USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 68
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Mrs. Lena Wittmer, widow of the late Jacob Wittmer, was born November 10, 1860, at West Union, Fayette county, Iowa, and is a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Beer) Mitchell, natives of Germany and Switzerland, respectively. Joseph Mitchell was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1830, immigrated to Iowa and died there on his farm in 1873. Mrs. Wittmer's mother was born in Switzerland in 1823, and died in 1898 at Bern, Kans., whither she removed after her husband's demise. Mrs. Wittmer is owner of 240 acres of good land, which is well improved. In 1912, she built a splendid modern residence of eleven rooms, which is one of the most imposing farm houses in the county. Her son, Benjamin, manages the home farm. The Wittmer farm is stocked with high grade Hereford cattle. Ten children have been born to Jacob Wittmer and wife, as follows: Mrs. Emma Bauman, Wash- ington township; William J., who is farming near Sabetha; John J., a
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farmer in Nebraska; Mrs. Sarah 'Lear, Washington township; Joseph B., farming in his home township; Mrs. Lydia Aeschleman, a widow, living with Mrs. Wittmer; Mrs. Lucy Harter, Sabetha, Kans .; Elsie, Mamie and Benjamin. Mrs. Wittmer and the children are all members of the Apostolic Christian Church.
Samuel Minger will have lived fifty years in Washington town- ship at the next anniversary of his birth, January 1, 1917. He is one of the real native born pioneers of Nemaha county, and his father was a homesteader who lived here and proved up on his claim when Indians were plentiful and settlers were. few and far betwen.
Samuel Minger, Jr., was born in Washington township, Nemaha county, January 1, 1867. He is a son of Samuel and Anna (Kilmann) Minger, who were natives of Switzerland. Samuel Minger, Sr., was born near Berne, Switzerland, in 1821, and learned the trade of wagon maker. When he immigrated to the United States he plied his trade in Ohio for some years and then located in Missouri, where he resided until he came to Nemaha county, Kansas, in 1858 and homesteaded a tract of land in Washington township. He walked from his home in St. Joseph, Mo., in a day and night to take up his homestead, and if he had not been able to ply his trade during his first years of residence in Kansas he would have made a failure of his fight to secure a homestead. There were no houses near his location and his nearest market was St. Joseph, where he worked at his trade for six months out of each year, and spent the balance of the year in proving up on his claim. When the Civil war broke out he sold his claim to his brother and made his home at Leavenworth during the war. At the time of his death in 1900 this sturdy old settler was the owner of 240 acres of good Kansas land.
His wife, and mother of Samuel Minger, Jr., was born in Switzer- land in 1832, and died in 1898. She was the second wife of Samuel Minger, Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Minger were members of the Reformed Church.
When Samuel Minger, Jr., reached man's estate he rented land from his father, and in 1905 he bought his home place of 240 acres in section 32, Washington township. In addition to this holding he owns eighty acres in Nemaha township. The Minger homestead is well improved and is an excellent producing agricultural plant, which has been brought up to its present state of production by the industry and good manage- ment of its owner.
Mr. Minger was married in 1900 to Miss Ida Kanel, who was born in Switzerland in 1880, and came to this country with her parents in 1889, and settled in Richardson county, Nebraska. The Mingers have two children, as follows: Ruth and Esther.
Mr. Minger is a Democrat who votes independently of party ties and does his own thinking along political lines. He has served as clerk of his township and is a progressive citizen, who has the best interests of his native county and State at heart. Mrs. Minger is a member of the Reformed Church.
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William J. Wittmer, of Rock Creek township, is an excellent repre- sentative of the younger generation of farmers in Nemaha county who are making good in the avocation followed by their parents. Mr. Witt- mer was born in Fayette county, Iowa, August 19, 1880, and is a son of Jacob and Lena Wittmer, to whose biography the reader is referred for the history of the family. William J Wittmer attended the district schools of his home neighborhood in Iowa and Kansas. He was the eldest son of the family of children reared by his parents, and of neces- sity his education was sacrificed to meet the needs of his father for help in cultivating his farm. When he became of age he rented land from his uncle, John Wittmer, in Berwick township, and in 1897 he bought his home farm of 160 acres. It was necessary for him to erect a barn and granary and other outbuildings on his place and he has created a very attractive farm home. Near the residence is a grove of three acres, which is planted to fruit and deciduous shade trees and assists in the beautifying of the home. Mr. Wittmer has a herd of grade Shorthorn cattle and is making a gratifying success of his life work. He is part owner of a threshing outfit, which is operated in season. During 1915 Mr. Wittmer cultivated a corn acreage of sixty acres and exhibited some of the famous "Calico Corn" raised in his fields and which was awarded second prize at the Sabetha corn show last fall. During the present season (1916) he is cultivating 120 acres of corn and is also renting an eighty-acre tract just north of his own farm.
