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In the summer of 1887 John A.
Dempster built a business building on Geneva’s main street and
this brick Italianate home in the north end of town. “Dempster’s
Block,”evidence of his general merchandise business, can be seen
on an old storefront.
Dempster was a civil war veteran of seventeen battles and
marched with Sherman to the sea. In 1871 he and his family moved
from Illinois to homestead in Fillmore County, Nebraska. He was
influential in the early development of Geneva and was elected
to the state legislature in 1886.
Mr. Charles H. Sloan resided in the home from 1898 until his
death in 1946. Sloan graduated from Iowa State College in 1884
and became principal of the school in Fairmont, Nebraska. He
studied law in the evenings and was admitted to the bar in 1887.
Sloan served two terms as a member of the Nebraska State Senate,
where he was responsible for naming Nebraska the “Tree Planters
State” before it eventually became the “Cornhusker State.” Sloan
was a member of the 62nd, 65th, and 71st congresses and the
county attorney. He was the orator at the laying of the
cornerstone for the now nationally recognized historical
courthouse. Some of his descendants still reside in Geneva. |
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