USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 13
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Frank W. Riesenberg was educated in the high school at Peoria, from which he graduated at the age of sixteen. Then he entered the machine shops at Peoria and served three years, and for many years worked in various states at good wages, often carrying on his trade while interested in farming. He has been successful in both departments of activity, and they together with his inventions have brought him a good income for a number of years.
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In 1885 Mr. Riesenberg was married at Bainbridge, Nebraska, (now known as Huntley), to Miss Frances Virginia Peck, who was born in Xenia, Ohio, and died in 1897, in Auburn, at the age of thirty- three, leaving three children, namely: Walter, at home and in school : Ralph, in the district school; and Frances, aged seven years. April 14, 1898. Mr. Riesenberg married Miss Isabel Tapping Foster, who was born in Peoria, Illinois, January 8, 1872. Her parents, Benjamin F. and Christiana (Clark) Foster, were both born in Deal, county Kent, England, on April 14, 1829, and April 2, 1833, respectively, and were married April 30, 1856, and were the parents of the following children: Benjamin Franklin Foster, born in 1857, died in Peoria, in 1880, unmarried; Mary Amelia, the wife of John Bryner, of Peoria, is a lady of much ability and especially interested in the International Sunday-school work ; Zilla, the wife of Moses T. Stevens, of St. Louis, Missouri, has two chil- dren ; Edgar Charles Foster, is a manufacturer of straw board in Peoria ; Alfred Lincoln Foster, born January 2, 1866, died August 2, 1868; Amanda Agnes Foster is a bookkeeper and accountant in Peoria; Mrs Riesenberg is the seventh of the family.
Mrs. Riesenberg was educated in the high schools of Peoria, and was a successful stenographer before her marriage. On child has been born to her and her husband, which happy event occurred May 23, 1903. and the name they have selected for this beautiful baby boy is Benjamin Foster Riesenberg. He is a great favorite in the family, and as a present for his first birthday received from his uncle E. C. Foster twenty-five shares in the straw board factory. Mr. and Mrs. Riesenberg are both members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he has always advo- cated and voted for Republican principles.
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JEREMIAH MARLATT.
Among the citizens of Brownville to whom is vouchsafed an honored retirement from labor, as the reward of a long, active and useful busi- ness career, is Jeremiah Marlatt, who for a number of years was promi- nently connected with the agricultural and mercantile interests of Ne- maha county. He was born in Mendon, Monroe county, New York, on the Ist of June, 1833, in which state his father, Mark Marlatt, also had his nativity. The latter was born in Schenectady, in 1787, and was there married in 1811 to Dorothy Frank, who was born there in 1789, and they became the parents of ten children, as follows: Michael, de- ceased, was a cooper and farmer in Lenawee county, Michigan, to which place he removed about 1867, and reared two sons; Effie, who was was born about 1816, was the wife of John Speer, by whom she had three sons, and she died in 1904 in New York; Andrew, who died in Honeoye Falls, New York, was a prominent agriculturist, and was the father of one son and four daughters; Maria, who became the wife of a Mr. Morgan, and died at the age of forty-five years, in Mendon, New York, after becoming the mother of one son, and she was the first of the family to pass away; Daniel, who was engaged in coopering and farming in Lenawee county, to which state he removed in 1836, is also deceased ; Alvah, who removed to Los Angeles, California, in 1853. died there in 1878; John, who was engaged in farming in New York, was killed by a train about 1896; Martin, also engaged in agricultural pursuits in that state, was called to his final rest about 1899; Jeremiah; and Fred- erick, who is a farmer near Rockport, Missouri. The last named came to the west in 1859, and at the time of the Civil war enlisted from Iowa in the artillery service. After the close of the war he taught school in Missouri, and was there married. He has served as assessor of his coun- ty, and was defeated for the office of county clerk by only three votes.
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Mrs. Dorothy Marlatt departed this life in the fall of 1864, on the old home farm in Monroe county, and there the father passed away in 1872, when eighty-five years of age, leaving an estate valued at twenty thous- and dollars. The parents were members of the Baptist church.
