 MR. AND MRS. ARTHUR BARTLETT. |
torily in both offices. He has long been prominent in the lumber industry and is vice-president of the Reitz & Crites Lumber Company of Chadron and Wayside, Nebraska. Mr. Crites was married at Kansas City, April 18, 1913, to Miss Marion H. Hart of that place, a daughter of S. E. and Caroline (Smith) Hart. They have two sons: Albert Wallace and Sherman E. Mr. and Mrs. Crites are members of the Congregational church. He is active in civic affairs, taking an earnest and sincere interest in the welfare and progress of Chadron and is particularly interested as a member of the city board of education. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and to the Elks at Chadron. ARTHUR M. BARTLETT, pioneer settler of Dawes county, president of the Dawes county Farm Bureau, one of the largest landholders in the county and a man who has taken a prominent and active part in the development of this section, deserves a place in the history of the county, where he has lived close to a half century. He was born in Prescott, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, December 26, 1860, the son of Alfred I. and Rebecca L. (Putnam) Bartlett. The ancestors of this illustrious family came over in the Mayflower and one of the members signed the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Bartlett is the oldest of the six children born to his parents. The father was a farmer and young Arthur was reared in the country. He attended the country schools and worked on the home place in the summer time. In 1867, the family moved to Audibon county, Iowa, and settled forty-five miles from a railroad, there being only three houses in the country, By winter time the family had a house to move into as they were about a mile from the little village of Exira. The next spring the father bought more land a half mile south of the little town which was the county seat of Audobon county, where the Bartletts lived until 1886. Arthur Bartlett continued to attend what schools were afforded in his frontier home in Iowa and when old enough helped on the farm, becoming a practical farmer at an early age. December 15, 1880, Mr. Bartlett married Miss Ada L. Shravger, who was born at Rock Island, Illinois, the daughter of Frank and Anna (Umtsead) Shravger, the former a native of Pennsylvania, while the mother was born in Danville, Illinois. Mrs. Bartlett was next to the oldest in a family of four, being the only girl. Her father was a carpenter by trade, who moved to Iowa with his family in 1868 after his marriage. Mr. Bartlett and his bride lived on a farm for three years in Iowa, then came to Dawes county, Nebraska, in 1884, and took a homestead and timber claim twenty-six miles south of Chadron which he still owns. When he came here he had but seventy-five dollars cash, a pair of mules and an Indian pony besides four head of cattle. It took all the money to buy lumber for a house. The first year he put in a sod crop and had thirty acres of fine oats and barley which was hailed out in July. He then began to help put up hay to earn some money, working for a dollar and a quarter a ton and boarding himself as well as furnishing his own team. In order to live and as he expressed it, "Make a grub stake," he obtained the mail route from Hay Springs to Hemingford and Nonpareil, which he drove for two years. Mrs. Bartlett joined her husband in their new home in 1885, at a time when they had to get supplies from Valentine, a hundred and fifty miles away. To make the trip usually took about fourteen days. The next year the railroad reached Rushville and the first settlers began to gather up the buffalo bones and those of other animals and sold them for fourteen dollars a ton. Mr. Bartlett made some money this way and also by breaking land for other people who were coming into the country. He lived on his homestead until 1893, adding to his land from time to time. He was very successful in his business and at the present time owns seven thousand acres, which makes him one of the largest landholders in the county or western Nebraska. For many years he has dealt and handled in live stock as well as raising many cattle and still uses his land for this purpose. From first settling in the Panhandle Mr. Bartlett has taken a prominent part in the development of the county and played a leading part in public affairs, for in 1890, he was elected county commissioner of Dawes county and served three years. In 1892, he superintended the breaking of the buffalo grass on the court house grounds and had it planted to blue grass the following year. Then he took up a collection in the various county offices and had twelve trees planted, elm and box elder, the first on the grounds around the court house. The county up to this time had been renting a building for a poor house and hiring a matron. In 1893 Mr. Bartlett persuaded the other county commissioners that it would be better to have a county poor farm and succeeded in buying a quarter section of land two and one-half miles east of Chadron on Bordeaux creek, |
