USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 12
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Mr. Wey was born in Saxony, Germany, in 1837. His father, Frederick Martin Wey, was born in Saxony, March 9, 1804, and died in Germany in 1860, leaving his second wife and seven children, five by his first wife and two by the second. His first wife was Kathrina Döll, who died at the age of thirty-six, leaving five of her nine children, namely : Elias Wey, is a farmer in Germany, aged seventy-six years; Mary Elizabeth came to America in 1847, being six months on the pas- sage, and died soon afterward in Huntington, Indiana, at the age of eighteen years; Frederick came at the same time with his sister ; Andrew, who came to America in the early fifties, is now the owner of a confec- tionery store in Peru, Indiana, of which town he was trustee for twenty- five years, and he has five children.
Charles August Wey, who was the youngest of the children left by his mother, enjoyed a fine schooling in Germany, and was reared to his father's business of butchering and beer brewing. He served a
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year and a half in the German army. He came to America in 1867 and landed at New York May 20th, having six hundred dollars in gold at the time of his arrival. He came to Peru, Indiana, and butchered there for two months, and then went to St. Louis, Missouri, where his half-brother George, who had graduated from a German school, was engaged in teaching the German language in one of the schools, and he is still living in St. Louis, being a bookkeeper, and has a family. Mr. Wey remained with his half-brother two days, and then embarked on a boat for St. Joseph, Missouri, where his brother Fred was in business. He ramained there from June, 1867, to March 9, 1868, and then came to Brownville, Nebraska. He had lost his six hundred dollars, and had just five cents to pay the ferryman at Brownville. He remained in the latter place about three weeks, being unsuccessful in his efforts to gain steady employment, and from there went to Nebraska City, where he found employment at his trade at a salary of thirty-five dollars a month and board. After leaving there he came to Peru and opened the first meat market in this town. He was in trade for twenty years, during which time several competitors started rival establishments but all failed. Mr. Wey now owns his nice home and two and a half town lots, besides a forty-acre timber and fruit farm in the precinct. He still does some butchering for the old settlers and their children. He has made all that he has by his unaided efforts, and well deserves his prosperity and easy retirement from the hard labor that characterized his early life.
August 15, 1884, Mr. Wey was married to Miss Mary Margaret Wis- sig, who was born in Germany, March 16, 1862. She came to America in 1880, with a sister, locating in Ottawa, Illinois, where she worked as serv- ant for wages of a dollar and a half to two dollars a week for three years. In November, 1883, she and her sister came to Peru, and here she and Mr. Wey met and were married. She has been a most excellent
ANDREW H. GILMORE
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wife and mother, and is an estimable woman in every sphere of her influence. Mr. and Mrs. Wey became the parents of nine children, but lost three in infancy, the others being as follows: Anna Catherine is a young lady of eighteen years, at home and through school ; Julius Andrew works on his father's farm; Charles August is also employed; Mary Eliza and Frieda Louise, aged respectively thirteen and twelve, are bright young girls in school; and Frederick, a boy of ten, completes the family. Mr. and Mrs. Wey are Lutherans, and he has always voted the Republi- can ticket.
ANDREW H. GILMORE.
Andrew H. Gilmore, a merchant of Auburn, Nebraska, is one of the pioneers of this state. He passed through this section of the country first in 1850, while en route to California, and when he next came it was in February, 1869, as a permanent settler.
Mr. Gilmore belongs to a large family whose original ancestors in this country were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who came here and made settlement on the banks of the James river in Virginia in colonial days. For the most part they have been farmers. Thomas Gilmore and William Gilmore, the father and grandfather of Andrew H., were born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, the former November 20, 1792, and the latter in 1760. William Gilmore served in the Revolutionary war. He married Martha Lackey, a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1761, and both lived to ripe old age, his death occurring September 16, 1836, and hers February 15, 1843. They reared a large family, whose names are as follows: Agnes, born May 9, 1784, died August 24, 1812; Robert, born April 9, 1786. died February 25, 1839; Martha Davidson, born March 6, 1788, died in June, 1856; James, born January 25, 1790;
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Thomas; Eli, born February 5, 1795, died April 4, 1857; William, born April 2, 1797, died February 1, 1837; Sabina, born June 13, 1799; Samuel, born September 13, 1801, died September 12, 1836; Nancy Paxton, who died February 28, 1852.