During one year Jeremiah Marlatt was a student in Genesee College at Lima, New York, and during the winter of 1854-5 he was employed as a teacher in Missouri. Forty-seven years ago, in 1856, he came to Nemaha county, Nebraska, where he pre-empted a farm but lost his claim. In 1862 he became the owner of eighty acres located two and half miles southwest of Brownville, the purchase price being nine hun- dred dollars, but the place has since increased in value until it is now worth five thousand dollars. For four years, from 1881 to 1885, Mr. Marlatt was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Aspinwall, during three years of which time business was carried on under the firm name of Marlatt & King and for one year he was alone, and on the expiration of that period he sold his interest on account of poor health.
In Brownville, on the IIth of January, 1857, Mr. Marlatt was united in marriage to Mrs. Ellen Gulick, the widow of Lafayette Gulick, a native of Dayton, Ohio, and there their marriage was also celebrated, but three months afterward Mr. Gulick was called from this earth, his death resulting from an accident while serving in the position of a fireman. Mrs. Marlatt is the daughter of Isaac and Sarah (Crouch) Westfall, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky. Their marriage occurred at Dayton, Ohio, where they were farming peo- ple, and they became the parents of eight children, two sons and six daughters, Mrs. Marlatt being the youngest in order of birth and the only one now living. The father died in Ohio in 1852, when sixty-four years of age. Two daughters have blessed the union of Mr. Marlatt and wife: Effie, the widow of William Drain, a resident of Chapman, Kan-
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sas, and the mother of three sons; and Sarah Ellen, the wife of Frank M. King, of Holton, Kansas, and they have one son and two daughters. Both daughters were educated in Brownville and Peru. Mr. and Mrs. Marlatt are justly proud of their two granddaughters, who are proficient in both vocal and instrumental music, and also of their grandson, Clyde F. King, who is now twenty-three years of age and a member of the legal profession. During the past twenty years Mr. and Mrs. Marlatt have spent much of their time in traveling, having visited the Dakotas, the Hot Springs, Deadwood, Lead City, Idaho Springs, Clear Creek, Manitou Springs, and many other places of interest. In this county, where they have so long resided, they are held in the highest regard by their innum- erable friends.
DANIEL D. DAVIS.
Daniel D. Davis, one of the leading agriculturists and stockraisers of Nemaha county, Nebraska, was born in Carmarthenshire, Wales, on the 21st of July, 1833, and in that country his grandfather, Daniel Davis, was a man of wealth and a large land-owner. He became the -
father of nine children, five daughters and four sons, all of whom mar- ried. and one daughter, Hannah, married Thomas McLea, a Frenchman, and she is still living in Paris, France, aged ninety-three years. She is also very wealthy. David Davis, the father of Daniel D., was born in a shire adjoining that of Carmarthen, the birthplace of his son, and for twenty-one years served as the county clerk. He was a teacher and business man and wedded Maria Daniels, by whom he had two children, the daughter being Dina, who became the wife of David Jones, to whom she was married in Australia. He was a master mechanic, engaged in erecting lieavy mining machinery, and they became the parents of eight
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children, all of whom grew to years of maturity and are now living in Pennsylvania. Both our subject and his sister received excellent educa- tiona, advantages in their youth, as their father was a college-bred man and one of the best scholars in his county. His death occurred in Janu- ary, 1880, at the old home in Wales, when he had reached the age of eighty-two years, and he left to his wife and children a good estate. His widow survived until 1896, when she too passed away at the old family home and also at the age of eighty-two years.
On the 30th of June, 1854, Daniel D. Davis married Rachel Davis, who, although of the same name, was not a relative, and she was born in England, June 4, 1828, the daughter of David and Mary Davis, who were farming people and were the parents of eight children. In 1856, two years after his marriage, Mr. Davis, accompanied by his wife, her mother, three brothers and four sisters, embarked on the vessel John Bright for America, sailing from Liverpool on the 27th of May, and on the 3d of July following landed at New York. Making his way to Wis- consin, Mr. Davis purchased eighty acres of land in Iowa county, for which he paid five dollars an acre, and for eight years made his home in Dodgeville, engaged in speculating and buying stock. Selling his pos- sessions there at the expiration of that time he came to Nemaha county, Nebraska, making the trip with four yoke of oxen and one large covered wagon, eighteen days being consumed on the journey, including three days spent in Omaha, and they arrived at their destination on the 30th of June, 1863. Mr. Davis had previously visited Nemaha county in search of a location, and after his second arrival here secured one hundred acres of land at Barada, Richardson county, the purchase price being about three hundred dollars, but two years later he sold that land at a good profit and came to the vicinity of Aspinwall, his first purchase here being a tract of eighty acres, for which he paid five hundred dollars.