which is practically self supporting. Mr. Bartlett only used his good judgment in this matter as in the many others coming up during his administration so that he made many improvements that benefited all the county, taking care of its affairs as he would his own business. In 1893, Mr. Bartlett was elected sheriff of Dawes county, was re-elected in 1895. In the spring of that year the people of Crawford began to object to the canteen maintained at Fort Robinson, and called upon Sheriff Bartlett to close it. He went, capturing a large amount of liquor which the colonel in command refused to turn over, but when Mr. Bartlett informed him that he would call the assistance of the State Militia, the liquor was given up. Mr. Bartlett has served as a member of the board of managers and general superintendent of the Dawes County Fair Association for thirteen years; he was one of the first men to realize the value of a county farm bureau and helped in the promotion of the Dawes County Farm Bureau of which he is president. This is an honor for Dawes was the third county in the state to get such farm demonstration and shows that Mr. Bartlett is a man abreast of the times. He took a leading part in the organization of the Farmer's Union, which owns a grocery store and elevator of twenty-four thousand bushels, also a flour mill of a hundred barrels capacity. Though engaged in all varied endeavors, Mr. Bartlett has continued the active management of his ranching business and at one time owned ten thousand acres of land on which he ran five thousand cattle, eight hundred sheep and some horses. He now is the owner of five ranches or tracts of land comprising nearly seven thousand acres all well improved for the purpose for which he uses it. Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett have one son, Alfred T., who is associated with his father in the ranch business and also owns a thousand acres of land of his own. He was just getting his business in shape to enlist in the army when the armistice was signed. Arthur Bartlett, Sr., is a Republican, has taken an active part in public life for many years. Mrs. Bartlett is a member of the Methodist church and the family is one of the first financially and socially in Dawes county. BENJAMIN LOEWENTHAL, who is not only a pioneer settler but also the pioneer merchant of Chadron, Nebraska, is also the sole survivor here of the nineteen original town property owners. The same enterprising spirit that led to his coming to this section thirty-five years ago, has been a moving force ever since, not alone in the substantial expansion of his own business interests, but in the development of projects for the welfare of all this section. He has long been one of the representative men of Dawes county, and many times has been called upon to fill positions of trust and responsibility. Benjamin Loewenthal was born at Brooklyn, New York, February 10, 1855, a son of Moses and Rachel (Cohn) Loewenthal. Of their five children, four survive, Benjamin being the only one living in Dawes county. In 1881, Moses Loewenthal came west to the Black Hills, and in the following year his wife and children joined him. They lived in that region until 1889, moving then to Dawes county, Nebraska, where the rest of their lives were spent. Growing to manhood in the east, Benjamin Loewenthal had excellent opportunities in the way of educational and business training, and was well equipped when he came to Dawes county. With remarkable foresight he chose a business location on a railroad line, on April 25, 1885, setting up a tent in the village of Dacota junction, three miles west of the present city of Chadron. His stock of clothing was not extensive because all goods had to be freighted from Sidney, a distance of about two hundred miles; but he maintained his tent store until the following August, when he moved to the new town of Chadron, with which he has been prominently identified ever since. The first town lot in the new village was sold August 1, 1885. As an inducement to legitimate business men instead of speculators, the originators of the town platted the ground and offered lots for the very conservative sum of from one to five hundred dollars, and Mr. Loewenthal was one of the nineteen men who took advantage of this offer. He at once started to build a store immediately opposite his present site, but sold it to an urgent buyer before it was completed, and moved his goods to another building, which he occupied until 1888, when he erected and took possession of his present commodious building. The new town, a famous shipping point for cattle and business of every kind, became brisk as people from all over the country moved in. When Mr. Loewenthal established himself at Chadron, he enlarged the scope of his business by adding boots and shoes to his line of clothing, and has continued to deal |
