C. B. Dempster

Dealer in pumps, wind mills and lightning rods, was born in Kane County, Illinois, in 1853.

In 1872, went to Chicago, where he remained until 1878. Came to Beatrice and engaged in business with his brother.

The first year they had $1,000 invested in stack, tools and horses, the sales for the first year being $4,000. The trade has increased to $15,000 for the year 1881.

Mr. D. is agent for the Iron Turbine Wind Mill, and has a large trade in pumps and mills. At the present time, carries a stock of from $3,000 to $4,000 showing what, a young man of enterprise can do in the West.

Was married, November 8, 1876, at Dundee Illinois, to Miss Roy Crichton, of that place.

History of Nebraska 1882

Robert G. Gilmore   

Robert G. Gilmore, a retired farmer of Beatrice, Nebraska, and a veteran of the Civil war, enlisted at Erie, Pennsylvania, August 17, 1861, in Company D, Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Colonel J. W. McLane and Captain O. S. Woodward Commanding. Among the battles he participated in were the Seven Days' battle before Richmond, Turkey Bend, second battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and at Gettysburg, and the other battles and skirmishes of that campaign. He participated in the three days' battle in the Wilderness, previous to the battle of Spottsylvania. At the battle of Spottsylvania he was wounded, and carries a ball in his left leg to this day. At Spottsylvania he was taken prisoner, May 8, 1864, and August 22, 1864, he was paroled and sent to Annapolis, Maryland. He enlisted as a private, but was promoted to the rank of sergeant for gallantry on the field. His regiment had more killed and wounded than any other in the army, except one. He was honorably discharged September 20, 1864, and returned to Pennsylvania

Mr. Gilmore was born July 28, 1839, in Venango County, Pennsylvania, being a son of William Gilmore, who in turn was a son of Brice Gilmore. William Gilmore was a native of Pennsylvania and followed the trade of carpenter.   The maiden name of his wife was Jane Dickey, and she was born in Mercer count)', Pennsylvania. The children born to these worthy parents were as follows: Adam C, served in the Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves, and died in 1875; Robert G.; Ira B. served in Company I Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and now resides in Butler county, Pennsylvania; Ouinton B.; Sarah J. Adams, of Utica, Pennsylvania; Agnes I. McCracken, of Utica, Pennsylvania: William W.; and Ann Eliza Whitman. The father died on the old farm in Pennsylvania at the age of fifty-eight and the mother died at the age of eighty years. In politics the father was a Republican. Both were consistent members of the Presbyterian church, in which he was a deacon.

Robert G. Gilmore was reared and educated in Pennsylvania, and there in 1867 he married Lucy M. Clough, a daughter of Horace and Ann (Brown) Clough, natives of New York.   Ann Clough died in Illinois in 1867, and the father came to Gage county, Nebraska, in 1875, where he died August 25, 1891.

Mr. Gilmore located in Highland township, Gage county, Nebraska, on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, in 1876, but in 1892 retired to Beatrice, where he has since lived. His children are: William B., who lives on a large ranch in Wyoming; Flora Stewart, of Beatrice; Leonard B., lives on the old farm; Horace lives in Gage county and follows teaching as his profession. The first vote our subject cast was for Lincoln in 1860, and he has since continued voting the Republican ticket. Like the majority of the veterans of the Civil war, he is interested in G. A. R. work, and was one of the charter members of the Cortlandt Post, of which he served as commander. He is now a member of Rawlins Post No. 35, of Beatrice. Genial, hospitable and pleasing in manner, Mr. Gilmore makes and retains many friends, and is one of the representative men of the county.

A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska - Volume 1 - 1904

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Vicki Hartman

William White   

William White is a citizen of Beatrice. Nebraska, of twenty-three years' standing, and with a life record of efficiency, integrity and honorable worth in every capacity in which he has been called upon to act. He is esteemed not only for the part he has taken in business affairs since coming to this state, but also as one from a border state who responded to the appeal of his government during the Civil war and followed the flag in many campaigns and took part in much hard service.

