Nees - Milton
Source: Bowen, A.W. History of Montgomery County, Indiana. Indianapolis: AW Bowen, 1913, p 941
Milton
L. NEES Success has come to Milton L. Nees, the present able
and popular county surveyor of Montgomery County, because he
has worked for it along legitimate lines and has closely applied
himself. He is an excellent example of the successful self-made
man, and is eminently deserving of the conspicuous position
which he now occupies in the estimation of the people. He is
a man who has never for a moment permitted untoward circumstances
to divert his attention from the goal he had in mind when starting
out in life. He has never waited for someone else to do what
he should do himself, and he might be cited to the young men
of his county as an example worthy of their careful study. Mr.
Nees was born in Owen county, Indiana, March 21, 1873, and is
a son of David A. and Sarah A. (Kennedy) Nees. The father was
a farmer, and shortly after the birth of our subject he moved
to Kansas, locating at Independence, and there his death occurred
in 1883. Mrs. Nees then returned to Owen County, Indiana, where
she is now living. Milton L. Nees received a good education
in the common schools of Independence, Kansas, and the Owen
County rural schools, later attending school at Spencer and
Valparaiso, Indiana. After passing through the normal at the
latter town, he began teaching in Owen county, which line of
endeavor he continued with much success and satisfaction to
the people for a period of seven years, during which time he
took a high rank with the leading educators of that section
of the state. But finally tiring of the school room and having
long entertained an ambition to become a civil engineer he took
a course in this science with the International Correspondence
Schools, and at the same time managed to secure considerable
practical experience so he became well fitted to enter the arena
of his chosen life work, having prepared himself principally
during the summer vacations while he was teaching. Mr. Nees
came to Montgomery county in 1901 and here worked at his profession
until 1906, when he was elected county surveyor. He made such
a splendid record, doing his work so skillfully and conscientiously
that he was re-elected in 1908, in 1910, and 1912, which is
certainly sufficient evidence of his popularity in the county
and of the explicit confidence which the people repose in him.
He has been a close student of all phases of this field of endeavor
and has kept fully abreast of the times. During this period
of his incumbency Mr. Nees has done much for the permanent good
of the county, such as the construction of twenty-five gravel
roads, and there are at this writing seventy-five others under
way. Politically, Mr. Nees is a Democrat and is active in the
affairs of his party. Fraternally, he is a chapter member of
the Masons and belongs to the Knights of Pythias, the Tribe
of Ben-Hur and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Nees was married
on June 5, 1901, to Lulu Turner, a native of New Ross, who was
born there on June 25, 1880. This union has been blessed by
the birth of three children-Ruth, Sarah and Marcella.