 OSCAR R. LOVELACE. |
former a native of Ohio and the latter of Indiana, the father having died at the age of sixty-three years, and the mother at the age of seventy-four years. Nellie, elder of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Faught, became the wife of Curtis Farris, who farms a portion of the Faught ranch, and she was called to the life eternal on December 16, 1916, being survived by two children. The only son of the subject of this review, has active charge of the portion of the father's estate that is not operated by the son-in-law, Mr. Farris, and he is well upholding the civic and industrial prestige of the family name. OSCAR R. LOVELACE, vice president of the American Bank of Mitchell, Nebraska, is one of the younger bankers who are making financial history in the Panhandle as his management of the bank has placed him in the front rank in the commercial circles of the northwest. His business career has been characterized by self reliance, initiative and executive ability of a high order, all qualities which bring normally in their train a great measure of success. His integrity and conservatism have begotten public confidence for the bank and he is held in high esteem by the citizens of Mitchell, which is necessary in the furtherance of success in the line of enterprise which Mr. Lovelace has chosen. As a banker, Mr. Lovelace has shown great constructive talent and it has been largely through his policies and efforts as manager, that the American Bank has made such rapid progress since its organization in 1919. Mr. Lovelace is practically a son of Scottsbluff county, though he was born in Grant City, Missouri, February 4, 1880, the son of N. R. and Alice (Lore) Lovelace, the former a native of the Badger state, while the mother was born in Pennsylvania. In 1883, N. R. Lovelace came to Dawson county, Nebraska, being one of the earliest settlers, of that section. He took a pre-emption on which he proved up but learning of the fine land to be had in the upper valley of the Platte came to Scottsbluff county in 1889. After arriving here he took a tree claim near Gering but gave it up in 1893, to go to California where he engaged in fruit raising near Fresno. The family, however, did not like California as well as the high prairie country so returned to Nebraska, when Mr. Lovelace filed on a homestead and bought an additional quarter section of land adjoining, six miles southwest of Gering, where the family still make their home. This farm has been highly developed and today is one of the most valuable and productive tracts of land in the county. Oscar was practically reared in Scottsbluff county as he was but a small child when the family first located here. He received his educational advantages in the excellent public schools and then graduated from the high school at Gering. As the cattle industry was still one of the largest in this section of the country at that time, the boy naturally craved to join in the free life, with the adventures afforded by the cow camps of the great cattle barons and became a cowboy, spending four years on the ranges in western Nebraska and Wyoming. When he had exhausted all the various phases of outdoor life he began to give thought and attention to the question of a career. By the life in the open Mr. Lovelace had become robust and hearty and he soon saw that muscle alone did not bring in the greatest returns for the amount of work expended but when guided by a well trained mind, the combination won. Realizing the value of a higher education he deserted the cattle business and went to Lincoln, Nebraska, to take a special course in the Lincoln Business College, having decided that a business career best suited his inclinations. On the completion of his studies, Mr. Lovelace returned to Scottsbluff county and Mitchell, accepting a position as bookkeeper in the Mitchell State Bank, when it was organized in 1907. Here he displayed such marked ability in finance, learning the banking business from the ground up, that when the American Bank was organized in 1919, he was made executive officer and vice-president of the institution; in fact, he was one of the prime movers in its inception and organization. He became one of the heavy stockholders and so has their interests ever at heart. From its start the bank has had a phenominal (sic) success, due to the men who have shaped its policies and especially Mr. Lovelace, who has proved a most efficient manager. Mr. Lovelace has made many worth while business acquaintances and associations which have been valuable to the bank; he is popular personally and when the bank was organized told all the employes that the slogan of the institution was to be "Service." Patrons are treated courteously, their interests are considered as well as those of the bank and as a result the deposits are constantly increasing. From first entering business Mr. Lovelace has also entered actively into the civic and communal life of the county and town of Mitchell, he advocates and helps "boost" everything that tends to the development and up-building of this sec- |
