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Owing to the ill health of his wife, he rented his place, and, accompanied by her mother and stepfather, they started by wagons to the Pacific coast. After spending the winter at Walla Walla, Washington, Mrs. Walters and her four children started on a visit to her mother, who had located fifteen miles west of Portland, Oregon. By wagon they proceeded to a landing on the Columbia river, and then went down that stream by boat, while Mr. Walters returned to Walla Walla and engaged in freighting between that point and Boise City, Idaho, with oxen. He remained in this mountainous region eighteen months and then joined his family in Oregon. With them he then started for the Grand Round valley in the Blue mountains, and on this trip made his way from peak to valley and from valley to peak across the Cascade mountains until he at last reached his destination, traveling and camping in the wilds where no foot of man had ever trod. In this way they passed months along the valley streams, which were filled with mountain trout and salmon, camping now on grassy mountains and now between great rocks, where the sough of the pines mingled with the murmur of the brooklets. At length Mrs. Walters began to creep back to health, her hand grew stronger, her eye grew brighter, the music of her voice returned, and the cool breeze fanned her pale cheeks back to the wonted glow of youth. In May, 1869, they started for their Illinois home by wagon, traveling by day and camping out by night, until they reached home in September, having been absent four years and four months. After spending seven years there, they decided to come to Nebraska and arrived in York county in March, 1876. After looking around for a time, Mr. Walters purchased the southwest quarter of section 24, Henderson township, to which he has since added until he now has an excellent farm of four hundred and sixty acres, which he has placed under a high state of cultivation and improved with good buildings.

      Of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Walters, only four reached years of maturity, namely: Harvey L., who married Jane Davis, a daughter of George and Rebecca Davis; Clinton D., who married Alice Search, daughter of William and Salinda Search; Ezra P., who married Bina Hager, daughter of Oliver and Elizabeth Hager; and Frank E., who has been a wanderer for the past eight years, and when last heard from was in the gold fields of Klondike.

      In early life Mr. Walters was a Democrat, and now votes with the Populists, being an enthusiastic believer in the free and unlimited coinage of silver. His first vote was cast for James Buchanan in 1856, his last for W. J. Bryan in 1896. Though not members of any religious denominatian (sic), he and his wife are believers in the Christian religion, and they enjoy the respect and esteem of all who know them. 

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TEPHEN R. PHILLIPS, a well know farmer of Seward county, lives on section 20, of Precinct D., and has established himself among the leading men of this part of Nebraska. He is active and industrious, believes in the gospel of hard work, and has a good mind. He takes broad views of the world, and is a man of business habits.

     Mr. Phillips was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, September 23, 1838, and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Randolph) Phillips. Henry Phillips was born in Virginia, married his wife in Pennsylvania, of which state she was a native, and lived there until 1852, when he moved to Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Three years later he journeyed still farther west, and located in Fulton county, Illinois, near Vermont. He made his final change in 1880 when he came to this state, where he died February 6,

1896, at the adavanced (sic) age of eighty-six. His wife died December 17, 1888, when she was seventy-seven years old. They reared six children to maturity, Parmelia (Mrs. Crable), Stephen K., Elizabeth (Mrs. Smithers), Hattie (Mrs. Lovell), William and J. Albert. Stephen R. and William were soldiers in the Civil war, and served with honor.

      Mr. Phillips spent the first fourteen years of his life in his native county, where he attended school, and came to a very fair mastery of the blacksmith trade. He followed the star of the family fortunes west, and was married March 27, 1862, to Miss Mary F. Strickler. She was horn in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, July 14, 1842, and is a daughter of George W. and Sarah (Canders) Strickler. Her father was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and served in the state militia when a young man. Her father removed to Adams county, Illinois, in 1855, ten years after the death of her mother. He died there June 19, 1858. Mr. Phillips enlisted in the Union army, in February, 1865, as a member of Company D, One Hundred and Fifty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He saw the last of the war under the command of General Thomas in Georgia, and was mustered out in 1866.

