USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 14
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Mr. Scott has been a Republican for many years. He takes an active part in the proceedings of the Grand Army of the Republic, and affiliates with Humboldt Lodge No. 40, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He has served as constable and is widely and favorably known is the county and state. He has taken an interested part in the campaigns for the past few years. Mrs. Scott is a member of the Presbyterian church.
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CLARENCE E. ORD.
Clarence E. Ord, one of the respected farmers of Douglas precinct, Nemaha county, Nebraska, is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, born May 19, 1858. The Ords are of English origin. Joseph E. Ord, the father of Clarence E., was born in Durhamshire, England, July 15, 1830, and his father, Robert Ord, was born in Yorkshire, in 1795, son of George Ord, a freeholder, farmer and preacher and the author of a poem entitled "Spiritual Portrait." Robert Ord married Jane Elizabeth Laidler. With their three children, they emigrated to this country in 1832, embarking at Liverpool and landing in New York city, May 8, after an ocean voyage of eight weeks. Of their children, we record that Christopher entered the army during the Civil war, with the rank of corporal, and was killed in the battle of Resaca, in the prime of life. He left a widow, two sons and a daughter. The second child of Robert Ord was a daughter who became the wife of Perriander Fish. Both died some years . ago in Brooklyn, Ohio, leaving three daughters and a son. Joseph E. Ord, the youngest of the family, was six years old at the time of their emigration to America. His education was obtained in the common schools of New York, Ohio and Wisconsin, and he married, April 8, 1857, in Berea, Ohio, Miss Marie Reeder, a native of Chautauqua county, New York, born December 8, 1825, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Reeder, a Methodist minister, who was born in Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, April 14, 1789, married March 9, 1821, and died August 10, 1838. Her mother was before marriage Miss Orra Colt. In the Reeder family were eleven children, nine of whom reached adult age. Mr. and Mrs. Reeder died in Berea, Ohio, he at the age of forty-eight years, and she at fifty-two. Joseph E. and Maria Ord were married April 8, 1857, and had five children, Clarence E. being the oldest. The others in order of
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birth are: Joseph Franklin, at this writing in Alaska; Emma, who died June 9, 1894, at the age of thirty-two years, was a graduate of the Evan- ston (Illinois) University, and for some time a teacher of elocution in the Weslyn University of Lincoln, Nebraska; Annie, wife of Charles Partridge, of Toronto, Canada, has two daughters; Esther Myrtle, wife of Professor Duncanson, a teacher in the State Normal School at Peru, Nebraska. Joseph E. Ord has prospered in his efforts to accumulate a competency and at the same time educate and provide for his family. Though he has met with losses, he now has a fine landed estate, including over five hundred acres of land in Nebraska and other lands in Kansas. And his children are all well to do. His aged father died at his home in Nebraska January 28, 1875.
Clarence E. Ord was reared a farmer boy and received a common and normal school education, graduating at the Nebraska State Normal School in 1882, after which he engaged in teaching and taught five terms of school in Nemaha county. One of the first schools in Auburn was taught by him.
March 31, 1891, Clarence E. Ord married Miss Clara Richards, a native of Wisconsin and a daughter of J. S. and Louisa (Daigh) Rich- ards. Mr. and Mrs. Richards were natives respectively of Virginia and Illinois, were married in Springfield, Illinois, and subsequently settled in Wisconsin. Mrs. Ord was educated in Springfield, and in Peru, Nebraska, and previous to her marriage was a teacher in Nemaha county. Their happy union has been blessed in the birth of two children, namely : Gladys Ord Ord, born February 26, 1892, and Esther Lucile, July 11, 1894.
On their wedding day Mr. and Mrs. Ord settled in their present home, he having bought one hundred and sixty acres of land and erected a residence, to which he took his bride as soon as they were married, he
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being then thirty-three and she twenty-seven years of age; and here they have since lived and prospered. Mr. Ord has a nice orchard and pleasant surroundings at his country home. He does general farming, raising a variety of crops, and has some high-grade stock.
Politically Mr. Ord is a Republican. He has been a member of the boaru of county commissioners since January, 1901. He and his wife and children are members of the Methodist church.
EDWARD J. TUCKER.
