1889 HISTORY OF LINCOLN, NEBRASKA

     (45) In 1861 he enlisted in the 14th Ohio Infantry, but was soon afterward prostrated with typhoid fever, and did not recover his health for nearly a year. The perilous condition of the Union in 1862 stirred the blood of the men of his home region, and early in August they assembled and formed a company by general agreement. The work of its organization required only four days, and at the close of the fourth the company chose John E. Hill its captain, unanimously. On the fifth day the company reported for duty at Toledo, Ohio, and was assigned to Company F, of the 111th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Col. J. H. Bond. The regiment soon began duty Under Gen. Buel, at Louisville, Kentucky. After moving to Frankfort and thence to Bowling Green, Company F and one other company, under the command of Capt. J. E. Hill, were assigned to Fort Baker, Kentucky, of which Capt. Hill had charge during the winter of 1862 and 1863. Here he was attacked by typhoid-pneumonia, and his life was despaired of for several days; but he was able to take command of his company in the spring. The company next was engaged in the campaign in East Tennessee, and was with the first troops that entered Knoxville. This was the active contest to oppose the advance of Longstreet, after Chickamauga. During the campaign in Tennessee, Capt. Hill was designated as Provost-Marshal by General Schofield, and had command of the captured towns of that State.

     The winter of 1863-64 was spent in East Tennessee, and then Captain Hill's command joined Sherman in his grand campaign of battles from Chattanooga to Atlanta, one of the longest periods of continued fighting in the history of the world. The guns of the two armies were not silent a day from the 9th of May until some time in September. On the first date named Captain Hill's company engaged the enemy at Buzzard's Roost, and he led his command into every important action from that point to Atlanta. It seemed to be the fortune of his company to be in the hottest of nearly all the great battles of this memorable campaign, such as Ressaca, Peach Tree, Kenesaw, (46) and Atlanta. When Atlanta fell Captain Hill's company was sent back with General George H. Thomas to meet Hood's desperate attempt to cut Sherman's communications, and here again Company F was frequently in the hottest of the fight, and suffered severely, especially at Nashville and Franklin. In fact it was reduced to a mere skeleton of its former self.

     When Hood was overthrown the 111th Ohio was ordered to North Carolina to help Sherman crush Joseph E. Johnston, but the many months of constant exposure, nervous strain, privation, loss of rest, and long, hurried marches, had utterly broken the health of Captain Hill, and he was compelled to remain at Louisville and enter the hospital. It seemed that he was a physical wreck. After remaining in he hospital for some time, the board of physicians, without his knowledge, recommended his honorable discharge on account of physical disability. This recommendation was complied with near the close of hostilities.

     When able to do so, he returned to Ohio, and soon afterward removed to Heyworth, Illinois, with his father's family. There he and its father entered into the mercantile business, under the firm name of Hill & Son.

     In 1866 he was married to Miss Laura Stewart, an estimable lady of Fairmont, West Virginia. He continued in business, with reasonable success, until 1871, when he felt that he could do better in a new and expanding country, and removed to Beatrice, Nebraska.

     He there engaged in the nursery and stock-raising business for four years. When Beatrice was organized under the law as a city of the first class, in 1872, Captain Hill became a member of the first city council. In 1875 he was elected County Clerk of Gage county, and was twice afterward re-elected. After concluding his third term, he engaged in the grocery business for three years, and then devoted his time to growing fine stock. During this period he was a member of the Board of Supervisors of the county for two years, and of the Board of Education of Beatrice for six Years, his last term closing in the spring of 1889.

     On February 1, 1887, Governor Thayer selected Captain Hill for his private secretary without giving the Captain any previous intimation of his intention. This position Captain Hill filled with efficiency until August 1, 1888, when he resigned to become a candidate for (47) State Treasurer. He was nominated over twelve strong competitors, and was elected by nearly 28,000 majority, receiving the highest net majority of any candidate. He is now discharging the duties of this very responsible office with the same fidelity and ability which he has manifested in guarding the many duties that have been confided to his hands during the past twenty-seven years.

     He recently removed his family to Lincoln. It consists of his wife and six children, three of whom are now young ladies. Their names are Gertrude, Carolina, Anna, Herbert Stewart, Hannah, Winifred, and John F. He has one brother younger than himself; -- Mr. Fred H. Hill, who resides at the old homestead at Hayworth, Illinois. He also has a sister, likewise younger than himself; who resides at Stuttgart, Arkansas. Her name is Mrs. Anna M. Lowe, and her son, Mr. Sam Lowe, is now an efficient clerk in the Governor's office.