Thomas Gilmore served in the war of 1812. He married May 29, 1815, Miss Margaret Leech, who was born in Rockbridge county, Vir- ginia, in 1795, daughter of John Leech, a Virginia farmer. Grandfather Gilmore moved to Preble county, Ohio, from Virginia in 1824, some of his sons accompanying him. He took along a few slaves that he emancipated after they reached Ohio. Previous to this, in 1817, Thomas Gilmore and his wife moved to Kentucky and settled on lands that grand- father Leech had traded his Virginia farm for. The Kentucky land, however, proved poor, and about 1824 Thomas Gilmore and his family left it and went up into Ohio, joining the other emigrants there. He emigrated to Putnam county, Indiana, in 1836. He and his wife were the parents of twelve children, of whom one died in infancy and another, Martha, at the age of eleven years, in Ohio. Nine sons and one daughter reached adult age, as follows: William D. Gilmore, born in Virginia, May 26, 1816, went south in early life, and died shortly after the close of the Civil war, leaving no children. Thomas L. Gilmore, born in Kentucky, February 16, 1818, died in Putnam county, Indiana, at the age of thirty-six years, leaving sons and daughters; James Mad- ison Gilmore, born in Kentucky, September 29, 1819, died in that state in 1852, having lost wife and children by death; John Gilmore, born in Kentucky, January 3, 1823, is now living retired at Greencastle, Indiana, which place has been his home for sixty-seven years, and where he once filled the office of county treasurer and served in other official capacities; Mary, wife of Thomas Leech, was born in Ohio, August 8, 1825, was the mother of six children, five of whom are deceased; Samuel B. Gil-
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more, born January 22, 1827, is now a retired resident of East St. Louis, Illinois, all of his family having died except one son and one daughter ; Andrew H. Gilmore, was born in Preble county, Ohio, near Eaton, January 8, 1829; Nathan Gilmore, born December 26, 1830, went to California at an early day, where he became well known and was hon- ored with a seat in the state legislature. He died at Placerville, Cali- fornia, in 1898, leaving his estate to his two daughters; Robert Harvey Gilmore, born in 1833, died of consumption, in 1856, in Indiana, where he was attending college; Sylvester F. Gilmore, born August 17, 1837, has long been a resident of Effingham, Illinois, where he has filled the office of judge. He has been twice married and has four children. Margaret (Leech) Gilmore, the mother of the above named family, died January 24, 1866, in Indiana, at the age of seventy-two years; and the father, Thomas Gilmore, survived her until January 9, 1880, when his death occurred at Effingham, Illinois.
Having thus briefly referred to his ancestry, we turn now to the life of Andrew H. Gilmore, the immediate subject of this review. As already stated, he was born in Preble county, Ohio. He was educated in one of the primitive log schoolhouses of Putnam county, Indiana. At the age of twenty-one years he taught his first of two terms of school; the other term he taught after his return from California. In 1850 Mr. Gilmore made the "trip of his life." In the spring of that year he was one of seven young men who set out for California, his brother Nathan being of the number. A detailed description of the experiences of these young men as they traveled across the country, with two ox teams drawn by seven yoke of cattle, over rivers, plains and mountains; of the other parties that joined them in their travel; of their encounter with the Indians, and the many interesting incidents con- nected with the journey, would make a large volume. Suffice it to say
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that they arrived after weary months of travel at Placerville, or "Hangtown," as it was then called, in California, on September 10th. Mr. Gilmore was a gold miner for about three years in the vicinity of the Placerville diggings. In December, 1853, he went to San Francisco, took a steamer for home, which passed down the western coast and crossed to the eastern waters by the way of Lake Nicaragua, thence to New York and by cars to his place in Indiana.
Some time after his return from the far west, Mr. Gilmore was located at Greencastle, from which place he came to Nebraska in 1869, settling first in Brownville, at that time the county seat of Nemaha county, and from there coming to Auburn, in 1882. He was the founder and proprietor of three additions to the town of Auburn, has built three stores and seven residences, including his own home in the Gilmore Addition. This latter he has recently sold and expects soon to erect a handsomer home. In 1903 he, with two others, built a large brick block, one hundred and ten feet by seventy-five feet, which is now occupied by a department store under the firm name of "Gilmore, Armstrong & Company. Under the firm name of A. H. Gilmore & Sons he was for a number of years engaged in merchandising.
