tiser, made its first appearance April 6, 1856, and has been regularly and continuously published from that date to the present, being the oldest continuously published paper in Nebraska.

Dr. McPherson was born in the township of Livonia, Livingston county, New York, December 21, 1818. He died at Republican City, Nebraska, January 2, 1901, aged eightytwo years. Although born of humble parentage, his ambition was for an education, which he gained by diligence. After attending the seminary at Lima, New York, at the age of sixteen he moved to Norwalk, Huron county, Ohio, where he completed his literary education under Professor Thompson (who afterward became bishop of the M. E. church). He then began the study of medicine under Dr. Geo. G. Baker and Wm. F. Kitdredge, and remained three years, when he moved to Troy, Ohio, continuing his studies under Dr. Geo. Kiefer, going from there to Cincinnati and into the office of Prof. J. P. Harrison, dean of the Ohio Medical College and president of the U. S. Medical Association. He remained at the college for two years and graduated with high honors in 1847. He was married in Miami county, Ohio, in 1845, to Elizabeth Fergus. Out of eight children they have three living: Charles E., William J., and John E. Eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren also survive.

Soon after graduating he located at Tippecanoe, Miami county, Ohio, and began the practice of medicine, where he remained and followed the profession for fifteen years, and during the same time carried on a very extensive business in the manufacture of linseed oil, flour, and lumber, and also in general merchandising, in which he alone employed twenty men, and in his seven or eight different branches nearly one hundred. It might be said without overestimating that he had either erected or caused to be erected over one-third of the buildings in the town, which had a population of 3,000. When he came to Brownville, Nebraska, he brought with him a stock of goods valued at $30,000, besides a large amount of money.

At this point he carried on a large mercantile business until 1879, and in connection with this from 1863 to 1867 he conducted a steam flour- and sawmill. He also opened a large cigar manufactory, continuing it for three years. He was a member of two territorial constitutional conventions, and at both he voted against admitting the territory as a state, and in 1863 he succeeded T. W. Tipton to the state senate.

The medical department of Brownville College was organized in December, 1875, with Dr. McPherson as professor of therapeutics.

An act to incorporate an institute for the deaf and dumb passed the Nebraska legislature and took effect in February, 1867, (Neb. Statute, 1873, chap. 16. "Be it enacted by the council and house of representatives of the territory of Nebraska that A. Bowers, A. L. Childs, E. H. Rogers, John S. Bowen, G. C. Monell, and John McPherson be and they are hereby incorporated and made a body politic and corporate with perpetual existence by the name of "The Institute for the Deaf and Dumb.'") These gentlemen, through arduous labor, placed the institute on a firm basis, and afterwards the state, becoming envious of their success, took it under her own wing. He also turned his attention largely to farming, accumulating some 3,000 acres, and at about the same time erected the McPherson block in Brownville at an expense of $50,000.

In 1872 Dr. McPherson sold out his milling and other property, and in company with his son Charles went to Republican City, Nebraska, and laid out the town site. He went to Cincinnati, Ohio, purchased and shipped a new flour- and sawmill, which burned two years later. He carried on an extensive business, which he sold to his son, C. E. McPherson, in 1886. He had always taken an active part in all affairs that have tended to build up the town. When the McPherson Normal College was incorporated at Republican City he took $2,000 of the stock. His life has been an active one and now he rests well.

Dr. MacMurtry, who preached Dr. McPherson's funeral sermon, added this tribute to his memory, which I cheerfully make a part of this paper:

"The occasion has suggested to me the theme of this hour—. "The Value of a Human Soul.' I have never met one who more fully appreciated the value of our text than he whose body lies before us at this hour. I have not come into closer and more intimate acquaintance with any in my visitations in Republican City than I did with Dr. McPherson. I found. him sound in the Christian faith; one who loved to read his Bible and commune with God in his soul. It was his intention to unite with this church at our last communion in September. To him the church was an institution of God and its membership nothing if not true worshippers of the living God. His library contained many choice volumes on the immortality of the soul-Plato, Socrates, the Koran, and others; but in these he found no comparison to the teachings of the Bible. Israel's God and the Christ of God, man's only redeemer, was his Saviour. Together we have often bowed the knee in prayer. Two weeks ago we were together at his home; I had been reading an article on faith in Jesus Christ and handed it to him. After he had read it I said, "That to me is sound doctrine,' and I shall not forget his answer, 'Yes, I believe all that.' The value of the human soul was no unsolved problem to him.

