Herbert Paine Shumway, eldest son of Jeremiah and Mary Maria Shumway, was born April 18th, 1856, in Houston county, Minnesota. His boyhood was spent on the farm, where he attended the district school, earning his first dollar by building fires at the school house when nine years of age. Later he attended Caledonia Academy, and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1882 with the degree of B. S.
Coming to Nebraska in 1882, he engaged in the lumber business at Wakefield, the business developing later with coal and farm machinery added. Notwithstanding demands made upon him by a large and growing business, Mr.Shumway soon began to take an active interest in all public affairs connected with good citizenship. He served three terms in the State Senate, 1891-92, 1913-14 and 1915-16. In 1894 he all but received the nomination for Lieutenant Governor, which distinction he actually did achieve in 1916, and would undoubtedly have been elected to the second office in the state in that year but for the Wilson landslide which carried with the President all the high offices in the state. He was a Colonel on the staff of Governor Crounse 1893-4, on the staff of Governor Mickey 1903-4-5-6 and on the staff of Governor Sheldon in 1907-9; was President of Nebraska and Iowa Implement Dealers' Association in 1902, and Vice-President of the National Association in 1903. So wide were the ramifications of his interests that he was connected with railroad building in Mexico and with the lumber industry in Oregon. He was interested in Masonry ,being a Knight Templar and a Shriner, and was the past Worshipful Master of his home Blue Lodge at Wakefield. For nearly thirty years he was a member of the Wakefield school board, and for many years a village trustee, also for over thirty years a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was for many years an Odd Fellow, and was also a member of the A. O. U.W. and the M. W. A.
He retired from active business in 1907 because of impaired health but continued to reside in Wakefield, never ceasing in any of his public activities until nearly the end. A year ago he was elected Chairman of the Dixon County Council of Defense, and was also appointed Chairman of the Dixon County Fuel Committee when the war necessitated this. Those two offices he reluctantly reigned only recently under the pressure of increasing physical disability.
Mr. Shumway married Miss Helen Howard, Sept. 24, 1883, and to his union were born five children, viz: Carl Herbert, who died in infant; Earl J., now at Berkeley Aviation School, California, and shortly expecting his commission; Howard L., Captain in the medical branch of the service, and head of the Psychological Department at Camp Funston; Percy S., with the Aero Division at Waco, Texas, also expecting his commission; and Ruth Elizabeth (Mrs. Burnett), of Oklahoma. Besides these latter and his sorrowing widow, there survive his father, Mr. Jeremiah Shumway, of Lyons, Nebr., three brothers, Charles Oscar, of Portland, Multomah, Oregon; George Lorin, and Martin Leroy, both of Lyons, Nebr., and two sisters Mrs. Viola P. Cass, of Lyons, Nebr., and Mrs. Mary Evelyn Everett, of Portland, Multomah, Oregon.
Mr. Shumway had for many years been a diabetic subject, but fought against the disease with a wisdom and a. courage that was a
source of wonder to his friends. In December last he suffered an attack of pneumonia, from which he never seemed to fully _recover.
He was better and worse, until in March it was thought advisable he should go to the Green Gables Sanitarium at Lincoln for
special treatment: Here it was definitely ascertained that tuberculosis had set in, and Mr. Shumway gradually lost ground in spite of
all attention and skill, until the last, when he sank to rest as quietly as a baby going to sleep, Sunday, June 30th, at 9:20
He realized for some weeks that he was going "home" and actually planned the arrangements for the last rites, with Rev. C. W. Ray,
of Lyons, in charge of the services, Rev. T. C. Webster of Florence, Nebr., to preach the sermons and his present pastor, Rev. Frank Williams, of Wakefield, Nebr., to prepare and his brother Masons to have charge of his body. All of which was done as he
desired, the widow and family most willingly carrying out hiswishes.
And now there remains but one thing, and that is for the writer to bear a personal tribute to the Christian faith and practice of our
departed friend and brother. In one of his letters he said that all the folks knew of his public life and service, "but I do want the people
at Lyons to know something of my religious belief and my firm dust in God, and there is no one on earth that knows that part as well
as you do:" He also said in the same address "I believe in a God, a personal, loving God, that His spirit is ever with us, conscious of
our minutest thought or action, and that He orders all things well," and he concluded with these words: "Let us try to live in harmony
with God, facing the future with faith in the Eternal and with high resolve so to live that we can know whether the summons comes early
or late, death wall be crowned with victory:" And so there passes from our midst one who combined intense public devotion with the deepest spiritual faith in the Eternal Father of us all, one whose memory will be cherished by all who were privileged to know him;
and truly we can today echo the greeting of Sir Edwin Arnold on the death of his friend the immortal Tennyson.
No moaning of the bar; sail forth, strong ship,
Into that gloom which has God's face for a far light.
Not a dirge, but a proud farewell from each fond lip,
And praise, abounding praise, and fame's faint star light.
No moaning of the bar; musical drifting
Of time's waves, turning to the eternal sea,
Death's soft wind all thy gallant canvas lifting,
And Christ thy Pilot to the peace to rest.
The funeral was held in the Lyons M. E. Church Tuesday and the remains interred in the cemetery here. The services conducted
by Revs. Williams of Wakefield T.W.Webster of Florence and C.V. Ray of this place after which the Masons took charge
of the ceremonies.
To see the Asahel Adams Shumway's letter of March 3, 1903 to Herbert Paine Shumway, please visit this url on the internet:
http://www.petershumway.org/asaheadamsshumway.htm
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