Dr. Stephen T. Miller, who is city meat and fruit inspector for Council Bluffs, was born on a farm in Powesheik county, Iowa, on the 23d of August, 1864, and is a representative of one of the old families of this state, his parents having located here at an early period of Iowa's development. The father, Jacob S. Miller, was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, in 1812, and after his removal to the middle west continued his residence in Iowa until his death, which occurred in Montezuma in 1877. He married Armilda Edmonds and they became the parents of a large family of seventeen children, fourteen of whom are yet living. The mother still survives and makes her home in Montezuma.

Dr. Miller of this review spent the first fifteen years of his life in the county of his nativity and during most of that period was a pupil of the public schools near his father's home. In 1879 his mother removed to Norton, Kansas, where. he lived on a homestead until 1892, and there he completed his education in a sod schoolhouse, such as was common upon the plains of the Sunflower state, where it was difficult to obtain building materials. Considering his education completed at the age of twenty-one, he started in life on his own account. About that time he was elected a school director and served for three years. He went to school, however, for nine months after he was elected to office, and, as he expresses it, "hired his own teacher," and says that he learned more in that period than he had done in all of his previous attendance at schools. In 1891 he became a student in a veterinary college at Des Moines, Iowa, and was graduated in 1893, He then located at Shelby, Iowa, as a veterinary, and in 1898 he pursued a post-graduate course in the Kansas City Veterinary College. In 1905 he located for practice in Council Bluffs, where he has since remained; and he has here secured a liberal patronage as a member of the profession. In 1906 he was made

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meat and fruit inspector, which position he is still filling, and in 1907 he was appointed by Governor Cummings assistant state veterinary.

Dr. Miller was married in 1891, in Kansas, to Miss Ida Roys, and they have three children: Russell T., Miss Marvel D. and Bernard C. Dr. Miller belongs to the Yeomen and to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is also connected with the Methodist Episcopal church. Although he was denied in youth many advantages which most boys enjoy, owing to the fact that he lived upon the frontier, he has nevertheless made use of his opportunities and he has now attained to a position of prominence in his profession owing to the skill which he has acquired therein.

John B. Burkey belongs to one of the pioneer families of Iowa, honored, esteemed and successful. The name has been closely associated with the county and its progress for a number of years. John B. Burkey was born in Clinton county, Iowa, on the 14th of December, 1810, and is the eldest in the family of three children, whose parents were David and Catherine (Burgin) Burkey. The father, a native of Indiana, came to Iowa at an early date when a boy with his parents, the family home being established in Jackson county. There he was reared amid pioneer environment and after attaining his majority he was married to Miss Catherine Burgin, being at that time about twenty-three years of age. During the two succeeding years he followed farming in Clinton county, Iowa, and in 1872 came to Pottawattamie county and purchased eighty acres on the southeast quarter of section 27, Layton township. Not long afterward he bought the other eighty-acre tract on that quarter section and upon his farm resided until about 1898, when he retired from active business life and removed to Atlantic, Iowa, where he has since made his home.

John B. Burkey is the eldest of three children, the others being William H., now a resident farmer of Layton township, and Mary, the wife of William Berry, of Cass county, Iowa. The children spent their youth under the parental roof and were educated in the common schools. When not busy with his text-books John B. Burkey assisted in the work of field and meadow and on attaining his majority started out in life on his own account. For two years he engaged in farming as a renter and in 1893 he purchased his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres constituting the northeast quarter of section 27, Layton township, adjoining the old homestead farm on the north. Here he has since resided, and the excellent and well-kept appearance of the place indicates his careful supervision. In addition to tilling the soil and raising the crops best adapted to climatic conditions he has also made a specialty of raising shorthorn cattle and during the past two years he has also been feeding cattle, finding this branch of his business very profitable.

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On the 22d of February, 1893, Mr. Burkey was married to Miss Cordelia Berry, of Marna, Cass county, Iowa, a daughter of John W. Berry, a prominent farmer and one of the early settlers of that county. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Burkey have been born two children, Roy Evan and Mildred Myrtice. The parents are widely known in this locality and occupy an enviable position in social circles, the hospitality of the best homes being cordially extended them. Mr. Burkey is a democrat in his political views but is without aspiration for office, his entire time and attention being concentrated upon his business affairs, in which he has met with creditable success. He has spent almost his entire life in this county where the family has lived from pioneer times to the present, and throughout the years the name of Burkey has ever stood as a synonym for progress and improvement.

The subject of this review is actively connected with a profession which has important bearing upon the progress and stable prosperity of any section or community, and one which has long been considered as conserving the public welfare by furthering the ends of justice and maintaining individual rights. For twenty years he has been a resident of Council Bluffs and has successfully engaged in the practice of law here since 1895.

