USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 38
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Mr. and Mrs. Brandow have no children. They are members of the Knights and Ladies of Security, and are Methodists. He is a Republican, but never aspires to office. He began life without money, and his industry and thrift had accumulated a fair amount before his father's death.
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THOMAS W. HUMPHREYS.
Thomas W. Humphreys, who has been engaged in the building and contracting business in the town of Johnson, Nebraska, for the past thirteen years, has left the impress of his useful activity in three- fourths of the buildings of this town and many throughout the county, especially within a radius of eighteen miles of Johnson. He is noted for his resourceful energy and as a man of push and business acumen, and in his dealings has gained the confidence of every patron of his skill. As an employer he is generous and helpful, and in every rela- tion of life, whether as a citizen, workman or in the confines of his own home, has proved himself a man of broad-gauge principles and upright- ness and strict integrity.
Mr. Humphreys was born in Madison county, Iowa, September 9, 1866, and represents the third generation in the paternal line to reside in this country. His grandfather, William Humphreys, was a native of Ireland and a farmer, and settled in Virginia in the early part of the last century, and died at the age of sixty-five years. He married a Miss Underwood, who died about 1834, and they reared thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters. Reuben Humphreys, the father of Thomas W. Humphreys, was born near Wilmington, Virginia, in August, 1833, and in his venerable old age is now resid- ing with his son in Johnson, and is still hale and hearty after a long and useful life. He married Miss Hannah Johnson, who was the mother of four sons and three daughters, two of whom are deceased.
Mr. Humphreys remained on the farm and engaged in the various pursuits incident thereto until he was nineteen years old. He had to labor during much of the time that other boys spent in school, and consequently had but meager equipment in book learning. He began learning his
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trade at the age of nineteen, and began contracting and building in Oberlin, Kansas, before he took up his residence in Johnson. Since coming to the latter place he has gained a large patronage, and em- ployes from four to thirty workmen in the various seasons of the year. He erected his own large residence on five acres situated just outside the corporation limits though well within the town proper, and on these ample and beautiful grounds has his large shop and sheds for his tools and machinery.
February 17, 1896, Mr. Humphreys was married to Miss Florence Moren, who was born in Knox county, Illinois, a daughter of Joseph and Margaret (Miller) Moren, who were both natives of Preble county, Ohio, and came to Knox county, Illinois, before their marriage, and in 1882 removed to Nemaha county, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Humphreys have three children: Marie, born November 18, 1896; Lula, born September 5, 1898; and Edna, born October 15, 1900. Mr. Humphreys is a member of the encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and also of the Modern Woodmen of America. He is a stanch Republican in principle, and has been elected to office, but has never qualified. Mrs. Humphreys is an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal church, and is a most hospitable and charitable lady, unwilling to be outdone by her generous husband in good deeds, and they are both deserving of the high esteem in which they are held by all their friends and acquaintances.
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JOHN WIRICK.
John Wirick, who for over fifteen years has been engaged in dealing in grain and stock at Johnson, Nemaha county Nebraska, is one of the long established citizens of this county, where he made his arrival in the pioneer times of 1869, when land was cheap, improv- ments and cultivation meager, and the country was almost a wilderness, but only awaited the hand of the enterprising and industrious settler to become an agricultural Eden and a scene of beauty and joy forever. Mr. Wirick is numbered among the successful men who have in large measure taken advantage of the opportunities offered by this new coun- try, and he has progressed from small beginnings to a prominent place in the business and agricultural interests of this favored section of southeastern Nebraska. He is the more deserving of honor because what he has accomplished and what he has in the way of material prosperity are entirely the results of his own labor since as a boy hardly entered into his teens he took up the struggle for existence on his own account, and for many years made a brave and hard fight alone, but ending in a happy outcome with a gratifying share of worldly possessions and the esteem and respect of his fellow citizens and associates.