articles to the present time, two of his sons being associated with him. At Chadron, in 1886, Mr. Loewenthal was united in marriage to Miss Rose Cohn, who died March 9, 1907. She was a daughter of Julius Cohn, a resident of New York, and the mother of five children: Julius, Sadie, Moie, Charles and George. In May, 1908, Mr. Loewenthal married Bertha Loeffler, of New York City. In public affairs in Dawes county, Mr. Loewenthal has been prominent and useful from the first. He served in 1886, as first city treasurer of Chadron, and, in 1894, was elected on the Democratic ticket, a member of the board of county commissioners of Dawes county, and served in 1894-5-6, during a period of momentous importance in the affairs of the county. In civic matters he has been exceedingly active, serving on the school board for over twenty-one years, and as a member of the city council during 1912 and 1913. In 1914, he was elected mayor of Chadron, of which honor no citizen could be found more capable or deserving. During the life of the Chadron Business Men's and the Chadron Commercial clubs, he was an active factor, and for thirty-four years he has been a member of Chadron lodge No. 36, Odd Fellows, possibly a charter member and for many years an official. No man in the business life of this city or in its official administration, is held more trustworthy than Benjamin Loewenthal. ROBERT A. DAY. -- The genius for constructive achievement has marked the career of this representative pioneer merchant and banker of Oshkosh, Garden county, and the more credit is due to him by reason of the fact that this achievement has assisted him definitely in the advancement of local interests in general, besides giving him secure vantage ground as one of the substantial and valued citzens (sic) of his county. Mr. Day was born in Brown county, Ohio, March 5, 1866, and the old Buckeye state likewise figures as the birthplace of his parents, Albert M. and Mary L. (Brown) Day, members of sterling families that were founded in that fine old commonwealth in the pioneer era of its history. Albert M. Day was actively engaged in farming in Ohio at the time of the outbreak of the Civil War, and such was his physical condition that he was rejected for service when he attempted to enlist as a patriot soldier of the Union. Notwithstanding his remaining in civil life, he was taken prisoner by Confederate forces under command of the famous raider, General John Morgan, whose men likewise stole the horses from the farm of Mr. Day, who was not long held in captivity. After the war Mr. Day continued his association with agricultural industry in Ohio until 1884, when he came with his family to Nebraska and became a pioneer settler near Ulysses, Butler county, where he accumulated valuable property and where he remained until his death, which occurred when he was about seventy years of age, his wife having passed away at the age of sixty-eight years. Mrs. Day was a daughter of Robert and Martha (Wardlow) Brown, who passed their entire lives in Ohio. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Day the eldest is Elizabeth, who is the wife of G. R. Pollock, of Ulysses, Nebraska; Robert A., of this review, was the next in order of birth; William D. is a resident of Ulysses, Nebraska; Lillian W. is the wife of Frank Palmer, of Ulysses, and Osa M., wife of J. M. Stephens, likewise resides at Ulysses. Robert A. Day passed the period of his childhood and early youth on the old home farm in Ohio and is indebted to the public schools of his native state for his early educational discipline. He was nearly nineteen years of age when he accompanied his parents to Butler county, Nebraska, where he continued to be identified with farm enterprise for two years thereafter. He then came to what is now Garden county, where, in December, 1886, he took up a homestead near the present town of Oshkosh. During the first five years of his residence here he was in the employ of the Rush Creek Land and Live Stock Company, and in the meantime he instituted the development of his homestead, to which he duly perfected his title. After severing his connection with the company mentioned, Mr. Day became manager for the first mercantile store at Oshkosh, this establishment having been conducted by George T. Kendall & Company, of St. Paul, this state. After being thus engaged about one year Mr. Day opened the first drug store in the progressive new town, and the building which he used for this purpose was the second frame structure erected in the village. After conducting the drug store about three years, Mr. Day removed to Chappell, county seat of Deuel county, and there he served two years as deputy county clerk. He then assumed the office of county clerk, of which he continued the incumbent two successive terms---1902-6--after which he became cashier of the Deuel County Bank at Oshkosh, which was made the judicial center of the new county of Garden. While thus, serving as |