Edward J. Tucker, the prominent business man of Howe, Nemaha county, Nebraska, has lived in southeastern Nebraska for over forty years, practically all his life, and, as an inhabitant of the state for the greater part of its sovereign existence as well, has performed a credit- able part in its business life and prosperity. He began life with only good schooling advantages as capital, but has made such excellent use of his opportunities that he has found no reason to chide fate or cast any imputations upon fickle fortune for his position in the world. He is a shrewd, practical business man, devoted to home and family and the things of the higher life, interested in the civic and material progress of his county and town, and while working for his individual welfare at the same time not infringing on the rights of others and willing to put his hand to any public-spirited enterprise.
Mr. Tucker's grandfather, James H. Tucker, was born in Kentucky in 1812, and died in 1863, while his wife survived until 1883, and they reared all their four sons and three daughters. Christopher Tucker, the father of Edward J. Tucker, was born in Louisville, Kentucky, February 9, 1835, was taken to southern Illinois about 1845, thence
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to northern Iowa in 1849, and from there came to Nemaha county, Ne- braska, in 1860. He was married in Mason City, Iowa, in 1856, to Miss Martha Parker, who was born in Virginia, November 27, 1836, a daugh- ter of Ellis Parker, who was a farmer and in the public life of Hardin county, Iowa, for about forty years, being county judge for a number of years. His two sons and two daughters were : Frank Parker, a farmer in the state of Washington; Martha, wife of Christopher Tucker; Hiram Parker, a mason of Boonesboro, Iowa; and Mary, wife of Benjamin Robb, of Eldora, lowa. Christopher and Martha Tucker were farmers in Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, for a few years, and then drove to Ne- braska, crossing the Missouri on a flatboat, and began their career on a wild prairie farm on a treeless stretch, which no effort of the imagination could picture as otherwise than gloomy. They prospered in the state, however, and were highly esteemed citizens of their community. He died in Page county, Iowa, in 1901, but his widow is still living. They had four children : Lucretia, the wife of W. E. Irwin, died November 4, 1902, in Shenandoah, Iowa, leaving her husband and one son; Edward J. Tucker; Ellis Tucker is cashier of the Bank of Shenandoah, and is a widower with no children; May is the wife of H. I. Foskett, a banker of Shanandoah, and has three children.
Edward J. Tucker was born in Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, January 10, 1859, and arrived in Nemaha county, November 1, 1860, with his parents. He was reared to farm life, and remained at home until he was twenty-two, attending the district schools and the State Normal for two years. He then as a member of the firm of Chatfield and Tucker, engaged in merchandising, general goods, in Howe for eighteen months, and since then, for twenty years, has been manager of the Howe Lumber Company, whose members are himself and H. R. Howe. For the same period of time he has been engaged in grain-buying, shipping from three
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hundred to six hundred cars each year from Howe, which has made this the banner grain-shipping station on the Missouri Pacific Railroad. In 1883 Mr. Tucker also began conducting the farm implement business of Robert Teare, but since the first year has carried it on for himself, and now has the largest stock of such goods in the county. He has been successful in all these enterprises, and his extensive connections place him in the front rank of the business men of the county. He owns one half of a brick business block, and also his own cosy home in the village.
December 29, 1885, Mr. Tucker was married to Miss Kate Scott, who was born in Indiana, a daughter of Tom and Mary ( Hughes) Scott. Tom Scott was a native of Kentucky, and was a printer by trade, for the last twenty years of his life being engaged in the government printing office at Washington. He died in the prime of his life in 1875, in Indiana, and his wife, who was a native of Indiana, died in the follow- ing year. They lost two sons in childhood, and their daughter Anna died in young womanhood. Mrs. Tucker was educated in science and music in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Tucker's only child, Clarence Christopher, was born May 7, 1892, and is an apt student, learning to spell and read by spelling out the names of the five daily and weekly papers which his father takes. Mr. Tucker takes much pleasure in his well selected library, which comprises the best works in history, biography and poetry.
Mr. Tucker is a Republican in politics, but has no time to devote to party affairs other than keeping well informed on the issues of national and local importance. He affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has passed all the chairs, and with the Knight; of Pythias. His father, who served for eighteen months in the Civil war, where he contracted the chronic disease which ended in his death,
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was a Rupublican in politics and a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and also a Master Mason.