Mr. Wirick was born in Champaign county, Ohio, May 10, 1846, a son of George Wirick, of Pennsylvania, in which state he was married, about 1840, to Miss Mary Gilbert, also a native of that state, and who died early in life leaving three children: Samuel L., who is a farmer in Shelby county, Ohio, and has two sons and one daughter; John; and Mary Martha, the wife of David Doremire, of Shelby county, Ohio. The father of these children was married again and had two sons and three daughters. He died in 1872, past middle life, leaving but little property. He had made a trip to California in 1853, by the overland route, but was sick and met with hard luck while there.
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From the time he was seven years old John Wirick spent but one summer and two winters in his father's home. At eleven years of age he received a wage of three dollars a month for working on a farm in Shelby county, and he was a farm hand in that county for some years, his highest wages being eighteen dollars a month. At the age of thir- teen he went to live with a farmer till his majority. May 2, 1864, he enlisted for the hundred days' service in Company G, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but he served about Richmond and Petersburg for one hundred and twenty days, and in January, 1865, re-enlisted, being enrolled in Company H, One Hundred and Twentieth Ohio Infantry. He was never wounded and did not spend a day in the hospital. He was mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, and discharged at Columbus, Ohio, and reached home in August or September, 1865. In March, 1869, he landed in Brownville, Nebraska, and for three years rented a farm. He then bought eighty acres in Nemaha county at seven dollars an acre, and since that time has been constantly progressing and becoming more prosperous. He now owns three farms of eighty acres each in Phinney county, Kansas, one of one hundred and sixty acres near Huron, South Dakota, besides his farm of eighty-five acres in this county. He moved into Johnson in 1891. He began the stock-shipping business in 1888, under the firm name of Douglass and Wirick for four years, but since that time has been alone. For the past seven years he has shipped only hogs. He has sent as many as one hundred and thirty cars to market each year, and before the cholera began its ravages often shipped seven or eight cars a week.
March 8, 1866, Mr. Wirick was married in Shelby county, Ohio, to Miss Sarah Ellen Young, who was born in that county January 21, 1846, a daughter of Samuel and Jane (Johnson) Young. Mr. and Mrs. Wirick have four children: Samuel L., who is the proprietor of the
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flour and grain business in connection with his father; May, who is the wife of Norval Clark, of Johnson, and has two children; Earl, who is in the stock and grain business with his father; and Fred, who is a boy of fifteen and at home and in school. Mr. Wirick affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and was a member of the encamp- ment. In politics he is a Republican, and was an unsuccessful candidate on that ticket for sheriff of the county. His wife is a member of the Methodist church.
LOUIS J. NUTZMAN.
Louis J. Nutzman, a cigar manufacturer and dealer of Fairbury, Jefferson county, Nebraska, has been prominently identified with the growth and prosperity of this favored section of the state for the past fifteen years. He has lived in the state since boyhood, even before the territory was admitted to statehood, so that he has grown up with the country and is personally acquainted with the most important events in its progress. He has the reputation of an astute and sapient business man, and his energy and enterprise have also extended to matters af- fecting the public welfare and necessary to the upbuilding of the city.
Mr. Nutzman was born in the city of Buffalo, New York, Septem- ber 5, 1857, second in order of birth of the eight children of Henry and Minnie (Schmidt) Nutzman, both of whom were natives of Ger- many and emigrated to America and settled in Buffalo in 1854. In 1865 the family came to Nebraska, where Henry Nutzman died in 1898.
Mr. Nutzman began the battle of life on his own account at the age of fourteen years. In 1871 he became an apprentice to the cigar-making
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business, and after learning the trade engaged in business for himself. He took up his permanent location in Fairbury in 1888, and at the pres- ent time has two retail stores. One is located on the west side of the square, and to this he gives his personal supervision, while his main factory and other store is at 310 E street, this being in charge of his son. He employs three men in the manufacturing department, and has a good and growing trade, reaching into the surrounding counties.
