USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
AUGUST ECKHARDT.
August Eckhardt, who resides on section 33, Clay township, Pawnee county, Nebraska, is one of the old settlers of this locality and an ex-soldier of the Civil war. He was born in Germany, December 5, 1840. His father was a sergeant in the German army for twenty-five years. He married Elizabeth Wasmann, and their children were as follows: Lillie, who died in the United States; Anna, of Illinois; and August.
August Eckhardt was educated in Germany until he was thirteen years of age, when he came to the United States, and after a voyage of eighteen days landed upon American soil. He at once proceeded to
AUGUST ECKHARDT
21I
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
Cook county, Illinois, and thence went to Tazewell county, Illinois. In 1872 he removed to Pawnee county, Nebraska. On September 5, 1861, he enlisted at Ottawa, LaSalle county, Illinois, in Company H, of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, Colonel Hoyd Dickey, of Ottawa, and Captain Wimple, of Pulaski, commanding. The regiment was sent to Belmont, Kentucky, and later to Forts Henry and Donelson, still later to Shiloh, and finally Mr. Eckhardt was placed on the body guard of General Grant, and participated in the wonderful campaigns of the famous general. At Corinth he had a horse shot under him. The animal fell upon Mr. Eckhardt, injuring him so seriously that he has never fully recovered, and will always suffer from the effects of the terrible wound. On account of it, after a long siege in the hospital, he was honorably dis- charged and returned to his Illinois home.
On February 12, 1867, Mr. Eckhardt was married at Delavan, Tazewell county, Illinois, to Rachel F. Wertz, a daughter of John and Catherine (Hauk) Wertz, natives of St. Thomas, Pennsylvania, who removed to Illinois in 1864, where both died. Mr. and Mrs. Eckhardt are very well and favorably known and have many friends not only in Clay township, but throughout the county.
WILLIAM HOLROYD.
William Holroyd, living retired from active life in his pleasant country home in Glen Rock precinct, Nemalia county, Nebraska, is one of the pioneer citizens of this locality, and is enjoying now the rest and comfort to which he is entitled after long years of careful manage- ment and honest toil.
Mr. Holroyd is an Englishman by birth. He is a native of York-
212
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
shire, and was born October 11, 1829, son of John Holroyd. The latter also a native of Yorkshire, England, was born about 1807, and died there about 1863, leaving his widow and eight of their nine children. He was a manufacturer of steel, in which business he brought up his sons, and he also gave them good schooling advantages.
William Holroyd first came to America in 1853, with wife and one child, in a sail vessel, landing in New York after a voyage of twenty- eight days. At Pittsburg he was employed in a steel mill for over a year, when he returned to England taking his wife with him. Later he again went to work in the Pittsburg steel mill, and remained there another year. In the spring of 1855 he came to Nebraska, landing at Brownville on May 11th, and here he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of government land, at $1.25 per acres, and established his home in a log cabin, sixteen by twenty-two feet in dimensions, hav- ing two rooms, one upstairs and one down. But few improvements had been made in this part of the country at that time, and the Indians were still here-not hostile, however. Game of various kinds was plenty, and Mr. Holroyd recalls the fact that in the early days of their settlement here he supplied the larder with vension. Their western journey was made by boat and on the way he stopped in Iowa. When he came here he brought a yoke of oxen of his brother-in-law Thomas Mosley. Here he has been interested in farming all these years, with the exception of four years during the Civil war, when he returned to Pittsburg and made good wages in the mill. He now owns two hundred acres of well improved land; with its long stretches of neatly trimmed hedge and its well kept buildings, including the two residences (one occupied by himself and one by his son), barns and other build- ings. And his land is stocked with high-grade horses, cattle and hogs.
Mr. Holroyd is the father of ten children, one born in England,
213
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
one in Pittsburg and the others in Nebraska. Those now living are: Edwin, a farmer in Oklahoma territory, has a wife and four children ; Ereline, wife of Frank Comstock, a farmer living southeast of Auburn, has one son and four daughters; and Wilfred, a farmer. The mother of his children, whose maiden name was Eliza Mosley, and who was a native of Yorkshire, England, died May 22, 1879. at the age of fifty-one years. March 3, 1881, Mr. Holroyd married Mrs. Mary L. Wilson. nee Biddle, widow of David Wilson, who died in Wisconsin. leaving her and an adopted son. Mrs. Holroyd was born in Washington county. New York, December 25. 1829. daughter of John and Joanah (Van Patten) Biddle, the former a native of New York and the latter of New Jersey. In the Biddle family were eleven children, four of whom reached adult age: Mrs. Holroyd and her brother Henry. who resides in North Park, Colorado, are the only survivors.
