389
BIOGRAPHICAL SOUVENIR OF BUFFALO COUNTY be said that he had no means whatever. But he came with the determination to succeed, and notwithstanding his great suffering on account of his poverty he is now on the road to success and is numbered among the substantial farmers of his section. It is indeed difficult for one to fully appreciate the condition of a person coming to a country like this at that time with no money or friends, and being compelled to work his way through under such embarrassing circumstances. None but the brave and courageous succeed.
Frank W. Magee was united in marriage December 10, 1878, to Miss Mary Fester, of Clinton, N. Y., and from this union four children were born--Arthur, born April 6, 1881 (deceased); Maud, born March 17, 1884; a third child born July 6, 1885 (deceased), and Sarah E., born November 4, 1887. Mrs. Magee was born in Lewis county, N. Y., February 22, 1857, and is the daughter of John and Sarah Fester, both of whom came from Germany. Mrs. Magee is a member of the United Brethren church. Mr. Magee has been chosen to fill various local offices and has always performed his official duties in a highly creditable manner. He is a man who strives at all times and under all circumstances to merit the respect and approbation of those around him.
HOLLOWAY W. KINNEY was born in Hunterdon county, N. J., February 21, 1832, and is the son of Adrian and Catherine (Van Syckle) Kinney. His father was a native of New Jersey and was born in 1803, was a farmer by occupation and died in 1863. His mother, who was also a native of New Jersey, is still living. There were nine children in the family--three boys and six girls. Both parents were identified with the Presbyterian church. His paternal grandfather, Daniel Kinney, came from Germany in early manhood and settled in New Jersey, where he died in 1858. His maternal grandfather, Aaron Van Syckle, was a native of England, who, when he came to this country, selected New Jersey as his place of residence. H. W. Kinney was married October 6, 1855, to Miss Sarah Welter. She is a daughter of Jacob and Eliza (Henderson) Welter, and was born in Warren county, N. J., May 5, 1835. Their union was blest with two children--Cordelia, born August 15, 1856, and Carrie I. born July 26, 1873. Mrs. Kinney's parents were natives of New Jersey. Her father died in 1862, and her mother in 1885. There were four children in the family, of which she was the only girl. H. W. Kinney possesses a most honorable military record. Enlisting August 20, 1862, in the Fifteenth New Jersey regiment, he served for three years, during which time he participated in many of the most notable engagements of the war. He was at Fredericksburg, Va., May 3, 1863; Salem Heights, May 3 and 4, 1863; Franklin's Crossing, Va., 6 to 14, 1863; Gettysburg, Pa., July 2 and 3, 1863; Fairfield, Pa., July 5, 1863; Fairfield P. O., Funkstown, Md.; Rappahannock station, Va., October 12; Rappahannock station, Va., November 7; Mine Run, Spottsylvania, Va., May 8 to 11, 1864; Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12 to 16, 1864; North and South Anna river, Hanover C. H., Talapotomy creek, Weldon railroad, Snicker's gap,
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Strasburg, Winchester, Charlestown, Opequan, Fisher hill, Newmarket, Mount Jackson, Cedar creek and Middletown, Hatcher's run, Fort Stedman, capture of Petersburg, Va., April 2, 1865, Sailor's creek, April 6, 1865; Farmville, April 7, 1865; and at Lee's surrender, Appomattox, April 9, 1865. He came out of the battle at Cedar creek with nineteen bullet holes in his clothes. His regiment was composed of the best men, physically, in Hunterdon county, N. J., and was made up exclusively of farmers, but his health was ruined in the hospitals. He was mustered out June 22, 1865. He came to Nebraska in March, 1878, and settled in Thornton township, Buffalo county. At that time there were only four families located within a radius of four or five miles of him. His farm, which is a splendid one, is located on the highest point in the township and commands an excellent view of the surrounding country. Perhaps no man in Buffalo county has taken more interest in fruit raising than has he, and certainly none has succeeded better, as he has a large number of thrifty fruit trees of excellent varieties. He also has succeeded remarkably well in raising small fruits, and he has demonstrated, beyond doubt, that with proper care fruit can be grown in this country.
