NEGenWeb Project
Resource Center
On-Line Library
 |
|
 |
|||
for a period of eight years by successive reelections. He is now President of the Council, and has been a member of the School Board three years. He owns and occupies a tasteful and commodious residence at No. 803 Market street, at the intersection of Eighth street, and which was built in 1870. Its grounds and surroundings are pleasant and attractive, and it is furnished in modern style, in keeping with the taste and means of the proprietor. Mr. Bradt is Republican in politics. Andrew Hansler, the maternal grandfather of our subject, was a native of Canada, to which his parents removed from the State of Pennsylvania. He married Miss Mary Snure, whose father was a native of Germany, whence he emigrated to the United States during the Colonial days. The Bradt family traces its ancestry back to Holland, and the first representatives in America settled in Genesee County, N. Y., securing a grant of land eleven miles long and eight miles wide. This property on account of the Revolutionary War was lost to the family.
Mr. Bentley was born in Chautauqua, N. Y., July 18, 1833. Here he made his home for the first eighteen years of his life, received his education, and was afterward instructed in all things pertaining to the management of the farm and stock. Upon leaving New York State he went to Ogle County, Ill., and settled near Polo and engaged in farming. The success that comes as a reward of practical knowledge, accompanied by energetic industry and patient perseverance, here became his. He was a resident of Ogle County until November, 1877, when he removed in order to locate upon his present property, which at that time was in a totally unimproved condition. During the period of his residence in Ogle County, Ill., Mr. Bentley made the acquaintance of Miss Melvina A. Wilber, a resident of that county, but a native of Delaware County, N. Y. This acquaintance revealed to him that this estimable young lady was possessed of a disposition, education and qualities that were calculated to make her companionship the one thing to be desired, and they were united in wedlock upon the 6th of April, 1851, at Oregon, Ogle Co., Ill. This lady was born in the above county and State, March 2, 1833, and is the daughter of Anthony and Lucy Ann (Grant) Wilber, natives of Delaware County, N. Y. The father is dead; the mother is now a resident of Florida. Mr. and Mrs. Bentley are the parents of a very interesting family of seven children, as follows: Edwin L., who died at the age of twenty-five years, on the 20th of September, 1887, was the second son; Uriah G. married Addie Gifford, and lives on what was a part of the home place; William W. is single and at home; Charles; Herbert; Marion E. is unmarried, and is a teacher in the public schools of Ogle County; the youngest daughter, Addie, is most happily married to Mr. James Russell. One interesting feature of the birth of the above children is the fact that three children, viz.: Marion, William and Addie, were each born in the month of February, upon the 8th, 4th and 2d of the month, and are now thirty-three, twenty-five and twenty-two years of age respectively. It is here noted that each was born in the same month of the different years; also, the even division of the month date is unusually even; the combined total of the years of their lives will be found to aggregate eighty years. The farm of our subject is fully equipped with the various machines, implements, conveniences and devices for its complete operation. There are also provided substantially built and well-arranged farm buildings for every needed purpose. In the vicinity of the house our subject has thoughtfully provided an extensive orchard, containing over 100 fruit trees of various kinds, all of high grade and choice selection. As noted above, he gives considerable attention to stock-raising, and possesses some very fine Short-horn cattle, but his principal |
|||||
|
|
ILBERT E. BENTLEY. There are few homes of Riverside Township better situated, more pleasant or complete in their arrangements, than that of our subject. He stands in the front rank as a farmer and stock-raiser, and makes a specialty of hogs. His admirably operated and well-kept farm, a view of which may be seen on another page of this volume, is situated upon section 29, and includes 240 acres. It originally comprised 320 acres, but eighty acres of this was given to the eldest son.
|
|
|
|||
business in this line is with the Poland-China hog, of which he has seldom less than 100 head upon his property at one time; he usually ships large numbers every year. Mr. Bentley does not usually take a prominent part in politics, neither is he what would be called a politician. At the same time he is deeply interested in the great issues before the people, and usually votes irrespective of party, and solely according to the dictates of his conscience and intelligence for that candidate whom it would appear was best fitted for the office. In principle he is a very strong Prohibitionist and very earnest in his advocacy of the right, as he understands it. Both he and his family move in the best local society, and are very highly esteemed by the community. For five years he served as Road Supervisor of the township; he is now Justice of the Peace, and has repeatedly demonstrated his fine sense of justice and right, and won to himself many friends by the impartiality of his judgment.