      Mr. and Mrs. Phillips came into Seward county in 1871 by the overland route, driving all the way. They made a location where they are now living, and though there were few settlers anywhere within reach they were not long in corning. The land was wild prairie, and their dwelling place a sod house, but their hopes were high, and their hearts unshaken. They raised their first crop the following year and sold it in Lincoln. They had reverses and disappointments, but they kept on, and were soon in a very comfortable condition. In 1 882 they moved to Seward, where they lived for five years, and then came back to the farm. In 1892 they built their present residence, which took the place of a frame structure, sixteen by twenty-two feet, erected six years after their entrance upon the place. He has well-improved the farm, and it presents a very different appearance to-day than could have been imagined so long ago.

      Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are the parents of nine living children, who, with their children, constitute a numerous progeny. Hattie C., their eldest daughter, is the wife of J. M. Smiley, who lives in precinct K, of this county, and is the mother of two sons, Carl P. and Earl B. William H. is wedded to Miss May Kuby, lives in Sioux county, Nebraska, and has one child, Lelia Ruth. Wilmer W. is a member of Company H, Twenty-second United States regular infantry, and was at Santiago de Cuba. He enlisted in 1896, was in the battles of El Caney, July 1; night attack, July ; San Juan Hill, July 3, and the bombardment of Santiago; was made corporal May 7, 1898, and sergeant September 1, 1898. George F. belongs to Troop F, Eighth United States regular cavalry, and is now on his way to Cuba. Thornton A. is in Montana, and Robert R. is at home. Joseph S. is a member of Battery B, Fourth United States light artillery, and was at Santiago, and at Porto Rico, and now at Savannah, Georgia. Harry C. and Louis G. are younger sons and still remain under the parental roof. In these times of peace and prosperity, it is unusual to find so small a war as that with Spain calling, at present writing, three sons from one family. But it serves to show the stock, and the state of Nebraska may well be proud of such a record.

      The subject of this writing is a man of social instincts, and finds a peculiar satisfaction in the intimacies and associations of the Grand Army, and has been senior vice-commander of the Seward post. He is a member of the Seward lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and devotes much care and thought to the problems of

fraternity. He has voted, in recent years, the Republican ticket, and has been assessor of the precinct, and justice of the peace. For more than twenty years he has been a member of the school board, and takes the success of the district school very much at heart. For nine years he was postmaster of the Orton post-office, which was in his house, and created for the convenience of the neighborhood. It is not now in existence, but it served to illustrate the kindly spirit of the man, who would do much to accommodate the neighborhood. 

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HRISTIAN ENDERLE.--Many of York county's most progressive and successful citizens are those whose early home was on the other side of the Atlantic, and who have achieved success through their own well-directed efforts. Among these may be numbered Mr. Enderle, who owns and operates a good farm on section 34, Brown township.

      He was born in Wittenburg, Germany, November 11, 1848, and was about five years old when with his parents, Christian and Joanna (Haak) Enderle, he left Germany and came to the United States. As the father owned only a few acres of land in the old country, he engaged in carpentering in connection with its operation, and thus supported his family. They arrived in New York city about the last of April, 1854, proceeded to Buffalo, New York, then crossed Lake Erie and landed in Detroit, Michigan, from there went to Chicago, and on to Milwaukee, where they spent two weeks, after which they located in Dodge county, Wisconsin, where the father took a claim of government land. The land was covered with a heavy growth of timber, including oak, walnut, and beech, which he at once began to clear, burning the trees and brush. Eighty acres were cleared in this way and transformed into most productive fields. The father died in 1881, but the mother is still living on the old home farm.