A native of Illinois, Mr. Wadsworth was born in Grand de Tour township, Ogle county, February 22, 1851, and is a son of Christopher and Matilda (Feaster) Wadsworth, who were born in Maryland and were of English descent. Our subject began his education in the country schools of that county. In 1868 he entered Dixon Seminary at Dixon, Illinois, where he was a student for one year, and in 1873-4 attended the Illinois State Normal University at Normal, Illinois. In 1875 he was appointed secretary of the State Scientific Society of Illinois, in which capacity he served for two years, at the same time being superintendent of the schools of Heyworth, that state, to which position he was appointed in 1874. He was next superintendent of the city schools of Oregon, Illinois, for twelve consecutive years and in 18R6 was elected president of the Northern Illinois Teachers Association and also county superintendent of schools of Ogle county.

Resigning these positions in 1887, Mr. Wadsworth came to Council Bluffs and embarked in the abstract business, becoming general manager of the Union Abstract & Trust Company upon its formation, but retired from that position several years ago. From 1889 until 1893 he was secretary of the Council Bluffs Board of Trade. Taking up the study of law, he was admitted to the bar in 1895 and has since engaged in the active practice of his profession with marked success.

Since coming to Council Bluffs, Mr. Wadsworth has taken a very active and prominent Dart in public affairs, being elected a member of the park commission in 1888. He was chairman of the democratic central committee OJ Pottawattamie county from 1889 to 1893 and was then selected as chairman

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of the democratic committee of the ninth congressional district, of which he is still a member. In 1893 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners of Pottawattamie county and during that year was chairman of the board. In 1897 he was elected city solicitor of Council Bluffs, in which capacity he served until 1901, and in the fall of 1900 was the democratic candidate for congress from the ninth congressional district but was defeated. He was a delegate at large to the democratic national convention in 1904 and is a recognized leader in the ranks of his party in this section of the state. Such in brief is the life history of Mr. Wadsworth. In whatever relation of life we find him-in the government service, in political circles, in business or social relations he is always the same honorable and honored gentleman, whose worth well merits the high regard which is uniformly given him.

Isaac T. Van Ness, a physician and surgeon of Neola, dates his residence in this county from September, 1880. He was born October 23, 1845, in Standingstone township, Bradford county, Pennsylvania. His father, Isaac Hankinson Van Ness, was a native of Newark, New Jersey, and a descendant of Holland Dutch ancestry. When a young man he went with his parents to Bradford county, Pennsylvania, where he learned and followed the blacksmith's trade. In that state he married Rachel Whipple, a native of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, where her father had extensive coal interests. After his marriage Isaac H. Van Ness engaged in lumbering and farming, owning and operating two large sawmills. He continued a resident of Bradford county and one of its prominent business men up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1881, when he was seventy-seven years of age. His wife had passed away long years before, dying in 1852 at the age of thirty-five years, when her son Isaac was a lad of seven. There were six children in the family, three of whom still survive.

Dr. Van Ness was the third in order of birth and is the eldest of the survivors. He was reared on a small farm and aided with its development in connection with the work of the lumber camp prior to the age of eighteen years, when he began clerking in a drug store at Towanda, Pennsylvania, for Dr. Porter, under whose direction he also read medicine for five years. On the expiration of that period he went to Philadelphia and attended medical lectures at the Eclectic College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1871. Thinking to find a better field of labor in the middle west, he removed to Dixon, Illinois, where he located for practice, remaining there for several years.

While there Dr. Van Ness was married, on the 24th of June, 1875, to Miss Helen Gertrude Fletcher, a native of Lee county, Illinois, and a daughter of James Fletcher, a capitalist of Dixon who owned the electric light and water plant there and a large estate in that locality. Following his marriage Dr. Van Ness removed to Burrton, Harvey county, Kansas, where he practiced for two and a half years and also homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of government land. He then went to Colorado, where he remained for a brief period, but the rarified condition of the air proved detrimental to him and in

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consequence he came to Iowa in 1880, locating at Minden, Pottawattamie county. A year later he removed to Neola, where he purchased a tract of land and built a drug store and residence. Three times he has suffered loss by fire, once at Dixon and twice in Neola. He carries a large and well selected line of drugs. At the same time he is an active practitioner of medicine and surgery and for twenty-three years he has been surgeon for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company. For two years he practiced his profession in Council Bluffs, living there at the time. For twenty-seven years he has resided in this county and is now the oldest practitioner in Neola. As his financial resources have increased he has made judicious investments in property and has now large landed interests in Huron, South Dakota.