Mr. Wittmer was married September 25, 1906, at Alva, Okla., to Miss Emma E. Wenger, who was born in Wells county, Indiana, Jan- uary 9, 1883, and is a daughter of John and Demaris (Meyer) Wenger, the former of whom died in 1886, and his widow was married again to Henry Plattner. Mr. and Mrs. Wittmer have three children, as follows: Vernon, born June 27, 1907; Orvel, born June 25, 1909; Leola, born De- cember 23, 1913.
Mr. Wittmer is an independent in politics and has served as a mem- ber of the local school board.
Thomas J. Meisner .- "Grand View Stock Farm."-"Grand View Stock Farm," comprising the Meisner home place in Berwick township, northwest of Sabetha, Kans., and owned and operated by Thomas J. Meisner, is noted the country over for its fine pure bred Poland China swine. The proprietor and originator of this famous drove of swine has achieved National prominence as a breeder and is a director of the International Poland China Breeders' Association. Mr. Meisner has made a deep and thorough study of breeding and is an authority on hog breeding, and is one of the nine official directors who have control of the association in the United States and Great Britain.
Speaking biographically, Thomas J. Meisner was born on the farm which he now owns, July 4. 1873, and is a son of Jacob Meisner, a pioneer settler of Nemaha county, whose biography is written in con- nection with that of a brother, John Meisner. Thomas J. Meisner at-
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tended the nearby district school and when he became of age he rented land on his own account from his father for a time. He inherited eighty acres of the home place, to which he has added another "eighty," mak- ing a quarter section in all. He has one of the most attractive and best equipped agricultural plants in this part of Kansas. In 1913 Mr. Meisner erected a handsome eleven-room residence, modern in every respect, and fitted with all conveniences, as are his barns and outbuildings. He is a successful corn grower, and it is a matter worthy of mention that samples of corn taken from his field in 1913 were awarded first prize given on a ten ear exhibit at the Nemaha county fair held in that year. During 1901 he started breeding Poland China hogs on a considerable scale. Since that year he has developed the business to large propor- tions and holds an annual sales day each year to dispose of the product of his breeding pens to hog fanciers, who come from all parts of the State to attend the sales.
Mr. Meisner was united in marriage with Miss Minnie Bahnie, March 14, 1895. They have four children, as follows: Anna, a student of the Sabetha High School, class of 1917; Glen, Andrew and Cecilia. The mother of these children was born in Wayne county, Ohio, in Au- gust, 1874, and first lived with Mrs. John Meisner before her marriage, after coming to Nemaha county.
No political party can lay claim to the support of Mr. Meisner, as he is an independent thinker and voter, who makes his own decisions in regard to the qualifications and claims of party candidates and po- litical creeds, and votes accordingly. He filled the post of truancy officer for the eastern part of Nemaha county, and is a member of the local school board. Mr. Meisner was elected a director of the Kansas Poland China Breeders' Association in 1912, and held the office for two terms in succession, and was re-elected January 5, 1916, and will hold the office for three years. He is one of the nine directors of the Inter- national Association, which includes the Poland China breeders in the United States and Great Britain. He is fraternally affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and stands high in Masonic circles. He is fraternally associated with the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Meisner is one of Nemaha county's promi- nent and successful citizens, who has done more than the ordinary in- dividual to make the county famous, inasmuch as agriculture and live stock production are practically the sole industry of the county. He has not only achieved fame and accumulated a competence for himself, but he has assisted very materially in bringing this great county to the front among Kansas counties.
Frederick Heiniger, wealthy farmer of Rock Creek township, was born near the city of Berne, Switzerland, March 26, 1854, and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Schmaltz) Heiniger, to whom nine children were born. John Heiniger was born in 1817, and learned the trade of weaver in his youth and was an expert weaver of table cloths and table linens.