      Christian Enderle remained under the parental roof, working for his father, until he attained the age of twenty-three, when he came to York county, Nebraska, in 1871, and took up a claim in Brown township, but the same day returned to Wisconsin. The next year, however, he commenced the improvement and cultivation of his land and also worked for a few months for Mr. Hofer, of York. Returning to Wisconsin, January 12, 1873, he was there married, on the 4th of the following February, to Miss Johanna Maske, a daughter of Christian and Minnie (Tesch) Maske. Her father has been dead about nine years, and her mother, now seventy-six years of age, makes her home with her oldest son. The oldest brother of our subject, Jacob Enderle, was a member of Company A, Forty-fifth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil war, and when the struggle was over returned home as well as when he entered the service. Mr. and Mrs. Enderle have a family of twelve children, who in order of birth are as follows: Albert L., Louis A., Lydia A., George S., William F., August C., Mary J. and Emma W., twins, Margaret K., Arthur A., Frederick L. and Martin F. The children attend the public schools and aid in the work of the farm with the exception of Lydia A., who is now the wife of Carl E. Hahle, whose farm is near that of our subject.

      On the 2d of March, 1873, soon after his marriage, Mr. Enderle and his wife came to York county and began life in their new home. After living in the sod-house for ten years a more commodious and substantial frame dwelling was erected, it being enlarged and improved in 1892. Good barns, granaries and corncribs have also been built, and the farm, which comprises two hundred and forty acres, is now under a high

state of cultivation. Mr. Enderle thoroughly understands every department of farm work, and for the success that he has achieved in life he deserves great credit, for he started out with no capital. For the last five years he has been a supporter of the Republican party, and he and his family are identified with the Lutheran church. 

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ARS JORGENSON, deceased, was identified with the founding of Staplehurst, and it was largely due to his foresight that it exists. He was a man of affairs, and was intimately associated with several important business enterprises. He was an honorable man of irreproachable habits and the utmost personal integrity. In his day he easily stood among the most influential men of Seward county. Of foreign extraction, he familiarized himself with the habits and speech of his adopted country, and was broad and patriotic in his views. He gave a willing assistance to education, morality and religion, and had an open ear for the appeals of charity. On another page will be found a portrait of Mr. Jorgenson.

      Mr. Jorgenson was born in Denmark, August 20, 1842, and his parents were born and spent all their days in that country. He attended the Danish schools, and remained in his native land until he reached full manhood. But he did not seem to find around him kindly surroundings for his enterprising spirit, and he came to the United States in the spring of 1868. He made his home, on first coming to this country, in Dwight, Illinois, and there he followed the occupation of farming for five years. At the expiration of this time he returned to his native land and spent a year amid the scenes of his youth. It was a pleasant and protracted visit, but he did not find a fitting arena for his life and its labors, any more than he had seen it long before, and he once more sought American soil. He had learned of the rapid growth of Nebraska, and its amazing opportunities, and he determined to try it for himself. He came to Seward county in the spring of 1874, and purchased a tract of land from the railroad. This he converted into a farm, and devoted several years to its cultivation. Later on he purchased a half section of land, which became the site of the town of Staplehurst. He platted it, and disposed of it at good prices. It was largely due to his unceasing exertions that the town has attained its present commercial importance. In 1885 he purchased the Bank of Staplehurst in company with E. Jacobs, and was its president up to the time of his death, which occurred January 27, 1894. Aside from his banking enterprises he had extensive farming and real estate interests, owning at the time of his death eleven hundred and sixty-two acres of farm land and other property, and did much to help the general progress of the county.

      Mr. Jorgenson was married on November 19, 1875 to Miss Maren Sohnesen a native of Denmark. They had five children, all of whom are now living. Their oldest son, John L., is now cashier of the Staplehurst bank. The other children are Hans, Louie, Annie and Mary. The parents were Danish Lutherans, and the husband and father was a Mason, and a Modern Woodman of America. He was a democrat, but had no hunger for public position and honor. 

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ANIEL BEISHLINE, who lives near Bradshaw, York county, is one of the numerous company of industrious and upright people who have come from Pennsylvania, to make the wilderness of Nebraska blossom as a rose. They brought with them the habits of economy and thrift, were inflexibly just and honest, and to-day this state is very largely indebted to them for its present advanced position in agriculture, business, and intelligence. And in all

 

this the subject of this writing has been a not unworthy representative of the great state from which he came.