FRED PARKER.
Fred Parker is one of the most prominent farmers and stockmen of Washington precinct, Nemaha county, his farm being located on sections 4, 5 and 13, and with his postoffice at Johnson. He arrived in Brownville, Nebraska, in May, 1866, and for nearly forty years has given visible evidence of what enterprise, capable management and thrifty industry can do in making agriculture and stock-raising a paying venture in the great commonwealth of Nebraska That he has suc- ceeded anyone can witness who will visit his fine farmstead, with all its improvements both useful and ornamental, which he himself has placed there.
The Parker farm was built up from a nucleus of a quarter section of raw prairie, which Mr. Parker purchased for eighteen hundred dollars cash. He now has two large barns, forty by fifty-eight feet and fifty- six by thirty-two feet in dimensions, one of which has a stone basement ; there is a corn crib thirty by forty feet, with a stone foundation; a wagon house twenty by sixteen ; a shop fourteen by sixteen ; and a shed twelve by eighty. There are three residences on the farm. The first one, twenty-four by twenty-four feet, was built in 1870, and continued to be the family home until the present large and modern dwelling was erected, being two stories, thirty-two by thirty feet, and with an addition twenty-four by fourteen feet with commodious basement. This is one of the most substantial residences of the county. The first home is now
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occupied by a friend, and there is also another house occupied by Mr. Parker's son. Mr. Parker also planted all the six acres of groves, and has three orchards of about twelve acres, one being a young fruit orchard. The ample stretch of lawn about the house is ornamented with shade trees, evergreens, Scotch firs and larches, in all about fourteen varities of trees and shrubs. A tall windmill is a feature of the place, and supplies water for all the uses of the place. There is a quarry of fine building stone on the place, and it has furnished the foundation and material for many houses in the neighborhood. Mr. Parker makes a specialty of thoroughbred, pedigreed shorthorn stock, and most of the cattle are reg- istered. He has paid from one hundred and forty to two hundred dol- lars for many of his animals, and has sold some of the best in the county. He kept about one hundred head before the drop in prices, and now has about forty, which have the best of shelter and care in the winter and stand up to their knees in pasture during the summer. He also markets about a hundred hogs each year.
Mr. Parker came to Nebraska from Somersetshire, England, where he was born August 19, 1841. His father, Samuel Parker, was also born there, in 1819, was a bricklayer, and died here at the age of fifty- two years, leaving a widow and three children and little property, but a much better inheritance in the shape of a good name and a happy memory. His wife was Maria Payne, who died in Brownville, Nebraska, when about fifty-three years old. They lost three children in youth, Anna Maria having died when eighteen years old, and the three now living are: Fred; Walter Samuel, near Auburn; and Elizabeth Dominey, in Nemaha county.
Fred Parker had only meager school advantages, and at the age of fourteen years began learning the tinner's and plumber's trades, at which he served for seven years at small pay. After coming to Brown-
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ville, Nebraska, he was for twelve or fourteen years the leading salesman and manager of the large hardware, grocery and implement house of Stephenson and Cross, after which he began the farming operations which he has since carried on so successfully.
He was married in Brownville, August 1, 1870, to Miss Elizabeth Gange, who was also born in Somersetshire, England, on April 10, 1845, a daughter of William and Martha (Stagg) Gange, the former of whom was a carpenter. Her parents reared four children, as follows : Mrs. Mary Denmon, a widow, of Dorsetshire, England; Mrs. Parker; Mrs. Amelia Forsey, who died leaving three children; and Albert, unmarried, who has been a blacksmith in the English navy. William Gange's first wife was a Miss Guppy, and he had sixteen children. He was a strong and vigorous man, and died in 1871, when nearly ninety-four years old. Mrs. Parker's mother died in England in 1862. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Parker: A daughter that died in infancy; Albert Gange, born in Brownville, May 4, 1874, is a tenant farmer near his father and has a wife and one son, Fred; George Denmon lives on his father's farm, and has a wife and a son and a daughter; Carletta Eliza, aged seventeen, is at home and in school pursuing piano music. Mr. Parker is independent in political and religious beliefs. He has served as justice of the peace four years, and was on the town council of Brown- ville for five years, and has been on the school board for twenty-five years. Mrs. Parker is an Episcopalian. Mr. Parker is a Mason of thirty-seven years' standing, and has taken the Royal Arch degrees. He and his wife are royal entertainers in their beautiful home, and are charming people in every relation in which they meet their friends and associates.
