University. He came to Sidney, Nebraska, in the summer of 1894, which has since been his home. He is editor of "The Telegraph," having made printing and newspaper business a life study. His politics are Republican. His father, Judge William Gapen, was a delegate to the convention at which Abraham Lincoln was nominated.

      EDWARD McLERNON is a native of Belfast, Ireland, and was born October 24, 1849. At the age of nineteen he came to the United States where he spent six years teaching in New Jersey and Maryland. In 1874 he located at Lexington, Nebraska, then came to Sidney in January of 1877. He was engaged in the mercantile business for twenty-one years, and has been Postmaster at Sidney for thirteen months past. In 1884 he was married to Miss Jane Darrow but she died four years later. His present wife was Miss Emma Johnson of Des Moines, to whom he was married in 1892. He has a ranch of four sections stocked with horses.

      J. L. McINTOSH is a son of J. J. Mclntosh and was born April 11, 1874 at Antelope, Nebraska, He was educated at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, from which he graduated in 1889 and at the University of Michigan where he graduated from the law department in 1893. He has an extensive law practice, and has also been Register of the United States Land Office. His politics are Republican. His wife was Miss Rose Pavlot, whom he married in 1898.

      J. J. McINTOSH was born at St. Andrews, Canada, on June 17, 1850. As a young man he came to Nebraska thirty-five years ago. He is owner of the American Bank of Sidney, and has large real estate interests. He served ten years as County Clerk, four years as County Treasurer and one year as County Commissioner. Was nominated for Congress by the Democrats of the Sixth Congressional District in 1892, but owing to an imperfection in his citizenship, was ineligible. His first wife, Mary H. McIntosh, died in 1875. His present wife was Miss Mary A. Kelly of Grand Island.

      WILLIAM P. MILES is a practicing lawyer at Sidney, Nebraska, to which place he moved in 1874. His native state is Massachusetts, and he was born May 23, 1856. He was graduated from Hopkinton Academy, Massachusetts, in 1872 and after studying law in the office of Norval & McIntosh of Sidney, was admitted to the bar in 1887. He has had practice in all the courts, both State and Federal. For four years he was County Attorney and in 1904 was a delegate to the National Republican Convention from the Sixth Congressional District. He had been chosen to present the name of John L. Webster to the convention as Vice-President, but Mr. Webster's name was withdrawn before roll call. In 1901 He married Miss Eva Whitman.

      MARK SPANOGLE was born April 27, 1868 in Lewiston, Pennsylvania, son of Andrew J. Spanogle. He received his education in the common schools and is a graduate of the Law Department of Drake University, Iowa. During 1900 and 1901 he was County Attorney of Clay County, Nebraska. He is now Cashier of the Bridgeport Bank, Bridgeport, Nebraska, his present home, and is the County Attorney of Cheyenne County.

 

      Seven years of the early history of Clay County was taken up almost entirely by disputes as to the location of the county seat. Harvard, Sutton and Fairfield figured prominently in this contest. After so many years of contention, Clay Center was finally selected as the capital of the county. The bison, wolf and antelope were undisputed possessors of this land before the first permanent settler arrived in the person of John B. Weston in 1857, who was in after years an auditor of Nebraska. At that time he lived in a log house on the Little Blue River. Clay County was organized in 1871. It has now a population of 15,735 and an area of 576 sq. miles. Ninety-five per cent of the land is tillable and the remainder makes good pasturage. In 1899 its yield of wheat was greater than that of any other county in Nebraska. The Sioux Indians made a great deal of trouble for the early settlers. The first permanent court-house was built in 1880 at an expense of $22,000. In 1881 there were 3,827 school children in the county while in 1902 there were 5,600. The climate and soil conditions make the culture of fruit and the growing of trees very profitable.

     R. H. SMITH was born in Peoria County. Illinois, April 10, 1858, and moved to Clay

County, Nebraska, in 1895. He was educated in Amity College, College Springs, Iowa, and has followed the occupation of farming since his arrival in Clay Center. He is affiliated with the Republican party and has been elected Sheriff.

      GEORGE A. ALLEN was born in Toledo, Ohio, September 3, 1840. In 1857 he removed to Sandusky County, Ohio, in 1860 to St. Louis, Missouri, later to LaGrange, Indiana, and in 1873 to Clay County, Nebraska, where he engaged in farming and stock raising. He studied at the Normal School, Indiana, and during the Civil 'War was a member of the Seventh Indiana Cavalry. He is married and has twelve children, is a member of the Republican party which elected him Clerk of the District Court.

      AMBROSE C. EPPERSON was born in McDonough County, Illinois, November 18, 1870. He came from his native town to Clay County in 1880. He began to practice law after his graduation from the Fairfield Normal and the Law Department of the State University in 1891. He has been County Attorney during four terms and is affiliated with the Republican party. He is also State Lecturer for the Modern Woodmen of America.

     CHARLES L. COONS was born in Knoxville, Iowa, August 2, 1868. In 1894 he removed to Des Moines, in 1899 to Peru, Ne-