     The Justices of the Supreme Court of the Territory, Federal Judges, were as follows:

     The Justices of the Supreme Court of the State have been as follows:

     Following are the names of the Associate Justices and Judges of the Territorial Supreme Court:

     The Associate Justices and Judges of the State Supreme Court have been:

+ Died in office.
* Appointed to fill vacancy.
 
      (48) The Clerks of the Supreme Court have been seven in number, as subjoined:

The eight Attorney Generals of the State are named below:

     The five State Superintendents of Public Instruction have been as follows:

     There have been but four Commissioners Of Public Lands and Buildings, namely:

     Hon. John Steen, State Commissioner of Public Lands and Buildings for Nebraska, was installed in that office on January 3, 1889. By virtue of his office he is a member of the State Board of Transportation, which possesses, to some extent, judicial authority, as well as administrative and executive powers, in the adjustment of the relations of' the railroad interests of the State, amicably and equitably, with those of the people. He is also a member of the State Board of Educational Lands and Funds. He is Chairman of the State Board Public Lands and Buildings. He is, in addition, one of the State Board of Purchases and Supplies, and he is also a member of the State Board of Pharmacy. These boards are all composed of the State Officers, and Mr. Steen's work as a State official is of a difficult and highly responsible character. He is regarded as a most efficient and prudent officer, well worthy the high trust confided to charge by the people.

     (49) Mr. Steen has earned his present distinguished position by a life of hard work, patriotism, courage, and fidelity to duty and principle. A brief' sketch of his personal history cannot fail to be of interest in a story of the history of Nebraska's capital, in which he is now a conspicuous figure.

     He is a native of Norway. His father was Tron A. Steen, who was born near Christiana, Norway, January 17, 1804. His occupation was farming and manufacturing. Large importations of leaf tobacco were shipped into Christiana, and the father of Nebraska's Commissioner was engaged, in part, in making caddies in which to pack the manufactured tobacco. His father was always an anti-monarchist in political sentiment, and his sons inherited republican opinions from him.

     Mr. Steen's mother was Miss Ingeborg H. Torsdag before her marriage, and was born near Lillehammed, Norway, on January 31, 1804. Her marriage with Tron A. Steen took place near Christiana, on December 25, 1827. She was a woman of great energy and industry, and never tired in making home pleasant for her children and in aiding to develop in them the spirit of manly character. She was a woman of strong and noble characteristics, one of the women who are naturally the mothers of heroes.

     John Steen was born on his father's farm, near Christiana, Norway, on October 21, 1841, and was the sixth of a family of eight sons. He spent his boyhood, while in Norway, in going to school, though he was taught industrious habits between terms.

     In 1853 his father's family emigrated to the United States, and settled on a farm near Decorah, in Winneshiek county, Iowa. Here Master Steen continued to go to school in winter, but applied himself to hard farm work in summer until 1861, taking the main control of affairs, as his father was getting old. The heavier part of the work fell to his lot, and thus it happened that he cut most of the grain on the farm with the old-fashioned cradle, which, in the hands of a powerful man, had a good deal of the "poetry of motion" about it, if some other man had to swing it. Mr. Steen's muscles became compact, and his body well knit by the years of hard work he put in on the old home farm.

     On October 21, 1861, the day after he was twenty years old, Mr. Steen enlisted in Company G of the 12th Iowa Infantry, under (50) Captain C. C. Tupper, a West Point graduate. His regimental commander was Col. J. J. Woods, who had also had some training at West Point. Two of his brothers, Theodore and Henry, joined the same company, and they served through the war together. But all six of these patriotic brothers were in the Union Army. The three brothers in the 12th Iowa were in their country's service until January, 1866. The regiment went into a camp of instruction at Dubuque, Iowa, until November 28th, and thence proceeded to Benton Barracks, Missouri. It left there January 29, 1862, and proceeded to Smithland, Kentucky, and from that point joined General Grant's expedition against Forts Henry and Donelson. The 12th Iowa assisted to take Fort Henry, which surrendered February 6, 1862. Then it proceeded to Fort Donelson, which it reached February 12th, and participated in the storming and capture of that stronghold as a part of Col. Cook's Brigade, of Gen. C. F. Smith's Division. Here it will be recalled that the 12th and 2d Iowa were on the extreme left, and that the 2d Iowa made a very gallant charge, and gained the first lodgment, and was immediately supported on its right by the 12th Iowa, which made almost as brilliant a dash as the 2d. This was on the 15th of February. Gen. Buckner surrendered the fort the next day, and the country was proud of Grant and the Iowa and Illinois troops, that had accomplished this brilliant achievement.

