[Hon. Andrew J. Poppleton has made Omaha his home for over thirty-three years. He is one of the pioneers who located here in 1854, when the place was but a mere hamlet of the frontier. Mr. Poppleton is a native of Michigan, having been born in Troy, Oakland county, July 24th, 1830. Until the age of fourteen he remained upon his father's farm, and attended the county district schools. He was then given his preliminary training for college at Romeo, Michigan, and was sent to Union College,

Schenectady, N. Y., from which institution he graduated in July, 1851. From September, 1851, to May, 1852, he taught Latin and Greek in the institution at Romeo, where he had been prepared for college. Mr. Poppleton had read considerable law during his college course, and, entering the law office of C. I. & E. C. Walker, of Detroit, he was admitted to practice in October, 1852, after an examination by the Supreme Court of Michigan. Clinton Briggs and Jonas Seeley, who became prominent citizens of Omaha, were admitted at the same time. To complete his preliminary legal training Mr. Poppleton attended a six months' course at John W. Fowler's law school, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where extempore speaking and the trial of moot causes were specialties. He then began active practice in Detroit. Upon the passsage (sic) of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, he made arrangements to settle permanently in Omaha. He

arrived here October 13, 1854, and immediately opened a law office. He soon had plenty of practice in claim suits and land litigation, and has continued in active practice ever since, devoting himself during all these years wholly to his profession. Mr. Poppleton served as a member of the Nebraska Territorial Legislative Assembly during the sessions of 1854-55 and 1857-58, and was Mayor of Omaha during the years 1858-59. He received, with J. Sterling Morton, the vote of the Democratic party for U. S. Senator, upon the admission of Nebraska as a State in 1867, and was the nominee of that party for Congress in 1868, but was defeated. Mr. Poppleton took a prominent part in the formal breaking of ground for the Union Pacific Railroad at Omaha, December 2d, 1863. On this occasion he made a memorable speech, which has always been regarded by those who have known him all these years as one of the

best efforts of his life. The next day he was appointed attorney of the Union Pacific by Vice-President Durant. From that date he continued his general practice until 1869. In that year the road was completed, and much important litigation arose from construction contracts. Thereupon Mr. Poppleton accepted a regular salary from the company, and has ever since continued as general attorney of the system, except that portion located in Kansas. As general attorney he has had charge and supervision of all legal, claim, tax and right of way business arising in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon, the local attorneys in all these jurisdictions reporting to him, and being subject to his direction and supervision. In 1885 he was made counsel of the managing and executive officers at Omaha, in respect to all matters arising in Kansas, and on October 1st, 1886, Kansas was placed under his supervision and control. His last annual report shows five hundred cases pending in his jurisdiction, involving every variety of litigation. To all of this work are to be added his labors as counsel of the general officers of the line at Omaha. It will be seen that his life is a very busy one. It is Mr. Poppleton's proud boast that he has never sought advancement except in his chosen profession; that he has never made a dollar by speculation; that he has never owned a share of railway stock or railway property of any kind; and that his property in Omaha is the result of his professional earnings, and judicious permanent investments in real estate. The fact that he has been twenty-four years in the service of the Union Pacific, and his gradual advancement to the supervision of the entire system and the management and control of all its legal affairs in the West, is the strongest evidence of the success of his management of the company's business. The Nebraska State University, in 1887, conferred the degree of LL. D. upon Mr. Poppleton. He has a large and well selected library of general literature at his elegant and commodious home on Sherman avenue, and, notwithstanding his multiplicity of duties, he is an extensive reader. He has the reputation of an eloquent orator, an accomplished scholar, and a fluent and classic writer. Mr. Poppleton was married December 2d, 1855, at Council Bluffs, to Miss Caroline L. Sears. They have three children -- Elizabeth E. Poppleton, a graduate of Vassar College; William S. Poppleton, a graduate of Harvard, and now a student at law; and Mary D. Poppleton, now in school at Stamford, Conn.]

     [Hon. John M. Thurston was born in Montpelier, Vermont, August 21, 1847. In 1854 his father's family removed to Madison, Wisconsin, and two years later to Beaver Dam, in the same state, where Mr. Thurston's widowed mother yet resides. As a boy, Mr. Thurston worked upon the farm and at other avocations during each summer, and devoted the winters to studying and preparing for college. At the age of sixteen he entered Wayland University, and graduated at twenty. Having chosen the law as a profession,

he entered upon its study, and in May, 1869, was admitted to the bar in Dodge county, Wisconsin. Until October of that year he practiced in partnership with Hon. E. P. Smith, when he removed to Omaha, where he has achieved a commanding position in his profession. In April, 1872, Mr. Thurston was elected to the City Council, and served one term, during which be was acting president, and for a portion of the time, Police Magistrate. In 1874 he was appointed City Attorney, and while, holding this position was chosen to the Legislature, in 1875. In that body he was chairman of the judiciary Committee, and acting Speaker. In 1877 Mr. Thurston resigned his City Attorneyship to accept the

position of assistant attorney of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which he still retains, and in the administration of which he has won a high reputation as a lawyer. In 1875 Mr. Thurston was unanimously nominated by the Republican party for judge of the Third Judicial District of the State. His opponent, Judge James W. Savage, being twenty years his senior, this disparity in ages was used as an argument against Mr. Thurston, and caused his defeat. In 1878 he headed the Republican presidential electoral ticket in Nebraska, and was selected as messenger to convey the vote to Washington. In 1884 he was chairman of the State delegation to the Republican National Convention at

Chicago, in which he took an active and prominent part, and in each of the Nebraska State campaigns he has responded freely to the many calls which have been made upon him from all sections, for his services as a speaker. During the session of the Legislature, in January, 1887, he was prominently mentioned for United States Senator, to succeed Senator Van Wyck, receiving in preliminary caucus many votes, and but for the fact that Senator Manderson is also a resident of Omaha, be would probably have been elected. Mr. Thurston, at the age of forty, and in the prime of life, is confessedly one of the leading lawyers of the West. His close application to his cases, his readiness of resource, and his acknowledged ability as a speaker, make him one of the most successful trial lawyers in Nebraska. His handling of the noted Olive and Lauer murder trials will long be remembered as among his most successful efforts, while his whole professional career has contributed greatly to the deserved distinction enjoyed by the bar of Omaha and of Nebraska. There may be much in the future for Mr. Thurston; for it is of such material, moulded by indomitable will, and stimulated by a worthy ambition, that the men who have achieved distinction in the nation have been made.]