March 8, 1872. In 1886 he came to Nebraska with his parents, who engaged in the mercantile business at Hastings, Nebraska, after coming to this state. He received his education in the common and high schools and is employed as a traveling salesman. He was married in 1894 and again married in 1904. He is now the Clerk of the District Court of Harlan County, having been elected by the Fusionists. Mr. Ellis had the misfortune to lose an arm in a cornsheller in 1899.

      SAMUEL M. BAKER was born March 10, 1865, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. His parents died when he was quite young, and in March, 1883, he left Pennsylvania and came to Auburn, Nebraska, where he lived until August 17, 1892, when he came to Alma. He studied two years at the State Normal at Peru, Nebraska, and three years at the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating from there in 1892. In politics he is a Democrat, and has been a member of the Pension and Insanity Boards, and in 1903 was elected Coroner of Harlan County. He is also the President of the City Council of Alma.

      W. A. MYERS was born in Freeport, Illinois, March 19, 1876. From Illinois he came to Nebraska and settled in Harlan County. He is a graduate of the high school at Alma and graduated from the Law Department of the University of Nebraska in 1890. In 1900 he was elected Mayor of Alma on the Republican ticket, being at that time only twenty-four years of age. Mr. Myers is Cashier of the Bank of Alma, and was also councilman for four years. He still continues to hold the office of Mayor.

 

      This is one of the newer counties, having been organized in 1884, but it is fast becoming prosperous. Since a little over twenty years ago its population has increased from 100 to 2,708. The soil is a dark sandy loam, most of which is capable of cultivation. The surface in many places is rough and the higher parts are often cut by canons. Frenchmen River and Stinking Water, Blackwood and Red Willow Creeks water the county. These bottom lands are fertile and are covered with good hay grass. The wells here vary in depth from 12 to 350 feet. Stock raising is the principal industry, while corn and wheat are the leading crops. In recent years land has increased to the value of one-half. The county was named in honor of Rutherford B. Hayes. There are 976 children in this county between the ages of five and twenty-one. Recent prosperity has made possible better school buildings, longer school terms and higher wages for teachers. The County seat, Hayes Center, has 250 inhabitants.

      C. A. READY, County Attorney of Haves County, is an Ohioan, his birthplace being New Philadelphia. He was born April 18, 1865. His parents removed to Illinois in 1869, where he went through high school, and in 1880 came to Nebraska. In 1893 he married Miss Florence Neveren and has two daughters. He was in the legal profession until 1898, when he entered the newspaper business. He has served three terms as Attorney of Hayes County.

      R. E. COUNCE was born in Adams County, Illinois, December 14, 1865, leaving there when he was nine years old to go with his parents to Missouri, staying there until 1886, when he came to Nebraska. He has been farming and running a ranch since locating in Hayes County. He married Miss Lillie Showalter in 1893 and has five sons. He is a member of the Populist party and is serving his first term as County Treasurer.

      CHARLES BAILEY is a native of Illinois, having been born in Henry County, January 14, 1855, but resided there only one year, the family moving to Iowa and in 1869 to Nebraska, his present home. He is a graduate of the Fairbury High School and has been engaged in stock raising. He was Sheriff from 1896 to 1900 and was elected Sheriff when the county was organized, but did not qualify. In 1886 he married Miss Mary Milton. He is now holding the office of County Clerk and Recorder of Deeds.

      C. C. HATCH moved to Illinois in 1861 from his birthplace in Medina County, Ohio. Soon after he removed to Wisconsin, a few years later to Iowa and in 1886 came to Hayes Center, Nebraska. The time of his birth was January 15, 1833. During his residence in

Clinton County, Iowa, he held the offices of Justice of the Peace and County Supervisor. He was elected County Judge of Hayes in 1899 and re-elected in 1903. Politically he is a gold Democrat. In 1857 he was married to Harriet Dolph, and they have two sons and two daughters.