Mr. Holroyd has usually been a supporter of the Republican party. Recently, however, he has voted the independent ticket.
ALBERT C. LEEPER.
Albert C. Leeper, one of the prosperous farmers and highly re- spected citizens of Douglas township, Nemaha county, Nebraska, set- tled here in 1872, and has been identified with this locality for more than three decades. A brief review of his life is as follows :
Albert C. Leeper was born in Cass county, Illinois, April 9, 1851, and belongs to a family several generations of which have been agricul- turists. The family have records dating back as far as 1700, showing Mathew Leeper, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, to have been the owner of a large tract of land. Leeper township in
214
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
Bureau county, Illinois, was named in honor of this family. Albert C. Leeper's grandfather, Robert Leeper, was born either in Virginia or Kentucky. In the latter state he lived for a number of years. He married a Miss Somers, and they were the parents of seven children, viz. : Enmatyre, William Dudley, Samuel, Elizabeth, John, Martha and Mary. The mother of these children died in Kentucky. The father subsequently went to Illinois, where he married a second wife and had two children-Robert and Nancy. He died in Illinois, in 1844, at the age of sixty years.
William Dudley Leeper was born in Kentucky, February 17, 1817, and died in Cass county, Illinois, March 25, 1866. He married in Cass county, Illinois, January 1, 1848, Mary Ann Runyan, a native of Gallatin county, Kentucky, born in 1832, daughter of Wilson Runyan. After their marriage they settled on sixty acres of land, a part of his father's estate, where their family was reared. Of their six children, three are now living: George W., of Cass county, Illinois; Albert C., whose name introduces this article; and Arthur A., a lawyer and an ex-state senator of Illinois. The mother of this family died in 1857, and the father afterward wedded Miss Maria Hermeyer, who bore him a daughter and son, Mary E. and Henry S. The second wife died February 6, 1898, at the age of sixty-five years.
Albert C. Leeper received a fair common school education. In 1872, on reaching his majority, he left home and came to Nemaha coun- ty, Nebraska, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres of rich prairie land, at ten dollars per acre. From its primitive condition he has developed his land to its present high state of cultivation and improve- ment. Here we now find three-fourths of a mile of hedge fence, shade trees and fruit trees (one hundrd and fifty of which are apple), and a comfortable residence, barns, granaries, etc. In connection with his
1
215
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
general farming Mr. Leeper has always given more or less attention to stock-raising. It is worthy of note that he fed and sold the first car- load of cattle shipped from Auburn.
Mr. Leeper has a wife and six children. Mrs. Leeper was before her marriage Miss Cyntha Ethleen Wood. She is a native of Crawford county, Indiana, and a daughter of Eli and Sallie A. (Stewart) Wood, natives of Indiana and now residents of Custer county, Oklahoma. The Wood family comprised four children, Mrs. Leeper being the eldest. Of the others we record that Eunice, now Mrs. Hollar, resides in Okla- homa ; Wallace S. also is in Oklahoma ; and Jeanette died at the age of five years. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Leeper are: Vida E., a teacher, now living with her grandparents in Oklahoma; Annie E., Nellie, Dudley W., Bessie and Dale R.
Politically, Mr. Leeper is a Populist and a Bryanite, and fraternal- ly he is identified with the F. and A. M. and A. O. U. W. He has always taken an active interest in local affairs, and has served twelve years as school director in his district. Mrs. Leeper is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
ALBERT KOEPPEL.
Albert Koeppel, who has been numbered among the thrifty, ener- getic and prosperous agriculturists of Southeastern Nebraska since the Ioth of September, 1867, has his present beautiful farm in Peru precinct, about a mile west of the town. When he came to this state he had to begin operations with little money and consequently crude means of living and of preparing the soil for the raising of crops. The shell of a honse which he erected for his first domicile he still remembers as a
216
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
scene of happiness but of bareness and lack of comfort, but that has long since given place to an abode of neat and pleasing exterior, of comfort and good cheer within, and, withal, a home worth striving for and a fit re- ward for a life of toil and early privation in a frontier country.
