Convention. For three years he has held the office of Supervisor of Roads, and is at present School Treasurer. He is a man of sterling worth and enjoys the confidence of the people. For twenty-four consecutive seasons Mr. Beetem. was engaged in threshing, which is not a usual record. Nine seasons he was thus engaged in Missouri, fourteen in Iowa and one in Nebraska.

ERMAN F. HELMERS. The snug 80-acre farm, owned and occupied by the subject of this sketch, is finely located on section 17, Rock Creek Precinct. Mr. Helmers has been residing here since the fall of 1875, and has in the meantime given his time and attention strictly to the improvement of his property. The results indicate with what industry he has labored, and should be a source of abundant satisfaction to him. A view, illustrating his homestead, is presented in connection with this brief sketch of its owner.
   Mr. Helmets came to this locality from Chariton County, Mo., of which he had been a resident four years. Prior to this he had lived in the States of Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, and his earliest home had been on the other side of the Atlantic, in the little Kingdom of Hanover, Germany. There he was born Sept. 4, 1843, being the son of John Frederick and Mary (Alfke) Helmets, who were also of German birth and ancestry, and the former of whom spent his entire life on his native soil, dying when fifty-six years old. He was a mason by trade, and after his death his widow and children, Sept. 3, 1882, joined our subject in America, and have since resided in the vicinity of Berlin, this county. The mother is now sixty-seven years old.
   Our subject was the second child of the family, which consisted of two sons and two daughters, all of whom are living and in this county. Herman H. was the first member of the family to cross the Atlantic, a journey which he never regretted, and it was through his means that his mother was persuaded to come with her family. He first settled in Wisconsin in the fall of 1865. He also had learned the trades of a mason and plasterer, which he followed until coming to Nebraska ten years later. He was married, near the town of Syracuse, to Miss Sophia Beckefeld, also a native of Hanover, and born April 20, 1855. She came to America when nineteen years of age with our subject, and by her marriage with him became the mother of six children, only two of whom are living, Alfred and Oscar, who are eight and six years of age, and occupied at home. Mrs. Sophia Helmets departed this life at the birth of her last child in Rock Creek Precinct, Nov. 11, 1882. She was a lady greatly beloved by her husband and friends, a kind and affectionate wife and mother, a good neighbor, and a devoted member of the Lutheran Church.
   Our subject in the fall of 1885 contracted a second marriage, with Miss Dora Bueckman, who was born in Hanover, in 1847, and came alone to the United States when thirty-three years of age, two years before her marriage. Of this union there is one child, a son William. Mr. and Mrs. Helmers are members in good standing of the Lutheran Church, and our subject, politically, is a straight Republican.

OSEPH L. WEBB, now operating a farm of 130 acres on section 35 of Palmyra Precinct. must be mentioned among the list of honored pioneers of Nebraska. He is the son of William and Mary Webb, who were born in New Jersey. The great-grandfather of our subject lived near May's Landing. He was one of the honored and prosperous citizens of his time and of some pretensions to affluence. He had seven fine, stalwart sons, all of whom, with the exception of the grandfather of our subject, sought their fortunes in other States. The name of this gentleman was Frederick Webb. Upon the marriage of his son William arrangements were made for the young couple to settle at Bridgeton, in New Jersey, and there they made their home, upon a farm. There, were born to them eleven children, seven of whom grew up to years of maturity. Our subject is the youngest of this family, and was born on the 27th of February, 1833, near Morriston, Burlington Co.,

N. J. Upon the migration of William Webb and his family to Greene County, Ohio, our subject was about ten years of age.
   Educational advantages in Ohio at that time were not so good even as those of more eastern localities, but such as they were he was privileged to enjoy. The memory is easily revived of the old log schoolhouse that manifested all the signs so common in the days of the pioneers, but from these schoolhouses have come the men who have made America, and have brought it upon its way as a people and Government. until it occupies the first seat in the Hall of Nations. At nineteen years of age he went to Indianapolis and worked in a peg and last manufactory. From that he went back to Ohio and staid one year, and then went to Iowa, locating in Lee County for about twelve months. From there he drove across the plains in company with Elias Adsit and his family. They continued their journeying until they arrived at Nebraska City, in May, 1857. In beginning life in this State our subject and Mr. Adsit took land and farmed together. There he remained prosperously engaged.
   Our subject was married, in the year 1861, to Miss Amanda White, the estimable daughter of George and Elizabeth (Nesmith) White. Her parents were from New Hampshire, but had become pioneers of Indiana. She was born in Jeffersonville, of that State, on the 9th of February, 1836. She was the youngest of seven children, three of whom came to mature years. She received an excellent education, which, with the careful home training received, has fitted her for almost any position she might be called upon to occupy. She came with her mother to Nebraska City in 1859, and was shortly after engaged in teaching in a private school. She was also a teacher of music on the piano, and was the first to follow that profession in that place. Her father who was a well-educated man, and for many years a teacher in Pennsylvania, died in the year 1852, when she was about sixteen years of age. Her mother died in Seward County, of this State, at the advanced age of eighty years.
   Our subject took up his homestead in Palmyra Precinct in 1863, and was among the first homesteaders in the United States. In 1880 he removed to his present home, and by the erection of his commodious and comfortable dwelling, with its pleasant surroundings, supplemented by the financial success that has come to him, he has been able to make his family a very fine home. Five children have come to Mr. and Mrs. Webb, whose names are as follows: Mary, Cora, Josephine, Freddy and Clara. Cora, Josephine and Clara are engaged in teaching.
   Mr. Webb is a representative American citizen. In political matters he is one free from the confining bonds of party policy, and votes independently, although at one time he was a Whig, and later a strong Republican. He is a stanch of the temperance cause, and an active worker therein. Both Mr. and Mrs. Webb are earnest and consistent members of the Baptist Church, he being one of the Trustees. He has taken a continued and growing interest in Sunday-school work, and for many years held the office of Sunday-school Superintendent. In religious circles and throughout the entire community he is eminently respected and esteemed. This is also true of Mrs. Webb and the daughters.
   A view of Mr. Webb's homestead is presented on an adjoining page.

OHN HERMANN ARENDS, one of the wealthy men of Rock Creek Precinct, is a leading land-owner and agriculturist, being proprietor of nearly a section of land finely improved and well stocked. His homestead, a view of which we present in this volume, lies on section 32, and is a place creditable to the intelligence and industry of the proprietor. The buildings are convenient and substantial, the dwelling tasteful and commodious, the barns and out-buildings admirably adapted to the general requirements of farm life.
   Mr. Arends crossed the Mississippi as early as 1859, while Nebraska was a Territory, and located in this county, where he has since lived. A native of Madison County, Ill., he was born Aug. 26, 1855, and is the son of Reka and Talk Mary (Tetten) Arends, who were natives of Hanover, Germany, where they were reared, educated and married.