Dr. and Mrs. Van Ness are the parents of three children but they lost their first born, Robert, at the age of one year. The others are Helen Gertrude, the wife of T. A. Mitchell, of Neola, who is engaged in the insurance business and is local manager for the Hawkeye Insurance Company; and Henry George, who is in the drug business with his father. He is a graduate of the Neola high school and is attending college at Ames, pursuing a scientific course. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell have two children--Mary Elizabeth, a daughter of Mr. Mitchell's first marriage, and Myron Thomas, born of the present marriage.

Dr. Van Ness has been a life-long republican but without aspiration for office. He belongs to the Masonic lodge at Neola. In professional life he is connected with the Pottawattamie County Medical Society and the Iowa State Medical Society. In his profession he has made continuous advancement by his broad research and study, keeping in touch with the onward march of progress made by the medical fraternity. As a merchant and physician he has made a most creditable record, not only for success but also by reason of the straightforward business principles he has followed and by his close conformity to a high standard of professional ethics. Wherever known, and his acquaintance is a wide one, he has the high esteem of those with whom he has been brought in contact.

William Welch, conducting a transfer business in Council Bluffs, has spent his entire life in the middle west. He was born in Champion county, Michigan, in 1863, and in 1869 was brought to Council Bluffs by his parents. The family is of Irish descent and was founded in America by the grandfather of our subject. William Welch, the father of our subject, was born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1837, and when the family came to the new world in 1842 establishing a home at Toronto, Canada, he became a pupil of the public schools of that city and resided there for about twenty-one years, or until his removal to Michigan in 1863. He was connected with the copper mines of that state and there remained until 1869, when he brought his family to Council Bluffs, He had been married in Michigan, in 1864, to Miss Mary

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Connelly, and subsequent to their arrival in Council Bluffs he started out selling goods with a pack. Later he bought a wagon with which to make his trips and as the years passed he prospered in his undertakings so that after a decade or more he was enabled to open a grocery store and coal yard. Thus he became a prominent factor in the business life of the city, receiving a liberal patronage, which brought to him a goodly measure of success. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Welch were born eight children of whom six reached maturity and are yet living: William, of this review; Joseph H.; Margaret, the wife of Herman Peeper; Elizabeth, the wife of James Glenn; Thomas; and Edward. The mother still survives and is now living with her eldest son in Council Bluffs.

Brought to this city when only three years of age, William Welch, when a little lad of six years, entered the public schools and was here educated. He left school at the age of eighteen and entered the grocery store of his father, with whom he continued until the latter's death in 1887. He then disposed of the store but has conducted the coal yard up to the present time and has a large patronage in this line. Just before his father's death he had established a transfer business, which William Welch has since carried on. He has succeeded well in this undertaking and in connection with teaming he also conducts a storage warehouse. The various branches of his business are now bringing to him a merited success.

Mr. Welch is a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and belongs to the Catholic church. He is not actively interested in politics, preferring to give his undivided attention to his business, and by reason of his close application and unfaltering diligence he has progressed to a point where he now stands in advance of the great majority, being classed among the successful residents of Council Bluffs.

No history of Pottawattamie county would be complete without mention of John F. Garner and the family of which he is a representative. He was born in the township which bears the family name, being so called in honor of his father, who was its first settler, and of whom mention is made on another page of this work. The birth of John F. Garner there occurred on the 27th of February, 1849, and amid the wild scenes and environments of pioneer, life he was reared, early becoming familiar with the arduous toil incident to the development of a new farm. He attended the public schools as opportunity offered and worked upon the old homestead until the time of his marriage, which was celebrated in October, 1868, the lady of his choice being Miss Mary Elizabeth Dial. Her father, William H. Dial, was one of the early settlers of the county, arriving here during the period of the Civil war. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Garner have been born six children: Lillie, now the wife of Joseph Young; Halcyon, deceased; John, who resides in Garner township; James, who has also departed this life; Maude, the wife of Eli Jones, of Harrison county; and Edna, at home.

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At the time of his marriage John F. Garner began farming on one of his father's properties, for William Garner was one of the largest landowners in the township at the time of his demise. The subject of this review improved a part of the land on which he located and later built a good house and barns there. He lived upon that place for about thirty-two years, transforming it from wild prairie into richly cultivated fields and then, retiring from active agricultural pursuits, removed to Council Bluffs about 1901. There he lived for three years and in 1904 returned to farm life, taking up his abode on section 17, Garner township, where he now makes his home. He owns three hundred and twenty-five acres of rich and productive land in this township and formerly his possessions were more extensive, for in the summer of 1906 he sold one hundred and twenty-five acres. He now has about fifty acres in his home place. Great indeed have been the changes which have occurred during the period of his residence here. He can remember a day when there were' many deer and some bears in this locality but owing to the severity of the winter of 1856-7 the deer mostly perished. Indians still visited the neighborhood to some extent and wild animals roamed at will over the prairie or sought shelter in the timber which bordered the streams. Only here and there had a habitation been placed, showing that the seeds of modern civilization were being planted on the western frontier. In his boyhood and youth Mr. Garner bore his full share in the work of reclaiming wild land for the purposes of civilization and as the years have gone by he has continued to carryon agricultural pursuits with excellent results, being now one of the substantial farmers of his community.