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Before two years had passed by, however, he had added one hundred and sixty acres to his original purchase, the latter being in its primitive state and costing sixteen hundred dollars. In 1892 he became the owner of one hundred and fifty-six acres, the purchase price being thirty-five hun- dred dollars, and he also has eighty acres lying a short distance west of this tract and twenty acres in the vicinity of Glen Rock, while in addition he has a timber tract of thirty-five acres. Throughout the period of his residence here Mr. Davis has been engaged in both agriculture and stock- raising, about two hundred acres of his place being devoted to corn, and he annually raises about one hundred tons of hay. He has a fine grade of shorthorn cattle, with registered males, feeding from fifty to eighty head annually, his markets being at Chicago and Kansas City, and he also raises from one hundred to one hundred and fifty hogs a year, principally of the Poland China breed. Many buildings adorn this ยท valuable estate, and he erected both his barn and house, the former being forty by forty feet and forty feet high, while the latter, which took the place of a box house, is a substantial frame dwelling erected thirty-two years ago. This farm also contains two large orchards, of five acres each, which yield an abundance of fruit in season.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. Davis was blessed with nine children, as follows: David, who resides with his father on the home farm; Thomas, also at home ; Mary Davis, who is acting as her father's house- keeper : Benjamin, who died at the age of thirty-six years; George, who was called to the home beyond at the early age of twenty-six years; John, who was born in Wisconsin and died there when one and a half years old; Albert, who died in this county at the same age; Maria, deceased in infancy ; and Jonathan, who was born in Wisconsin in 1863, and his death occurred in this county at the age of thirty-four years, leaving one son. Mrs. Davis passed away in death on the 30th of
JOSIAH GILLILAND
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July, 1890, aged seventy-two and a half years and twenty-six days. She was a faithful Christian woman, a devoted wife and loving mother, and her loss was deeply felt by all who had the pleasure of her acquain- tance. In his political affiliations Mr. Davis is a Republican, and for about twenty years he has served as a justice of the peace, while for two years he held the position of assessor. Although having reached the age of three score years and ten. he is yet vigorous and active, and is now spending the evening of a useful life at his pleasant farm home.
JOSIAH GILLILAND.
Josiah Gilliland, a retired farmer of South Auburn, has become well known through his connection with the agricultural interests of Nemaha county. He had led a thrifty and industrious life, has made by his own efforts all that he has in the way of worldly possessions, and wherever he has been called to touch the public life of the community he has performed a public-spirited part both as a man and as a citizen.
Mr. Gilliland was born in Belmont county, Ohio, September 17, 1834. His grandfather was a Virginia farmer, and reared two sons and two daughters. One of the sons was Jesse Gilliland, who was born in old Virginia in 1812, and died in Morgan county, Olio, when about seventy-five years old. He was a farmer in fair circumstances, and gave his children such advantages as were afforded in the community. His wife, who survived him several years, was Margaret Douglas, a relative of Stephen A. Douglas, and of Scotch ancestry. Her father was one hundred and eight years old when he died in Belmont or Guern- sey county, Ohio. The following children of Jesse Gilliland and his wife are now living : James, a blacksmith and farmer in Morgan county,
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Ohio; Jesse Morgan, a farmer and carpenter in Ohio, with six children; Ellen, who has three children; Josian; and John, a farmer in Schuyler county, Missouri, and now living with his third wife. The following children are deceased: Elizabeth Batie, who died in Belmont county, Ohio, leaving a family; Ruth Foreman, who died in Guernsey county, Ohio, leaving children; and Sarah Ann Hill, who died in Morgan county, Ohio.
Josiah Gilliland moved with his father to Morgan county, Ohio, when he was seventeen years old, and lived there at home until he was twenty-two. He was then in Iowa for a short time, and from there went to Ogle county, Illinois, where he was married. He lived in Mis- souri until 1876, at which date he came to Nebraska, where he has been industriously and profitably engaged in farming until recently. He bought his good home in South Auburn in June, 1903, and is most comfortably situated to spend the remainder of his years. While now in his seventieth year, his capacity for work is hardly diminished, and he contemplates engaging in some business. During the Civil war he was a member of the home militia and also enlisted from Atchison county in Company I, Forty-third Missouri, serving for one year. While he was away his wife received an inheritance of four hundred dollars, and this is the only money which he cannot say he has made by his own efforts and honest industry.