cashier of the bank he was chosen as the first county clerk of the new county, and his previous experience fortified him most admirably for the duties of this exacting office in the formative period of Garden county history. He retained the office of county clerk from 1910 to 1915, and in the meantime he transcribed from the records of Deuel county all data requisite for the new county. Mr. Day has figured continuously as one of the most loyal, liberal and progressive citizens of Garden county, where his influence and co-operation have been given in support of all measures projected for the general good of his home town and county. From 1907 to 1915, he served as United States commissioner for Nebraska, and incidental to the nation's participation in the great World War he was county chairman of the first and second Liberty Loan drives, as well as chairman of the committee having in charge the drive for the sale of war savings stamps. Upon the organization of Garden county the bank of which he was cashier changed its title to the First State Bank, and of this substantial and important institution he was elected president in January, 1919. but on the 15th of the following March he retired from this office, his resignation being prompted by his impaired health. Since that time he has lived virtually retired, save that he is associated with his son-in-law, J. C. Schlater, in the real estate business, his broad and exact knowledge of realty values in this section of the state making his advisory service of great value in this connection. In politics Mr. Day is found arrayed as a staunch advocate and supporter of the cause of the Democratic party; he and his wife are active members of the Christian church, and he is a charter member of Oshkosh Camp, No. 4991, Modern Woodmen of America. He is a citizen who has been the true apostle of progress and civic liberality, and none commands more inviolable place in popular confidence and esteem in Garden county. On April 19, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Day to Miss Viola E. Empson, of Vallonia, Indiana. Mrs. Day was born at Sumner, Missouri, and was a child of two years when she accompanied her father, after the death of her mother, to Indiana, in which state she was reared and educated, her advantages having included those of Lebanon, Ohio, College, in which she was graduated. She has been a popular figure in the representative social activities of Oshkosh and presides most graciously over a home that is known for its cordial hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. Day have three children: Pearl Marguerite is the wife of J. C. Schlater, of Oshkosh; and Robert Stanley and William A. remain at the parental home. JUST. JOHNSON, who is now living retired at Oshkosh, Garden county, established his home in this locality in 1887, when the county was still a part of Cheyenne county, and here he gained pioneer honors in connection with industrial development and progress, for he obtained land a few miles south of the present town of Oshkosh and there developed a productive farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which valuable property he still owns. He was one of the successful exponents of agricultural and live-stock industry in Garden county during the various transitions that marked its segregation from Deuel county, and previously from Cheyenne county, and he has lived up to all the possibilities that have been offered, as is demonstrated by the substantial success that has attended his efforts and the high place which he has in popular confidence and good will. Mr. Johnson was born in Sweden, on October 12, 1859, and was reared and educated in his native land. In 1880, about the time of attaining his legal majority, Mr. Johnson immigrated to the United States, and his principal capital consisted of his dauntless courage and determination, his sturdy physical powers and his ambition to achieve worthy success. He first settled in Sac county, Iowa, and after having there been engaged in farm enterprise three years he came to Blair, Washington county, Nebraska, where he assisted in building the bridge across the Missouri river. He then went to Rapid City, in the Black Hills district of South Dakota, and for a period of about one year he was engaged in freighting between that locality and Chadron, Nebraska. He then, in 1887, became one of the pioneers of the present Garden county, where he took up a homestead and improved the farm property, where he lived until his retirement, in 1917, since which year he has maineained (sic) his residence at Oshkosh. He is aligned as a supporter of the cause of the Democratic party and his religious faith is that of the Lutheran church, of which his wife likewise was a communicant. In July, 1904, Mr. Johnson wedded Mrs. Maggie (Edwards) Adell, widow of Charlie Adell. She was born at Bull Mountain, Colorado, and was but four years old at the time of her mother's death; her father, who was a miner in Colorado, died in 1908. Mrs. Johnson, who proved a devoted wife and mother, |
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