      Daniel Beishline was born in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, April 17, 185o, and was a child in the home of the family of Levi and Maria (Wenner) Beishline, who were both natives of the same state. His paternal grandfather was Henry Beishline. His father is still living on the old homestead in Columbia county. His maternal grandfather was a farmer in Luzerne county. He is of German ancestry by both lines of descent and has inherited the best traits of the blood. He grew to manhood in his native state, in which he remained until after his marriage to Miss Emma J. Coleman. This occurred November 27, 1873, and five years later, with his wife and child, Verna Maud, he came by railroad to this county, where he bought a farm described as south-half of southeast quarter of section nine, township eleven, and east half of north-east quarter of section sixteen, township eleven, both range four west, and on this they built a sod house, which proved a comfortable and convenient home for over thirteen years. Its walls, two feet thick, made the house cool in summer and warm in winter. Curtains separated the bed rooms from the kitchen and the parlor. The breaking up of the prairie was begun, and by the next spring forty acres of wheat, fifteen acres of barley, and twenty-five of corn were planted, which yielded well. They worked hard, not only farming their own land, but renting other pieces as well, until they had attained a comfortable independence. They lived through many hard experiences but they kept on, and at last have become comfortably well-to-do.

      In 1892, Mr. Beishline had accumulated enough to warrarnt (sic) the erection of a convenient home of lumber. It has seemed all the more pleasant because of the long time it was waited for. They are now cultivating one hundred and ten acres, and have fifty acres in grass and meadow. They have four children, Verna Maud, Warren Clark, Robert Ray, and Mearl Lee. Miss Maud is as helpful about the house as her older brother on the farm. The smaller children are attending school and are fast growing into stout lads. Mrs. Beishline has three brothers and four sisters. The sisters are all married and are the mothers of families. Two of them live in Pennsylvania, and the others in this state. Her brother William Henry lives on an adjoining farm. The other is still living in the old Pennsylvania home. Mr. Beishline has three sisters and one brother, none of whom have ever left the native state. He says he favors the gold standard, but frequently breaks over party lines to vote for better men on other tickets. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and his daughter of the Degree of Honor. He has served on the school board and makes satisfactory reports each year. They are both members of the Bradshaw Methodist Episcopal church. As they look back over the years they feel well satisfied with their coming to this state. 

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AMUEL WHITNEY ALLEN.--The farming interests of Olive township, Butler county, have a worthy exponent in the person of the gentleman above-named, who operates a farm in section 18. The entire tract of one hundred and sixty acres is improved and tillable, and altogether makes up an estate whereon a remunerative business can well be done by a man who devotes himself closely and intelligently to his work. In the way of buildings every arrangement has been made for the economical conduct of the farm, and for the comfort of the family a nice residence has been constructed.

      Mr. Allen was born in the southern part

of Wisconsin, in May, 1852, a son of Solomon Case Allen. The father was a native of Tioga county, New York, and was there reared and married. His wife, Annie C. (Whitney) Allen, was a daughter of Samuel Whitney, after whom our subject was named and with whom he first moved to Butler county, Nebraska, a year before the rest of the family settled there. Soon after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Case Allen moved to the southern part of Wisconsin, where our subject was born, but when he was still a child, the family moved to Ogle county, Illinois. Here our subject spent his early life and received a common-school education, which he supplemented with a course in the high school at Ashton, Illinois. After locating in Butler county, Nebraska, in 1874, he spent a few years in prospecting and in agricultural pursuits, and then purchased the farm on which he now resides and began to improve it and to make it an attractive home and profitable farm.

      In 1883 our subject was united in marriage to Miss Sarah J. McKellips, a daughter of Phylander McKellips, and to this union have been born a bright interesting family of four children, upon whom they have bestowed the following names: Edith, Claude, Frank and Edward. Mr. Allen is a very pleasant neighbor, genial, warmhearted, and has an agreeable family, and resides in one of the most hospitable homes in the township. He has labored hard on his farm to make it one of the best stock and grain farms in the county and has provided it with excellent improvements and fine buildings 

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.AMUEL R. LICHTENBERGER, one of the many hard-working and honorable men who have enwrought their very personality into the making of the west, and particularly of the great state of Nebraska, has his home in the township of Bradshaw, York county, and for many years has taken a prominent part in its development.

      Mr. Lichtenberger was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, January 8, 1847.

      His father, Joshua Lichtenberger, was deputy sheriff at one time of his native county, and was born March 10, 1810. He served for eight years and proved himself a man of character and resolution. John Lichtenberger and some of his relations came from England and settled in and around Philadelphia, and Reading, before the Revolutionary war. The Lichtenbergers are a numerous family in that state, and were largely represented in the Continental army under General Washington. John went to Ohio on business, but died on the way. The mother of the subject of this article was Mrs. Eliza A. (Scneyder) Lichtenberger. Her father, Jacob Scneyder, came from Germany when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Somerset county. After accumulating considerable property, he laid out the town that has become the city of Somerset. Here he lived to a venerable age, and was killed by a kick from a vicious horse.

      Samuel R. Lichtenberger enlisted in March, 1864, in Company D, Fifteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served through the last days of the war. He was mustered out September 16, 1865. His regiment had a part in the great march from Atlanta to the sea. He made the entire march without being wounded or in the hospital. He was mustered out at Springfield and went to Dixon, Lee county, Illinois, where he rented a farm and engaged in its cultivation. After the war his father and his whole family had moved into that neighborhood. In 1872 they all came to this county, where his father, himself and one brother filed homestead claims. He lived on his claim for nearly eleven years alone, and then was married, January 16, 1883, to

Miss Sarah J. Dixon, a daughter of Robert and Mary (Mills) Dixon, who were married in 1863. Since their marriage they have lived on the homestead, which has increased to four hundred acres. When the subject of this article came to this county he had nothing that he could call his own except a sound body and an energy that rose superior to every mishap. He owns in his own name a large farm, and has an equal interest with his brother in one thousand acres in the .northwestern part of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Lichtenberger have a family of three children, Virginia M., Josiah and Cleon C. He belongs to the Masonic order and the Knights of Maccabees. His wife is a member of the Ladies, and neither is connected at the present time with any church. He has been for twenty years treasurer of his school district, and for five years its moderator 

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.ILLIAM H. COLEMAN, a resident of Bradshaw township. York county, Nebraska, was born May 2, 1844, in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of David Coleman, who was born in Northampton, of the same state, May 4, 1809. He was a farmer, and died in Asbury, August 16, 1874. His mother was Rebecca Hess, who was born July 19, 1817, and died September 22, 1897.

      William was twenty years old when he enlisted in Company E, Two Hundred and Ninth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He was enrolled August 31, 1864, and at the conclusion of the war was honorably discharged at Alexandria, Virginia, May 31, 1865. He was engaged in the taking of Petersburg, Virginia, and the capture of Fort Stedman. Upon his return from the war he farmed his father's place one year, and then betook himself to Capron, Illinois, where he found employment as a farm hand. In the summer of 1870, in company with a friend, he made the voyage across Iowa in a "prairie schooner," landing in York county in the early part of the following summer. He selected the southwest quarter of section 10, township 11, range 4 west, and being unmarried he built a little sod-house, and settled down to the business of making a home in a new country, and as all have done before, he broke and planted sod corn. He set out trees, and made his home attractive. He remained in this lonely condition until May 31, 1879, when he was married to Mrs. Charlotte Amelia McArthur, who had established on a neighboring farm the previous year. They began the earnest work of improving their new home, and now, at the end of nineteen years, their farm, which at first was a prairie wilderness, is now a beautiful home. She is the daughter of John E. Mason and Caroline Stryker. Her parents were married July 8, 1838, at Strykersville, Wyoming county New York, where they lived for eleven years. They moved from there to DeKaIb county, Illinois, where her mother died in 1857. Her father followed her to Nebraska, and died March 2, 1889. She married Mr. McArthur in 1867, and lived with him seven years at his home in the state of New York, and bore him two children, John W. and Eliza R. They are both married and have families. Her son was married to a Miss Sword in Pueblo, Colorado, and her daughter is the wife of Joseph Shoefstall, and both are residents of Elwood, Nebraska. Their father was a brave and honored soldier in the late war for the Union. He entered as a private and through his own ability rose from the ranks to the position of first lieutenant. He died April 2, 1875, and his ashes rest in Fairhaven cemetery, New York.

      Mr. and Mrs. Coleman have one daughter, the sole fruit of their marriage, Edith May. She is now eighteen years old, and is employed obtaining an education, both

musical and literary, and seems to be the life of the rural home. Her father is a Populist, and does not fear reproach that word seems to carry to certain minds. He stands by the cause of free silver, and holds that the future welfare of the country requires its restoration to the coinage as an equal partner. He belongs to no religious organization, but his wife is a member of the Methodist church. 

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AMES CRAIG BORTNER, a prosperous and successful farmer of section 3, Stanton precinct, has made his home in Fillmore county since 1874, and his name is inseparably connected with its agricultural interests. His thoroughly American spirit and great energy have enabled him to mount from a lowly position to one of affluence. One of his leading characteristics in business affairs is his fine sense of order and complete system and the habit of giving careful attention to details, without which success in any undertaking is never an assured fact.

      Mr. Bortner was born in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, October 13, 1847, a son of Thomas and Anna J. (Craig) Bortner. His paternal grandparents were Jacob and Beulah (Newbold) Bortner, and his maternal grandparents were James and Elizabeth (Hastings) Craig. Our subject remained under the parental roof until eighteen years of age and acquired his education in the public schools of Pennsylvania. He then married Miss Eliza Jane Mumford, a daughter of William and Rachel (Scoudan) Mumford. As her mother died when she was two years old she was reared by a Mrs. Thatcher, with whom she remained until she gave her hand in marriage to our subject, at the age of twenty.

      For about eight years Mr. Bortner operated his father-in-law's farm in Pennsylvania, but in 1874 he disposed of his personal property and by train moved to Fairmont, Nebraska, where he arrived on the 30th of April. Securing a team at a livery stable, he drove to Stanton precinct May 27, and being pleased with the locality he bought one hundred and sixty acres, on which he erected one of the first frame houses in the precinct, moving into the same when it was minus a door and window. He at once began to break and improve his land, and the first year broke about thirty-five acres. He also planted some sod corn on land which he rented from a neighbor. He had to use oxen in breaking his land for the first two years, and with the same team he hauled his fuel the first winter from the Little Blue, a distance of thirty-five miles, but the second winter was able to purchase a team of horses. In 1874 the grasshoppers destroyed everything, but notwithstanding these misfortunes, Mr. Bortner has prospered, and in 1881 finished paying for his first tract of one hundred and sixty acres. The following year he bought eighty acres at eight dollars per acre, and as his financial resources have increased he has bought additional land until he now has four hundred and eighty acres of as fine farming land as is to be found in the state. His comfortable and commodious residence is pleasantly located only a mile and a half from the city of Geneva, and everything about the place betokens the enterprising and progressive spirit of the owner, who is acknowledged to be one of the most systematic and skillful farmers of the community. In connection with general farming he is also engaged in stock raising. Since casting his first presidential vote for U. S. Grant he has been unwavering in his support of the men and measures of the Republican party, while socially he affiliates with the Masonic fraternity at Geneva.

     Mr. Bortner has been called upon to mourn the loss of his first wife, who died May 13, 1890, her remains being interred in the Geneva cemetery. She was a true

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