Mr. Koeppel, who thus took up his residence in the new state of Nebraska nearly thirty-seven years ago, was born near Halle, Saxony, Germany, August 26, 1844. His father, August . Koeppel, born De- cember 10, 1814. was an overseer of a coal mine, and was in good cir- cuinstances and gave his children good advantages. He died in 1885, at the age of seventy-one years. He married Augusta Knappe, of Wettin, in 1838, and they had twelve children, three sons and nine (laughters, seven of whom grew up, namely ; Louisa is the wife of Will- iam Damme, of Halle; Albert is the second oldest: August is a well-to- do farmer seven miles southwest of Fairbury, Nebraska, and has three daughters: Louis is a baker in Nebraska City, and has five children living: Mary is married and has three children living: Emily lives in Germany and has six children: Augusta, who was the oldest of the family, came to America in 1867 with her brother Albert, and she died in Nebraska without leaving any children. The mother of these children preceded her husband in death by one year, passing away in 1884, at the age of sixty-eight years.
Albert Koeppel was reared in his native place, and from the age of fourteen until he was nineteen worked in the mines. At the latter age he entered the German army, and gave three years and four months' service to his emperor, being in five battles during the course of Austro- Hungarian and Prussian war, never failing to report for duty at a single roll call. In the spring of 1867 his brother August came to America, and in the fall he and his sister followed. He had some money on his arrival here, and he first took up his residence in Sidney,
217
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
Iowa, where he remained for a year with his uncle, William Knappe, who had come to this country in 1848, having spent sixty-nine days on the water. In 1869 Mr. Koeppel left Sidney and came to Otoe county, Nebraska, where he bought eighty acres of raw praire land for two hundred dollars. He at once began the task of improving this purchase, and built for his shelter a frame house sixteen by twenty-four feet, of one story, and in this he made his home until 1876. He pur- chased his present farm of eighty-five acres in 1891, paying twenty-one hundred and twenty-five dollars for it, with its good improvements, con- sisting of a brick residence and an orchard. In 1894 he erected his good barn, and he has also planted a new apple and peach orchard in the spring of 1904. He does a general farming business, growing from twelve to eighteen hundred bushels of corn and raising a number of hogs.
On January 23. 1873, a memorable day to all Nebraskans and doubly so to Mr. Koeppel, on which day the mercury fell to the unpre- cedented mark of thirty-six degrees below zero. he was married to Mrs. Kathrina Provost, who was born in Switzerland in 1843. a daugh- ter of John Griuet, a carpenter. In 1850 her parents brought her to America, being twenty-two days on the passage to New Orleans, whence they went to St. Louis. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Koep- pel: Oliver, born in Otoe county, died at nine months; Mary is the wife of Frank Ivers, of Peru, and has two sons: Emma is the wife of Charles Patterson, of Oregon, and has two sons and a daughter; Theresa died in Otoe county, aged twenty-two months; Edward is a farmer and has a wife and one son; and Bertha is the wife of Arthur Simpson, a farmer in London precinct, and has one son. Mr. Koeppel is an independent voter, and is indifferent as to political preferment. He is now serving his district as school director.
218
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
WILLIAM WATSON.
This venerable citizen and retired farmer of Auburn, Nebraska, is of Scotch birth and parentage. Mr. Watson first saw the light of day in the county of Edinburg, Scotland, January 12, 1824. His father, William Watson, a coal miner by occupation, was born in the same place, about 1791 ; and his mother, whose maiden name was Jane Shau- non, was also a native of Edinburg county. In their family were nine children, all of whom married, except two daughters. The fourth in order of birth was William.