HON. SAMUEL W. THORNTON, one of the oldest settlers of Thornton township, was born in Madison county, Ohio, October 23, 1832. His father, Abner Thornton, was born in North Carolina in the year 1800 and was of Scotch-Irish extraction. He emigrated with his parents in early childhood to Highland county, Ohio, where the family resided for several years, when they removed to Madison county. The senior Mr. Thornton was a school-teacher for a quarter of a century and was a man noted for his intelligence and good judgment. He was a man of exemplary habits and was strictly honest in all his dealings with his fellow-men. He joined the Presbyterian church in his early boyhood days and served as deacon during the major portion of his life. He died in September, 1864, respected and loved by all who knew him. Samuel Strain, the maternal grandfather of the subject of our sketch, was a native of Highland county, Ohio, was a most zealous Presbyterian and a man of extraordinary influence in the community where he lived. He was married four times and was the father of twenty-two children. His first wife was Nancy Watts, by whom he had four children; his second wife was Elizabeth Miller, who bore him seven children; his third was Martha Wilson, who also bore him seven children; the fourth and last was Nancy Johnston, by whom he had four children. A hewed log house erected by Mr. Strain, in Highland county, Ohio, in 1808, is still standing in a good state of preservation. The subject of our sketch was married September 14, 1854 to Miss Sarah A., daughter of Thomas and Mary (Bryson) Larimer. Both parents were natives of Pennsylvania, the father having been born in Fayette county, September 7, 1802, and the mother in Fayette county, September 23, 1805. Thomas Larimer was a farmer by occupation and a prominent and influential man in the community in which he lived. He held various
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local offices, but never aspired to political honors. He was a devoted member of the Presbyterian church for fifty years and never knew that he had an enemy in his life. The maternal grandparents of Mrs. S. W. Thornton, were Andrew and Elizabeth (Porter) Bryson, both natives of Ireland. They were driven from their native land, however, during the religious revolution in the time of Charles I. Immediately after marriage, Mr. Thornton engaged in farming in Fayette county, Ohio, until 1859, when he emigrated to Washington, Washington county, Iowa, where he resumed his chosen occupation, about three miles from the county seat. In August, 1861, he responded to the bugle call of his country by enlisting in Company C, Eighth regiment, Iowa infantry. He participated in various skirmishes in Missouri in 1861-2. In the spring of 1862 his regiment was ordered up the Tennessee river as far as Pittsburg Landing, where it arrived in time to take part in the terrible battle of Shiloh. It was here on the eve of April 6, 1862, that Mr. Thornton was taken prisoner. He was first taken to Memphis, Tenn., later to Mobile, Ala., and finally to Macon, Ga., where he was paroled and sent home to await exchange. He soon re-entered the service and participated in the siege of Vicksburg, and in Forrest's raid on the city of Memphis. Here, on the twenty-first of August, he was shot in the thigh and wounded so badly that he was confined to the hospital until February 6, 1865, when he was discharged. He returned home on crutches, which he was obliged to use for sometime afterwards. After his return from the service, he filled acceptably several public positions of honor and trust. He served as city collector, assessor and marshal of Washington, and one term as deputy sheriff. He also took the census of Washington county, Iowa, in 1870, receiving the appointment without previous knowledge. He immigrated to Buffalo county, Nebr., in June, 1874, and took a homestead and timber claim in what has since been called Thornton township. The country was wild and exceedingly barren, there being no settlement in the immediate vicinity at that time. Wild game was quite plenty, deer and antelope being' frequently seen on the surrounding bluffs. No grass of any consequence grew, except in the "draws." Mr. Thornton was obliged to cut all the grass, for two years, that grew in the "draws" within a radius of two miles, in order to procure enough hay to feed his stock during the winter. In July, 1874, the grasshoppers made their first appearance and destroyed everything that was green. The next year the few discouraged settlers succeeded in raising a fine crop, considering the extreme newness of the country. In the summer of 1876, however, when the growing crop gave every promise of an abundant yield, and when the few scattering settlers had renewed their courage in the hope of gathering a rich harvest in the autumn, behold, the festive grasshoppers rose in black clouds in the distant horizon and descended wherever a green blade of anything was visible, and before night of the same day not a vestige of anything green could be seen. Fortunately this was the last year of the grasshoppers. Since then there has been unexcelled prosperity. Mr. Thornton now has four hundred and eighty acres of splendid land adapted to producing anything
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usually grown in this section of the country. He has been experimenting for twelve years in raising tame grasses and has a reputation for raising more tame grass than any other farmer in the country.