tion of the valley, giving liberally of time and money, in support of all the progressive movements that are placing the Panhandle "on the map," and is the originator of many of them. He firmly believes in living his Americanism and citizenship and personally attains the high standard that he sets for others. During the war he aided in every way in its prosecution, being one of the prominent figures in raising money during all the drives for Liberty Bonds and for the Red Cross. In politics he is a member of the Republican party, while his church affiliations are with the Federated church. For some time Mr. Lovelace has been secretary of the school board, which has led to many modem equipments being introduced and he is now serving as a member of the city council. On April 15, 1909, Mr. Lovelace married Miss Gertrude Ford, born in Colorado, but practically reared in Scottsbluff county, as she is the daughter of C. W. Ford, who was clerk of the county for more than six years, and is one of the prominent pioneer settlers. Three sons, have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Lovelace, Ross C., Charles Ford, and Joseph Nelson. CONRAD LINDERMAN (sic)**, owner and editor of the Crawford Tribune, one of the well known journalists of Nebraska, is a man whose life has been eminently useful and is a fair example of the "average man" in our American citizenship. His education was procured through close application to reading the newspapers and books obtainable by or accessable to the studious young man in the American country printing office. His efforts and influence have always been devoted to bettering the conditions of his fellow men from his viewpoint, but always finally submitting to the will of the majority, which is necessary in a true democracy. From young manhood he has contended that the two main levers of our civilization, the medium by which we transport our productions and the medium by which we exchange them, should be under full control of the people. He also contends that we should provide some method for the exchanging of our products which would not require the production of an equal value of our products in order to create a medium for the exchanging of the same. Conrad Lindeman was born at Hazelton, Pennsylvania, November 28, 1853, his parents having come to the United States the previous summer. They were George and Maria S. (Woelner) Lindeman, natives of Germany, and the father was a locksmith and blacksmith by trade. He died when Conrad, the youngest of his five children, was still young, but the mother lived to the age of eighty-five years. Of Mr. Lindeman's four brothers, only one is living, George, whose home is in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Henry, who conducted a hotel at Crawford, died here, William died in manhood, and John died in infancy. Until he was about ten years old, Conrad Lindeman attended the common schools of Luzerne county. That is a great coal mining section and in those days it was the custom to send little boys into the coal pits to act as drivers on the mule cars, and it was in that way that Conrad assisted in providing for the family for three years. He was an ambitious boy, however, and had a distinct leaning toward the printing trade, and after his coal mining experiences, succeeded in getting into a newspaper office, where he served an apprenticeship in the old time way. Completing his apprenticeship at the age of sixteen, Mr. Lindeman went from Hazelton, Luzerne county, to Shenandoah, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, and accepted a position as foreman in the mechanical department of the Shenandoah Herald, the first paper published in that town, then a village of several hundred inhabitants. In 1872, Mr. Lindeman took Horace Greeleys advice and went west, locating in Cass county, Iowa, where he tried his hand at farming, and where in April, 1878, he was married to Miss Mary Meister, who was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of Martin and Anna M. (Kreitzberg) Meister. Eight children, five sons and three daughters, have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Lindeman: Martha, who is the wife of George Patton, of Billings, Montana; Otto, who lives at Hill Crest, Montana; John A. and Daniel W., who are ranchmen of Dawes county; Helena, who is the wife of Major C. J. Gaiser, of Camp Dodge, Iowa; Amelia, and Emma W., both of whom assist their father in the printing business, and Clarissa R., who is the wife of Gilbert F. Marrall, of Crawford. After several years on the farm Mr. Lindeman moved to Atlantic, the county seat of Cass county, Iowa, and secured a position as assistant foreman on the Atlantic Daily Telegraph, published by Lafayette Young, where he spent a year, and then, in company with W. H. Saunders, published the Peoples Advocate at Atlantic, Iowa, for a short time, being succeeded by J. R. Soverign, later master workman of the Knights of Labor. He then **Throughout article, surname spelled LINDEMAN (no "r") |
