where the days of his early boyhood were spent. At the age of thirteen
years, unaccompanied by relatives or friends, he bravely crossed the
ocean to seek a living in a land where there were fewer restrictions.
Locating in New York State, Nathan Sampter continued his studies
there for a brief time, and later attended school in Peoria, Illinois.
There, in the employ of an uncle, he became familiar with the work
associated with a clothing store, and was subsequently engaged in the
clothing business at Independence, Iowa, for five years. Coming to
Fremont, Nebraska in 1883, Mr. Sampter opened a clothing store, and
managed it with signal success until 1909. when he sold out his interests
in the establishment. He thereafter lived retired from active business
until his death, which occurred November 15, 1910, at his pleasant home
on North Nye Street. Industrious, thrifty, and a wise manager,
Mr. Sampter accumulated a fair share of this world's goods, his busi-
ness having been extensive and lucrative.
Mr. Sampter married, March 26, 1888, in Fremont, Nebraska, Carrie
Myers, a native of Independence, Iowa. Her father, August Myers,
emigrated from Germany to the United States as a young man, settling
in Independence, Iowa, as a clothing merchant. Subsequently moving
to Nebraska, he spent the last thirty-two years of his life in Omaha.
He was a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Jewish Church.
Mr. Myers married Babette Baum, who was also born in Germany, and
of the seven children born to their union, Mrs. Sampter was the sixth
child in succession of birth, and one of the five now living.
Mr. and Mrs. Sampter became the parents of three children,
namely : Mrs. John Sonin, whose husband is a well known merchant of
Fremont ; Mrs. Hyman Fishgall, of Sioux City, Iowa ; and Gerald,
member of the firm with Mr. Sonin. Politically Mr. Sampter was a
sound republican ; fraternally he was a Mason ; and religiously he and
family belonged to the Jewish Church.
Alexander Thom came to Nebraska in January, 1882, and after
having long been actively and successfully identified with agricultural
and livestock industry in Dodge County he retired from the farm and
established his home at North Bend, where he has since continued to
enjoy the merited prosperity gained through former years of earnest
endeavor. He has passed the psalmist's span of threescore years and
ten and is a sterling citizen to whom .is accorded the fullest measure of
popular esteem.
Mr. Thom was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, September 25, 1847,
and is a son of William and Christina (Chalmers) Thom, who there
passed their entire lives, the father having been fifty-three years of
age at the time of his death and the mother having passed to eternal
rest at the age of sixty-eight years. William Thom was a farmer by
vocation and both he and his wife were zealous members of the Free
Church of Scotland, in which he served as an elder for a number of
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES 589
years prior to his death. Of the six children three came to the United
States : William, who became a resident of Nebraska and whose death
occurred in a hospital at Omaha, December 13, 1919; Isabelle, who
became the wife of James Thain, of Illinois, and who was in the home
of her brother, Alexander, of this review, at the time of her death ; and
Alexander, whose name initiates this sketch. Of the other three children,
James and George died in Scotland, and there Andrew has been for half
a century pastor of a church in Stirlingshire, as a representative clergy-
man of the Free Church of Scotland in that section of the land of hills
and heather.
Alexander Thorn was afforded the advantages of the schools of his
native land and there continued his association with farm enterprise
until 1877, when he came to the United States and became foreman of
the large farm estate of Henry B. Sherman in Dodge County, Wis-
consin. He retained this position five years, and in January, 1882, he
came to Nebraska and became associated with the firm of Smith &
Mallon, at North Bend, an important concern engaged in the importing
of horses.. In the interests of this firm Mr. Thorn purchased high grade
horses in Scotland and shipped the stock to the United States, his
operations in this field of enterprise having continued about four years.
He then purchased land in Dodge County and turned his attention, with
characteristic vigor and judgment, to general farming and stock-raising,
in 'which connection he made a specialty of raising blooded Clydesdale
horses and Chester White swine. On his farm, comprising 320 acres,
he made the best of improvements, including the erection of a barn that
is still considered the finest in the county, and he continued his active
work on the farm until 1892, since which time he has lived virtually
retired, at North Bend, his farm property still remaining in his possession.