Mr. and Mrs. Thornton have reared a family of eight children, namely--Eva J., born June 5, 1855, wife of John Swenson; William D., born February 24, 1858, married to Fanny Borders; Charles A., born November 98, 1860, drowned at the age of sixteen in Loup river; Mary E., born September 6, 1865, wife of T. R. Lionberger; Harry L., born October 3, 1867; Mabel C., born February 9, 1870, wife of Albert S. Lionberger of Hancock county, Ill.; Kate D., born October 28, 1872; and Lillie B., born November 10, 1877.
Mr. Thornton was elected in the fall of 1886 to represent Buffalo county in the State legislature and took an active part in the discussion of various important measures which passed during the session. Mr. and Mrs. Thornton are both consistent members of the Congregational church and Mr. Thornton is also an honored member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
BARTLETTE TURNER was born in Scotland county, Mo., October 6, 1851. His father, William A. Turner, was born in Virginia in 1827 but emigrated to Illinois when quite young, and in 1845 moved to Missouri, where he engaged in farming. He has always taken great interest in agricultural pursuits and still resides at Granger, Scotland county, Mo. His wife is Eliza Powers, born in Indiana in 1831. William H. Turner, the paternal grandfather of our subject, emigrated from Virginia to Illinois and later to Missouri, where he died in 1877. The maternal grandfather, Richard Powers, lived in Missouri and died before the war; his wife, Mary Powers, died in Missouri in 1885.
Mr. Turner, the subject of this sketch, began life for himself in 1872 by working a farm by the month. His sole ambition was to get a home of his own, and with this purpose in view he provided himself with a "prairie schooner" and set out for the boundless West. He journeyed as far as Buffalo county, Nebraska, where he arrived on the first of October, 1873. After prospecting about for a while he concluded to take up a homestead in Thornton township. Here he built a sod house and went to work in earnest to secure a home. The country was new, and he had to labor under many disadvantages, but he eventually overcame these obstacles and is to-day one of the prosperous farmers of his locality. His farm contains 240 acres of land, mostly under cultivation and otherwise improved. A substantial farm dwelling has superseded the old sod house and beautiful forest trees break the monotony of the rolling prairie.
Mr. Turner was united in marriage December 26, 1872, to Miss Mary E. Standard. Three children have been born to this union, namely--William L., born January 30, 1874; Fred A., born July 6, 1876, and Frank, born June 25, 1885. The father of Mrs. Turner was Thomas Standard, who was born in Ohio and who emigrated to Missouri when a young man, and engaged in farming. He died in the service of his country at Cincinnati, Ohio,
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during the war. He was married to Mary Phelps, a native of Missouri, who is now living at Arbela, Mo. Both were devoted members of the Christian church.
Mr. and Mrs. Bartlette Turner remember seeing herds of antelope passing only a few rods from their present home, and the former has seen buffalo in this country since his residence here. He has hauled fuel, during his early settlement, from fifteen to thirty miles and has paid as high as $1.20 for a bushel of corn. He erected his first sod house, fourteen by sixteen feet, at an outlay of only $3.00. Mr. Turner has never aspired to political honors, but has several times served in the capacity of clerk and treasurer of his township. He has always affiliated with the democratic party.