"As a citizen he loved the peace and good will of his fellow citizens. I have not been to his friends to ask his character or standing; I have not listened to the words of praise from the lips of those who today suffer the silence of his voice and the caress of his hand. I hear it everywhere. If ever God found in any man a standard of good will and the incorporate law of the Golden Rule it was to be found in Dr. John McPherson.

He was one of the first to settle on these prairies; no one brought more capital, energy, and push to put into every enterprise than he, whether it was in business propositions, a school, or church. Honest himself, he trusted others; if there was a wrong done he was the first to right it, and if he suffered he bore it without one thought of revenge. His tongue is not more silent now than it has always been in speaking an unkind word of his neighbor or fellow man. Having enjoyed a good education and being blessed with pro

Re

fessional ability, he sought to help others to the same. ginning with his own, it was the pride of his life to put opportunity within the reach of every son and daughter. It was not his fault that Republican City is not the center of higher education today. On your main streets stands a monument to higher education once the pride of his ambition. Nothing would have suited him better than to have heard the hum of voices reciting the classics or pursuing the sciences by the children and youth of his town.

"I am sure he will be remembered for his kindly ways; even the children will not forget his friendly notice, and all will miss his cheerful voice. To those within his family circle the cords were strongest. Love, devotion, heart-to-heart companionship reached down to the fourth generation. For forty-five years he has walked hand in hand with the loved ones who survive him. God graciously lengthened out his years and favored you-his children, grandchildren, and beloved wife—with his devoted life.

"There is a richer endowment to children than a divided fortune; this is yours. It is a father's unblemished character ́and an aim in life that it will be well to emulate. God's richest blessing will be yours if you strive for the same mark of the high calling. God wants men of character to fill every station in life; men that realize the value of time and the value of a human soul."

J. STERLING MORTON.

BY GOV. ROBT. W. FURNAS.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Association:

While the sad event is already known to you, the sorrowful duty devolves upon me to officially announce the death of a worthy member of this Society, its late President, J. Sterling Morton.

He was born at Adams, New York, April 22, 1832, and came to Nebraska, 1854, shortly after the passage by Congress of the Kansas-Nebraska act, opening for settlement this part of the Northwest, May 30 in the same year. He died April 27, 1902, at the residence of his son Mark, Lake Forest, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, where he had gone tem

porarily for the benefit of his health, barely passing the scriptural allotment of three score and ten years by five days. He had often expressed to me a desire to pass that period in life.

His father, Julius Morton, of Scotch descent, was born at St. Albans, Vermont. His ancestors were among the earliest of New England Puritans, coming in the next ship following the "Mayflower"-the "Little Ann." His mother, Emeline Sterling, of English descent, was born at Adams, New York.

He attended a private school until fourteen years old, then a Methodist school at Albion, Michigan, where he prepared for college. He entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, but graduated and received his diploma from Union College, New York.

October 30, 1854, Mr. Morton and Miss Caroline Joy French were married at Detroit, Michigan. Within an hour after the marriage they started to Nebraska, reaching Bellevue early in November following. Here they remained only for a few months, removing to Nebraska City, where a homestead was taken, and remained the continuous Morton residence, now known as "Arbor Lodge." This residence is surrounded by the pride of Mr. Morton's life, orchards, vine: yards, forest and evergreen groves and flowers of rarest varieties.

Mrs. Morton died June 29, 1881. She was an ideal wife and mother.

There were born to the family four sons who grew to manhood as model young business men: Joy, Paul, Mark, and Carl. Carl, the youngest, died suddenly three years ago.

Mr. Morton was appointed by President Buchanan territorial secretary of Nebraska; a portion of the time he was acting-governor. He was Secretary of Agriculture during Mr. Cleveland's second term.

It affords me pleasure to speak, although briefly, of this man's life and work since in Nebraska.

Mr. Morton was favored with a most excellent and practical education, fortified with strong mental and physical equipments. Had fitted himself for the practice of law, and