ing, mostly in Summit County. Mr. and Mrs. Reed occupy a snug home in the southern part of town, and enjoy the friendship of a large circle of acquaintances. Our subject, politically, is a Republican, and from present appearances is destined to become a leading citizen.
   William H. Reed, the father of our subject, and also at one time a member of the firm of Reed Bros., in company with his brother, E. L. Reed, whose biography appears elsewhere in this work, assisted in building the first mill on the Weeping Water, and put up several structures of the same kind on Blue River and other places. They were the pioneer merchants of Weeping Water Precinct, and prominent in its early growth and settlement. William H. after first settling here removed to Milford, where he enjoyed a period of seven years with his family, then returned, and has since made his home in Weeping Water. The mother, Mrs. Nancy (Watson) Reed, was born in Brighton, Iowa, and is still living. She is a lady highly respected, and a member in good standing of the First Congregational Church. The parental family includes three children, two sons and one daughter, of whom Henry D. is the eldest of the third marriage.

OHN CHALFANT, a prominent and skillful agriculturist of Cass County, occupies a leading position among the intelligent and respected Citizens of Liberty Precinct, where he owns a fine, well tilled farm of ninety acres on Section 1, Township 10, range 13, on which he has lived since 1867.
   He is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Greene County, Oct. 9, 1838. James M. Chalfant, father of our subject, was born in Monongahela County, Virginia, where he was reared and educated. When a young man he left the State of his nativity and established himself in business in Pennsylvania. He was twice married. The maiden name of his first wife, to whom he was united in Pennsylvania, was Barbara Galloglly. She died in that State, leaving her husband with two children. Mr. Chalfant again married, taking for a wife Miss Nancy Ketchum, a native of the Keystone State, who bore him four sons and four daughters, all of whom lived to be married, but one has since died. In 1857, taking advantage of the pre-emption law, they came to Nebraska and took up a claim near the Missouri River, in what is now Rock Bluff Precinct, where Mr. Chalfant improved a farm and is still living. His wife, mother of our subject, died on the homestead in 1879, having lived a useful and honored life of more than three score years. She was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which Mr. Chalfant has been an officer for more than half a century.
   John Chalfant, of whom we write, was the eldest of the children born of his father's second marriage. He was reared in his native State, and there received a good education in its public schools, and a sound moral training from his parents, who endeavored to instill into the minds of their children those principles which would make them true and honored citizens of this great Republic. He was eighteen years of age when he came with his parents to Nebraska, and for it few years thereafter remained under the parental roof assisting his father in the work of improving a farm. When desiring to establish himself in life, our subject purchased his present farm, consisting of ninety acres of wild land, and at once commenced the work of improvement. He has labored hard, oftentimes under difficulties, but all obstacles have been overcome, and he has now a homestead that compares favorably with any in the vicinity, and shows to the observing eye the ability and judicious skill with which he manages it. Besides farming our subject carries on an extensive business in stock-feeding and raising, finding that both a pleasant and profitable occupation.
   Mr. Chalfant was united in marriage in Omaha, April 19, 1868, to Miss Lena M., daughter of the late Chief Justice Gantt, of Nebraska. She was born in New Bloomfield, Perry Co., Pa., June 1, 1848. Her parents, Daniel and Agnes (Fulton) Gantt, were both natives of Perry County, Pa., being of Pennsylvania Dutch-English origin and Scotch-Irish origin, respectively. Judge Gantt was a descendant of a prominent Pennsylvania family, and a man of superior intellect. After acquiring his education, he entered upon the practice of law