Politically, Mr. Gilmore has always given his support to the Repub- lican party and at its hands has been the recipient of official honors. He served eight years as county treasurer of Nemaha county and has been a member of the town council of Brownville and school board of Brownville and of Auburn.
June 12, 1862, he married, in Atlanta, Illinois, Miss Josephine Allen. She is a daughter of David Allen, a soldier in the Mexican war, who died at Buena Vista, Mexico, in 1846, in the prime of life, leaving his widow and two daughters. Mrs. Allen was by maiden name Osea Ann Dunham. Some time after the death of Mr. Allen she became the
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wife of A. W. Morgan, a well known citizen of Indiana, by whom she had two daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore have had eight children, three of whom died in infancy, those living being as follows : Albert D., steward at the Insane Hospital at Lincoln, Nebraska, has a wife and one son; Walter, married and in business with his father; Paul A., also in partnership with his father, is married and has two sons; Eugene A., professor of law in the State University of Wisconsin, has a wife and one son; and Grace Allen Gilmore, student at the State University of Wisconsin.
Fraternally Mr. Gilmore has long been identified with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church, of which he and his family are worthy members and in which for half a century he has been an elder.
CAPTAIN ABSALOM M. ENOCH.
Absalom M. Enoch is one of the best known characters of Hum- boldt, Richardson county, where he has made his residence since Thanks- giving day, 1869. He is one of the many old men in whom the health- ful, breezy prairies of Nebraska abounds, and whose energies and vital resources are almost unimpaired till the final summons comes. He is approaching the eightieth year of his life, and his active decades of life have been well spent and useful to himself and his fellow men. He is an especial favorite with everyone in Humbodlt, and there is not a man, woman or child in the town who does not know him and will not sin- cerely miss him when he is gone from their number.
Mr. Enoch was born in Miami county, Ohio. September 18, 1825. His father, Jacob Enoch, was born in Pennsylvania, and pioneered it to
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Ohio and settled in the dense timber. He followed the occupation of hunter and trapper, with incidental Indian fighting. He was in the Black Hawk war in Illinois, and after returning to Ohio said that God had cleared the timber from that country and he accordingly moved out to the prairie state. He came out in 1835, and settled eight miles east of Rockford and six miles north of Belvidere, where he pre-empted and paid one dollar and a quarter an acre for one hundred and sixty acres. He continued farming until 1850, when he crossed the plains with ox teams to California, being some six months on the way, and died in that state in the following year, being buried in Hangtown, now Placerville. He married Mary Maddox, a cousin of the late well known Wilson Mad- dox, of Falls City. She was a native of Ohio, and they were married in 1824, their first child being Absalom; the second was Sarah, who died in youth in Ohio; Mary Jane became the wife of Dennis Clark, of Overton, Nebraska, who came to this state in an early day, and they have three sons and one daughter living.
Captain Enoch was reared in Ohio and Illinois, and for a time farmed the home place in Boone county of the latter state, and then sold it and bought another farm near Belvidere. He sold this in 1859 and went to Rochester, Minnesota, which was his home until he came to Nebraska. He has made a most creditable military record. He en- listed for the Civil war and was made captain in Company F, Ninth Minnesota Infantry, having raised that company, and he commanded it throughout the war. Part of his service was against the Sioux Indians, and he witnessed the hanging of thirty-nine of them convicted of mur- der. He was wounded during the Indian outbreak, and still carries a bullet in his right lung. He also saw hard fighting in the south, being present at the engagements at Guntown and Tupello, Mississippi, at the siege of Nashville, and in various minor skirmishes. He was in the
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Sixteenth Army Corps, which remained behind when Sherman made his march toward the sea. Captain Enoch's subsequent career has been mainly concerned with farming and hotel-keeping, and for twenty years he was proprietor of the Enoch House in Humboldt, but is now retired from active pursuits and spending the evening of a long and useful life in comfort and ease.
