he lived three years, and in the fall of 1874 came to this county. He purchased eighty acres of land in Highland Township, at $7 per acre, from the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company, running in debt for the amount. The energy and perseverance with which he labored are indicated from the fact that he not only cleared himself of his first indebtedness, but in due time purchased more land, and has now a fine farm of 240 acres with first-class improvements. He commenced operations with one span of horses and an old wagon worth about $15, a breaking plow and a yoke of oxen, and less than $5 in cash. He practiced the most rigid economy, and has always made it a rule to live within his income. His career should be an encouragement to those starting out at the foot of the ladder, and is an example of the industry and perseverance which seldom fail to bring their legitimate reward

Mr. Cook during his early voting days was a member of the old Whig party, but upon the organization of the Republicans, cordially endorsed their principles, and has since supported them. He held several of the minor offices while a resident of Illinois, and is recognized as a liberal and public-spirited citizen, uniformly encouraging the enterprises calculated for the advancement of the people. As one of the pioneer citizens of this county, who has made for himself a good record, he is in the enjoyment of that esteem and confidence which by a correct life he has most justly earned.

  W. LYNK. Nothing is more delightful than to traverse the country throughout Southern Nebraska during its harvest season, and note the thrift and industry of a large majority of its people. From the abundance of its products may safely be augured the character of its people, for the soil, however rich in its natural resources, must be judiciously tended, or man's expectations will come to naught. Prominent among the skillful agriculturists of this region may properly be named the subject of this sketch, who has been liberally endowed with the qualities which have assured his success both as a farmer, a business man, and a valuable member of the community. He has extensive interests, being part owner of one and one-half sections of land, the whole of which he superintends, making a specialty of the raising of grain and stock. He gives employment to a large number of men the year round, and is thus no unimportant factor in the business and farming interests of Gage County.

The ancestry of an individual is next in importance to his own personality, and can never properly be omitted from the record of his life. The father of our subject was Stanton Lynk, a native of the Empire State, and born near the city of Rochester, in 1834. He lived there until a youth of eighteen years, and then migrating to Will County, Ill., engaged in farming, and there has since remained. There also he married Miss Isabel Doig, who was born in Washington, D. C., two years later than her husband, in 1836. She is still living with him at the old homestead. They are the parents of six children, three sons and three daughters, namely: Janet, the wife of Abel Bliss, a farmer of Will County, Ill.; Z. W., the subject of this sketch; Adella, who married Walter Rowley, a farmer of that county; Everett, also farming in that locality; Eva and Irwin, at home with their parents.

The subject of this sketch was born in Will County, Ill., April 3, 1860, and spent his boyhood days there upon the farm, and in attendance at the district school until twenty-two years of age. Feb. 23, 1882, desirous of establishing a home of his own, he was united in marriage with Miss Cornelia, daughter of Charles and Hannah (Holly) Finch, who were born in Illinois. The father was a druggist by occupation, and departed this life at his home in Will County, Ill., in 1863. The mother is still living in the Prairie State. Mrs. Lynk was the younger of their two children, and was born Jan. 25, 1863, in Will County, Ill. She spent her early life under the home roof, continuing with her parents until her marriage.

Mr. and Mrs. Lynk began their wedded life in Iowa, where, in Wright County, our subject carried on farming eighteen months, then resolved to cast his lot with the people of Southern Nebraska. Coming to this county, he purchased 320 acres of land on section 35, in Sherman Township, where he has since

operated with flattering success. He ships his cattle to Chicago, and usually keeps on hand from 125 to 200 head. These consume the larger part of 200 acres of corn, which is raised on the land of Mr. L. and his partner, and besides this they gather in some years as many as 100 acres of oats and the same of flax.

Mr. Lynk has a very pleasant and comfortable home and an interesting family, the latter including two bright children, Mabel A. and Howard S., six and four years of age respectively. Mr. Lynk meddles very little with matters outside his business and his family, but upon occasions of important elections gives his support to the Republican party.

ZEKIEL McCORMACK is one of the pioneer settlers of Highland Township, who has with pleasurable pride watched its progression, settlement, development and growth. His residence and farm are on section 14, where, in 1872, he homesteaded eighty acres of Government land and settled thereon. Our subject was born in County Antrim, Ireland, on the 15th of May, 1842, to James and Ellen McCormack, natives of the same place. He was the second son born to his parents, whose family circle included four children. His education was received in his native county, and provided him with a fair foundation upon which to rear life's structure. From that time his attention was directed to the multifarious minutia of agricultural pursuits, in which he was engaged until he was about twenty-two years of age.