engaged in the news and stationary business, and in 1886, came to northwestern Nebraska, locating on a homestead in Sioux county, three miles west of Montrose. Mr. Lindeman and his family suffered the. hardships of early homesteaders and took a leading part in the struggles of the early settlers against opposition by the ranchmen. In 1889, Mr. Lindeman was elected clerk of the court and county clerk of Sioux county, in which offices he served until 1894, when he came to Crawford to enter the employ of C. E. Wilson, a clothing merchant, and later in January, 1897, went to work at his old trade, establishing the Crawford Buletin (sic), which he published until 1904. Selling the Bulletin plant to W. H. Ketchem, then publisher of the Crawford Tribune, which was established by Mr. Ketchem, in 1887, Mr. Lindeman spent several years in the offices of the Tribune and Crawford Courier, then purchased the Tribune in 1910. Under Mr. Lindeman's ownership and direction the paper has become the chief organ of the Progressive Democratic party throughout Dawes and Sioux counties, while his subscription list shows that it circulates all through the country as far as Canada on the north and Mexico on the south. He does a general printing business and has a well equiped (sic) plant. On numerous occasions his friends have urged Mr. Lindeman to accept political honors, but he has never accepted any office except those mentioned. His views on public questions have sometimes been modified through changing conditions, but no one can ever accuse him of ever misrepresenting facts or, for his own benefit, concealing public matters on which should be thrown the light of publicity through the press. In addition to his printing plant, he is interested in a ranch of over a thousand acres, lying southwest of Crawford, in association with his two sons, John A. and Daniel W. Mr. and Mrs. Lindeman are members of the Lutheran Church, but all the children are members of the Congregational Church. WILLIAM SPOHN has been a resident of Garden county for nearly thirty-five years, and this statement in itself marks him as one of the pioneers of the county, which was still a part of Cheyenne county when he took up land and instituted the development of a productive farm. During the long intervening period he has been a foremost actor in the drama of civic and industrial development and progress, has stood exemplar of loyal citizenship and held precedence as one of the representative agriculturists and stock-growers of this favored section of the Nebraska Panhandle. Mr. Spohn is a scion of sterling Swiss ancestry and of a family that was founded in America in the colonial era of our national history. He is a direct descendant of Philip Spohn, who was born in Switzerland and came to America when he was a boy. His loyalty was shown by his gallant service as a soldier of the Continental Line in the war of the Revolution, serving under the command of General Washington. The honored Nebraska pioneer to whom this review is dedicated was born in Sandusky county, Ohio, June 26, 1851, a son of Daniel and Catherine (Bachman) Spohn, the former of whom was born in Ohio, in 1826, while the latter was a native of Alsace, France, where she was born in 1828, and was about eight years old at the time her family immigrated to America, in 1836, and settled in Sandusky county, Ohio, where her father, John Bachman, became a pioneer farmer, his wife, whose maiden name was Mary Mathena, died at the age of sixty-six years and he likewise having been a resident of Sandusky county at the time of his death. Daniel Spohn was reared and educated in Ohio, which state he represented as a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, his service having been as a member of Company K, One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. After the war he continued his active association with agricultural industry in the old Buckeye state during the remainder of his active career, and he was seventy-five years of age at the time of his death. His father, Henry Spohn, was born in the state of Maryland, March 12, 1787, and upheld the military prestige of the family by serving as a soldier in the war of 1812. He thereafter became a pioneer settler in Ohio, where he farmed in Perry county until 1829, when he became an early settler in Sandusky county, where he reclaimed a farm from the sylvan wilds and there passed the remainder of his life, having been eighty-six years of age at the time of his death. The mother of the subject of this sketch continued her residence in Ohio until her death, which occurred when she was about seventy-six years of age. Both she and her husband were earnest workers of the United Brethren Church. They became the parents of seven children, of whom two sons and one daughter are living at the time of this writhing, in the winter of 1919-20. William Spohn was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and acquired his early education in the public schools at Fre- |