Mr. Fink appreciates the advantage of learning, and has spared no pains to give his children all the advantages of education which money can procure. When his eldest children were young there were no schools in the part of Wisconsin in which he lived, and in order that they might not grow up with minds neglected and uncultivated, he organized the first school of the neighborhood in his own house, having since provided his younger children with advantages at a great deal of expense. They have amply repaid his solicitude in their behalf, and are intelligent, refined and cultivated young men and women. His eldest son, Charles A., has spent two and a half years in school in Europe, and after completing the regular course of instruction he took a special course of training in architecture. Since his return he has located in Milwaukee, Wis., where he is doing a lucrative business as an architect and is known as the designer of the Bravier Church work of Garnay.
|
|||||
|
|
EWIS FINK was born in Europe on the 14th of December, 1830, and came to the United States with his parents, Jacob and Elizabeth Fink, when he was about eleven years old. In 1841 his parents located in Milwaukee County, Wis., where our subject remained until 1886, when he came to. Nebraska and located on his present farm, consisting of 240 acres on sections 25, 2 and 6, Sicily Township. He bought his land in 1878, and since his residence here he has also bought 160 acres adjoining his home farm on the east, and in Blue Springs Township. The parents of our subject died while he was living in Wisconsin. In July, 1856, our subject was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Schlosser, who was also making her home in Wisconsin. By this marriage they became the parents of six children, all of whom are now living. Mrs. Fink died in Wisconsin in June, 1869. Our subject was then united in marriage with Miss Theresa Mannet, by whom he had three children, all of whom are now living. The mother of these three children died in June, 1882, since which time our subject married Augusta (Garlt) Worsehnkiky. Our subject and his parents were members of the Free Thinkers' Society in Wisconsin, and the former is an able advocate of the principles of that society. He is eminently a self-made man, having started in life with but very little means and being obliged to depend upon his own labor for his success, and by much hard work and careful management he has secured a very good home with fine improvements, which places him in a position to make and save quite a competence for his older days. He is extensively engaged in farming, combining with that vocation the raising of a good grade of live stock, giving special attention to the breeding of cattle and hogs.
RVILLE
R. DEMING, one of the younger members of the farming community of Highland
Township, is finely located on section 9, where in addition to general farming
he makes a specialty of stock-raising. His home and farm, of which a view will
be found upon another page, is noticeable among those of the other enterprising
citizens of Gage County as that of a man who is enterprising and industrious,
and who is contributing his quota toward the building up of his town-
|
|
|
|||
ship by keeping pace with the improvements of the age, and availing himself of the information that is to be gained by reading and by contact with other intelligent men. He is the offspring of an excellent family, and was born in Saratoga County, N. Y., Dec. 14, 1845. His parents, John and Sarah (Rockwell) Dewing, were also natives of the Empire State, and claim to be of English ancestry. The household circle included four children, all of whom are living, namely: Edgar, a resident of Fulton County, N. Y.; Orville R., our subject; Melvina, the wife of Enos Murphy, of Saratoga County, N. Y., and Clark J., of Sedgwick County, Kan. The parents of Mr. Dewing were residents of New York, and are now deceased. Our subject was reared to manhood in his native county, amid the quiet pursuits of farm life, and acquired his education in the district schools. He continued under the home roof until 1868 or 1869, and thereafter spent his time in the lumber trade until his marriage, which occurred when he was nearly thirty years of age, on the 21st of November, 1875. His bride, Miss Osie Whitney, was a native of his own county in New York, and of their union there were born five children, namely: Mervin, Aug. 17, 1877; Edna, Sept. 27, 1879; Maude, April 28, 1884, these being still living. The two deceased are: Alta, who was born July 3,1882, and died Feb. 9, 1883; and Carl O., who was born April 30. 1886, and died April 20, 1887. Mr. and Mrs. Deming lived in their native State a year after their marriage, and in the spring of 1876 changed their residence to DeKalb County, Ill., where our subject engaged in farming until the spring of 1879. Then selling out he came to Nebraska, and purchased 160 acres of land from the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company, at $8 per acre. Upon this he labored industriously, cultivating the soil and gradually erecting the buildings necessary for his comfort and convenience, and subsequently added to his real estate until he now has 240 acres, comprising some of the finest land in Highland Township. Considering the fact that he was comparatively without means when crossing the Mississippi, he has certainly given evidence of great industry and perseverance, and he generously maintains that he has been ably assisted by his excellent wife and helpmate, who has stood by his side through sunshine and through storm, and fulfilled her whole part in their mutual toils and sacrifices. The Dewing homestead is now one of the most desirable in this part of Gage County, and the family one of the most highly respected in the community. Mr. Deming, politically, is in sympathy with the Democratic party, and socially, belongs to the A. F. & A. M,, with which he identified himself in 1870 at Northampton, N. Y. The wife of our subject was born July 27, 1855, and is the daughter of Oscar O. and Sarah R. (Steele) Whitney, the former a native of Vermont, and the latter of New York State. The household circle included three children: Osie, Mrs. D.; Leah, who died when twenty-nine years old, and William, who is engaged in inventions and patents at Glens Falls, N. Y. Calvin Brown, a favorite uncle of Mrs. Dewing, served as a soldier both in the Mexican War and that of the late Rebellion; he is now in Fulton County, N. Y. Mr. Deming's brother, Edgar L., served in Company G, 115th New York Volunteers, in the Rebellion, for three years.