Photo of R. Beecher R. BEECHER, M. D. Dr. R. Beecher is a homeopathic physician of prominence residing in the town of Shelton, Buffalo county, and is also an old Nebraskan, having come to the state in 1872. His record, therefore, will be doubly interesting to a volume like this.
Dr. Beecher was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, December 13, 1835, and was reared there to the age of thirteen, moving thence to Winnebago county, Ill., with his parents, who settled in that county in the vicinity of Rockford in 1848. There his youth was spent. He received a good literary education in the schools of Beloit, Wis., and on reaching his majority went to Iowa and started in the world for himself. He selected medicine as his profession and prepared himself for lectures under the direction of Dr. H. C. Markham, of Independence, Iowa, and Dr. R.B. Cauch, of Winthrop, Iowa. The former of these belonged to the allopathic school of medicine and the latter to the homeopathic school. Having posted himself on the relative merits of the two schools sufficiently to enable him to make a judicious choice, Dr. Beecher decided to give his allegiance to the latter, and set about vigorously to prepare himself for the practice. He graduated from the Medical College of Missouri, at St. Louis, and settled to the practice of his profession in Iowa. He spent some years there successfully engaged at the practice till 1872, when he made up his mind to change locations, and came that year to Nebraska and located at the town of Exeter, Fillmore county. He followed his profession there for a period of nine years, moving in 1881 to Shelton, Buffalo county, where he now lives. Since the date Dr. Beecher embarked in the profession he has given his time wholly to it, and the great success he has met with has been a just reward for his diligent labor and faithful application. He has been in the practice now over a third of a century; he has ridden over thousands of miles of territory and has visited the bedside of hundreds of suffering fellow-mortals. His practice has been that of the general practitioner. Much of it has necessarily been done for those too poor to pay the "accustomed doctors' fee," yet not the less faithfully has it, on that account, been done. He has made it a point always in his practice to respond to the wants of those in distress, and render his best professional services, regardless of the prospects of financial returns. He
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looks upon his profession as one of the highest honor, and believes that every member of it should be actuated by the one supreme purpose of doing good.
Of his methods, his conduct towards his patients and his cures it is not necessary to speak with great minuteness in this place. If witnesses on these points were needed, clouds of them could be summoned from many sources. He has, time and again, effected cures of cases pronounced hopeless by other physicians, and his patients restored to health are living all around him. There are numbers of people of the highest official position and social prominence living in his county who will readily testify to the satisfactory cures he has made falling under their observation. Some of these people are themselves the subjects of such cures. With two malignant troubles, particularly, has Dr. Beecher been most successful. These are typhoid fever and rheumatism. With anything like a reasonable start with either of these he never fails of a cure. In his practice Dr. Beecher uses the simple remedies devised and made use of by his school. He is particularly attached to the use of the electric battery, and not the least of his most noted cures have been made through this modern agency.
Dr. Beecher has in a course of a long practice accumulated a vast amount of valuable matter, being a man of close observation and diligent research. This he designs giving to the medical profession in printed form as soon as the work of digesting and re-writing can be performed. His work will cover all the years of his practice and will embody a wide range of study and actual bed-side experience. Dr. Beecher takes an active interest in the literature of his profession and in the workings of the various medical associations. He takes the journals, of course, and does some contributive work for them. As often as the exacting duties of his practice will allow, he attends the sittings of the various associations and contributes articles for discussion.
As illustrative of the oft-repeated observation originating with the medical fraternity--that men are what they are more by heredity than by education--it may be well to record some facts in this sketch touching Dr. Beecher's ancestral history in order to show how far his case falls within the scope of this observation.
Dr. Beecher is a descendant of New Englad stock and connected on both sides of his house with two distinguished families. His grandparents were all natives of Connecticut. His father, Augustus B. Beecher, who was a cousin of the eminent divine, Henry Ward Beecher, was a native of Hartford, Connecticut. He was a ship carpenter by trade, but tiring of his location came West when a young man and took up his residence in Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he married, settled down to carpenter work, following that occupation there for years, subsequently moving to Illinois, then to Iowa, and finally to Nebraska, dying in the latter state at his son's home in Shelton in 1884, having attained the eighty-third year of his age. He was a man of quiet life, sober, industrious, of a serious turn of mind and very domestic in his tastes.