mont, Ohio. He thereafter devoted about one year to independent farm enterprise in his native state, and then he came to Nebraska, in 1875, and settled on a pioneer farm near the present town of Wood River, Hall county, where he continued his operations as an agriculturist until 1885, when he became a pioneer settler in that part of old Cheyenne county that is now comprised in Garden county. Five miles northwest of the present county seat, Oshkosh, he took up homestead, pre-emption and tree claims, all wild prairie land, and here he has continued his activities as a farmer during the intervening years; his property gives evidence that he has kept in full touch with the march of development and growth in this section of the state. He has been successful as an agriculturist and stock-raiser and also has the distinction of having been a pioneer in the now important field of sugar-beet propagation in Garden county. His enterprise was shown by his construction of the independent irrigation ditch which affords excellent water facilities for his farm, which is known as the Spohn ditch, its supply of water being derived from the North Platte river. On his farm, which comprises eight hundred acres, he has erected good buildings and provided other accersories (sic) that mark the model farm of the present progressive day. During all the years of his residence in Garden county Mr. Spohn has been liberal in his support of enterprises projected for the general good of the community, and while he has had no ambition for political preferment he is found aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and both he and his wife are zealous communicants of the Lutheran Church. February 19, 1877, recorded the marriage of Mr. Spohn to Miss Florilla Thomas, the ceremony being performed at Grand Island, Hall county. Mrs. Spohn was born in Dodge county, Wisconsin, March 22, 1847, and is a daughter of Joshua Thomas, who was born in the state of New York, but who passed a considerable portion of his life in eastern Canada, where he was actively identified with lumbering operations. He was a resident of Iowa at the time of his death, at the age of fifty years, and his wife, whose maiden name was Matilda Borden, was born and reared at Brooksville, Ontario, Canada, where her marriage was solemnized, she having been about forty years of age at her death, which occurred in Wisconsin. Joshua Thomas became active in the field of lumbering in Wisconsin and after the death of his wife he removed, in 1855, to Iowa and became a pioneer settler in Winnebago county, where he passed the remainder of his life. Mrs. Spohn was a girl eight years of age when she accompanied her father to Iowa, in which state she received her educational training in the public schools of the pioneer era, and in 1870 she accompanied her sister Sophia to Hall county, Nebraska, where they settled in the Wood river district and where her marriage was solemnized a few years later. In conclusion is entered brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Spohn: Loren Rutherford Spohn, who was born in Hall county, this state, July 22, 1879, and completed his youthful education by a course of study at Hastings College, and was one of the patriotic young men of Nebraska who served as a soldier in the Spanish-American War, having served as a soldier in Company K, Second Nebraska, Volunteer Infantry. Mr. Spohn was not yet twenty-six years of age at the time of his death, which accurred (sic) November 13, 1905. He married Miss May Bowman, and their one child Loren W., now resides in the home of his paternal grandfather, the subject of this review. Mabel Edith Spohn, who was born in Hall county, in 1880, passed away at the age of three months, so that the second generation of the Spohn family in Nebraska now has no represenative, while the third generation has but one member. ANSON B. ALLEN. -- The good old term, diligence, has been strictly applicable to the career of this well known and highly esteemed citizen of Garden county, where he has wrought out a goodly measure of success through his activities as a stock-raiser and agriculturist, besides which he is entitled to pioneer honors incidental to the history of this section of the state. Mr. Allen was born in Clarke county, Iowa, February 8, 1858, and is a representative of one of the early pioneer families of that commonwealth, as the date of his birth discloses. His father, Saunders Allen, was born in Clarke county, Ohio, and was sixty-five years of age at the time of his death, which occurred in Taylor county, Iowa. Upon removal to the Hawkeye state he took up land, which he developed and improved and became one of the substantial citizens of that state. His wife, whose maiden name was Nancy Rich, was born in Warren county, Ohio, but was reared and educated in Indiana, where her marriage was solemnized; she was about fifty-five years of age at the, time of her death. |
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