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He immigrated to America in 1881 and made a settlement in Iroquois county, Illinois, and was employed there until 1889, at which time he came West and located at Bern, Nemaha county, in 1891. That same year he died. John Heiniger was twice married, his first wife being Elizabeth Schmaltz, who was born in 1819 and died in 1864. His second . wife was Barbara Hess, now deceased, and who bore him three children.
Frederick Heiniger left his native land, August 1, 1881, after working for nine years as quarryman and weaver. He set sail from Havre on the steamship "America," and on account of a break down in the ship's machinery, the vessel was all of nineteen days in making the trip across the Atlantic to New York City. For a few years Mr. Heiniger worked out by the month in Iroquois county, Illinois, and did tiling and ditching in the swamps of Iroquois county. In March of 1885, he came to Ne- maha county, Kansas, and rented a farm near Bern. In 1886, he and his brother, Nicholas, bought a quarter section in Washington township, which they farmed in common until 1889, and he then sold his share in the farm and bought 160 acres in the same section. He sold this farm in 1894 and rented a section of land south of Oneida, in Gilman township, in 1895. He cultivated this large farm for seven years, and in the mean- time invested his savings in a section of land in Morris county, Kansas, which he held as an investment from 1898 until 1901. He sold the Mor- ris county land in 1901, and invested the proceeds in 240 acres in Gilman township, five miles northwest of Oneida. He improved this farm and sold it at a profit in 1908, and then bought his present farm in 1909. Mr. Heiniger owns a total of 480 acres in Gilman and Rock Creek townships. Of late years he has turned the active cultivation of his large acreage over to his sons and occupies himself with taking care of the live stock, of which he raises a considerable number, and specializes in Holstein and Jersey cattle. The Heiniger home farm is well improved with a nine-room residence and other farm buildings in excellent repair.
Mr. Heiniger was married to Rosanna Schupbach, October 16, 1875, and eleven children have been born of this marriage, as follows: Fred- erick, a farmer located in Alfalfa county, Pennsylvania ; Rosa; Jacob, farming the home place; Lizzie and William; Joseph, married Stella Myer, and lives in Gilman township; Minnie, deceased; Lena ; Mrs. Ida Stoldt, lives in Washington township; a child died in infancy, and the first born was a daughter, who died while an infant. Mrs. Heiniger was born at Thun, Switzerland, March 24, 1851, and is a daughter of John and Barbara (Burke) Schupbach, who were the parents of three children, and are now deceased.
Mr. Heiniger is a member of the Apostolic religious denomination, and on account of the regulations of his creed does not take part in elec- tions, but believes in the Government exercising the power delegated to it. During his residence in Nemaha county, he has killed a large num- ber of wolves and has achieved somewhat of a local fame as a wolf hunter. He is an excellent citizen, who is highly respected by all who know him.
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Smith W. Ayers, farmer and stockman of Berwick township, was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, August 21, 1874, and is a son of Amos and Martha (Warrick) Ayers, who reared a family of children, as follows: Mary, deceased, wife of John B. Miller; Cora, wife of Rev. Henry H. Branham, living at Medford, Ore., and whose husband is a minister of the, Methodist Episcopal faith ; Smith W., the subject of this review ; Jacob, a farmer on the old home place of the family in Berwick township; George, a merchant of Broken Bow, Custer county, Nebraska : Ella, deceased, wife of George Dixon; Millie, Medford, Ore .; Henry, Broken Bow, Neb.
Amos Ayers was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, March 4. 1851, and was a son of Benjamin Ayers, a native of Pennsylvania, who married a Miss Young. Amos Ayers was reared to become a farmer, and was married at Collinsville, Pa., in 1868. He farmed in his native State until 1880, and then removed with his family to Nemaha county. For the first fourteen years of his residence here he tilled rented land, and in 1890 he bought 215 acres in Berwick township, upon which he he located in 1894. He made practically all of the improvements upon this farm, and was very successful in his farming operations. His health failed him in 1895, and he moved to Sabetha, Kans., later moving to Medford, Ore. His first wife, and mother of his children, died in 1895, and two years later he married a Mrs. Cassett.