Mr. Gilliland was married in Ogle county, Illinois, to Miss Dalitha Maxwell, who died in Andrew county, Missouri, in 1866, aged twenty- four years, leaving three children: William A. is a farmer and land agent in Jackson county, Kansas, and has two sons and two daughters; Margaret Ellen is the wife of H. G. Rhodes, in Nemaha county, and has four children; and Alida is the wife of Andy Spear, of Jackson county, Kansas, and has four children. Mr. Gilliland was married on
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March 4, 1867, to Miss Carrie Coleman, of Morgan county, Ohio, and a daughter of Elisha and Lola (Scott) Coleman, the latter of whom died in Andrew county in 1901, leaving four children, but the latter is still living on the Missouri homestead.
Mr. and Mrs. Gilliland have had ten children: Elisha is a farmer in Richardson county, Nebraska, and has one son and one daughter ; Lola Virdie is the wife of S. Keister, and has two children living; Harry is a farmer in Nemala county, and has a wife; Samuel, married, is on the home farm of two hundred and forty acres; one son died in infancy; Ernest, single, is also on the home farm; Mary and Clara both died of diphtheria, aged respectively thirteen and ten; Louisa is aged fourteen ; and Edith is a bright Miss of ten. Mr. Gilliland is now a Populist, having been formerly a Republican. The only office he has consented to hold has been that of school director. He is taking the initiatory degrees of the Masonic lodge at Rochester, Missouri. He and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, of which he is an elder, and he took an active part in the building of a church on his farm, contributing liberally of time and money.
HENRY A. SCOTT.
Henry A. Scott, the well known retired merchant and business man of Humboldt, Nebraska, has taken a prominent and influential part in business and public affairs in Richardson county for the past thirty- seven years, and has been a resident of the town of Humboldt for thirty years. His career has been one of wide scope and varied in its useful activities, and he and his estimable wife have probably enjoyed as deep draughts of wholesome and happy living as any other two people in
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the county. While pursuing ways of pease and pleasantness themselves, they have by no means been selfish in their aims or neglected the welfare of others, and their public-spirited and kind-hearted interest and efforts have manifested themselves in many ways for the beterment of the insti- tutions and material progress of their community and city and county.
Mr. Scott is of Puritan lineage on both sides of the house, and comes of a family known and honored in America for many generations. He was born in old Hatfield, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, January I, 1844. His grandfather was Thaddeus Scott, a farmer of old Hat- field. He married a Miss Doty, a descendant of Plymouth settlers, and they reared four sons and three daughters. The daughters married and laatl small families, and the sons are as follows: Gad Scott, a farmer, went to Dubuque county, Iowa, in 1856, and died at advanced age, having been married twice but with no children ; James died on the home place at old Hatfield when an old man, leaving no children; Alpheus and Lebeus were twins, the former being the father of Mr. Henry Scott. Lebeus was a prominent character in Massachusetts. He was a teacher and school superintendent, was an express messenger many years, was warden of the prison in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and was popular with all parties and classes. He was an orthodox Congregationalist, which has been the religion of all the family. He married but had no children.
Alpheus Scott was born in the old home in October, 1824, and died in Richardson county, Nebraska, in 1876. In young manhood he mar- ried Julia Russell, who was born in the same part of Massachusetts in 1828, a daughter of Charles Russell, a farmer. Their first child was Henry A. The second was Charles, who was born in Lorain county, Ohio, and was accidentally killed in a saw-mill in Oregon, leaving a wife, one son and two daughters. The third child is Mary, wife of David
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Weaver, of Boswell, Indiana, and has two sons; Annie, wife of Barton Hued, of Waterloo, Iowa, has a large family; Thaddeus, unmarried, is in Dubuque county, Iowa; Edward died at Epworth, Iowa, in middle life, leaving a wife and four children; Alpheus, unmarried, is in the state of Washington; Lizzie Martin died in Humboldt, Nebraska, in young womanhood, leaving one son ; James is married and lives in Wat- erloo, Iowa; Hattie Bremer lives in Seattle, Washington; Jessie Haskins is in Tekoa, Washington, and has three children. The mother of these children died at Hebron, Nebraska, at the age of fifty-two.
