ON. C. W. HOXIE, superintendent of the State Industrial School for Boys, located at Kearney, was born in Bennington county, Vermont, in 1854. His parents three years later removed to La Salle county,

Illinois, where the son received an education in the district schools, after which he took a business course in the commercial college of Ottawa. In 1871 he entered a large retail grocery establishment at Ottawa, and rapidly advanced to head clerk and manager, resigning in 1877 to enter business on his own account. He married

Miss Mary M. Atkinson, of Wheeling, West Virginia, November 12, 1879. He conducted two large stores until 1883, when he sold his business to locate in the capital of Nebraska. Since coming west he has been engaged in real estate and insurance, laboring with untiring zeal to advance the interests of both city and state. For two years he was a prominent promoter of the Lincoln Normal University, and helped build the town of Normal. He was deputy sheriff of Lancaster county for three years and a half. Mr. Hoxie is a genial, big-hearted gentleman of kind disposition, good executive ability, a man of the strictest integrity, and his appointment was an act of wisdom.

ON. B. R. B. WEBER, of Valparaiso, superintendent of the Girls' Industrial School, located at Geneva, was born near Springfield, Illinois, in 1852. He was early schooled in practical agriculture, and superintended a large farm for his father. Three of his brothers were soldiers in the war for the preservation of the Union, and two of them gave their lives for their country. He was married in 1872 to Lillie McCormick and moved to Saunders county, Ne-

braska, where he has farmed, raised stock and fruit, teaching school a portion of the time. He now owns several farms around Valparaiso, and has a residence and other property in the village. In 1881 he was elected enrolling clerk of the senate and later served a clerk of various committees. He was elected as a member of the twenty-first session of the legislature. Mr. Weber has frequently been elected as a delegate to county and state conventions and was an alternate to the Chicago convention that nominated Benjamin Harrison. He was defeated for state senator two years ago by a small vote in Sarpy county, though he carried Saunders county. He rendered eminent service to his party in 1896 as secretary of the state populist campaign. He is a Christian gentleman, and has always defended the oppressed as against the oppressor. He received the unanimous vote of the board on the first ballot for the position he now holds.