|
|||||
|
|
RS. ELIZABETH WALDRON is a woman of noble spirit and courageous heart, who has suffered the bereavement, of her affectionate husband and has devoted herself, with a Christian resignation to her great loss, to the care of her four children. Her father, Jacob Oppenheimer, was a man of more than ordinary perseverance and generosity, and our subject possesses these excellent qualities in a marked degree, modified only to harmonize with the admirable womanly qualities which characterize her. He was born near Saxony, Germany, and was the only living child of his parents; his father died when he was quite young. He remained in Germany with his mother as long as she lived, and after her death the ties which bound him to his Fatherland were broken, and, in company with some of his friends, he came to America. When he reached the harbor of New York he had about $10 in his pocket, and finding
|
|
|
|||
that his friends were wholly destitute, the spirit of generosity, which was one of his marked characteristics, urged him to bestow all he had upon his unfortunate friends, and he started out with empty hands. The father of our subject was not of Jewish extraction, his father having been a native of France and his mother of Germany. After his generous disposal of his money he went to work in the Pennsylvania Iron Works, and also engaged in farming. He married in Ohio, and removed to Illinois, making his home on a farm in Fulton County. and having met with success, he became well situated, and surrounded his family with the advantages and luxuries that wealth can procure. He died in 1880 at the age of sixty-eight years, but the mother still lives at her home in Shenandoah, Iowa, having reached the age of seventy-six years. They were the parents of seven children, namely: David, Sarah, James, Barbara, Eli, Elizabeth and Milton. Our subject was born in Highland County, Ohio, on the 11th of June, 1850, and was but one year old when she was taken to Illinois. She lived on her father's farm and attended the common schools of the district, and having unusually quick perception and keenness of intellectual faculties, she became a cultivated and refined young woman, and possessed many attractive qualities of mind and heart. She was married, on the 23d of January, 1873, to Mr. L. R. Waldron, a son of John and Isabella (Steward) Waldron, who went to Johnson County, Iowa, where the two families became acquainted and cemented their friendship by this happy union. Mr. Waldron was born on the 12th of January, 1850, in Ohio, and was but a child when his parents went to Iowa. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Waldron made their home in Montgomery County, where the former was engaged as a farmer, and after having charge of a rented farm for three years, he purchased some land and prospered well on his own behalf. They came to Nebraska in 1882, and Mr. Waldron bought the north half of section 27, Hooker Township, on which he was meeting with prosperity, when, unfortunately, his death occurred, on the 15th of February, 1883, and he left his wife and four children to mourn his untimely departure. The fond mother centers all her hopes in her four sons--Ralph, Arthur, Worth and Ledrue--whom she will undoubtedly see become useful and noble men. Mrs. Waldron has shown a great deal of courage and business capability in so successfully carrying on the management of the farm since the death of her husband. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church, of Adams, and is a woman of firm temperance principles. Her political views favor the administration of the Democratic party in politics, and she is everywhere esteemed as an estimable woman and a refined lady. We are pleased to present in this volume a view of her homestead.
When the father of our subject came here the Indians roamed at will over the vast prairies, too indolent to make use of the unexcelled soil which nature had prepared to he the greatest resource of mankind. They indulged in the pastimes for which they were so celebrated and at which they became so expert, and had ample opportunity to cast their arrows at the elk, deer, antelope and wolves which abounded throughout this territory. But they are gone, and the land which they held so indifferently the hand of the enterprising white man has con- |
|||||
|
|
R.