Mr. White was born in Greene county, Tennessee, May 8, 1845, and was a member of an old and aristocratic southern family. His father, Abraham White, was born and reared in Tennessee, and there married Miss Nancy Jennings, also of a good southern family.   They had eight children, four sons and four daughters, and three sons were soldiers in the Civil war, namely: Joseph, now deceased, who was in a Missouri regiment; William; and John. The parents both died in Tennessee, the mother in middle life and the father at the age of seventy-four.

Mr. White was reared on a Tennessee farm, and early learned the virtues of industry and thrift. He was still a boy in years when the war came on, but was possessed of the fiery ardor of his race, and on November 7, 1862, enlisted in Company G, Fourth East Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel Patterson and Captain West. The regiment saw much active service and some hard fighting, and during all his service Mr. White proved himself a brave and dutiful soldier, seldom missing a roll call, never negligent of duty, and never flinching from the danger of shot and shell or the exposure and weariness of marching and the camp. After the war he acted as manager of the farm until 1874, and in June of that year moved to Illinois, and later came to Nebraska. He lived about three years in Pawnee City, and since that time has been in Beatrice. For a number of years he conducted a hotel, and was one of the most popular men in that line of business in southeastern Nebraska. During the war he contracted several diseases, and has been a severe sufferer from chronic rheumatism ever since, so that his efficiency in many ways has been much impaired.

Mr. White was married in Tennessee in 1866 to Miss Mary J. White (not related), who has been his faithful helpmate for nearly forty years. They have been the parents of three children: Lydia, Josie, and Mrs. Ella Hill, of Barber County, Kansas.

 A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska - Volume 1 - 1904

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Vicki Hartman

Samuel B. Dooley

Samuel B. Dooley, one of the popular and enterprising residents of Beatrice, Nebraska, is a veteran of the Civil war and a member of the G.A.R. Post No. 35 of Beatrice.  He enlisted in Company D, Fourteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, May, 1861, for three years, and his regiment was one of the ten regiments organized for the state of Illinois under what was known as the Ten Regiment Bill, but when the governor's call came for men, these ten regiments were placed at the disposition of the United States government.  Colonel J. M. Palmer commanded the regiment in which Mr. Dooley enlisted, and the company was commanded by Captain T. J. Bryant.  This regiment participated with General Fremont and General Hunter and later was transferred to the command of General Grant when he was at Shiloh; they also participated in the siege of Vicksburg, and then were the seventeenth army corps under General Sherman in his famous march to the sea.  Mr. Dooley was taken prisoner on October 4th, and for six months was confined at Andersonville; when he was first confined he weighed one hundred and sixty pounds but when released was a mere skeleton of ninety pounds.  No words can do justice to the gallant service done by the veterans of one of the most terrific struggles the world has ever known.  Remnants of their arduous fighting and long marches still remain, and make their sacrifice all the greater.

Samuel B. Dooley was born in Boone county, Indiana, November 6, 1836, and he is a son of Robert Dooley, a native of Kentucky, and  a grandson of Samuel Dooley, also born in Kentucky, who served in the war of 1812.  Robert married Julia A. Shelburne and eleven children were reared from their union, three of whom were soldiers in the Civil war; John K. resides in Nuckolls County, Nebraska, a veteran of the Civil war; James R. served in an Illinois regiment and died in Andersonville prison.  The father died at the age of fifty-two years and the mother died when she was forty-six years of age.

Samuel B. Dooley resided in Indiana until he was eighteen years of age, during which time he learned the carpenter trade and after the brickmaker's trade, but he then engaged in a mercantile line and removed to Illinois.  After several changes he settled in Kansas in 1857 and from  there returned to Illinois.  In 1882 he located in Beatrice, Nebraska, where he has since resided, and is now engaged in the mercantile business.  He was married May 25, 1865, at Coldwater, Michigan, to Elizabeth Wilkins, whom he had met in Kansas.  She was born in Indiana and was a daughter of Dr. Wilkins, a physician and minister of the Christian church.  The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Dooley were: Effie, who married a Mr. Almon Stevenson, of Beatrice, Nebraska, and they have one child, Bush; Minnie Alta, who died at the age of eleven years; and two boys who died in infancy.  In politics Mr. Dooley is a staunch Republican and served in Illinois as justice of the peace and mayor of Chapin, Illinois.  He has always taken an active part in the G.A.R. post, in which he is very popular, and he serves faithfully as elder in the Christian church, of which his wife is also a member.  He was elected commander of Rawlins Post, No. 35, G.A.R., in January, 1904

A Biographical and genealogical history of Southeastern Nebraska - 1904

Transcribed and Submitted by Nancy Washell 

H. M. Hepperlen   

H. M. Hepperlen, physician and surgeon of Beatrice. Nebraska, one of the leading men of his profession in that locality, has been a resident of that state since 1881. He was born in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, January 26, 1868, and is a son of John Hepperlen, the latter having been born in Wurtemberg, Germany, but is now deceased. The Hepperlen family is one of the good, substantial ones of Wurtemberg, Germany, where it originated.

