five hundred and sixty acres available for irrigation, his holdings in Garden county comprising two thousand, nine hundred and eighty acres. Mr. Sudman raises cattle, horses and hogs on a large scale besides dealing extensively in live stock, as a buyer and shipper. He is a Republican and has served twelve years as a member of the school board of Oshkosh. He and his family are members of the Lutheran church and he is affiliated with Oshkosh Lodge, No. 286, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, as well as with the local camp of Modern Woodmen of America. He is a citizen who has done much for his home town and county, where he is valued and honored as a pioneer. On June 6, 1897, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sudman to Miss Anna Pearl Plummer, who was born in Missouri, and came to Nebraska with her widowed mother, who took a homestead five miles northeast of Oshkosh and whose son, W. C. Plummer, likewise made homestead entry in the same locality. To Mr. and Mrs. Sudman have been born five children: Carl August, died at the age of six months; Clyde H., is his father's valued assistant in the work and management of the ranch property; and the younger members of the home circle are Donald E., Glenn F., and Pearl Augusta. KENNETH W. McDONALD, who has served Morrill county with rare fidelity as county attorney under three elections, is a leading member of the bar at Bridgeport, of which city he has been a resident since 1913. Mr. McDonald has lived in Nebraska since boyhood but his birth took place in the Old Dominion, the home of his ancestors, January 18, 1874. The parent of Mr. McDonald were James V. and Emeline A. (Gannaway) McDonald. Both were born in Virginia, and both paternal and maternal grandfathers of Mr. McDonald were born there also, the former, Solomon McDonald, on his father's plantation of seventeen hundred acres. The McDonalds came originally from Glencoe, Scotland, located first in Deleware (sic) but became established in Virginia as early as 1685. On the maternal side the ancestry was English. Long before the war between the states, the McDonalds and the Gannaways were large planters and slave-holders in Virginia. In 1881, Mr. McDonald's parents came to Nebraska. The father and his two brothers, Franklin and William McDonald, had been officers in the Confederate army, and after the close of the war, facing new conditions and necessities, the father learned the carpenter trade and worked at it after locating at Pierce, Nebraska, in 1881, until he was seventy-five years old. He died eight years later. He warmly supported the principles of the Democratic party and both he and his wife were faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Of their twelve children six are living including Kenneth W., the others being; Beauregard, who is postmaster at Pierce, Nebraska; Charles, who is a contractor at San Pedro, California; Estelle, who is the wife of Alonzo Glaze, in the decorating business at Pierce; Grundy, who is a physician in practice at Long Beach. California; and Solomon R., who is a United States mail clerk residing at Council Bluffs, Iowa. |
 |
 |
 |
 |