THOMAS D. TIBBETS is one of the leading physicians and surgeons residing in
Liberty. He was born in Munson, Me., on the 9th of December, 1847, and is a
son of Edward Tibbets (deceased), who moved from Munson to Augusta of the same
State when our subject was a child. From there he went to DeKalb County, Ill.,
in the year 1857, and engaged in agriculture until 1864, when he came to this
county. He settled on Wolf Creek two miles north of the place now occupied
by the city of Liberty, and at that time there were but two stores, a post-office
and blacksmith-shop, in Beatrice. Jacob Shaw then had charge of the blacksmith-shop,
and he still lives in the same city. There was not a house in the place occupied
by this thriving city, and there were but three houses on Plum Creek, four
on Wolf Creek and three on Wild Cat Creek, making in all perhaps not more than
a dozen houses in this vicinity.
|
|
|
|||
verted into fertile fields which produce abundant crops. Our subject received an education which qualified him to make the profession of instructing the young and growing minds his principal occupation for a period of eight years, being engaged at different times in the schools all over this neighborhood. In his leisure time during that period he gave attention to the study of medicine, and afterward was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of St. Joseph, Mo., on the 2d of March, 1880. He had practiced in this vicinity four years previous to his graduation, and when the city of Liberty was founded he located here, having since that time built up quite a good practice. Not only does a physician relieve physical pain and become a confidant to whom suffering people willingly confide their ills, but he endears himself to the families because of his labors in their behalf, and thus enjoys a constantly increasing host of friends. On the 6th of October, 1874, Dr. Tibbets was united in marriage to Miss Martha J. Losey, a daughter of James M. Losey, of Clay County, Kan. Five children came to their home, two of them only to remain for a short time, and the three now living are Lionel, Stella and Myrtle. The mother is an esteemed and well-known member of society, and a sympathizing helpmate to her husband, encouraging him by her estimable disposition and qualities of womanhood. Our subject has for two years been a member of the County Board of Supervisors, and has served as Chairman of the Town Board of Trustees, being quick to support the measures by which the improvement of the city can be augmented. He is a member of the Republican organization.
Our subject came with his parents to Nebraska in 1881, and soon afterward entered the employ of his uncle, H. A. LaSelle, at Beatrice, who was conducting a store of general merchandise. Subsequently he operated at Hastings in the same capacity, and from the latter place removed to Cortland, where he became the partner of Peter Hastings, with whom he continued until the latter gentleman disposed of his interest in the business to the firm of LaSelle, Fiske & Co. Mr. LaSelle occupied himself in general merchandising at Cortland for a period of four years, at the end of which time his father, as a member of the firm of LaSelle, Fiske & Co., purchased the stock of goods of George R. Scott, in Beatrice. Frank G. now has entire charge of the business at Cortland, while the other partners manage the store in Beatrice. They form a trio bound to succeed, and their prompt methods of doing business have commended them generally to the citizens of this section. Mr. LaSelle was married at Beatrice, in September, 1884, to one of the most estimable and accomplished young ladies of the city, Miss Hattie Saunders, who was born in Ohio. Of this union there are two children--Grosvenor V. and a babe unnamed.
Our subject spent the early years of his life on his father's farm, engaged in the various duties incident to a country life, and attending the common schools, applying himself with such diligence to his |
|||||
|
|
RANK
G. LASELLE, a member of the firm of LaSelle, Fiske & Co., dealers in general
merchandise, has charge of their store in Cortland, the other half of the business
being located at Beatrice. He was born in Madison County, N. Y., May 2, 1861,
and passed his boyhood in his native county, attending first a district and
afterward a select school. Of his father, William M. LaSelle, a sketch will
be found elsewhere in this work. The mother was Mary A. Grosvenor, the descendant
of a fine old family of New York State.
ALVIN
K. HIGGINS resides on section 3, Midland Township; he has been closely identified
with public affairs in this county since 1874. He was born on the 17th of June,
1844, in Pittsfield, Me., and is a son of Heman and Betsey (Tibbetts) Higgins,
natives of Maine, and still residing in that State. Our subject is the eldest
of the four children, of whom Charity became the wife of William Dyer, and
resides in Burnham; George in Clinton, and Mary, the wife of Henry Lancaster,
in Palmyra, all in their native State.