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BERNARD OTTENS.
Bernard Ottens, or Barney Ottens, as he is familiarly known over a great part of southeastern Nebraska and elsewhere, is now a retired resident of South Auburn, Nemaha county, but for forty years or more was one of the most active farmers and public-spirited citizens of the county. He came to Nebraska in pioneer days, lived in pioneer fashion for some years, and from the primitive conditions which he found evolved a home and farmstead. He began without a cent of capital, and by industry, frugality and honorable perseverance has reached a place of prosperity and esteem among his neighbors and fellow citizens.
Mr. Ottens was born in Germany, October 24, 1830, and after spending the first twenty years of his life there he emigrated to America, in 1851. He was two months on the way from Bremen to New York, thence he came to Chicago, from there to South Port, now Racine, Wisconsin, and from that point walked one hundred and fifty miles to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, where he had acquaintances. He was out of money, and found farm work at ten dollars a month. He remained there from December, 1851, to 1857, and in this time was married and began to get ahead a little in the world. He then came to Nebraska and pre- empted a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Washington precinct, Nemaha county, which had plenty of timber on it, but was absolutely untouched from an agricultural standpoint. He first put up a log house of plain poles, two rooms, but some time later erected a stone house, thirty-two by twenty-eight, one story and a half, getting the stone from his own quarry. He has been a diligent worker and an able business man, and has accumulated considerable property since he first came within the borders of this state. In 1898 he bought four lots in South Auburn on Maxwell street, where he has built his home, and he has two
BERNARD OTTENS
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tenant houses close to the South Auburn mill. He has his own hay scales and barn, and is also owner of another farm in Douglas precinct. In the summer of 1862 he teamed to Julesburg, Colorado, taking his own farm products for disposal to the ranchmen. He drove oxen to his wagon. He sold butter at fifty cents a pound, eggs at fifty cents a dozen, potatoes from seventy-five cents to a dollar a bushel and bacon forty to fifty cents a pound. He also killed buffalo and sold the meat. He has killed all kinds of big game on the plains, and he relates that during the sixties the buffalo were so numerous that he has driven his wagon across sloughs over their carcasses. He also bears witness to the wanton and needless slaughter of these animals by the so-called sporting fraternity, and that it is small wonder that the noble animal is now nearly extinct.
Mr. Ottens was married in 1854, at Willow Spring, Wisconsin, to Miss Mary McCarvel, who was born in Monahan county, Ireland, in 1835, a daughter of Pat and Alice (McCabe) McCarvel. Twelve children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ottens: Patrick, born in Wis- consin, died at the age of two years; Harmon died aged eight; Lizzie died at the age of two years; Frank died when six years old; Harmon, the second of the name, died at the age of eight; Elizabeth, is the wife of John Jurgensmeier, and has seven children living; Frank, the second of the name, died at the age of six; Alice died in Kansas, the wife of Henry Grewing, leaving five children; Catherine is the wife of John Bradley, of Oklahoma, and has six children; Miss Jane is at home; Harmon died at the age of three; and Tillie is the wife of David Okane, a farmer at Pender, Nebraska, and has two children. Mr. and Mrs. Ottens are Catholics, and he is a Democrat in politics, and for four years, from 1866 to 1870, was justice of the peace and served as con- stable previous to that time. Mr. and Mrs. Ottens were the founders of
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the St. Joseph's parachial school of Auburn; he donated one hundred and sixty acres of land for the school.
JOSEPH OGLE.