in his native State. He subsequently removed to Nebraska in territorial days and located in Douglas County, where he identified himself with its interests, and took such an active part in all matters pertaining to its government that he was elected to represent his county in the territorial legislature in the winter of 1863-64, and while a member of that body he assisted in forming the State Constitution. In 1864 he was appointed by President Lincoln United States Attorney for the territory, an office which he filled for several years. In 1857, soon after his settlement in Douglas County near Omaha, he had the misfortune to lose his wife, who was then only thirty-six years of age. She was a most estimable woman, of a kind and amiable disposition, and was a devoted wife and faithful mother. In 1868 Judge Gantt removed to Nebraska City, and three years later was elected District Judge, a position requiring arduous toil, and, doubtless, the extensive traveling and work connected with his circuit was the primary cause of his failure in health. In 1875 he became a member of the Supreme Court, where he distinguished himself as a lawyer and jurist, and at the time of his death he was ably serving as the Chief Justice of the State. He was born in Perry County, Pa., June 29, 1814, and died in Nebraska City, May 30, 1878. The brief limits of a biographical sketch forbids our mentioning all of the high tributes paid to his revered memory by the press of Omaha, Lincoln and neighboring cities, but we insert the following preamble and resolutions adopted by the Lancaster County Bar, which were spread upon the journals of the district court, which was in session at the time of his death: "Chief Justice Daniel Gantt, a friend, a brother, has been suddenly smitten by the stroke of death, to our great affliction and bereavment.
   "For nearly a quarter of a century he has been with us; all this time commanding the respect of the community, and the affection of a large circle of friends by a blameless, useful and honorable life.
   "Having gone through a professional career of success, both as a lawyer and judge, at the Zenith of his fame and in full possession of ripened intellectual power, he has passed away.
   "In memory of him we make this record of our sense of his merit and of our loss; therefore,
   "Resolved, That we deeply deplore the removal from his sphere of usefulness of our beloved brother, Daniel Gantt, by the hand of death, and regard the event as a calamity to his profession, to the interests, social and public, of the community in which he lives, to the State, and to the country.
   "Resolved, That we entertain great satisfaction and pride in the memory of his attainments as a legal scholar and thorough lawyer, the laborious hours he gave voluntarily to the service of the State in the discharge of his duty as a legislator and judge.
   "Resolved, That we recognize among the traits which ennobled his character, his rectitude of purpose, his severity of conscience, and, above all, his truth as a man, all tempered with courtesy and illumined by the light of Christianity.
   "Resolved, That we sympathize most profoundly with the family of the deceased, in this, their great bereavment and affliction, and offer our condolence and earnest prayers and wishes, conscious still that their highest consolation in the greatness of their loss is the history of a life well spent, a reputation without a spot or blemish, and the celestial hopes which spring from the grave of an upright man."
   Judge Gantt's name will ever be connected with the history of Nebraska, he having taken an active part in all its early law-making, and to him, as much as to any one individual, is the State indebted for its advancement and present prosperity. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and an earnest worker in that denomination.
   His daughter, Mrs. Chalfant, was quite young when she came with her parents to Nebraska, and in 1857, after her mother's death, returned to Pennsylvania to take up the higher branches of education, where she remained six years. She subsequently became a student at Brownell Hall, Saratoga, Douglas Co., Neb., an Episcopalian College, and the first sectarian school established in this State. She is a woman of rare intelligence and much force of character, and previous to her marriage with our subject taught school very successfully for several terms. To her and her husband have been born six children, namely: Alice, Nellie, Daniel G., Harriet, Hugh, John, Jr. They are a

bright, interesting family, and are receiving exceptional educational advantages. Our subject and his wife occupy a high social position in their community, where they command universal respect and esteem. Mrs. Chalfant is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics Mr. Chalfant is a stanch Republican, working with that party for the highest interests of the country.

