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Christopher Ney was known in Ames only as a recluse. He had attended Iowa State College in 1889/90 where he studied civil engineering. He later obtained a law degree from the University of Minnesota and passed the Iowa bar in 1895. When the Spanish-American War broke out, Ney enlisted and saw service in the Philippines. In 1901, President Taft appointed Ney the treasurer of the province of Ilocos and a few months later appointed him the governor of the province of Luzon. He practiced law in Manila until 1913. A series of personal losses led to his eventual abondonment of his career and his return to Ames where he lived in anonymity in a tin-covered cabin he built for himself in the vicinity of Ridgewood and Summit avenues. That cabin was possibly the first house built in that area of Ames. For more information on Ney, see Chapter 30, pp. 109-111, in "Ames in Word and Picture: Book Two; Further Tales and Personal Memories," by Farwell T. Brown, 1999.