and came in 1887 to Nebraska. He has a college education and now holds the office of County Judge. Previously he was Deputy County Clerk, Clerk of the District Court for eight years, and Superintendent of the Shoshone and Arapahoe Indian School in Wyoming. He is a Republican. He married Miss K. Jensen in 1885. She is now deceased.

      W. L. McNUTT is a stockman of Ord, Nebraska, especially interested in the raising of blooded animals, and is owner of the Elm Creek Stock Farm. He came to Ord in the spring of 1889 from Muscatine, Iowa, where he was born, March 1, 1861. He attended the University of Missouri at Columbia and was graduated in 1883. He was married in 1884 to Miss Carrie I. Brand of Iowa. In politics he is Republican and is now serving his second term as County Treasurer.

      KIT CARSON is Deputy County Clerk of Valley County. He was born in Kewanee, Illinois, January 26, 1872, From Illinois he came to Nebraska in 1883 and located at Ord. He acquired his education at the Ord High School and at the Northern Indiana Normal at Valparaiso. He was married in March of 1895, and his wife was Miss Ella Millard. His father served three years in the Civil War, having been enlisted in the 124th Illinois Infantry.

      VINCENT KOKES was born March 16, 1866, in Bohemia, and came to America in 1881 and settled at Ord. For about twelve years he was engaged in the drug business until his election as County Clerk, which office he held for six years. He has been Cashier of the Ord State Bank for the past five years and has some, land interests. He is affiliated with the Republican party. His wife was Miss Lydia Ledvina, whom he married in 1892.

      A. M. ROBBINS and Mr. Haskell laid out the town of Ord in 1880, having surveyed it four years earlier. On the 5th of March, 1849, he was born in McHenry County, Illinois. He attended Pawpaw Seminary of Illinois and studied law in an office at Dixon. Being admitted to the bar in 1875, he came to Nebraska to practice, and first located in Sarpy County at Papillion. In 1881 he moved to his present home in Valley County. For three years he was attorney of unorganized territory by appointment, was City Attorney and State Senator from this district in 1886 and 1887. He is a Republican, and in 1873 was married to Miss Cynthia Haskell.

      HERMAN WESTOVER was born at Ontario, Canada, February 27, 1848. He removed to Wisconsin in 1861, to Minnesota in 1862, and to Valley County, Nebraska, in the fall of 1876. He acquired his education at the high school and State Normal of Nankato, Minnesota. He studied in an office at Nankato and was admitted to the bar in 1877. In 1862 he was an eye witness of the Indian Massacre in Minnesota and served in the State militia in defense. The offices which he has held are those of County Superintendent, County judge and member of the twenty-first session of the State Legislature. He is now Commissioner of. the Board of Insanity and is allied with the Republican party. In 1873 he married Miss Abbie DeWolf of Minnesota.

      CHARLES J. NELSON was born in Ystad, Sweden, January 28, 1850. He came with his parents to Omaha, Nebraska. in 1862, where he resided for thirteen years. He received his education in Sweden and the Omaha schools, and learned the tailor trade while living in Omaha. In 1875 he came to Valley County and filed on a homestead, on which he still resides. He was married in 1895 to Miss Flora A. Ward of Mira Creek, Nebraska. Mr. Nelson was elected County Surveyor first in 1881 and has held that office most of the time since. In 1903 was re-elected Surveyor by the Republican party.

 

     Washington County is composed of uplands and valleys, the soil of the bottoms varying from four to twenty feet in depth, and very fertile. Land here is very high. There are many groves and orchards and natural timber grows along the water courses. The valleys of the Missouri and Elkhorn rivers and of Bell Creek vary from one to seven miles in width, and there is running water in every township. Farming, dairying, stock raising, fruit culture and market gardening occupy the attention of the people. The tame hay crop comprises timothy, clover, Hungarian and alfalfa, and the cereals are the principal crops. There are

1,572 farms, and $159,820 was expended for. labor during a recent year. Washington was organized as a county in 1855 and its population is 13,086. Blair, the county seat, has 2,970 people. The manufacturing industry consists of four flour mills and six brickyards. The first white men to visit the county were probably Captains Lewis and Clarke with their party. They put themselves on a friendly footing with the Missouri and Otoe Indians, who then claimed this region, by means of a council, held at Fort Calhoun, in the southern part of the county. In the summer of 1859 the Indians robbed a lone settler named Uriah Thomas of $136 in money, besides other valuables, and left him locked in his cabin. The settlers were so enraged at this that they instituted a hunt for the criminals, which resulted in the Pawnee War. The settlers got the better of the savages in these skirmishes and there was no great bloodshed. There are 4,641 children of school age in the county, and sixty-three schools, seven of which are graded.

     E. Z. RUSSELL was born in Rockport, Nebraska, December 15, 1866, from which place he removed with his parents to Omaha in 1877. He received his education in the public schools and was then employed by the Standard Oil Company as bookkeeper, from which position he resigned to engage in farming in 1888. He is a breeder of swine and is Secretary of the Improved Live Stock Breeders' Association. Mr. Russell is a member of the