William Watson was reared and married in his native land, and was occupied in the coal mines of Scotland until 1851, when he emi- grated to America, accompanied by his wife and four children. He had just money enough with which to purchase their passage to this coun- try, the voyage was made in a sail vessel and they were six weeks and two days from Liverpool to New Orleans. Eight days later they landed in St. Louis. The first night on their trip up the Mississippi the boat sprang a leak, the passengers were put ashore at midnight, where they remained until the trouble was overcome and the journey could be con- tinued. Arrived in St. Louis, Mr. Watson soon found employment, mining coal near that city, and worked there six years, receiving two to five dollars per day. In 1857 he, with one hundred others, came to Nemaha county, Nebraska, expecting to homestead land. Their plans were changed, however, and Mr. Watson bought eighty acres, four miles southwest of Auburn. He entered one hundred and sixty acres, and by paying one hundred and sixty dollars to a land speculator and relinquishing eighty acres he was deeded eighty acres. He paid forty percent interest. His first work here was to build a little cabin of logs, hewing them on the inside, and into this humble home he moved his family. Some years later he built a substantial stone house, thirty-four
219
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
by twenty-four feet in dimensions, two stories. He quarried the rock and dressed it and burned his own lime for building purposes, doing all the work himself, alone, from the foundation to the roof. And the house is standing to-day as solid as ever. Mr. Watson added to his farm until he had two hundred acres, which he sold in 1901. He has done no farming, however, since 1898, when he retired, after forty years spent as a successful agriculturist. In 1898 he bought and moved into his present residence, which had just been built.
Mr. Watson married, in 1845, Miss Margaret McNeil, a native of Lanarkshire, Scotland, born April 9, 1825, daughter of Daniel and Mary (McCollins) McNeil. Her father, who was a coal miner, was accident- ally killed in the mines, in the prime of life; and her mother kept the little family, two sons and two daughters, together and reared them by her own efforts. She died in Scotland at an advanced age. The chil- dren all grew up and married and have children of their own, and all are still living. Mr. and Mrs. Watson have ten children, namely : Will- iam, who is married and has one son and one daughter, owns and occu- pies a part of the old homestead; Mary, who resides with her parents, is the widow of Ephraim Milton Long, and has five children, all married and settled in life; Daniel, an Oklahoma farmer, has a wife and eleven children ; James, also of Oklahoma, is a farmer and stone-layer, doing fine mosaic work, and is married and has ten children; Margaret, wife of Joseph Snurr, of Dawson county, Nebraska, has two sons and one daughter: Jane, wife of Robert Bryant, a furniture manufacturer of Omaha, Nebraska, has one son and two daughters; Robert, a blacksmith of Howe, Nebraska, has a wife, son and daughter: Agnes, wife of George Harmon, of Auburn, has one son and three daughters; Euphemy, wife of William Myers, a farmer of Bedford township, Nemaha county, has a son and a daughter; and David, engaged in farming in Nemaha
-
220
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
county, has wife, one son and two daughters, the family at this writing numbering twenty-six grandsons and twenty-one granddaughters, and the great-grandchildren number twenty-one.
Politically Mr. Watson was for years a Republican, but recently he has affiliated with the Populist party. He and his good wife are devoted members of the Church of God; both were reared in the Presby- terian church. Mr. Watson inherited to a marked degree the strong constitution peculiar to his nationality. Some time ago while occupied in painting his building. he fell from a ladder and sustained severe in- juries, from which he has never recovered, and he now goes about on crutches. Notwithstanding this, he is still remarkably active, both men- tally and physically, for one of his years, since he has entered the oc- togenarian ranks.
CHARLES B. HURST.
Charles B. Hurst, a prosperous agriculturist residing in Peru. Ne- braska, is an old settler of this vicinity, having taken up his residence across the river in Missouri over forty-five years ago, and his large farm still being situated there. He has arrived at a creditable degree of prosperity through his own efforts, and is a strictly self-made man. He began life by working for wages and gradually got ahead in the world, until by his constant diligence and economy he had a working capital and has since made ample provision for his own declining years. and done much for his family. Mr. Hurst has all the substantial qual- ities of citizenship which form the strength of a great nation, and his capable performance of the duties connected with his individual career. with his responsibilities as head of a family, and as a member of so- ciety and a unit of the community and state, furnishes good grounds
221
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
for the esteem in which he is everywhere held by his friends and as- sociates.
Mr. Hurst was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, September 13, 1842. His grandfather, Levi Hurst, was of Scotch stock and probably a native of Scotland. He was a farmer by occupation, and came to America in an early day, moving from the place of his first settlement. in Maryland, to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1798, where he died in 1856, at the age of ninety-two years, and his wife died several years later, at the age of ninety-three. They had begun life very humbly, grandmoth- er Hurst having been married in her bare feet, but they were strong and industrious and in time gained a fair share of this world's goods, as well as the esteem of all within the circle of their influence. There large family of sons and daughters settled in different states of the west, in Indiana, Iowa and Missouri. Levi Hurst was a fine fiddler, and furnished many hours of pleasure to the family, and especially to Mr. Hurst's father, who was a natural dancer. But when about thirty years of age he was converted and joined the Methodist church. After this his religious feelings led him to believe that the fiddle was an unholy thing and a temptation to the spirit, so notwithstanding the almost tear- ful remonstrances of his son, he kindled a fire on the hearth and placed the beloved instrument, for which he paid a large sum of money, in the flames, for conscience's sake.