Smith W. Ayers remained with his parents until he was twenty years old, and then rented the home place, which he cultivated with success for seven years. In 1891 he bought an "eighty" in section 15, and one year later invested his surplus capital in a tract of eighty-one acres more in section 16. He owns at the present time a fine farm of 161 acres .:
Mr. Ayers was married December 25, 1894, to Miss Addie Keim, and this marriage has been blessed with six children, as follows: Earl, born October 30, 1896, graduated from the Sabetha High School, taught the Rock Hill district school, and is now employed as clerk in the Mc- Knight Clothing Company's store at Sabetha; Vida, born September 5, 1899, a student in Sabetha High School; Floyd, born November 4, 1900, attending Sabetha High School ; Glenn, born December 5, 1902; Forest, born August 26, 1905; Opal, born May 27, 1908. Mrs. Ayers was born on a farm in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, November 4, 1873, and is a daughter of Ephraim and Catharine (Turney) Keim, who settled in Brown county, Kansas, in 1874. Her father was born in Pennsylvania in 1844, and served as a member of a Pennsylvania regiment during the Civil war. He now resides at Tulia, Texas. Her mother was born in 1852, and died in 1881.
Mr. Ayers is a Democrat, who takes considerable interest in the affairs of his party in Nemaha county. He is justice of the peace of his township, and is also filling the post of school director of district No. 108. He and Mrs. Ayers are members of the United Brethren Church,
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of which organization Mr. Ayers is a trustee. They take an active in- terest in the affairs of their church and are highly respected in their neighborhood. Mr. and Mrs. Ayers have accomplished a great deal in Kansas, for which they deserve much credit and praise.
Jacob J. Miller .- The late Jacob J. Miller was a pioneer settler of Nemaha county, Kansas, and was one of the famous vanguard of pio- neers who came to Kansas in the late fifties and paved the way for the redemption of the vast unpeopled spaces awaiting the advent of the home builders from the East and the Old World, who have since come in ever increasing numbers. Those early, sturdy, brave wilderness con- querers such as Jacob J. Miller doubtless dreamed of the days when the iron locomotive would supplant the slower moving pony express and the immigrant freight trains which wended their slow passage from the Missouri to the far West. He lived to see his dreams come true and . attained a portion of the prosperity which was rightfully his before his demise. He served his country in the late Civil war and became an honored and respected citizen of a great county, of which he was one of the first real old settlers.
Jacob J. Miller was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, August 10, 1834, and was a son of Frederick and Elizabeth (Hilt) Miller, who were the parents of eight children, of whom Jacob J. was the sixth in order of birth. He was reared to young manhood in Germany and in 1854 left his native land and immigrated to America, and after a two years' stay on Long Island went to Illinois, where he remained for five years, migrat- ing to Nemaha county, Kansas, in 1859. He preempted a homestead of 160 acres of land with Gabriel Lucket in Rock Creek township. His home was a log cabin which the previous homesteader had built on the farm. He broke up his land with slow moving oxen and continued its cultivation until the outbreak of the Civil war in 1861. Just previous to the Civil war Mr. Miller drove an ox team in an overland freight train from Atchison to Salt Lake City, walking the entire distance to Salt Lake City and part of the return trip. He felt called upon to assist in preserving the Union from dissolution, and accordingly, in 1862, he en- listed in the famous Thirteenth Kansas infantry at Hiawatha and served for three years. He fought at the battle of Prairie Grove and all of the notable engagements in which his regiment participated in the South- west. attaining the rank of corporal in Company I of the Thirteenth regiment. He returned to his homestead in Nemaha county after his discharge from the service, was married in 1868, and cultivated and improved his land with considerable success until 1908, when he retired to a home in Sabetha. Mr. Miller accumulated the large total of 480 acres of land during his life time, and was one of the well-to-do citizens of Sabetha at the time of his demise, August 20, 1911. He was a mem- ber of the Grand Army Post of Sabetha, Kans., and was highly respected and liked by all who knew him for his many excellent qualities.
Jacob J. Miller was married March 4, 1868, to Mary M. Moorehead,
JACOB J. MILLER.
MRS, MARY M. MILLER.
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born in Coshocton county, Ohio, August 19, 1847, a daughter of Archi- bald and Sarah (McBride) Moorehead. Her father was born near Lon- donderry, Ireland, in 1818, and died in 1881. Upon his immigration to this country, he located in Ohio, where he was married to Sarah Mc- Bride, born in 1822, in Coshocton county, Ohio, and died in 1904. Eleven children were born of this union, namely: Mrs. Anna M. Joy, La Connor, Wash .; Mrs. Mary Miller, with whom this review is con- cerned ; Sarah, deceased, wife of Ira F. Collins; William, stockman, de- ceased; Archibald, banker, and former county treasurer of Nemaha county, deceased; Richard, former probate judge, representative from Nemaha county and present postmaster of Sabetha; Nancy, wife of Roy A. Thompson, Ness City, Kans .; Nettie, deceased, wife of C. Clarkson; Mrs. Jennie L. Clarkson, deceased.