Joseph Ogle, agriculturist and stock farmer of Grant precinct, with postoffice at Dawson, is a Richardson county settler of 1873, having come here from Hancock county, Illinois. He was a young man then, and time has since added to his years, but he is still young in vigor and energy and capacity for enjoyment of the best things of life. He and his wife have been happy toilers along life's way, have applied all their endeavors and intelligence to the work which was cut out for them, and they therefore richly deserve the magnificent success that has crowned their diligence and wise management. Their home is to-day one of the fine ones of Richardson county, the lands cultivated to the highest degree of profit and permanent returns, all the operations of the farm being carried on with machine-like system, and the home and household from every standpoint being one of the most attractive, hospital and comfortable that an intimate friend or a far-faring trav- .eler would ever care to find for his solace and pleasure.
The owner and successful operator of this model farmstead was born in Fulton county, Illinois, March 31, 1849. His grandfather was a cooper in the same county, and died there during the cholera year. His father was John Ogle, who was born in Ohio about 1823, and died near Humboldt, Nebraska, in 1880. He was married in Illinois to Jemima Servia Burgess, who was born in Pennsylvania. After a long marital union and having become the mother of ten children she passed away, being buried on a birthday of her son Joseph, and her husband
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was again married. They were members of the United Brethren church. They reared all their ten children but one, a daughter, Azubah Hayes, died in Montana leaving two sons and two daughters. The living chil- dren are: Mrs. Hattie Davenport, a widow, lives in Augusta, Illinois, without children; Mrs. Mary Brown, a widow, living at South Sioux City, Iowa, has five living children of the seven born to her; Joseph is the third oldest of those living; John M. lives in Missouri and has a family; William Otto, of Washington county, Colorado, has two sons and two daughters; James Oscar, of Franklin township, Richardson county, has two sons and two daughters; Noah is a farmer of Augusta, Illinois, and has four living children.
Mr. Joseph Ogle had a district schooling until he was eighteen years old. At the age of twenty-two he left the home and county of his birth, and, with a team of good horses, a wagon, plough and cultivator, drove overland to Nebraska, which was the land of promise of his youthful ambition. He camped out on this journey and leaving Illinois on Feb- ruary 26th arrived in Brownville, March 9, 1873. He had fifty dollars in cash, and for the first season he farmed on land of his brother-in-law. He then returned to Illinois for the girl who for thirty years has been the companion of his joys and labors and whom he counts as the coequal partner with himself in the success that has been vouchsafed to them in all their undertakings. After his marriage he returned to Nebraska to build up his fortune. He bought a quarter section of land that had never been touched by the plow, and this still forms a part of his farm, although he now has three hundred and twenty acres in his home place and a quarter section of bottom land in Nemaha county. He began the work of improvement in the spring of 1877, having built a snug little frame house which served as his abode for a number of years. A few years ago he moved this house back a few feet and began the erection of
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his present beautiful country residence, which is among the finest in the countryside. It stands back from the dusty highway, is embowered in trees, and has all the surroundings that harmonize with a successful man's dwelling. The house is two stories high, with a large attic and a base- ment, the furnace being in the latter and the large steel tank from which all the rooms are supplied with water being in the attic. There is a large pillared porch before both stories in front, and the rear of the house is all screened in. There are seven large and airy bedrooms, and the parlor, living-room, dining-room and kitchen are richly furnished and decorated according to the best ideas of modern taste and arrange- ment. Mr. Ogle had this residence built by day work, under his con- stant supervision, and it cost four thousand five hundred dollars, for every dollar of which he got value received. They moved into this commodious dwelling in November, 1903. He also has a cyclone cave made of a solid stone arch. His large barn was built in 1884, and there are also numer- ous other buildings and equipments around the place. Stock-raising and general farming are the profitable departments of Mr. Ogle's enter- prise, and he makes his undertakings pay unusually well even for the state of Nebraska with all its fertile resources. Mr. Ogle is a Republican in politics, but the only office he has held has been as a member of the school board. He and his wife at one time were members of the Grange.
Mrs. Ogle's maiden name was Lourette E. Swisegood. She was born in Hancock county, Illinois, a daughter of Daniel H. and Anna C. (Haynes) Swisegood, who were both natives of North Carolina, but were reared in Illinois, of which state their parents were pioneers. Both her parents are still living, in advanced years but still in good health, on their old homestead in Hancock county, Illinois. Mrs. Ogle is one of ten children, as follows: Sarah S., who died at the age of eighteen months; Jolin Swisegood, who came to Nebraska in 1877 and died on
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