NDREW E. HESS, a well-to-do farmer of Tipton Precinct, has been a resident of Nebraska 1869. His experience of twenty years on this side of the Missouri has been one of many vicissitudes and changes, and during the first years of his residence here he endured more than ordinary hardships and difficulties. He proved himself, however, a man of stern stuff, and as long as he could put one foot before the other never for a moment admitted the possibility of any such word as "fail."
   The present surroundings of Mr. Hess are sufficiently indicative of the manner in which his perseverance and industry have been rewarded. We find him the occupant of one of the finest farms along the southern line of the county, improved with neat and substantial buildings, the residence one of the best in the precinct, and the farm machinery and live-stock first-class in every particular. Mr. Hess has kept his eyes opened to the various improvements of the day, having the requisite machinery operated by hydraulic pressure which conveys water to whatever point needed, into the house as well as to the tanks for watering the cattle. A living spring furnishes this indispensable element and the land is amply watered by a branch of the Nemaha. The cattle yards are all supplied with tanks and Mr. Hess feeds and ships a carload of cattle each year, he also makes a specialty of Poland-China swine, in which industry he has been more than ordinarily successful, having never lost any even at the cholera season. He has a few very fine Short horns, while his horses are of graded stock and will bear comparison with anything of the kind in this part of the country. Two of these are full-blooded, famous for their speed and endurance, and have made a good record on the tracks of the State and County fairs. His stables contain in all about thirteen valuable specimens of the equine race.
   The subject of this sketch first opened his eyes to the light at the homestead of his parents in Oldtown Township, Clearfield Co., Pa., May 25, 1851. Twelve months later his parents, leaving the Keystone State, took up their residence in the vicinity of Freeport, Illinois, where they resided seven years or there about, then moved to a farm on the Pecatonica River, where they sojourned until Andrew E. was a youth of seventeen years. He had up to this time been the assistant of his father in the various enterprises of the latter, but now started out for himself. Crossing the Father of Waters in the spring of 1868 he came to this county, driving a team through with his father. They crossed the Missouri River at Plattsmouth and made their way to Tipton Precinct, Andrew remaining with his father until the latter went to Texas. In the spring of 1872 our subject settled on his present farm, which was then an uncultivated tract of prairie land, and began breaking sod with a team of oxen. In the meantime he was sheltered in a sod house and was otherwise subjected to the discomforts of pioneer life.
   In the fall of 1873 occurred the death of his father, and our subject went to Kansas and brought back with him to this county his mother and her family. Then followed a season of misfortune, accompanied by the grasshopper plague, in which the farmers of Southern Nebraska suffered the loss of their crops, and Mr. Hess, in common with his neighbors, had nothing to sell, no money with which to buy, and could get scarcely any work. There was no hay, corn, flour or meat in this section of the country. Mr. Hess finally went over into Iowa in search of work and secured a job of husking corn, at which he worked all winter and earned enough to keep the family.
   The year of 1875 proved more prosperous, crops being good, and Mr. Hess was enabled to proceed with the improvement of his property. He put up a few of the necessary buildings and set out forest and fruit trees, continuing to live there until 1878. He then leased the farm. Later he purchased eighty acres adjoining. In 1883 he bought 120 acres

additional and thus has now 280 acres of good land, which has been brought to a high state of cultivation. Twelve acres of this is devoted to an orchard of 450 trees; a fine grove forms an ample windbreak and the fields are neatly enclosed with board fencing, separated by wire cross-fencing. Mr. Hess, in the spring of 1888 completed a very handsome modern residence, the largest in the precinct, covering an area of 28x36 feet. This dwelling forms a most attractive and inviting homestead. Water is conveyed to the house by means of 11,000 feet of pipe.
   Our subject found his bride in Tipton Precinct, being married March 30, 1874, to Miss Ida, daughter of Darius and Abigail (Bromley) Whitney. Mrs. Hess was born near Dresden, Iowa Co., Iowa, April 25, 1861. Her parents were natives of Indiana, and the mother died in 1866 at the homestead in Iowa when a young woman only thirty-five years old. The father later sold out and removed to Rawlins County, Kansas, where he now lives. He owns a large tract of land, and although sixty years of age is looking after his important interests with much of his old time energy. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Hess spent his last years in Ohio. When in his prime he operated extensively as a lumberman and owned a sawmill in partnership with a Mr. Hobbs. He accumulated a good property, but through the rascality of Mr. Hobbs finally lost the whole of it. His son Darius also engaged in the lumber business in his early manhood. Upon removing to Iowa he purchased a tract of Government land and settled among the earliest pioneers of Iowa County. He effected good improvements, but in 1867 sold out and came to Otoe County, this State, settling in Nebraska City. He was not as well pleased with the country as the majority of the people who came here and only staid one week, coming then to Cass. In the spring of 1868 he came to Tipton Precinct, this county, and homesteaded eighty acres of land from which he built up a good farm, then selling out removed to Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Whitney were the parents of seven children, who were named respectively: Emma, who is now married and lives in Dundy County, Nebraska; Ella, Albert and Adele, all three deceased, Ida A. (Mrs. Hess.), William living in Kansas, and Dell, living in this county.
   To our subject and his estimable wife there have been born six children, namely; Alexander, John, Abbie, Early, Eva and Cleveland A. The eldest is eleven years old the youngest two years. They are all at home with their parents, receiving careful training and a practical education in the common school. Mr. Hess votes the straight Democratic ticket, and is usually a member of the School Board of his district. Mrs. Hess is a very estimable lady, conscientious and careful in the performance of her duties as a wife and mother, and believes in making home the most attractive spot on earth for the husband and the children. She furnishes a fine illustration of the influence which a woman may exert within the household circle -- an influence in her case which has been good and only good.
   Alex. Hess, the father of our subject, was like our subject, also a native of Cleveland County, Pa., and married Miss Nancy J. Kephart, who was born in the same locality. The paternal grandfather, Abraham Hess, a native of Germany, crossed the Atlantic at an early day and settled in Clearfield County, Pa., where he carried on farming and lumbering combined. He was the first man to put a raft on the Susquehanna River, and in connection with his lumber business operated a sawmill on his own land which stood convenient to the river. He was one of the pioneers of Clearfield County, a man of strong character, of splendid physique, robust and handsome, and came to be one of the richest men in the county. He died at the age of sixty years. Grandfather Kephart was of German descent, and was also rated among the well-to-do farmers of Clearfield County.
   The father of our subject was reared to manhood on the banks of the Susquehanna River and assisted his father in lumbering and rafting. In due time he became owner of a half-section of land which he cleared and upon which he effected first-class improvements. In 1852, however, he disposed of his interests in the Keystone State and started overland for Illinois. He made settlement in Stephenson County and resumed lumbering, at the same time clearing up a farm.
   The elder Hess, however, possessed of a consider-