Archibald Moorehead immigrated to America in 1831, when a boy thirteen years old, and after a stay in New York City, he migrated to Ohio. After his marriage in Ohio, he located near Ottumwa, Iowa, where he resided until 1857, and then came West and located on the prairie five miles north of Sabetha, Kans. His first visit to Kansas was made in 1856, at which time he paid $1,300 for 160 acres of land, which included sixty acres of timber. He eventually settled in Rock Creek township, near the farm owned by Jacob J. Miller, where his family was reared. Mr. and Mrs. Moorehead were members of the Presbyterian church.
Five children were born to the marriage of Jacob J. and Mary Miller, as follows: Belle, living with her mother, graduated from the Nebraska State Normal School and the Kansas Teachers' Training School at Pittsburg, Kans., taught the second grade of the Seneca schools for four years, taught the seventh grade of the Sabetha schools for one year, and then gave up teaching. Circumstances, however, caused her to teach for three years in her home district, and then in Falls City, Neb., for one year. She also taught at Logan, Utah, previous to retiring from her profession, since which time she has traveled extensively in the United States.
Lillie E., wife of J. Lortscher, Fairview, Kans, was also a teacher for four years, and is the mother of four children, namely : Lucile, John, Paul, Loraine and Esther.
Prof. Benjamin Leroy Miller graduated from the Kansas State Uni- versity and taught in Penn College at Oskaloosa, Iowa, for three years, following which he attended the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, Md., and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He then taught at Bryn Mawr College, in Pennsylvania, and is now head of the depart- ment of geology of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. Prof. Benjamin Leroy Miller is a fine type of intellectual development, physically and morally strong. During 1915 he was granted a leave of absence from his chair at Lehigh and traveled for eight months in geological research
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in South America. For further particulars of Dr. Miller's accomplish- ments, the reader is referred to the chapter, "Nemaha Men and Women of Renown," in this volume.
Nellie attended the State Normal School at Peru, Neb., and is now residing at Parsons, Kans.
Paul, the youngest of the family, is a farmer in Rock Creek town- ship. It was the ambition of Jacob J. Miller to give each of his children an excellent education, and he succeeded in this very laudable desire- thereby bequeathing to his country a family whose members have taken honored and useful places in their respective communities and who revere the memory of a parent whose care and forethought have enabled them to become successful and useful men and women. Mrs. Miller shared her late husband's desire and did her part nobly by assisting in carrying out her husband's ambitions, and was of the greatest assistance to him during the years in which he and she were rearing their fine family and trying to attain to a position of comfort and well being. Mrs. Miller is a member of the Congregational church, the missionary society con- nected with the church, and is active in church and social doings in Sabetha. She is also affiliated with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
Humphrey Brothers, general merchants, Woodlawn, Kans., are hustlers and good business men of the most pronounced type. Since locating in Nemaha county in 1910, the brothers, John N., Edgar and Huff Humphrey, have been building up an extensive retail merchandise business in Woodlawn, and have become popular and well liked by their . many patrons and friends throughout the county.
John N. Humphrey, senior member of the firm, was born in Pen- dleton county, Kentucky, December 2, 1875, and is a son of Hiram P. . and Nancy (Price) Humphrey, who are the parents of six children, as follows: Minnie, wife of N. C. Hurst, living in Kentucky ; John N., the subject of this review; Lydia, wife of S. E. Muse, Enterprise, Miss .; Edgar, born December 4, 1882, in Fleming county, Kentucky ; Huff, twin brother of Edgar; Mattie, wife of H. P. Muse, Enterprise, Miss.
Hiram P. Humphrey, the father, was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, January II, 1849, and was reared to farm life. In 1878 he located in Fleming county, Kentucky, and worked at his trade and farmed until his retirement from active work in 1915. He was a son of Emanuel Humphrey, a native of Culpepper county, Virginia, who was a son of Gilford Humphrey. The mother of this family was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, December 4, 1847, and her marriage with Mr. Humphrey occurred in 1871. She died April 24, 1892. Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey were members of the Christian Church.
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