     Then the gallant 12th went to Pittsburg Landing, and assisted all through that terrible 6th of April, 1862, to hold the center of the line, in company with the famous Iowa Brigade, composed of the 2d, 7th, 12th, and 14th, Iowa regiments, under the command of General J. M. Tuttle, and in the division of General W. H. L. Wallace. After this brigade had held the spot now historically illustrious as the "Hornets' Nest," and after the rebel force had broken away the Union line both to the right and left, and had surrounded the 12th and 14th and attacked them from all sides, they surrendered, and became prisoners of war. General Tuttle had ordered the brigade to fall back, but the order failed to reach the 12th and 14th. Just at the moment of capture Mr. Steen received a wound on his right side, under the right arm. The surrender took place between five and six o'clock in the evening. The prisoners were taken to Corinth, and for three days were without food. Of course the pangs of hunger became very keen with such a fast, after such a struggle as that of April 6th.

     (51) From Corinth the prisoners were taken to Memphis, Tennessee, where they remained a few days, and were thence forwarded to Mobile, Alabama. From that place they were removed to Cahaba, Alabama, where they were huddled together in an old tobacco warehouse, and there suffered their first severe trial of rebel prison life. Here the starving process was begun. After two weeks of this pen, the prisoners, of whom Mr. Steen was one, were taken to Macon, Georgia, where he endured the infamous mistreatment for which that pen is historical, for two or three months. Then he was paroled, and was taken to Benton Barracks, Missouri, where he did garrison duty, until exchanged in January, 1863. Then the men of his regiment were reorganized in time to join in Gen. Grant's magnificent campaign, whereby he swung below Vicksburg, and with a masterly movement, as brilliant as any executed by Napoleon, in sixty days whipped an army of over sixty thousand, in detail, with a force of but forty-five thousand. Mr. Steen made the quick march to Jackson, Miss., where Sherman and McPherson splendidly defeated Joseph E. Johnston, on the 14th of May, 1863. The 12th Iowa did not get to Champion Hill soon enough to help whip Pemberton, but, with Sherman, participated in the two gallant charges on the works at Vicksburg, on the 18th and 22d of May. Mr. Steen's regiment was with Sherman's 15th corps, on the right. This regiment, with others, was assigned to watch Johnston at Black River Bridge, during part of the siege. When the surrender took place, on July 4, 1863, the 12th Iowa was of the troops which made a dash after Johnston, and beat him at Jackson and Brandon, and sent him whirling for safety beyond the Pearl river.

     The term of enlistment of the gallant Twelfth expired in January, 1864, and the men promptly enlisted for a second three years, and were then allowed to visit home on a veteran furlough. During the summer of 1861 the regiment was attached to the Sixteenth Army Corps, commanded by Major General A. J. Smith, and was engaged in movements against Forrest, in Tennessee and Mississippi. At the battle of Tupelo, where there was terrific fighting for a short time, he lost the best friend he ever had, Lieut. Augustus A. Burdick, who had been as faithful to him as a brother. This was the saddest event of his my life.

     Mr. Steen's regiment pursued Price through Arkansas and (52) Missouri, and assisted to fight the battle of Pleasant Hill. Then his command hurried to Nashville, and arrived just in time to help General Thomas fight the magnificent battle of Nashville, whereby Hood's army was annihilated and Thomas's soldiers were covered with glory.

     In the spring of 1865 the 12th Iowa was sent to Mobile, Alabama, where it aided to capture Spanish Fort, after a hot fight, on the day Lee surrendered at Appomattox. This ended the gallant battle career of John Steen and his company; but his regiment was held at Selina and Talladiga, Alabama, guarding the freedmen from the keen resentment of the Southern people until January, 1866.

     Mr. Steen returned home after the war, and the Steen family was justly honored because of its six gallant veterans. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits for a few months, and then was appointed deputy sheriff of Winneshiek county, Iowa, and held that position with credit until he removed to Nebraska, in 1869.

     On coming to this State he settled in Omaha, and was soon afterward appointed registry and money-order clerk in the Omaha postoffice. From that position he was promoted to postal clerk on the Union Pacific railroad, through the influence of Senator William B. Allison, of Iowa. He continued in this service until the spring of 1871, when he was elected City Treasurer of Omaha. He served two terms of one year each with his usual faithfulness and skill.    