Mr. Thom was one of the organizers and incorporators of the First
State Bank of North Bend, of which he has continuously served as
president from the inception of the enterprise and to the success of
which his mature business judgment and conservative policies have con-
tributed in large degree. He is an elder and member of the board of
trustees of the United Presbyterian Church at North Bend, and as a
citizen of his adopted state he is most loyal and appreciative.
In 1887 Mr. Thom wedded Miss Margaret Agen, a native of the
state of Illinois, and she passed to the life eternal in 1892. Of the
three children of this union two died in infancy, and the one surviving
is Mabel, wife of Dr. Andrew Harvey, a representative physician at
Fremont, judicial center of Dodge County, of whom mention is made
on other pages of this work. For his second wife Mr. Thom married
Anna Collins, and she passed away a few years later, the only child
of this marriage likewise being deceased. April 15, 1913, recorded
the marriage of Mr. Thom to Laura Miller, who was born and reared
in Dodge County and who is the popular chatelaine of their pleasant
home.
Mr. Thom is a radical prohibitionist in his political allegiance and
has been active and zealous in furtherance of national prohibition, the
success of the great movement being a source of marked gratification
to him. He has a high place in the confidence and esteem of his home
community and the year 1920 finds him serving his third consecutive
term as mayor of North Bend.
Robert Frahm. It is a matter of grave import to the people of a
community to know that their banking institutions are sound, that their
entire business methods are carefully and well advised, that their assets
590 DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
are entirely adequate, and that the officers and directors are men of
stable character and of thorough banking experience. From the pros-
perity attending the Snyder State Bank at Snyder, Nebraska, it may be
inferred that all these requirements are being held satisfactory, and
since 1919, when Robert Frahm became president, a still larger measure
of public confidence has been shown. Although Mr. Frahm is yet a
young man, he has had a large amount of banking experience.
Robert Frahm, president of the Snyder State Bank, is a native of
Nebraska, born in 1886, in Saunders County. His parents were Hans
H. and Margaretha K. Frahm, the latter of whom was born in Germany,
and the former, also of German ancestry, was a native of Illinois. From
Illinois the father came to Nebraska in 1869, locating first in Douglas
County, but one year later moving into Saunders County, where he made
his home for forty-four years. His death occurred in 1914. He
carried on farming and stockraising and prospered through industry and
frugality. The mother of Robert Frahm still survives, being a highly
esteemed resident of Snyder. He has two brothers and one sister,
namely : Elliot H., who is cashier of the Snyder State Bank : Fielda,
who is assistant cashier of the Snyder State Bank ; and Alvin, who
served as assistant cashier for years of Snyder State Bank and one
year as cashier of Bank of Morganza, Louisiana, and is now head
bookkeeper of Scotland Lumber Company, Ravenswood, Louisiana.
Robert Frahm attended the public schools at Prague, Nebraska, had
further school privileges at Fremont, and took a commercial course in
Mosher-Lampman Business College, Omaha. His first business expe-
rience was as a clerk in a general store at Memphis, and later, in the same
capacity was at Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska, following which he entered the
Corn Exchange Bank at Spencer, in Boyd County, where he continued
one year as bookkeeper. After that he served four months as book-
keeper in the Nebraska National Bank at Norfolk, Nebraska, going from
there to the First National at Pilger, in Stanton County. He was thus
well posted in Nebraska banking law before going to South Dakota,
where he was associated for two months with the Bank of Winner, and
for nine months with the First National Bank of Fairfax in Gregory
County. In 1911 he returned to Nebraska to become cashier of the
Snyder State Bank, of which he became president in March, 1919.
While the affairs of the bank engage the greater part of his time,
he gives some attention to his farm interests, mainly specializing in
hogs and poultry, growing nothing but Poland China and Chester White
hogs, and pure-blood Leghorn and W^yandotte chickens. He finds
much pleasure and needed recreation in looking after the above interests.
In 1910 Mr. Frahm was united in marriage to Miss Martha Klug.
who was born in Madison County, Nebraska, though she was reared
and educated in Boyd County. Nebraska. They have a pleasant home
and a wide social acquaintance at Snyder, and both are active members
of the Lutheran Church, in which they were reared by careful parents.
In political life Mr. Frahm has followed in the footsteps of a father
whose good judgment he had never occasion to doubt, and has been
quite prominent in local republican circles and is serving at present
as village clerk and on the school board as moderator.