Alpheus Scott was not a money-getter, but always lived well, and he and his wife were genial, wholesouled people, with hosts of friends, and were strong Congregationalists. He was a graduate of Berea Col- lege, studied law under Judge Striker at Sandusky, and was admitted to the bar in Iowa. He taught school while preparing for his profession. He left Erie county, Ohio, in 1852, and moved to Clayton county, Iowa, settling on a claim of forty acres, paying the regular price of a dollar and a quarter per acre. This was bare prairie, with the nearest neighbor two miles and a half away, and he began by building a round-log house of two rooms, in which he and his wife lived three years. He then became one of the two founders of the town of Strawberry Point in the same county. He was engaged in law practice there for several years, and was one of the brainy and clear-headed members of the first constitu- tional convention of the state. The law firm was Murdock and Scott for two years. He also served as prosecuting attorney and county judge. He was a ready and rapid speaker, with quick wit and ability at repartee and debate, and could make a speech on any and every occasion. He was popular as an auctioneer, and in pleading before a jury he was tireless and earnest and convincing. He was a successful man, and was helped
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much by his industrious and sympathetic wife, who was at all times devoted to the interests of her family.
Henry A. Scott had a limited education in the public schools, and rather took to work and sport in his youth. In April, 1861, he volun- teered in the cause of his country, enlisting in Company C, Third Iowa Infantry. He was at the battle of Shiloh and throughout the western campaigns, and after three years veteranized in the same company and regiment. In Sherman's campaign about Meridian he was taken pris- oner, and endured incarceration in southern prisons at Cahaba, Alabama, Andersonville, Georgia, and Florence, South Carolina, from February 27, 1864, until he signed his parole March 4, 1865. He participated in the grand review on Pennsylvania avenue in Washington in 1865, and again in 1903 as a member of the Nebraska delegation of Grand Army veterans. After the war, in May, 1867, Mr. Scott came to Nebraska and homesteaded a claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Franklin township, Richardson county, and farmed the land for several years and still keeps it under tenancy. He moved into Humboldt in 1874, and this has been his home and center of activity ever since. For about twelve years he was a salesman in the hardware and implement house of F. W. Samuelson, and he then opened up a business in the same line under the firm name of Scott and Skalak, which partnership continued most suc- cessfully for fifteen years, after which Mr. Scott withdrew from active participation in business affairs and has since been taking things rather easily. For the last few years he has been traveling considerably, and he and his wife have enjoyed many of the fruits of their years of thrift and good management. He was not enjoying good health when he left business, but his subsequent free activity has almost completely rejuven- ated him. He and his wife have been to the Pacific coast twice, having traveled the entire length of the coast down to old Mexico, and they,
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also spent one winter in Florida. They reside in one of the pleasant homes of Humboldt, having erected it some five years ago, and he also owns a fine brick business block besides other residence property.
September 22, 1868, Mr. Scott was married in his present precinct to Miss Margaret Smith, who was born in Licking county, Ohio, in October, 1849, a daughter of Henry and Sophronia (Payne) Smith. Her father was a blacksmith in Ohio, where he died in old age, and his widow died at Blue Springs, Nebraska, in December, 1903, in the eighty-first year of her age. Mrs. Scott is one of seven living children, two brothers and four sisters. Mr. and Mrs. Scott's only son and child is Aretas, one of the leading dentists of St. Joseph, Missouri. He mar- ried Mary Lionberger. He was a graduate of the Humboldt high school at the age of seventeen, then took a course at the State University at Lincoln, and graduated from the Gem City Business College at Quincy, Illinois. The head of the latter school, D. M. Musselman, gave him a certificate graded at 97, one of the very highest marks, for he never gave higher than 98. Dr. Scott is a young man of much talent in various lines. He graduated with high standing from the Kansas City Dental College, and has since built up a fine practice in St. Joseph. He was secretary of the Dental Association in St. Joseph. He is a Master Mason, a Modern Woodman, and is a stanch Republican.
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