NE of the representatives from the first district, Hon. Henry Gerdes, is a man of extensive legislative experience, although a farmer, and is serving his third term in the house of representatives. He was born in McHenry county, Illinois, December 22, 1855, and located in Richardson county, Nebraska, as early as 1862. His early education was acquired under difficulties, as the country was then new and school facilities very limited. Henry was married in 1880 to Miss May Bucholz, and their family consists of a boy and a girl. He was swept into politics by the Alliance movement of 1890, and was elected to the legislature by the democrats that year, he being the only successful man on his ticket. He introduced the "Farmers Mutual Insurance Bill," which became a law. In 1892 he was re-elected, and in the session of 1893 was an active, earnest member. He helped to elect Hon. W. V. Allen to the United States senate. He has repeatedly declined to run for office and has usually accepted the nomination for public position under protest. He is chairman of the committee on miscellaneous subjects and a member of the committees on finance, ways and means, cities and towns, insurance, public schools, and claims.

ON. FELIX GIVENS, of West Point, represents the fifteenth legislative district in the house of representatives. He was born in Chicago December 25, 1844, and his mother died before he had reached his second year. At an early age he moved to Clayton county, Iowa, where he was educated in the public schools of his district. He served as assessor and township trustee, and in 1871 located in Montgomery county, Kansas, remaining there but one year, from whence he came to Nebraska and located in Cuming county, where he has established for himself a competency. He now owns 642 acres of valuable land, with three and one-half acres in the village of Beemer. He was married in 1868 to Miss Ellen Burk, and they have a large family, consisting of six boys and seven girls. Mr. Givens is of Irish descent, his father and mother both having been born in County Tyrone, Ireland. Representative Givens is a tried and true democrat and was nominated for the legislature by his party in 1896 and elected by a good majority. He has served with credit to himself and his constituents, and is a member of the committees on federal relations, penitentiary, and school lands and funds.

HE thirty-sixth legislative district, composed of the counties of Thayer and Jefferson, is represented in the house by Hon. J. S. Goshorn, of Hebron. He was born in Juniata county, Pennsylvania, May 25, 1830, of Pennsylvania Dutch and Scotch-Irish ancestry. Both of his grandfathers were Revolutionary soldiers, and his father served under General Harrison in the war of 1812. When but a boy young Goshorn served as apprentice in a nail factory, devoting all his spare time to study. He pored over his books alone and attended night schools until he became qualified to teach. At twenty-two he removed to Iowa, and engaged in teaching and farming. In 1854 he married Miss Hattie J. Stiffler, of Blair county, Pennsylvania. He enlisted at the outbreak of the war in the Fourth Iowa Infantry, served a year and retired on account of ill health. He afterwards raised a company for the Forty-seventh Iowa, and was commissioned as captain, serving to the end of the war. For over twenty-five years the greater part of his time has been devoted to the adjustment of fire insurance losses, and he takes pride in the fact that in all his long experience as an adjuster he has never had a case of litigation over a single claim. He became a resident of Nebraska in

1882, and lives on his farm near Hebron. He was elected as a republican, and is a member of the committees on cities and towns, university and normal schools, school lands and funds, mines and minerals, and irrigation.

ISTRICT 44, consisting of the county of Webster, is represented in the house by Hon. J. L. Grandstaff. He was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, April 30, 1847, and moved with his parents to Guthrie county, Iowa, when six years of age, where he was educated in the common schools. When only sixteen he enlisted in Company I, 29th Iowa Infantry, went directly to the front, and served in the Trans-Mississippi department, taking part in many engagements. Went to Mobile in 1864 and assisted in the capture of that city. He was honorably discharged from the service September 10, 1865, and came to Nebraska the following January, locating first in Merrick county and afterwards in Webster on a homestead which he still occupies. He was one of the earliest settlers of that county, going there in 1871. He is a popular Grand Army man, and has filled all the offices of Burnside Post No. 79. Until 1890 Mr. Grandstaff was a member of the republican party, when he joined the populists, and has since been one of