Nathan H. Brown, M. D. Well equipped for the duties demanded
of the members of the medical profession, not only by natural gifts and
temperament, but by mental training and untiring industry, the late
Nathan H. Brown, M. D., of Fremont, was for many years activelv
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES 591
and successfully engaged in the practice of his chosen profession, hav-
ing gained the confidence and good will of the community, and his
death, which occurred while he was yet in manhood's prime, was a
cause of deep regret. A native of New York, he was born November,
30, 1851, near Saratoga, and died at his home in Fremont, Nebraska,
November 29, 1903.
But two and a half years of age when his parents moved to War-
renville, Illinois, Nathan H. Brown acquired his rudimentary education
in the public schools of Dupage County, that state. Turning his atten-
tion to the study of medicine, he was graduated from the Chicago Medi-
cal School, after which he took two or more post-graduate courses in
New York City. Locating in Racine County, Wisconsin, soon after
his graduation. Doctor Brown remained there for eight years, in the
meantime building up a large country practice, at first riding on horse-
back, with medicines in his saddle bags, but later making his rounds
with a horse and buggy. Then, after spending a brief time in Western
Connecticut, he located in Fremont, Nebraska, in June, 1882, where
he built up an extensive and very satisfactory practice, his professional
skill and ability having won him an extensive patronage, and a position
of note among the more successful physicians and surgeons of his day.
In 1894 the doctor, accompanied by his son, crossed the ocean, and had
a most enjoyable time visiting points of interest in many parts of Europe,
taking especial interest, however, in medical and surgical methods and
institutions.
Doctor Brown married, December 22, 1875. Gratia C. Hamilton,
who was born January 24, 1841, in Western New York, but at the age
of three months was taken by her parents to Wisconsin, where she was
educated. Her father, William Hughes Hamilton, became well versed
in legal lore, and was for several years engaged in the practice of law
in Racine, Wisconsin. Removing from there to Nebraska, he spent the
closing years of his life in Fremont. His wife, whose maiden name
was Adelaide Palmer, died in Wisconsin. Six children were born of
their marriage, as follows : Gratia C, now Mrs. Brown ; Alvah, a
soldier in the Civil war, was killed in battle ; Harriet A., wife of James
M. Brearley, a retired railroad man of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Martha
C, died at the age of twenty-nine years ; Stephen H., an attorney in
Washington, Kansas : and James H., engaged in the grain business at
Peoria, Illinois. Mr. Hamilton was a republican in politics, and he
and his family were Episcopalians.
Two children blessed the union of Doctor and Mrs. Brown, namely:
Francis H. and Adeline Eliza. Francis H. Brown, M. D., was educated
for a physician, and for two and a half years was engaged in practice
with his father in Fremont. He became interested in the grain business,
with which his father was also associated, and after the death of his
father gave up the practice of medicine, and has since devoted his time
and attention to the buying and selling of grain, being located in Omaha.
He married Daisy GofT, a daughter of J. W. GofF, of Fremont, and they
have one child, Francis Hilliard Brown. Adeline Eliza Brown married
F. H. Richards, of Fremont, who is in business with his father,
L. D. Richards, and they have one child, Fred H. Richards, Jr., a
bright and capable youth of eighteen years, who was graduated from
the Shattuck School, in Faribault, Minnesota, with the highest honors
of his class, and is now a student in the University of Nebraska, at
Lincoln.
592 DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
Mrs. Brown is a woman of talent and culture, and is held in high
esteem throughout the city, her beautiful home at 114 East Military
Avenue being ever open to her many friends. She was educated
primarily in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and subsequently studied for a
while in the University of Wisconsin, at Madison. She is a devout
member of the Episcopal Church, of which the doctor was an attendant.
He was a stanch democrat in politics, and a thirty-second degree Mason.
William Saeger. An active and thriving business man of Fremont,
William Saeger is identified with the mercantile and manufacturing
interests of Dodge County, being a member of the firm of Saeger & Sons,
one of the most extensive and best known cigar making concerns in
this section of the state. He was born in Germany, a son of Henry
Saeger, and there spent a part of his early life.