Dr. Beecher's mother bore the maiden name of Mary Ann Sweet and was a daughter of Ara Sweet, who emigrated from his native place in Connecticut, came
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West and settled in Ashtabula county, Ohio, soon after that part of the state was thrown open to settlement, being the first one to take up a permanent residence in Geneva township, Ashtabula county. Dr. Beecher's mother was born in Ashtabula county, was reared and married there. She lived to the age of sixty-six, dying in 1879 of injuries received from a fall. The Sweets from whom she sprang were a family that furnished many eminent physicians, there running through the family a strong tendency to the medical profession. It is from this source chiefly that Dr. Beecher gets his taste for his calling. His people upon this side, as well as upon his father's, were distinguished for their quiet, even, temperate, systematic habits and their sober, settled views of life. They were noted also for their strong vigorous constitutions and their great longevity.
Dr. Beecher married in 1857 while still living in Illinois, the lady on whom his choice fell being Miss Adella Adams, a native of Rochester, New York. To this union have been born two children, both now grown and both of whom remain with their parents. These are a son and a daughter.
In physical, mental and moral make-up, Dr. Beecher preserves many of the characteristics of the people from whom he is descended. Though not strong and robust in appearance, he has a closely knit, tough, wiry physique, indicative of a strong inherited physical culture and temperate habits. He has the broad humanity and benevolent impulses that one would look for in a man bearing his name, and especially does he exhibit that love of home and attachment to his family which has run through his people for several generations.
Dr. Beecher is agreeable in personal appearance, being entertaining in conversation and engaging in manners. He is small of stature, but his frame is surmounted by a large head. His square jaw and partially shaven face, revealing his thin lips, indicate the decision of character that has marked his course through life, while the pleasant smile with which his countenance lights up in his softer moods, tells of the warmth of his nature and the genuineness of his feelings.
PETER F. H. SCHARS is one of the most popular and influential men in Buffalo county. One has but to call at his beautiful home in Thornton township and be greeted with that warm and genial welcome extentded alike to everyone, to discover the real secret of Mr. Schars' popularity. The "latch string" of his door hangs out to king and peasant alike, and no one goes from his threshold without having been made to feel that the welcome he received came from the heart of an honest and sincere man. Mr. Schars is a native of Germany, was born December 20, 1844, and came to America in 1852, with his parents, both of whom were natives of the "Fatherland." Young Schars was not old enough yet to appreciate the great possibilities offered in the new world to the honest, industrious sons of toil who flock to its shores from the overcrowded marts of
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other lands. A permanent settlement was made at New Baltimore, Mich., where the parents of this worthy son still reside. It was here that young Schars was reared to manhood; where he enjoyed the blessings of free schools; where he received his first lessons in patriotism; and where he had the principles of American manhood instilled in his very being. After Mr. Schars had attained his majority, he engaged in mercantile business at New Baltimore, Mich., and for eight years he continued to do a successful business. During his career as a business man, he was called upon by the people to fill various local positions of trust, and the prompt and efficient manner in which he discharged his public duties have been the chief characteristics of his successful career since. In 1879, he came to Buffalo county, Nebr., and immediately purchased a farm in Thornton township, where he now resides. His home-farm comprises a half-section, and a more beautiful tract of land can not be found in the country. The buildings are neat and substantial, and the sprinkling of numerous shade trees lend an air of cheerfulness that is so essential to a pleasant and beautiful home. Mr. Schars was married, September 13, 1870, to Lydia H. Hatheway, who was born in Marion, Mass., and is the daughter of New England parents. He was elected sheriff of Buffalo county, Nebr., on the republican ticket, in 1883, and re-elected in 1885. His career as sheriff was distinguished chiefly by tine fearless, yet courteous, promptness with which he discharged his official duties. He has since served as supervisor of his township two terms, and is now the president of the county board.