able spirit of adventure, sold out once more, in 1868, and again set out on an overland journey westward, coming this time to this county and settling on a disputed claim in Tipton Precinct. He lived upon it for four years and in 1872 emigrated to Texas and commenced lumbering on the Red River. He stayed there less than a year, then proceeded to Joplin, Jasper Co., Mo., and finally to Cherokee County, Kan. There he was seized with malaria and died Feb. 3, 1873, when fifty-one years old. He was a Democrat, politically, a man of decided views and one who generally commanded respect. The mother is still living, and is a resident of Garfield County, Nebraska, and is sixty years of age. She is a good woman and an active member of the M. E. Church.
   In 1858 the father of our subject crossed the plains to California with a cattle train. He operated in the mines near Sacramento about two years with indifferent results, and being dissatisfied returned to Kansas.

ENRY WOLFE, a well-known citizen of Cass County, is numbered among its successful farmers, and his homestead on section 2, Liberty Precinct, with its many valuable improvements, is, in many of its appointments, a first-class farm, and there is none more productive in the neighborhood. It comprises 140 acres of well-cultivated land and four acres of timber land in another part of the precinct. Mr. Wolfe has lived in this county and precinct since 1867, and has lived on his farm since 1870, having purchased it, however, in 1868. It was then unbroken prairie land, and in the pioneer task of improving it he has also done his share towards developing this part of Cass County.
   Mr. Wolfe came to Nebraska from Des Moines County, Iowa, having lived six miles west of Burlington, Iowa, thirty-two years and six months previous to his arrival here. When he was a boy of eleven years he had accompanied his father, Jacob Wolfe, from Morgan County, Ill., crossing the Mississippi River in a flatboat Mar 12, 1835, and thus going into Iowa in the days of its earliest settlement. His father pre-empted a farm at once near Burlington, when that place had but one store, kept by little Jerry Smith. Jacob Wolfe thus became an honored pioneer of Iowa, and from that time until his death, April 6, 1813, at the age of sixty-seven years, he took a keen interest in its advancement, and worked hard to promote it. He was born within five miles of York, Pa., the very year that the American colonists made the famous Declaration of Independence. When he was yet a child he accompanied his father, Henry Wolfe, to Greenbrier County, Va., and there lived for some time. Later the family all moved to Ross County, Ohio, and there Jacob Wolfe became of age, and there his father died at an advanced age. His mother died in Morgan County, Ill. Her maiden name was Louisa Miller. Jacob Wolfe was married in Ross County, Ohio, to Miss Mary Cleber. She was born of German parentage in Yorktown, Pa., and moved with her parents, John and Elizabeth (Schriver) Cleber, to Ross County, Ohio, when she was young. Her parents both died in Ohio, having previously moved to Fayette County. After their marriage Jacob Wolfe and wife settled on a farm in Ross County and had three children born to them there. In the fall of 1828 they took up their abode in Morgan County, Ill., and after the birth of three more children moved from there to Des Moines County, Iowa, where they spent the remainder of their lives, the mother dying in August 1863, aged sixty-three, she having been born Jan. 1, 1800. Mr. Wolfe was a man of marked force of character, and he was strong in his religious beliefs, being a Methodist, and in his political views held equally strong opinions, being a stanch Whig.
   His son, of whom we write, was born in Ross County, Ohio, Oct. 29, 1824, and was but a boy when his parents moved to Iowa, where he was reared to manhood. He was married in Des Moines County, that State, to Elizabeth Bridges. She was born April 30, 1831, in Indiana, and is the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Care) Bridges. Her parents emigrated to Oregon Territory in 1852, and were among its earliest pioneers. The father died there in 1867, rounding out an unusually long life of nearly a hundred years. The mother died