Dr. Hepperlen was educated in the high schools of his native county, and early evinced a taste for medicine, so that when he commenced 'its study with Dr. C. A. Bradley he made rapid strides forward, and, entering the Keokuk (Iowa) Medical College, he was graduated from it in 1891. In 1896 he was graduated from the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, with the degree of  M. D. In 1897 he took a post-graduate course in New York city, and then going abroad studied at Vienna, in 1898, after which he returned to Beatrice, Nebraska, and resumed his practice, thoroughly fitted to carry on the particular branch of his profession which had always claimed much of his attention, and of which he now makes a specialty—diseases of women and surgery.

Dr. Hepperlen was married in Beatrice, Nebraska, to Miss Rosa Warner, a native of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Two children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Hepperlen, namely: May Bernetta and Joseph T. In politics Dr. Hepperlen is a Republican, while fraternally he is a Knight Templar Mason belonging to Beatrice commandery. Being a close student Dr. Hepperlen is thoroughly abreast of all modern discoveries and is meeting with marvelous success, and although yet a young man has the confidence of the community at large and numbers among his patients the very best people of the locality. Pleasing in manner, courteous and genial, he has made and retained a large number of friends. When he came to Beatrice in 1899 he established what is known as the Dr. H. M. Hepperlen Private Hospital, for the treatment of the diseases of women and surgery.

A Biographical and genealogical history of Southeastern Nebraska - 1904

Transcribed and Submitted by:   Sandra Davis

W. H. Walker   

W. H. Walker, justice of the peace of Beatrice, Nebraska, is one of the well known and honored old settlers of Gage County.  He was one of the first merchants of Beatrice to operate a general store, and he located in Gage County in 1867, since which time he has made it his home.  Judge Walker has a war record which commenced August 16, 1862, when he enlisted in Company E, Ninety-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Colonel Putman and Captain Wilkerson commanding.  Colonel Putman was killed at Missionary Ridge and succeeded by N. C. Buzwell.  Mr. Walker participated in many of the leading battles of the war, including Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, siege of Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge and the famous march to the sea, participated in the grand review at Washington and was honorably discharged June 5, 1865.

Mr. Walker was born at Vandalia, Fayette County, Illinois, June 25, 1838, a son of Absalom and Mary (Walker) Walker.  Absolom Walker was a soldier in the war of 1812 and the Black Hawk War.  He was  born in Kentucky, coming of a family noted for courage and integrity.  The mother was born in Illinois, her parents being early settlers of Fayette County, Illinois.  The children born to these parents were:  W. H.; Jeremiah, who died in the service; Louise, deceased; Benjamin F., also deceased.  The father died in Illinois.  For a number of years he was a prominent farmer and took active part in local affairs; while fraternally he was a member of the  Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

After Mr. W. H. Walker returned to Illinois he lived for two years in that state and then removed to Gage County, Nebraska, first working upon a stock farm, but later opened the first general store in Beatrice, Nebraska. On account of his military experience he was made instructor of military tactics in the public schools of Beatrice, and he is a charter member of the G. A. R. post of Beatrice and has held all the offices pertaining thereto. While living in Illinois in 1866 he was married to Miss Maria Terry, a daughter of Peter Terry. She died in December, 1874, leaving four children, namely: Mary E.; Katy B.; Ora B. Later Mr. Walker married Miss Jennie M. Scott, of Beatrice, and three children have been born of this union, namely: Pearl, Eddie and William H., Jr. Mr. Walker is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is very popular. His wife is a consistent member of the Baptist church, which Mr. Walker also attends. He is a man who has won his way through his own unaided efforts, and he can well be proud of his record both as a business man and a soldier. He is a Republican and has served in various minor offices. In January, 1902, he was elected justice of the peace and January, 1904, was re-elected to same office.