Captain Enoch was married in Boone county, Illinois, January I, 1850, to Miss Elizabeth Caulfield, a native of Ireland. She was born in 1826, and died in the home at Humbodlt, in 1888, being without issue. Captain Enoch's present wife, whom he married in Falls City, was Miss Anna Brickey, who was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, a daughter of Peter and Mary (Brock) Brickey. Her father was a farmer and died in York, Illinois, in 1878, leaving three children : Thomas, whose where- abouts are not known; Mrs. Enoch; and Cora Brickey, of Kansas City. The mother of these children died in 1880. Mrs. Enoch had only a limited education, and has had mainly to make her own way in life, which she has done most heroically and ably, and her youthful years and energy do not allow her to remain inactive now that she is inde- pendent. She is a most competent dressmaker, and is one of the leading ladies in that line of business in Humboldt. She is a member of the Catholic church, and is prominent in social circles. Captain Enoch is a Democrat in politics. He served as police judge of this place for many years, until he refused to serve longer. He has also been a justice of the peace, and for several terms was on the city council and chairman of the board. He was baptized in the Universalist church. He is still erect and sprightly in spite of his years and work in his own behalf and in the service of his country.
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THOMAS J. STOCKMAN.
Thomas J. Stockman, who, with his son Samuel, owns and conducts the Adams livery and sales stables and is land agent at Adams, Nebraska, has lived in this part of southeastern Nebraska for over fifteen years. He has displayed executive ability and good management in his business affairs, and as a man and citizen is held in high esteem by friends and associates. He became acquainted, mainly in his capacity as a soldier of the government during the Civil war, with the territory of Nebraska as it was forty years ago, so that he may be considered among the ranks of the old settlers.
Mr. Stockman was born near Goshen, Elkhart county, Indiana, April 28, 1838. His father, Samuel Stockman, was one of the first settlers of Elkhart county, having come from Bedford county, Pennsyl- vania, of a family of German stock. His wife was a Miss Johnson, a native of Ohio, and they were parents of four sons and four daughters. Two daughters and one son live in Wisconsin, and another son is in Adams, Nebraska, besides Thomas. Three sons were in the Civil war: T. J .; George, who was first lieutenant in the Seventy-fourth Indiana, and died in 1891 ; and John, of the Forty-eighth Indiana Infantry.
Thomas J. Stockman was reared and educated in Indiana, and in boyhood moved to a farm near Warsaw, Kosciusko county, Indiana. At the age of twenty-one he came west to the territory of Nebraska, and in 1863 enlisted at Omaha in Company A, First Battalion of Nebraska Cavalry, under Captain George Armstrong. He was stationed on the · frontier guarding the government trains and settlers from hostile Indians, and the troops did excellent service in suppressing the depredations. He was at Fort Kearney and Plum Creek much of the time. While arrest- ing parties at Camp Douglas he was struck by a gun, breaking his collar bone and otherwise being injured so that he was crippled for two years.
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He was honorably discharged at Omaha, and then returned east. He was in Indiana until 1877, when he went to Wisconsin, and for the fol- lowing ten years was engaged in farming in Dunn and Barron counties. He came to Gage county, Nebraska, in 1887, and later bought the livery business which he and his son are now carrying on so successfully. They have a good barn, good facilities, and their patronage is large. Mr. Stockman is also agent for Wisconsin lands in Dunn, Barron, Polk and Chippewa counties, and has some fine agricultural lands there, which are destined to reach a high value when developed and improved. He is an excellent authority on real estate in those counties because of his long residence there. Mr. Stockman is in every way a first-class business man, and his reliability and integrity have never been questioned.
In 1859 Mr. Stockman was married at Warsaw, Indiana, to Mary Jane Mckibben, who was reared and educated in Indiana and was a daughter of Samuel Mckibben, of Warsaw. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stockman : Parthena Burton, of Cameron, Wisconsin ; Tillie Cook, of Cumberland, Wisconsin; Alice Evans, of Adams, Ne- braska; Samuel, the partner of his father in the livery business; E. L., in the barber business at Adams; Frank; and Retta, who died in Wis- consin at the age of sixteen. Mrs. Stockman, who was a member of the Methodist church and a beautiful character and devoted wife and mother, died in July, 1896.
DANIEL CONFER.
Daniel Confer, a well known farmer and popular citizen of Adams township, Gage county, Nebraska, has resided here since 1884. He is a frank and genial gentleman, successful in business, honored and esteemed at home and abroad. He made a creditable record as a soldier in the
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Civil war, and since returning to peaceful pursuits has done equally well in civil life.