Born, bred and married in Euger, Westphalia, Germany, Henry
Saeger emigrated from the fatherland to the United States in 1887,
coming directly to Fremont, Nebraska. After working in the cigar
factory of George Godfrey for a brief time, he started in business on
his own account, becoming junior member of the firm of Stork & Saeger,
continuing under that name until 1890, a period of two years. On
June 5, 1890, the present firm of Saeger & Sons was formed, and has
been actively engaged in manufacturing cigars ever since, the members
of the company comprising Henry Saeger, Sr., William Saeger, August
Saeger, Peter Saeger, and Henry Saeger, Jr.
This enterprising firm began business at the corner of Fourth Street
and Nye Avenue, and subsequently occupied the Loomis Building oh
Main Street, five or six years. Its constantly increasing business
demanding more commodious quarters, Saeger & Sons erected, on the
corner of Main and Fourth streets, a large two-story factory, the larg-
est cigar manufactory in the state, it having a frontage of 44 feet, and
being 120 feet deep. The entire upper floor is used for manufacturing
purposes by the firm, which also devotes the first floor of the north
part of the building to its own uses, selling the products of its factory
at retail, while the first floor of the south portion of the building is rented
to other parties. The firm carries on a very large business, both in
making and selling cigars, employing about fifty people.
Henry Saeger, Sr., married, in Germany, Johanna Schroeder, who
died in Fremont, Nebraska in 1916. Seven children were born of their
marriage, as follows : William, of this sketch ; August, born in Ger-
many, is married and has four children, Alfred. Victor, Roland, and
Elsie ; Peter, born in Germany, married and has three children, Gretchen,
Hulda, and George ; Henry, jr., is married, and has one child, Warren ;
Lizzie, wife of Arthur Fox, who is engaged in the laundry business
at Great Falls, Montana; Gusta, wife of Fred Moller, a mail carrier in
Fremont; and Minnie, wife of Francis Eagle, of Fremont, a traveling
salesman. Both parents united with the Lutheran Church when young.
The father, now a venerable man of eighty-five years, became quite
homesick after spending seven years in Fremont, and went back to
Germany to stay permanently, but after a short stay in his native land
decided that life in the United States was far preferable, and returned
to Fremont, where he has since lived, contented and happy.
William Saeger, married in 1891, Dora Kaufman, and into their
pleasant household nine children have made their advent, namely : Will ;
Paul; Edward; Fred; Rudolph; Homer, who secured the first prize
in the baby contest on July 4, 1918; Kate; Elizabeth; and Minnie.
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES 593
Mr. Saeger, who came to Fremont in 1886, a year before his father and
family came, devotes his entire time and attention to his cigar business,
which is extensive and lucrative.
Walter C. Bliss. A Hve, wide-awake young agriculturist of Dodge
County, Walter C. Bliss occupies a position of prominence among the
enterprising and progressive farmers of Elkhorn Township, and is held
in high esteem as a citizen of worth and ability. A son of F. C. Bliss,
he was born in 1891, at Howell, Colfax, County, Nebraska, coming from
honored New England stock.
Born and bred in Vermont, F. C. Bliss grew to manhood in New
England, and received his education in the public schools. Coming to
Colfax County, Nebraska in 1886, he took up land near Howell, and
for several years was engaged in farming. Subsequently removing to
Omaha, he embarked in the commission business as head of the live stock
firm of Bliss & Wellman, one of the best known organizations of the kind
in the city, and in the management of its affairs is meeting with excellent
success. To him and his wife, whose name before marriage was Ada
Pattee, three children have been born, as follows : Huishel, deceased ;
H. P., of Omaha, in business with his father ; and Walter C.
Well trained in agricultural pursuits as a boy and youth, Walter
C. Bliss began life for himself with fair prospects for a prosperous
future, and his energetic labors, ability and good business tact have
already placed him among the prominent and successful agriculturalists
of Dodge County. He has 360 acres of rich and fertile land in Elkhorn
Township, on which he has made many wise improvements, his farm in
regard to its appointments and equipments being one of the best in the
community. In addition to carrying on mixed husbandry after the most
approved modern methods, Mr. Bliss makes a specialty of raising stock,
breeding about three hundred and fifty Hampshire hogs every year, and
feeding a hundred head of cattle.
Mr. Bliss married, June 24, 1914, Vivian \A^right, who was born in
Richford, Vermont, and acquired her early education in the public
schools of her native state. Her father, Mathew Wright, never came
to Nebraska, but since his death her mother has made her home with
Mr. and Mrs. Bliss, who have one child, Ethlada Bliss. Ever interested
in local progress, Mr. Bliss, although not an office seeker, has served as
school director a number of terms. He is a member of the Congrega-
tional Church, and Mrs. Bliss, true to the faith in which she was reared,
belongs to the Baptist Church.