there in 1866 at the advanced age of eighty. Mrs. Wolfe was reared in Indiana, and subsequently moved to Missouri with her parents, and later went with them to Des Moines County, Iowa, where she was married to our subject. Of this marriage twelve children have been born, four of whom are deceased. The following is the record of those living: Milton, married to Lucy Chalfant, and living in Liberty; Thomas, a farmer in Bradshaw, York Co., Neb., is married to Mary Baum; Madison is at present at Fort Morgan, Col.; Laura is the wife of Simon Gruber, a farmer in Liberty; Henry, a farmer in Liberty, married Sarah Rakes; William W., a blacksmith in Union, is married to Lavinia Frans; Jennie and Charles W. live at home with their parents.
   Mr. Wolfe, during his residence of many years in Cass County, has proved an invaluable citizen, and his counsel and assistance have been solicited in the direction of county affairs, and as County Commissioner, County Assessor and Justice of the Peace, he has done good service and won warm encomiums from his fellow-citizens. He and his wife are among the most prominent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in our subject the Republican party finds an earnest supporter.

EORGE H. WOODS, one of the substantial citizens of Weeping Water Precinct, was born near Sterling, Whiteside Co., Ill., Jan. 13, 1844, where he lived, helping his father on the farm until he attained the age of twenty years. He attended the public schools of his neighborhood. At the age of twenty-four he enlisted in Company A, 140th Illinois Infantry, was mustered into service at Camp Butler, near Springfield, Ill., in June, 1864. The regiment of which he was a member went South and joined the Army of the Cumberland, then under the command of Gen. A. J. Smith. He took part in the expedition sent against the rebel General, Price, at St. Louis; he served in the army until November, 1864, when he was honorably discharged. He returned to Whiteside County, Ill., where he worked for himself until the spring of 1866. He then went by rail to Des Moines, Iowa, thence across the country by stage to Nebraska City, where he remained about one year. When he came to this county he took up a homestead of 160 acres on section 32 of Weeping Water Precinct, and devoted himself to the improvement of his land and making a home. He set out groves, an orchard and vineyard, and made other necessary and valuable improvements.
   Our subject did not prove up his claim to the homestead until 1874, and when the grasshoppers destroyed his crops for three years in succession thereafter, the prospect was very discouraging, but with the indomitable Yankee pluck with which he is endowed he continued farming, with very successful results. In 1876 he bought another quarter on section 7, Weeping Water Precinct. He retained the old farm, but moved to the new place, where he made large and valuable improvements, set out a grove of fifteen acres and a large orchard. The first two houses he built there he had to haul the lumber by teams from Nebraska City, which was no slight task, as there were no bridges over any of the streams he had to cross, he having to ford them. He hauled his first grain crop to Nebraska City with ox teams, and the breaking of land on the first two places was done with oxen. He continued to reside on section 7 until the spring of 1886. As he was prospered in his business he extended his possessions by the purchase of other lands in the neighborhood, until he now owns over 500 acres on sections 7, 18 and 32, of Weeping Water Precinct. The most of this is rented.
   In the fall of 1885 Mr. Woods bought his present place, which is on section 12 and contains 400 acres, in partnership with his brother-in-law, T. K. Clark. He moved onto it in the spring of 1886, and built the most elegant dwelling in Weeping Water Precinct, outside the town. The main part is 28x30 feet, and the wing 16x16 feet. It is complete in all its appointments, both inside and out, for a comfortable home. The farm has all the other buildings necessary for the protection and comfort of the stock, and the care of the crops he raises. A windmill with a large tank supplies the premises with water.
   While Mr. Woods takes great pride in everything pertaining to his home and farming in general, his