James Hurst, the father of Charles B. Hurst, was born on the Isle of Man, December 7. 1791. His first wife was Betsey Williams, who (lied leaving the following four children: William E., who was born in Ohio and died in Holt county, Missouri, in 1888, at an advanced age, leaving four sons and one daughter: Betsey Ann, wife of Palmer Low, in Columbus, Ohio, and the mother of one son and one daughter ; Caro- line, the widow of Hiram Crenshaw, but by her first husband, Madison
222
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
Shackleford, a Methodist minister, she had six children; and Henry H., who died in Grand Junction, Tennessee, and was twice married, having had one son and two daughters by his first wife. In 1822, when thirty- one years of age, James Hurst married Elizabeth Sly, aged sixteen, who was born in West Virginia, June 30, 1806. Her father, Henry Sly, was a German farmer, who never talked good English, who was mar- ried in Ohio, and who lost his wife at the age of fifty, she having been a midwife and having worn herself out by attendance on the sick. James Hurst and wife had fourteen children. One son died in infancy, and Moses and Jesse died in boyhood, the former having been killed by a falling tree at the age of five. The other sons and daughters grew up. as follows : James died at the age of twenty-two, soon after his marriage ; Thomas M., born in Ohio about 1825, was a brick and stone mason and died in Otoe county, Nebraska, in 1898, having had twelve chil- dren; Harriet, the widow of Joseph Brusha, lives in Washington state, and has seven children; Sarah is the wife of Benjamin E. Drummins, of Worth county, Missouri, and has seven living children, having lost three; Elliott S. is a stock rancher of Idaho and has six children; Ezra M. is a fruit farmer of Hollywood, California, and had twelve children, seven of whom are living: Mary J. is the wife of George Johnston, of Vernon county, Missouri, and has four sons; Charles B. is next of the children ; Joseph P. is a farmer of Chetopa, Kansas, and has his sec- ond wife, having eight children by his two wives; Cynthia D. is the widow of William Pugh and lives in Nebraska City; Matilda died in 1853.
The family left Ohio in 1852 and came to St. Joseph, Missouri, where they lived two years. The father owned four hundred acres of land and was a leading stockman, but met reverses and sold out at seven dollars an acre. He then came to Atchison county, Missouri, and
223
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
although in his sixty-second year, worked at his trade of brick and stone mason, and took contracts, building the first three brick houses in Atchison county. He died in that county at the age of eighty-eight years less nine days, and his widow died there in February, 1891, at the age of eighty-five.
Charles B. Hurst was ten years old when the family came to Mis- souri, and the schooling which it was his privilege to receive was very limited in quantity and deficient in quality, but he learned to read and cipher, and has always been a good speller. He remained at home tin- til he reached his majority, and was then with a threshing outfit for a time, and in the fall of 1863 engaged in herding and feeding cattle in Doniphan county, Kansas, at the wage of a dollar a day. He worked for the firm of Fisher, Warner and Piatt for two hundred and forty- two days, in rain and shine, Sundays too, and never missed a day. He then fed hogs for three months at a dollar and a half a day, after which he worked on the home farm for a year. In 1869, a few years after he began married life, he bought a hundred and fourteen acres in Missouri, across the river from Brownville, at about five dollars an acre, and later purchased two hundred acres at twenty-four dollars an acre. This is the land on which he has worked out his career as a farmer, and it is now worth seventy-five dollars an acre. There are two sets of buildings on his land, and the entire property is valuable and brings in large an- nual returns. His home place in Peru consists of a nice and comfort- able residence and two acres of land, most of which is in orchard.
April 8, 1866, Mr. Hurst was married in Atchison county to Miss Caroline A. Rich, who was born in Bureau county. Illinois, February 7, 1846. Her parents, Washington and Seline ( Provance) Rich, were farmers, and moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois, where the former died, and his widow and her ten children then came to Atchison county,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.