JAMES JENKINS is one of the oldest settlers, one of the first business men and one of the most reputable citizens of Kearney--a man, who, from his naturally retiring disposition and his settled habit of attending strictly to his own personal affairs, would probably never become known to the casual visitor were he not so well and favorably known to all the old settlers of Kearney and by them pointed out to strangers as one of the first men of the place. Mr. Jenkins settled in Buffalo county March 22, 1872. He located at first in the country, taking as a homestead the southwest quarter of section 24, township 9, range 16 west, his place lying two and a half miles north of Kearney. This was six months before the town-site of Kearney was surveyed. When the town was started in the fall of 1872, he saw an opening for himself at his trade and he came in and started a boot and shoe shop. He continued to reside on his farm, worked at the bench during the day, and returned home at night. His business increasing and the growth of the town demanding it, he subsequently bought a stock of ready made boots and shoes to supply the local trade. He did well from the start, and in October, 1881, he gave up farming and moved his family to town, and has since given his entire time and attention to his store. The Boston Boot & Shoe Store is the result of his long years of patient industry and close attention to business, and it is no more than justice to say that it is one of the largest and best retail boot and shoe houses in central Nebraska. A simple story, shortly told; yet back of it is a useful lesson. This success has not been achieved by happy accident but only by
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the exercise of great patience, great industry and an amount of self-sacrifice that but few men are willing to practice. Throughout all discouraging seasons and amidst all distracting considerations Mr. Jenkins has toiled steadily on, working out his own unchanging purpose of building up a house with a trade that will be a credit to his town and an honor to his name. Others of his comrades of former years, after ineffectual efforts to establish themselves in one line and another, have moved on, most of them further west. Some did establish themselves, but, failing for one reason and another, have dropped to the rear. Still others, caught with the frenzy of speculation, have had their earnings swallowed up and are either left penniless or so tied up as to be helpless, and still others have succeeded even at speculation, and some in legitimate lines. But the last mentioned are not numerous, and of their number--that is of the strictly legitimate business men and not money grubbers--none have been more successful or achieved their success by the exercise of better virtues than has the subject of this sketch. Mr. Jenkins served the City of Kearney as mayor in 1882, being elected on the republican ticket. He has been town councilman twice. For the general growth and development of the city he has been active at all times, yet he is no boomer. He believes that solid results are attained only by hard persistant effort--that there is no "talking point" about any man or measure equal to real merit--that lasting success is reached only by it. He has absolute faith in Kearney and Buffalo county. He has shown his faith by his works, for he has spent seventeen years of the best part of his life building up a business here, which, were he so inclined, he could not abandon without irreparable loss. Of the town and county of his adoption, of the people among whom he lives whose pluck and energy have made the town and county what they are, he is proud, and of him as a sturdy, self-reliant, industrious useful citizen, the City of Kearney and her appreciative people are equally as proud.
So much for Mr. Jenkins' business career since coming to Buffalo county. For the benefit of his posterity who may turn to this volume in years to come to learn something of the early history of their first ancestor who settled on Nebraska soil, the following notes may be added: James Jenkins was born in Wales, March 1, 1845, and is a son of Charles and Mary (Bevan) Jenkins, natives also of Wales. His parents immigrated to America in 1851 and settled in Green Lake county, Wis., where they both now live, the father aged eighty-one, the mother seventy-seven. They are plain, unpretentious people, and have reached their great age by the temperate, orderly, systematic lives they have led. Mr. Jenkins is one of a family of eleven children, the list in the order of their ages being its follows--Mary, Eliza, Charles, Thomas, James (the subject hereof), Maggie, Kate, John, Winnie, William I. and Frank. The three eldest sons, being all that were then of a sufficient age, were in the late war. Charles and Thomas were members of Company B, Fourth Wisconsin infantry, Federal army. The former died at Port Hudson, La., of wounds received in battle at that place, and the latter died at Carrollton, a suburb of New Orleans, of disease contracted in service. The Fourth
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