In the spring of 1864 our subject emigrated to this country, taking passage from Belfast to Liverpool on a sailing-vessel, and thence to New York, the voyage consuming somewhat over four weeks. As soon as the first strangeness of the New World had worn off, he proceeded to Philadelphia, where he obtained employment with the wholesale grocery firm of McCann & Cooper, to drive one of their teams. This situation he held for five years, remaining in the same occupation and city for about four years longer.

 In 1872 our subject came to Gage County and settled, as above mentioned, on section 14, Highland Township. There were very few settlers in the district and he was comparatively alone, and experienced all the difficulty, inconvenience and loss attending frontier life, where long distances must be traversed to and from the markets, with all the attending disadvantageous circumstances of pioneer life that have turned back so many who once bravely started to engage therein. He has brought his farm to its present high state of perfection in agriculture from a condition of nature that had been perhaps untouched by man from the day of the issuing of the creative fiat. That he has been successful is shown in the fact that he has more than doubled his farm acreage since his original settlement, which now contains 200 acres, while its financial value has very largely increased also, and in greater proportion. His farm buildings are good and substantial, his residence pleasant and commodious, and the farm well supplied with the necessaries of good farming. His previous history and life in Philadelphia, compared with his present position and prospects, reveal the fact that he has made what he has by his own efforts, and has not been reaping the harvest of another life, as is often the case in the acquisition of riches, when through the death of relatives their belongings, no longer usable by them, are passed on into other hands.

Our subject was happily married to Matilda Young, at Philadelphia, Sept. 29, 1871. This lady is the daughter of Edward and Jane Young, of Tyrone, Ireland. The former is deceased. The wife of our subject was the third child born to them, and that interesting event occurred at Tyrone, on the 12th of August, 1846. She resided with her relatives until her marriage, which has proved to our subject to be one of the most important, and at the same time happy, steps of his life. There have been four children born of this union, whose names are as follows: Sarah J., James E., Harry M. and Gertrude F.

Our subject affiliates with the Republican party in his position upon political questions, and has for years been one of its stout adherents and doughty friends. For three years he has served as Moderator of the school district. Both our subject and his wife are connected with the Presbyterian Church, and in that communion find that which is congenial

to them in this respect. They are held in the highest regard as consistent and active members and supporters, and take great interest in the various departments of church and Sunday-school work, Mr. McCormack being Sunday-school Treasurer, having held that office continuously for several years.

Mr. and Mrs. McCormack are prominent in local society, and are gladly welcomed to the best circles thereof. They are identified with the various enterprises and projects that have been formed for the benefit of the community and advancement of the surroundings. As regards honor, uprightness, patriotism, and every moral and social virtue, they occupy as high a place as any in the county. The social qualities that make our subject so popular, his genial, affable manner, supported by his strong force of character and strict business integrity, combine to make him one of the most prominent and worthy representatives, of Irish-American citizenship, and assure a continuance of the extension of those sentiments on the part of his fellow-citizens that make his life at the present place of residence and in that community so eminently satisfactory and enjoyable.

SAAC J. FRANTZ has been eminently successful in his business and social career, and is prominently identified with the workings of the public institutions of this community, having done much to aid in their improvement. He is engaged in farming and stock-raising on his home farm, consisting of 320 acres, all on sections 5 and 8, Rockford Township. His father, William, was born in Maryland, and his mother, Nancy (Rush) Frantz, in Prairie County, Ohio. The parents were married in the latter State, then removed to Illinois, and made their home there until their death, the father dying in 1869 at the age of fifty-nine years, and the mother in 1875 at the age of sixty-three years. The nine children which comprise their family bear the following names: James M., Horatio N., Catherine, Mary E., Maggie, Dallas, Isaac J., Ella E., and Ida B.

Our subject was born on the 14th of January, 1850, in Pike Township, Prairie Co., Ohio, and spent his early years on his father's farm. There he attended the common schools, and having applied himself with much diligence to the tasks assigned him, he was enabled to obtain a thorough education in the elementary branches of learning, He remained at home until he was fifteen years old, at which time he came with his parents to Monmouth, Ill., where he worked out on a farm during the summer and attended the academic department of Monmouth College during the winter. He then rented a farm and continued the vocation of agriculture on his own behalf.