Captain John P. Williams is an honored veteran of the Civil war, who at one time was associated with the building interests of Council Bluffs as a contractor and builder but is now living retired. His natal day was January 2, 1825, and the place of his birth Windsor county, Vermont. His father, Henry Williams, was born: in Springfield, Vermont, and died in 1832 at the comparatively early age of twenty-eight years. His wife bore the maiden name of Abigail C. Cram, and was born in the Green Mountain state in 1806. There she gave her hand in marriage to Henry Williams in 1824.

Their son John was but seven years of age at the time of the father's death. He was reared, however, in Vermont; where he lived to the age of thirty years, and in the common schools he acquired his education, the little log schoolhouses affording him the privileges he enjoyed for the mastery of different branches of English learning. He was on the farm for a few years, early becoming familiar with the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist, and when twenty years of age he established a sawmill and feed business in Perkinsville, Vermont, where he remained for three years. On the expiration of that period he went to Boston, Massachusetts, where he drove a coach for the Eastern Railroad Company for two years. After returning

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to his native county he again engaged in farming for five years and subsequently turned his attention to the business of shipping poultry, eagerly embracing every opportunity that offered for his business advancement and that contributed to his success.

In 1854 Captain Williams came to Council Bluffs, which was then a town upon the western frontier, giving little promise of future development and yet containing large possibilities in that direction. Soon after his arrival here he took up a claim in Washington county, Nebraska, where he engaged in raising grain. In 1855 he again came to Council Bluffs and turned his attention to carpentering. Since that time he has been more or less closely associated with building interests but his business life has been interrupted by official and military service. In 1860 he was elected sheriff of Pottawattamie county on the republican ticket and filled the office for two years. He then responded to the country's call for aid and raised Company A of the Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteers, of which he was elected captain. Going to the front he served for eighteen months, after which he was discharged on account of physical disability.

Following his return to Council Bluffs, Captain Williams was engaged in the meat business for two years and then resumed work at the carpenter's trade. In 1872 he went to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he engaged in mining and building for two years, and on the expiration of that period he continued his journey down the Pacific coast, spending about four years on the seaport at different places. Once more he came to Council Bluffs, where he entered the registered mail service under Postmaster Phil Armour, serving until the close of the latter's term. On the expiration of that period Captain Williams entered the office of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, doing night transfer service for two years. Once more he took up carpentering and continued actively in building operations until the early '90s. Since then he has devoted only a portion of his time to that work, largely living retired. His life has been an active and useful one and in all of his business operations he has been found honorable and trustworthy.

On the 14th of May, 1851, Captain Williams was married to Miss Hannah Dewey, a relative of Admiral Dewey. She was born April 1, 1833, in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and acquired her education in the common schools there. She was a granddaughter of one of the heroes of the Revolutionary war and her father served his country in the war of 1812. Unto Captain and Mrs. Williams have been born the following named: Mrs. Harriet Gray is the widow of Henry Gray. She was born in Hartford, Vermont, in 1852 and now lives in San Francisco, California, being a teacher in the public schools of that city. She is a member of the Daughters of the Revolution and of the Order of the Eastern Star. For more than thirty years she has made her home in San Francisco and she was very fortunate in escaping all loss during the earthquake and fire disaster, her home being just outside the destroyed district. John P. Williams, Jr., the second of the family, born in 1854, died in 1855. Mrs. Kate Spangler, born in 1856, is living in Walnut, Pottawattamie county, and is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Ida, born in 1858, departed this life in 1863. Edmund Otis,

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born in 1860, died in 1863, only a few days after his sister's death. Charles, whose birth occurred in 1864, passed away in 1873. Fred C., born in 1866, is living at Florence, Colorado, where he is engaged in the cigar and tobacco business. Nellie, born in 1875, died when only a few months old.

Captain Williams is a member of the Masonic lodge, having affiliated with the order since 1856. He is likewise a member of Abe Lincoln post, No. 29, G. A. R., and his wife holds membership in the First Presbyterian church of this city. He owns several rental properties and a comfortable home at No. 605 West Washington street. He had the honor of erecting the first building in Omaha and has been to a greater or less extent associated with building operations in Council Bluffs for many years. He came to this city more than a half century ago and although his residence here has not been continuous he has spent the greater part of his time here and has been an interested witness of the changes which have been wrought, making this one of the leading cities of the great west. He has passed the eighty-second milestone on life's journey and his life has been fraught with many good deeds and actuated by many kindly purposes that have made him a most respected and honored man.