A Biographical and genealogical history of Southeastern Nebraska - 1904

Transcribed and Submitted by:   Debbie Gibson

J. W. Ashenfelter    

J. W. Ashenfelter, chief of police of Beatrice, Nebraska, and one of the leading men of that city, was elected to that responsible office in the spring of 1901. Chief Ashenfelter was born in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, in 1853, and is a son of Joseph Ashenfelter, a native of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, who came of German ancestors and was a miller by trade. He married Margarette Weeks, born in Huntington County, Pennsylvania. The parents came to Illinois in 1852, settling in Ogle County, whence they removed to Jo Daviess County, and later moved to Jackson County, Iowa. But in 1859 they returned to Illinois, and in 1865 moved to Iowa and in 1866 moved to Cherokee County, Kansas, and in the fall of 1866 the father went back to Washington County, Iowa. From 1870 to 1877 he lived in Richardson county Nebraska, and later settled at Turner, Oregon. He died at the age of eighty-two years, and his wife died there at the age of seventy-nine years. Both belonged to the German Baptist church. Five children were born to these parents, four of whom grew up, namely: John W.; Anna Lichty, of Falls City, Nebraska; Elizabeth, of Oregon; Jacob B., of Turner, Oregon.

Mr. J. W. Ashenfelter was reared and educated in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, as his father moved from one place to the other, and he at the same time learned the trade of miller from his father. He was married in 1876 to Miss Lucinda Z. Carter, of Falls City, Nebraska, a daughter of Dr. James Carter, now deceased, who was a soldier in the Civil war. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ashenfelter, namely: Ellsworth, who is cashier in Klin's store of Beatrice; J. Levett, traveling salesman; John A., a railroad man; and Viola. Mr. Ashenfelter is a Republican, and fraternally is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In his official capacity he displays great efficiency, but he has held positions of like character before, having served as deputy sheriff of Gage County for four years. He located in Gage County on October 20, 1881, although he has been a resident of Nebraska for thirty-three years. His force at present consists of himself, ex-chief  J. T. More, and able officer with a good record, and W. G. Hall, also a most excellent official. The police justice is J. A. Callison, who is noted for his just decisions, which seldom are overruled.

A Biographical and genealogical history of Southeastern Nebraska - 1904

Transcribed and Submitted by:   Debbie Gibson

George A. Wilkinson    

Beatrice, Nebraska

The fusion candidate for the senate from the Twenty-first district, Gage County, was born in Macoupin County, Illinois, in 1856, and has been a farmer all his life.

He was educated at the Greenfield Academy, Illinois, and removed to Gage County, Nebraska, in 1879, and has been a resident of it ever since.

He is one of the most successful farmers in the county.  Several time has been elected Township Clerk, Assessor and Justice of the Peace, but this is the first time he has ever been nominated for other than a township office.

His high standing, honesty and unsullied character has gained for him great popularity in the campaign for senator.

Omaha World Herald - September 23, 1900

Leander M. Pemberton   

One of the leading attorneys of the prosperous city of Beatrice is Leander M. Pemberton, who has been engaged in active practice there of the last fifteen years, during six years of which time he was the city attorney.

Mr. Pemberton is a native of Illinois, having been born near Paris, Edgar County, November 12, 1845.

He attended the common schools of his native state and of Iowa, and graduated from the Iowa State University.  After leaving college he took up the study of law and was admitted to practice in the Iowa Courts April 6, 1870.

His 'shingle' first swung to the breeze in the little town of Spencer, Iowa, but subsequently Mr. Pemberton removed to Beatrice and has been identified with the progress made by the enterprising municipality.  

During his residence in Gage County, Mr. Pemberton has been connected with most of the important cases tried in the courts of that county.  He has briefed and argued about seventy five cases in the Supreme Court of Nebraska, together with numerous important cases in the Supreme Court of Iowa, the United States Courts of this district, the federal court of appeals and the court of claims at Washington, as well as in the federal Supreme Court.

He make a specialty of real estate and commercial law, cases in chancery and corporation law, especially as related to municipal corporations.

Omaha World Herald - May 8, 1899