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SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF NEBRASKA

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Members of Congress from Nebraska

      E. J. Burkett               Moses P. Kinkaid          G. M. Hitchcock
Edmund H. Hinshaw      Gen. W. Norris     J. J. McCarthy

 

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS FROM NEBRASKA.

      MOSES P. KINKAID of O'Neill, a farmer's son, was born in Monongalia County, West Virginia. He spent his boyhood in that state, Pennsylvania and Illinois. He taught one year of school in the latter state; is a graduate of the law school of the University of Michigan and was president of the class of 1876. He first practiced law in Henry County, Ill., next at Pierre, South Dakota, one year; thence removing to Holt County, Nebraska, where he has resided for twenty-two years. In the session of 1883 he was elected to the Nebraska State Senate and made chairman of the judiciary committee; was appointed judge of the district court in north Nebraska by Governor Thayer in 1887, and successively elected for three full four-year terms; ran for justice of supreme court 1896; elected in his third successive candidacy for Congress in the Sixth Nebraska district. He is a member of the republican party.

     EDMUND HOWARD HINSHAW of Fairbury, was born at Greensboro; Indiana, Dec. 8, 1860; lived on his father's farm until he was sixteen and began teaching school and continued in that profession ten years. He attended college intermittently and in 1885 graduated from Butler College, Indianapolis. In 1881 he was married to Ida Cooper of Cadiz, Indiana, and they have one son. The last year he taught school, he removed to Fairbury, Nebraska, where he was superintendent of the public schools. He declined a re-election, was admitted to the bar in 1887 and immediately began the practice of law. Mr. Hinshaw has held various municipal and county offices, and in 1898 was nominated for Congress by the republicans. In 1902 he was renominated and elected.

      ELMER JACOB BURKETT of Lincoln, was born in Mills County, Iowa, Dec. 1, 1867. He attended public school and later Tabor Col-

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lege, at Tabor, Iowa, from which institution he graduated in June, 1890. After his graduation he was elected principal of schools at Leigh, Nebraska, which position he held two years. In 1893 he received the degree of LL. B. at the State University and in 1895 an LL. MS.; was admitted to the bar at Lincoln in June, 1893 and has practiced law there ever since; was also elected trustee of his Alma Mater, Tabor College in 1895. In 1896 he was elected a member of the State Legislature; was elected to the Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses and re-elected to the Fifty-eighth Congress. He is a Republican.

      GEORGE WILLIAM NORRIS of McCook, was born on a farm in Sandusky County, Ohio, July 11, 1861. His father died when Mr. Norris was a small child, and his mother was left in straitened circumstances. He was compelled to work out among the neighboring farmers by the day and month during the summer and during the winter attended district school. He afterwards taught school and earned the money to defray expenses for a higher education; he attended Baldwin University, Berea, Ohio, and the Northern Indiana Normal School, Valparaiso; studied law while teaching and later finished a course in a law school; was admitted to the bar in 1883 but taught one year of school after that in order to purchase a law library. In 1885 he came to Nebraska and located in Furnas County; while there was three times prosecuting attorney, twice by appointment and once by election, refusing a second nomination; was elected District judge of fourteenth district in 1895 and re-elected in 1899. He was married in 1890 to Pluma Lashley who died in March, 1901: was married again July 8, 1903 to Miss Ella Leonard of San Jose, California. He was elected to the Fifty-eighth Congress on the Republican ticket.

      GILBERT MONELL HITCHCOCK of Omaha, was born in that city on September 18, 1859, and is the son of the late United States Senator, P. W. Hitchcock. His education began in the public schools of Omaha, was continued for two years in Baden Baden, Germany, and concluded at the law department of Michigan University, from which he graduated in 1881; was then admitted to the bar, and practiced law for four years. In August of 1885 he established and edited the Omaha Evening World which in 1889, purchased the Morning Herald and became the present Morning and Evening World-Herald. In 1883 he married the eldest daughter of ex-Congressman Crounse; was elected to the Fifty-eighth Congress on the Democratic ticket.

      JOHN JAY McCARTHY of Ponca, was born at Stoughton, Wisconsin, July 19, 1857 and received his education in the common schools of Wisconsin and in Albion academy. He came to Nebraska in the fall of 1879 and in the fall of 1882 removed to Dixon County 'where he has since resided. He was admitted to the bar in 1884 and has practiced law ever since. In 1890, 1892 and 1894 he was elected County Attorney of Dixon County; was elected Representative in the Nebraska Legislature in 1898 and 1900; was elected to the Fifty-eighth Congress and is a member of the Republican party.

      CHARLES HENRY DIETRICH of Hastings was born of German parentage at Aurora, Illinois, November 26. 1853; removed to Deadwood, South Dakota, in the winter of 1875 and 1876; located at Hastings, Nebraska in 1878 and engaged in mercantile business organized the German National Bank in 1887, of which he is now President. In 1900 he was elected Governor of Nebraska on the Republican ticket and in March of 1901 United States Senator, to fill out the unexpired term of the late Senator Hayward, succeeding W. V. Allen. He resigned the Governorship May 1, 1901 and took his seat in the United States Senate, December 2, 1901; his term of service will expire March 3, 1905.

     JOSEPH HOPKINS MILLARD of Omaha, was born in Hamilton County, Canada, April 1836, the son of American parents. In childhood he removed with his parents to Iowa and at eighteen entered a Dubuque store as clerk; two years later removed to Omaha, which has since been his home; engaged in the land business and later in banking, becoming a director of the Omaha National Bank in July 1866, and on January 1, 1867, its President and cashier, still retaining his place at the head of the institution. He served one year as Government Director of the Union Pacific Railway Company and subsequently served the stockholders as one of their representatives on the board for a period of seven years. Mr. Millard is a widower with a grown son and daughter. On March 28, 1901 he was elected, as a Republican, to the United States Senate, succeeding John M. Thurston. He took his seat December 2, 1901 and his term of service will expire March 3, 1907.

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@ 2002 for the NEGenWeb Project by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller