and is also an active and influential member of the City Council. In politics he is a strong Republican, representing his district in the conventions of that party.

H. SCHILDKNECHT, M. D., a practicing physician of good standing in the city of Plattsmouth, Neb., was born twelve miles from Dayton, Montgomery Co., Ohio, May 28, 1836. His father, John Schildknecht, was a native of Maryland, while the paternal grandfather was born in Germany, whence he emigrated with his family to America, and locating in Maryland, resided there until his death.
   The father of our subject was reared to manhood in Maryland, where he lived until about 1835, and then changed his residence to the Buckeye State, taking with him his family, and making the journey overland with teams. He purchased an improved farm, upon which he operated a period of fifteen years, selling out in 1850, and removing to Henry County, Ind. There also he purchased land and labored a number of years, making it his home until his death, which occurred in the spring of 1883. He had married, in Maryland, Miss Susan Durr, who was a native of that State, and who died in Ohio about 1858. The parental family included four children.
   The subject of this sketch pursued his early studies in the district school, and commenced reading medicine at the age of eighteen, under the instruction of Dr. Brewster, a well-known physician of Dayton, Ohio, and began the practice of his profession in Henry County. Ind., where he continued until the spring of 1861. In the spring of that year he resolved to cast his lot among the people of Nebraska Territory, and making his way hither, established himself in the city of Plattsmouth, of which he has since been a resident. He is now the oldest established physician in the place, and one of the oldest in the State. He has been uniformly successful, enjoying in a marked degree the esteem and confidence of his patrons, and accumulating a comfortable property.
   Dr. Schildknecht, while a resident of Henry County, Ind., was united in marriage with Miss Mary Adams, in the spring of 1856. This lady was born in North Carolina, and was the daughter of William and Rachel Adams, natives of that State. She became the mother of three children, and departed this life at her home in Plattsmouth, Feb. 12, 1865. Their oldest daughter, Annie, is the wife of Stephen Smith, a resident of Andrew County, Mo.; Elizabeth married Frank Davis, and lives in Beaver City, this State; Etta is at home with her father.
   The Doctor contracted a second matrimonial alliance in October, 1873, with Mrs. Jennie (McCormack) Fox, who was born in the State of Kentucky. To Mr. and Mrs. Fox there was born one child, a son, William Kelley Fox, who is now residing in Plattsmouth. Mrs. S. is a very estimable lady, and is a member in good standing of the Christian Church. The family occupy a snug home on the corner of Main and Seventh streets in the city, and the Doctor has his office in the same place. Socially, he is identified with the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Plattsmouth Lodge No. 6, A. F. & A. M. Politically, he is a stanch Republican.
   The portrait of this old resident of Plattsmouth, and well-known physician, which we present herewith, will be viewed with pleasure, especially by the large number to whom his kind and skillful ministrations have brought restored health.

EORGE TRAVER. Among the well-to-do and successful farmers of Cass County, who have accumulated a competency through their own efforts, economy and energy, is the gentleman of whom we write. He resides on the north-east half of section 13, Greenwood Precinct. where he has a highly improved farm of 240 acres, which he devotes to the business of general farming and dairying. He is a son of William Traver, who was born in Defiance, N. J., where he followed the occupation of a "bloomer" in one of the many iron furnaces in that State. During the War of 1812 he was a drummer boy, and recalls many of the adventures and dangers of that time, which he describes in a very graphic manner. When he was twenty-one years old he married Miss Marah Oliver,

who died at the ripe old age of ninety-one years, in Falls City, Neb. The father of our subject died in 1876, aged seventy-two years, leaving a family of three children: Caroline, Jane, and George, our subject. Caroline was born at Fullerville, Jefferson Co., N. Y., in 1821; George was born in the same place May 3, 1836. When he was three years old his maternal grandfather removed to Michigan, and took our subject with him, where he settled on a farm.
   When Mr. Traver had reached the age of seventeen years he had earned sufficient money to purchase an outfit, which he did, and started for California, embarking at a port in New Jersey on board the "George Law," and sailed for Aspinwall. He arrived there in due time. Leaving the vessel he took passage on the railroad, then completed, a distance of twelve miles. The fare on this road was $1 per mile; reaching the end of the railroad, on the banks of the Chagres River, he purchased a boat, and proceeded up the river for a distance of eight miles, and landed at Cruyua Nov. 1, 1852, where he secured a pack mule, and joining a train he went on to Panama, where he staid for seventeen days, working in a hotel at $4 per day, $3 of which he paid for board.
   When the steamer was ready to sail our subject had secured his passage, and the "Uncle Sam" sailed for San Francisco, where they landed on the 3d of December, 1852. He proceeded up the Sacramento River to the city of that name on the steamer "New World." He secured employment on a farm with an old friend whom he found, for $30 per month. He remained here but a short time when he went down to Petaluma City, in Sonoma County, where he contracted to work for a farmer for three years. At the expiration of four months of this time the firm was discovered to be insolvent, when he left their service. He then engaged with the Pacific Dairy and Cheese Factory, where he worked for three years, beginning on a salary of $50 per month, which was advanced to $100, which sum he was receiving at the time he left their employment. He engaged in the same business on his own account, and followed it successfully for three years. He rented cows at $2 per month per cow, and hired two men and an Indian to assist him. He made cheese twice a day, the capacity of his factory being 100 pounds per day. He marketed his product in San Francisco at thirty cents per pound.
   Mr. Traver purchased a section of land under the "Rabolie" title, which proved valueless. The "Meranda" title overshadowed that under which he bought and he consequently lost what he had paid. He operated the factory for two years after this, when he gave it up, and went to Grand Island, and engaged in the stock business. He took the Indian, "Hell-go-Rocky," who had been with him in the dairy, and employed him as a herder. He left the cattle in charge of the Indian, and went back to Sacramento, where he entered the Monongahela House as steward, receiving a salary of $15 per week. Here he remained for five weeks, when the rainy season began, and fearing that Grand Island would be flooded, he returned there to look after his cattle interests. When he arrived there he found the water rising rapidly; he rescued his cattle, and started for the foothills and the Beckwith Valley. Upon the subsidence of the flood, Grand Island was found to be destroyed.
   While in the Beckwith Valley our subject's funds became exhausted, and he secured employment in a quartz mill at Virginia City, receiving a salary $8 per day. After he had been working here but a short time he was attacked with erysipelas. It required all the money he had saved to pay his doctor bill, and when he recovered he had $14.75 left. He walked back, and went to work in the valley with a Dr. Weber, in the dairy business, which he followed for three years. Virginia City, Nev., was the market for their product, which brought them fifty cents per pound for butter and thirty-five cents for cheese. Severing his business relations with Dr. Weber, he closed out his affairs and returned to the States, landing in Fullerville, N. Y., where he remained but a few days when he went to Kankakee, Ill., arriving there in March, 1862. Shortly after his arrival in Kankakee he returned to California the second time, and landed in the Beckwith Valley in April of the same year. There he engaged in business for three years, when he came back a second time to the States, visiting his mother in Wisconsin, from which place he went to Red Oak, Iowa.