 

      This county was named in honor of Phineas W. Hitchcock, who was U. S. Senator from Nebraska at the time of the county organization in 1873. The county is in the southwestern part of the state, and has a population of 4,409. The principal industries are stock raising and dairying, yet agriculture is very successful. The chief farm products are wheat, corn, kaffir corn, cane, barley and alfalfa. The surface is composed of rolling prairie, table lands and the valleys of the Frenchman and Republican Rivers, besides many creeks. The bottom lands of the Republican River are from two to five miles wide, with a deep, fertile soil. There are many bluffs which give food and shelter to stock, and they are often connected with the lowlands by regular terraces. Irrigation has been successfully operated here. Before 1869 the Sioux Indians and wild animals held possession of the county. In the spring of 1872 cattle were driven in by thousands. In this year a few farms were taken up just east of the present town of Culbertson. These settlements were for the most part along the rivers and creeks. In 1873 the terrible fight between the Sioux and Pawnees took place about eight miles west of Culbertson. In 1874 the grasshoppers destroyed the crops and the settlers were so discouraged because of the consequent poverty that nearly all of them left the county. Only 19 men were left in 1875. After the farmers left, the original stock men who had been driven out by the tide of immigration returned with their herds, and until 1879 were practically the only inhabitants. In 1878 and 1879 the county was resettled by agriculturists, and the stockmen were again forced to retreat. A large colony of Russians settled on Frenchman Creek near Culbertson. The first newspaper was the "Culbertson Globe," which was started by W. Z. Taylor, in 1879. There are now 1,486 pupils in the county, and the school term has been increased one month within the last two years. Trenton, the capital, has 329 residents.

      JOHN H. BROWN was born in Barra, Massachusetts, August 24, 1848, and the next year he went with his parents to Illinois and seventeen years later to Iowa, where he lived until 1870, when he came to Nebraska. He settled in Hitchcock County in 1892, after a residence of twenty-two years in Saline County, where he was interested in the farming industry, and in Hitchcock County entered the pump and windmill business. He was one of the Board of County Supervisors in Saline County, and is now serving as Sheriff of Hitchcock County, having been elected on the Republican ticket for the third term.

      JOHN M. WILLIAMS was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, November 11, 1840, where he spent his earlier years farming. In

1878 he came to Nebraska. At that time there was no railroad station nearer than Red Cloud. Mr. Williams freighted for several years and knew every man, woman and child for several counties about. He stayed in the country after most people had left on account of shortage of crops and Indian scares. His father was always on the frontier from New England to the Pacific Coast, and Mr. Williams has the same pioneer trait. He is married and has six children. He was County judge in 1881, County Treasurer in 1883 and re-elected County judge in 1901, which office he has held since that time.

      J. P. WERTZ. County Treasurer, was born in Louisville, Ohio, February 15, 1858, where he was brought up and educated, graduating from the Louisville High School. He homesteaded in Hitchcock County in 1884, coming to the district when it was yet unsettled and remaining until the present time. In 1889 he married Miss Amy Powers and they have six children. He was Deputy County Treasurer before his election to the chief office. He is serving his second term as County Treasurer.

      W. H. THORNHILL is a native of Missouri, having been born in Holt County, August 15, 1860, but moved to Iowa with his parents the next year, and twenty years later came to Nebraska, where he now resides. In 1879 he married Miss Rosella Temple and has eight children. He is serving his third term as County Clerk of Hitchcock County, and also fills the position of Clerk of the District Court and Register of Deeds. Mr. Thornhill is t Democrat.

      JAMES O'CONNELL is a native of Chicago, having been born there September 25, 1868, from whence he removed to Nebraska in 1880. He lived in Richardson County for about eight years and then came to Hitchcock County, where he has since made his home. He is a graduate of the Peru State Normal and has taken work at the University of Nebraska. In the Philippine campaign he was in Company B of the First Nebraska. He is serving his second term as County Superintendent.

      C. W. SHURTLEFF was born in Genoa, Illinois, November 18, 1857, and lived in that state until 1884. He is a graduate of Elgin Academy and studied two years in the University of Illinois and graduated from the Union College of Law, Chicago, in 1884. In the same year he came to Nebraska and began the practice of law. From 1897 to 1901 he was County Judge of Hitchcock County, and is now serving his first term as County Attorney for the same county, having been elected on the Populist ticket. He was married to Miss Erma Johnson, and they have three children. He is descendant of the Shurtleffs who came to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1634.

 

     Holt County is made up of the valleys of the Elkhorn and Niobrara Rivers. Unlike most Nebraska counties, it possesses many lakes, which, with its rivers and creeks, form an excellent water supply, by which five flour mills and grist mills are operated. In the northern part there is quite an amount of timber along the creeks. Grapes, raspberries,