     He then was appointed Clerk to the Chief Paymaster of the Military Department of the Platte. This post he resigned in 1874, and he then removed to Fremont to engage in the lumber and agricultural implement business, in which he was wholly successful. In 1877 he took up his residence at Wahoo and entered the hardware trade. When the State militia was organized he became the first captain of a company at Wahoo belonging to the First Regiment. He was appointed postmaster of that place in 1875, and Postoffice Inspector in 1883, his division comprising Nebraska and Wyoming. In this position he was very efficient, having been educated for the work while Deputy Sheriff and by his previous experience in the postal service. He was removed from this office as an "offensive partisan," by the Democratic Postmaster General, in 1885, and then re-engaged in the hardware trade at Wahoo until elected to his present office, by about 28,000 majority, in 1888.

     Mr. Steen was married on September 10, 1870, to 

Image of Hon. John Steen, Commissioner of Public Lands & Buildings
Image of John Jenkins, Commissioner of Labor.

(53) Miss Marie Louise Hough, an excellent and accomplished lady of El Dorado, Fayette county, Iowa. They had four children born to them, and all are living. Their names are Nora Cecelia, Theron Hough, Clarence Guido, and Mona Lillian. The family resides at Wahoo at present, where it possesses the highest respect of the people.

     There have been eight Librarians, Mr. Kennard being the first State Librarian, as follows:

     Among the most important of the offices of the State is that of Commissioner of Labor, created by act of the Legislature of 1887. By this act the Governor is the named Commissioner, (this being to avoid the constitutional prohibition against creating any new office,) with power to appoint a Deputy, to whose care the whole work of the department is consigned, and who is recognized as the real head of the department, the de facto Commissioner of Labor. And in selecting the Hon. John Jenkins to be the head of the State Bureau of Labor, Governor Thayer showed excellent judgment.

     Mr. Jenkins is descended from distinguished ancestors. His grandfather was John Jenkins, whose residence was Hengoed, Wales. He was a minister of distinction in the Baptist church, and a college in Pennsylvania conferred upon him the title of D. D., about 1850, on account of his learned works on the Bible. He was the author of a commentary on the Bible which required sixteen years of labor to produce. The great work of his life was a religious allegory entitled the "Silver Palace," a work somewhat resembling Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." It was this which won him his theological title. He was also distinguished as an orator. There is no record of Mr. Jenkin's grandmother.

     Mr. Jenkins's father was also John Jenkins. He was also a minister of distinction on account of learning and intellectual energy. He was sent by the Welsh Society to Morlaix, France, in 1832, to establish a Baptist Mission. He was the author of various works of a literary and scientific character, and on account of their high merit he vas elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He died (54) in France in 1873. Mr. Jenkins's mother was an excellent woman, and the mother of twelve children, eleven of whom were born in France. Of these, Mr. Jenkins, the Commissioner, was the fourth child and the third John Jenkins in direct succession. He was horn at the Mission at Morlaix, France, May 25, 1838. He spent his boyhood there in educational and industrial pursuits, and was sent to Wales in 1853, articled to become a mechanical engineer, under the tutelage of T. W. Kennard, Chief Engineer of the Atlantic &. Great Western railway. In this position Mr. Jenkins became a skillful engineer and mechanic -- in fact, a master workman.

     In 1861, owing to the fact that the United States Mail Steamship, Arago, running from New York to Havre, of which he was engineer, was stopped in New York harbor because the rebel privateer Sumpter was on the seas, he enlisted in the Seventy-first New York Infantry, in 1862, to meet the rebel invasion at the time Banks was driven out of the Shenandoah Valley. The regiment reported to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton for a three months' term. The regiment was engaged in detailed service in Maryland, to prevent rebel recruits from passing from Maryland into Virginia. Soon after the term of enlistment, and subsequent to the second battle of Bull Run, Mr. Jenkins returned to his old work, mechanical engineering. In 1863, during Lee's raid into Pennsylvania, Mr. Jenkins again enlisted, this time in the Forty-fourth Pennsylvania Infantry. His regiment was mainly employed in defending Harrisburg against the advance of the rebel General Jenkins, until he left to join Lee at Gettysburg. Then the Forty-fourth pressed on to Gettysburg, but arrived just in time to see the battle won by the Union forces. His regiment was mustered out after three months' service, and Mr. Jenkins returned to New York and resumed his occupation as a mechanical engineer, being mainly employed in the construction of Federal monitors. He helped to build the monitors, Tonwanda, Susquehanna, Lehigh, and others.

