My Genealogy Hound

E. D. EINSEL, president of the South Platte Loan and Trust Company and president of the United States National Bank, both of Holdrege, Phelps county, is a native of the town of Circleville, Pickaway county, Ohio, and was born March 17, 1850. He is a son of the Rev. Lewis Einsel, a sketch of whom appears in this work, and in that sketch will be found the facts relating to the ancestoral history of the subject of this notice.

E. D. Einsel was reared in his native place and in Tippecanoe county, Ind., whither his parents moved when he was twelve years of age. He was educated in the common schools of the communities where he resided and finished at the Northwestern College at Naperville, Ill., taking a three-years course in this institution. He selected the ministry as his profession, began preaching in the Evangelical church at the age of twenty-two and was engaged actively in church work for seven years. In 1872 he married Miss Emma S. Miller, daughter of J. G. Miller, of Madison, Wis. This estimable lady shared the fortunes of her husband during all the years of his ministry, accompanying him from one field of endeavor to another and rendering him the efficient aid which every man seeks in the selection of a life companion. But her health, never too vigorous, gave way, and in the hope that a change of locality and calling would benefit her, Mr. Einsel gave up the ministry in 1879 and moved to Nebraska, settling in York county, where he engaged in farming. After three years spent on the farm he moved into the town of York and filled the office of deputy county treasurer of York county for a short time. He then, in connection with others organized the York Exchange Bank and took the position of cashier of that institution, which position he held for one year. In the meantime he organized the Commercial State Bank of Holdrege, Phelps county, and closing out his interests at York he moved, in 1883, to Holdrege to assume control of the bank there. He occupied the same position in this institution that he did at the date of its organization, that of cashier, for seven years, to July, 1890, when the bank changed to the United States National Bank and he was elected president. He has had the practical management of the bank’s concerns, and what success it has attained has been reached mainly through his efforts. The bank was organized with a capital of $30,000, which has since been increased to $75,000. With a few changes in its working force its organization remains about the same as when started. E. A. Washburn is now cashier; J. H. Einsel, vice-president; E. D. Einsel, president, and J. R. Shreck, assistant cashier. The United States National Bank is manned by competent officers and backed by men of unquestioned ability and integrity. Besides his banking interests Mr. Einsel has large land and stock interests, owning in connection with his brother, J. H. Einsel, over twenty thousand acres of land in Nebraska and Colorado, having one ranch in Phelps county of three thousand acres over which are running five hundred head of fine Galloway cattle.

It would hardly be possible for a man possessing the business qualifications which Mr. Einsel does and who has achieved the marked success which he has, to escape being pushed into some positions of public trust, however distasteful the wranglings of political life might be to him. Mr. Einsel was elected to the state senate from the twenty-ninth senatoral district, in 1884, and served one term. He was not present at the convention when he was nominated and made no special effort in the canvass, but was nevertheless elected by a flattering vote. He took to the discharge of his duties as a public official the same zeal, energy and discriminating judgment, the same fidelity to principle and faithful regard for the rights of others, that he had always displayed and yet continues to display in the management of his own affairs. And he left his office bearing with him the approval of the best citizens of his district on his conduct as a public official, as well as their highest esteem and praise as a courteous christian gentleman. In addition to the part he took in the general legislation before the senate, he served as a member of the committees on engrossed and enrolling bills, railroads, banks, public printing and immigration. Mr. Einsel was a delegate to the National Republican convention which met at Chicago in June, 1888, and took an active part in the deliberation of his delegation. But his best work, like that of all true laborers, has been outside the arena of politics. It has been done as a private citizen. When Mr. Einsel relinquished his calling as a minister he did not lay aside his zeal in behalf of his church nor his interest in the welfare of his fellow-men. If anything, he redoubled his energy and enthusiasm in the cause of Christianity and in the upbuilding of the church’s interests, and he has made a wise and effective use towards this end of the means which have come into his hands. He has given liberally to the church and to every charitable purpose. He assisted in organizing the Young Men’s Christian Association in Holdrege, and has been its able and efficient president since. He is a member of a number of benevolent orders, among them the Masonic, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, and his charitable impulses have also taken in a large measure the practical turn inculcated by these fraternities.

Fortunate by circumstances, he has been singularly happy in the prosperity of his affairs. Yet his life has not been all sunshine. Across his pathway have fallen some shadows. He lost his estimable wife in 1884 after more than twelve years of a most cherished companionship, she sinking to rest in the same faith in which she had zealously labored so many years with her husband. Mr. Einsel subsequently married her sister, Miss Sara Miller, a lady who draws from the same source his former companion did, many of the amiable christian graces that adorn her character and render pleasant their quiet, peaceful home.