On the 4th of March, 1875, Mr. Frantz was united in marriage with Miss Anna E. Sickmon, a daughter of George and Sarah (Green) Sickmon, the former of whom was born in Erie County, and the latter near Syracuse, N. Y. They were married in their native State, and three years later moved to Illinois, the husband purchasing a farm near Monmouth. He is now very comfortably situated, and enjoys the fruits of his early industry in company with his faithful companion and helpmate, the respective milestones of their existence numbering sixty-nine and sixty-six. Their six children have grown to manhood and womanhood, and bear the names of Sallie M., Susan E., Winfield S., Anna E., Eliza and Charles. Anna E., the wife of our subject, was born on the 21st of June, 1853, near Monmouth, where she grew to girlhood's years and began a course of instruction in the common schools, After that was completed she attended the Monmouth College, and received an education in the accomplishments which have fitted her to adorn her home and the society in which she moves.

To our subject and his wife there have been born four children, two of whom, named Kittie B. and Ross E., were born in Illinois, and the remaining two, Earl M. and Harold, in this county. In 1880 they came to Nebraska and purchased 320 acres of land, all of which they have brought under cultivation and to a most lucrative condition. Our subject has made many valuable improvements, chief of which was the building of a very fine house and farm buildings. The cattle and horse barns are built with a large basement, commonly called "bank barns," and are supplied with running water forced by a wind-pump. Our subject is extensively en-

gaged in farming and stock-raising, breeding and feeding cattle, and for five years he has turned his attention to breeding roadsters and trotters, having nineteen head of horses. He keeps from 80 to 100 hogs, and has 100 head of cattle. On the farm there are two groves, containing two and a half acres apiece, planted with fine maple and box elder trees.

      Mr. and Mrs. Frantz are influential members of the Christian Church, of Beatrice, and are each well qualified by educational and social attainments to honor the place in society accorded to them. Our subject has been Director of the schools of his township, and takes an active interest in the educational advancement as well as the political and religious welfare of his community. He is an ardent Republican, and his zeal in the cause of that party secured his election as delegate to the Republican County Convention in 1886. He has accumulated his wealth by his own integrity and labor, and is in every respect a self-made man, who has been more than ordinarily successful in life.

ILLIAM MAHLOCH has proved himself the possessor of a large amount of that excellent quality of manhood and self-reliance, which, united with perseverance and industry, has enabled him to become one of the useful young farmers of Blakely Township, in which he owns a fine farm of 240 acres on section 5. When he started out in life he was comparatively poor, and what he now owns has been obtained by his own manly efforts, he being indebted to no man for the help of so much as a penny. He was born in Sheboygan County, Wis., on the 14th of December, 1852, and is a son of Phillip and Sophia (Vest) Mahloch, who had come to the United States from one of the Rhine Provinces in Germany after their marriage. The mother died in 1854 in Wisconsin, but the father is still living in that State, and has reached the age of seventy-two years. The parents were Lutherans in their religious belief.

Our subject was twenty years old when he began working for himself, and first hired out as a farm laborer in his native State, then went to Henry County, Ill., where he worked for two years, after which, when he was twenty-three years old, he came to Nebraska. He was married in this township on the 28th of June, 1880, to Miss Lizzie Riddle, who was born in Maryland in 1862. Her father was a German farmer who had come to the United States and settled in Maryland. The mother died in that State, and the father afterward married again and came to Nebraska, now making his home on a farm in Jefferson County. Mrs. Mahloch was sixteen years old when she came with her father to the great undeveloped West, and a little later was married here.

Our subject and his wife have had six children in their family, one of whom, named Minnie, died when she was eleven months old, and the remaining four children bear the names of Louis, Hannah, Peter and Carrie; an infant is unnamed. Mr. Mahloch purchased his first land here in 1879, when he secured 160 acres, after which he added eighty acres to it from an adjoining farm, and he now has one of the very good farms of this county. The land was wild and unbroken prairie when it came into his hands, and all of its improvements are due to his own industry, it being now in a condition to produce fine crops of grain. Our subject also gives considerable attention to the raising of stock of a superior grade. He was one of the first settlers in this neighborhood, and has been a resident of this county since 1875. He and his wife are highly esteemed members of the German Lutheran Church, and rank well among the best families of the township. Mr. Mahloch affiliates with the Republican party in politics, and is a first-class, honorable man.

AMES M. TARRANTS. Upon the banks of the Big Blue River, in Blakely Township of this county, stands the well-built, splendidly equipped and excellently managed Caldwell Mill, which is owned by Mr. Tarrants, whose history is herein presented in succinct form. He is the son of Minos Tarrants, who was born in South Carolina, and while yet a child removed with his parents to Kentucky. In that State he