     After the war his efficiency as a mechanical engineer called Mr. Jerkins to the oil regions of Pennsylvania, where he was employed for a time on the John Steele oil farm. By his skill he was enabled to make a fortune in eighteen mouths' time, but lost it all in all equal period, owing to the shrinkage of values which followed the first advance. He left there penniless and in ill health, and his physician (55) recommended a trip on the western plains. He made a journey over the western trail in 1867, and had the exhilaration of fighting Indians frequently added to that of the fresh prairie air. During this trip he made the acquaintance of Col. W. F. Cody, (Buffalo Bill,) who was scouting for General Custer. He also met Generals Custer and Hancock during the trip, they being west looking after the Indian warfare then in progress. On one occasion one wagon was captured by the Indians which contained everything of value possessed by Mr. Jenkins. So he arrived in Denver in better health but with a low state of finances. He worked in Denver, then a mere village, for awhile, and during the same year returned to Omaha, where he had the pleasure of assisting to build the first stationary engine ever manufactured in Nebraska, in the shop of Hall Brothers. From Omaha he went to work at his trade on the Erie & Susquehanna Railroad, and a few months later became connected with the Panama Company, on the Isthmus of Panama; this was in 1869. He spent two and one-half years on the Isthmus, two of which he was foreman of the shops there. At the end of that period he was called to Peru to assist in the mechanical department of the railroad Henry Meigs was constructing in that country. From 1872 to 1875 he was connected with this road, and assisted to construct water works at Iquique, and salt petre works at Pampanegoro. He concluded his work in Peru by driving a tunnel for Mr. Meigs, on the Oroya railroad, at a height of 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, during which he invented a new way of boring with diamond drills.

     From Peru he returned to the United States and went to the mining regions of Nevada to introduce his diamond drill, but received such illiberal inducements that he abandoned the project, and entered the office of the chief engineer of the Union Mills and Mining Company, of Virginia City, Nevada, where he remained until, by the death of Mr. Ralston, the company was found to be intimately connected with the Bank of California, which, being deeply involved, caused the mines to change hands.

     Mr. Jenkins then came east and engaged with the C. B. & Q. railroad company, in 1877, expecting to return to South America; but the course of his life was changed by meeting the lady in Council Bluffs who became his wife. This was Miss Alice M. Canning, to whom he was married in June of 1878. Mr. Jenkins worked for the C. B. (56) & Q,. in various capacities, being employed at one time as draughtsman, at Aurora, Illinois, under G. M. Stone, now general manager of the road. Owing to rheumatism, he had to resign a position in the service of the Atlantic & Pacific railroad company, and coming west entered the employ of the Union Pacific railroad in the fall of 1882. He worked three months at the bench, and then entered their offices as one of their mechanical engineers, where he remained until appointed by James E. Boyd, though a Republican, to the position of boiler inspector for the city of Omaha. This was in 1886. This position he held, with credit to himself, until appointed Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor by Governor Thayer, in 1887.

     Through his eventful career Mr. Jenkins has come to understand very thoroughly the relations that should govern employers and employes. He is a prominent representative of the labor organizations of the day, and is a worthy man in the place, for he teaches just principles, intended to be thoroughly fair to employer and employed. He urges workingmen to be fair to employers, so that they can insist upon just treatment themselves. He favors patriotism, peace, and obedience to law. When anarchism was flauntingly and menacingly rampant in 1877, at the suggestion of Julius Meyers Mr. Jenkins led in the preparation of a grand labor demonstration on the 4th of July, in the city of Omaha, with the purpose of showing that labor organizations are loyal to the flag, and are not in sympathy with anarchy, and allow no ensign to be carried in their processions but the flag of the United States. This demonstration had 8,000 men in line, and was conducted in perfect good order.

     Mr. Jenkins distinguished himself in Omaha as an advocate of free education and free text books; and so effectively did he lead the workingmen in the contest with the school board that the board was compelled to adopt the free-text-book system in the Omaha schools, which the city now enjoys, to the great advantage of the general education of the masses.

     As Commissioner of Labor Mr. Jenkins is making a marked success. The last Legislature was highly pleased with his report, and commissioned him to inquire into the feasibility of beet-sugar culture in Nebraska, which he is now giving a thorough investigation.

     His family consists of Mrs. Jenkins, a daughter, Millie Maud, and a son, John Benjamin. He has a comfortable property at Omaha.

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