Mrs. May (Smith) Morehouse. A daughter of the late Joseph
Towner Smith, Sr., Mrs. Morehouse was born in Fremont of honored
pioneer ancestry. Her father, a native of Pennsylvania, came to
Nebraska with two of his brothers long before it was admitted to state-
hood. Locating in 1856 in what is now Dodge County, he helped lay out
the Town of Fremont, and was thereafter conspicuously identified with
its development and growth.
A man of distinctive and forceful individuality, Mr. Smith was con-
spicuously identified with the upbuilding of Fremont, being a leading
spirit in the establishment of beneficial enterprises, and in addition to
having been the pioneer merchant of the place served as its first fire
chief, and his brother and partner, James G., was the first postmaster.
Full of energy and vim, he extended his business operations from time
to time, and through wise management and good investments accumu-
lated a large estate, to a part of which Mrs. Morehouse is heir.
594 DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
Mr. Smith married first Charlotte Adelia ]\Iiller, who died in early
life. He subsequently married, November 25, 1882, Augusta Wilhelmine
Knopp, and into the household thus established three children were born,
as follows: May. now Mrs. Morehouse; Franklin Perry, who was born
in 1888, and died March 10, 1919; and Joseph T., who has charge of
his father's estate. A more complete sketch and a steel portrait of
Joseph Towner Smith will be found on other pages of this work.
Mrs. Morehouse received her rudimentary education in Fremont, and
after leaving the high school attended St. Mary's Boarding School in
Knoxville, Illinois, for two years, and then studied a year in Liberty,
Missouri. On June 28, 1905, she was united in marriage with Carlos
Morehouse, who was born in Hooper, Nebraska, and acquired his first
knowledge of books in the rural schools of his native county, completing
his early studies at the Culver Military Academy, in Culver, Indiana.
For two years thereafter, Mr. Morehouse was engaged in the grain
business, having an elevator at Gresham, York County ; coming from
there to Fremont, he was employed in the bottling works for a time,
after which he became a member of the firm of Wiley Morehouse &
Company, wholesale dealers in fruit, with which he was connected until
recently.
Mr. and Mrs. Morehouse have three children, namely : Gene, born
September 30, 1907; Joseph Franklin, born in 1909; and Richard Car-
los, born in 1911. Religiously, Mrs. Morehouse is an active member of
the Congregational Church. Mrs. Morehouse is a member of the Order
of the Eastern Star, and belongs to the Fremont Woman's Club, and to
the Charity Club.
Allen Johnson is one of the representative younger members of
the bar of Dodge County and is engaged in successful general practice
in the city of Fremont, as junior member of the firm of Cain & Johnson,
his partner being William M. Cain, of whom individual mention is made
on other pages.
Mr. Johnson was born in Dodge County, August 3, 1880, and is a
representative of a pioneer family of the county, where his father estab-
lished residence in the year that marked the admission of Nebraska to
statehood. Mr. Johnson is a son of Andrew J. and Martha (Sampson)
Johnson, who were born and reared in Sweden and whose marriage was
solemnized in Dodge County, where the father established his home in
1867, the mother having come to this country in the early '70s. Andrew
Johnson came to this county with very limited financial resources, and
he took up and instituted the development of a homestead, in the mean-
while adding to his revenues by working at intervals on the Union Pacific
Railroad for a period of about three years. After his marriage he and
his wife remained on his homestead farm a few years, and finally they
removed to Burt County, where Mr. Johnson purchased a goodly acreage
of land and developed a valuable farm property. There he continued to
reside until his death, November 10, 1916, at the age of sixty-seven years,
his devoted wife having passed away on the 13th of the preceding April,
aged sixty-seven years. The eldest of the four children is Charles W.,
a retired farmer residing at Oakland, Burt County; Sarah is the wife
of Charles E. Lunberry, of Craig, that county ; Miss Anna C. resides
at Oakland, Burt County; and Allen, of this review, is the youngest of
the number. Through his own ability and efiforts Andrew J. Johnson
gained substantial success in connection with farm industry in Nebraska,