Mr. Confer was born in Hocking county, Ohio, March 3, 1838, of a family noted for honesty, industry and sobriety. His great-grandfather was a solider in the Revolution. His grandfather, Andrew, was a native of Pennsylvania, and his father, John Confer, was born in Ohio, was a farmer and died in Wells county, Indiana. He was a Democrat of the Jackson type. He married Miss Eliza Poling. She was a member of the United Brethren church. They were parents of fourteen children, and four of the sons were soldiers in the Civil war : Daniel, William, of the One Hundred and First Indiana Infantry, killed at Chickamauga, Peter, in the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh Indiana Infantry and now living in Wells county, Indiana, and Samuel.
Mr. Confer was reared on a farm near Bluffton, Wells county, Indi- ana, was taught the value of independent labor and received his educa- tion in the public schools. In September, 1861, he enlisted at Bluffton in Company A, Thirty-fourth Indiana Infantry, under Captain Swaim and Colonel Steele. He veteranized in February, 1863, and served till the end of the war. He was at the siege of Vicksburg for forty-seven days, until the stars and stripes floated over the fort on July 4, 1863; he was at Jackson, Mississippi, and under General Ord for some time. His regiment was then ordered to Texas, and was on duty there until the close of hostilities. After the war he located in Wells county, Indiana, and remained there until he came west in 1884.
In 1864 Mr. Confer was married in Wells county, Indiana, to 'Miss Mary L. Robb, who has been a noble wife and mother for forty years. She was born in Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, a daughter of Peter and Nancy Robb. Her brother, Rev. C. O. Robb, was a soldier in the war, and is now located at Pawnee city, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Con-
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fer have six children : Charles, John, William, Howard. Orman, and Martha Morical, of Firth, Nebraska. Mr. Confer is a stanch Republican. He is a member of the Sergeant Cox Post No. 100. G. A. R., at Adams, being popular among his old army comrades as with all his fellow citizens and associates. He is a inan of strong physique, endowed with physical and moral courage for all the trials of life, and has a career to be proud of, both in Nebraska and wherever has has had residence. He and his wife are both members of the United Brethren church.
FRANK W. RIESENBERG.
Frank W. Riesenberg, an enterprising and prosperous agriculturist of Nemaha county, Nebraska, where he owns four hundred and eighty acres of choice land in Glen Rock precinct, with Auburn as his posoffice and on rural delivery No. I, has been more or less identified with Ne- braska agricultural interests since 1879, when he came to this state and bought four hundred and eighty acres in the southwestern part, which twenty years later he sold without profit at ten dollars an acre. He was more fortunate when he decided upon Nemaha county as his location, and on August 27, 1896, he purchased two hundred and forty acres here, paying thirty dollars an acre. He later acquired eighty acres at forty dollars an acre, and his present estate is one of the best in the entire county. He has a two-story frame residence, which he erected in August, 1897, and he keeps two tenants on the place. Each year he grows about one hundred acres of corn and fattens a hundred head of hogs, besides raising other live-stock, and has one hundred acres in pasture and timber.
Mr. Riesenberg has made his present prosperous condition largely
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by his own efforts. He was blessed with a mechanical genius, and most of his life has been spent in mechanical pursuits. He has made many inventions, some of which have been profitable from a financial stand- point as well as useful to the world in general, and from these sources he has made the beginning of his prosperity and been enabled to gain the foothold in agricultural interests which he has in Nebraska. He has also been a man of mark in his relations with his fellow citizens and has always displayed sound common sense and a high degree of fairness in his dealings with his fellow men.
Mr. Riesenberg was born in Peoria, Illinois, December 21, 1856. His father, Carl Riesenberg, was born in the Riesenberg Mountains, Germany. The family was noble in its connections. He was by profes- sion a musician and teacher, and later in life was a merchant. He and his family left Germany to locate in Brazil, but in the passage they were thrice wrecked, and after thirteen weeks arrived in New York. He came to Peoria, Illinois, and had a prosperous career during the remainder of his life, retrieving in large measure his early losses. He died in Peoria at the age of about fifty-six. His wife was Josephine Ellsner, who died in 1896, aged seventy-three years. They were the parents of eight children, all born in Germany but two, and only three of these are now living: Mrs. Mary Erion, a widow, of Peoria, with six children ; Frank W., and William, a merchant.
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