Mr. Nutzman was married in Richardson county, Nebraska, in 1881, to Miss Kate Bickel, who is also a native of Buffalo, New York, and of German extraction. They have six children : Adam, Florence, Louis, Edwin, Charles L. and Frederick. In politics Mr. Nutzman is a stanch Republican and takes an active part in local politics. He is serving his second term as city clerk, and is also justice of the peace, having been elected in 1898. He is prominent in the various fraternal orders, affiliates with Fairbury Lodge No. 19, Knights of Pythias, in which he has passed all the chairs, has represented the grand lodge and is now master of finances in the subordinate; is allied with the Knights and Ladies of Security, No. 49, the Maccabees, Tent No. 51, Piute Tribe No. 54 of the Red Men, Royal Highlanders No. 149, and the Fraternal Order of Eagles, No. 149, all of this city.
JOHN AUMILLER.
John Aumiller, who is now one of the prominent agriculturists and stock-raisers at Johnson, Nebraska, has been a resident of Nebraska for over twenty years, the exact date of his arrival being August I, 1880. The early part of his life was devoted to the profession of the ministry, which he followed for a number of years, and was stationed at
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several places in this state. He has throughout his life been a progres- sive, enterprising, high-minded man, useful in every community where he has made his home, and after devoting a proper share of his energies to acquiring his own prosperity has given his public-spirited efforts to the upbuilding and betterment of his fellow men and their material con- ditions. He is well known and popular in Nemaha county, and is es- teemed for his individual worth and excellence and his sterling qualities of true manhood.
Mr. Aumiller was born in Crawford county, Ohio, December 16, 1847, and is of excellent colonial ancestry on both sides of the house. His grandfather, John Aumiller, was a native of Pennsylvania and was a soldier in the war of 1812. He died when past middle life, in Penn- sylvania. His wife was a Miss Roe, also of Pennsylvania, and she lived to be an octogenarian and died in Indiana, and Mr. Aumiller re- members this grandmother. They reared three sons : George, who died in Elkhart county, Indiana, leaving three sons and three daughters; John., who died in Pennsylvania in young manhood; and Daniel.
Daniel Aumiller was born in Union county, Pennsylvania, in Octo- ber, 1809, and received a good common school education in that state. He was a brickmason and a contractor and builder, which pursuits he followed for thirty-three years, being a very successful business man. He spent three years in learning the trade of brickmason, being paid but thirty-three and a third dollars a year and furnishing his own clothes. After completing his apprenticeship he walked all the way to Tiffin, Ohio, and invested his savings in eighty acres of government land. At the time of his death, when seventy-three years old, he left several farms in Ohio and in the west, owning altogether seven tracts, which aggre- gated over eleven hundred acres. He was a Univeralist in religion, while his wife was of the Lutheran faith. He was married about 1835
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to Miss Sarah Bover, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1816 and died at the age of eighty-three years. She was a noble and energetic woman, and much of the care of the home and family devolved on her during the absence of her husband at his work as contractor, and she shared in the success which came to their efforts. They were the parents of eleven children, as follows : George Daniel, born in 1836, died in Craw- ford county, Ohio, when nearly thirty years old, leaving one son and one daughter; Emanuel lives in Crawford county and has two sons; Melissa, the wife of Frederick Wiseman, died in Ohio at the age of fifty-seven, leaving three children; Sarah A. is the wife of John Gear- hart, in Sheridan county, Missouri, and has three living children ; Miss Julia is a dressmaker at Bucyrus, Ohio; John is the next member of the family; Almira, the wife of D. K. Spahr, died in Ohio aged about thirty, leaving two children; Amelia is the wife of John W. Pittman, and they have been residents of Montgomery county, Kansas, for over thirty years; Mary, the wife of Oscar Robinson, died in Kansas in 1882; Emma is the wife of John Nichols, of Crawford county, Ohio; and Charles is also a farmer of Crawford county, and is married.
In 1872 Mr. John Aumiller became a member of the United Breth- ren church, after which he took a three years' course in biblical theology. He was ordained an elder and in 1876 was appointed to the charge of the church at Attica, Ohio. In the following year he was at the Chi- cago Junction church, and in 1880 was sent to Crete, Nebraska, and was also located at Beatrice, Blue Springs and Lincoln, his ministerial labors continuing for seven years. He located on a farm in Nemaha county in 1882, and lived there until 1889, in which year he moved to University Place, a suburb of Lincoln, where he resided two years while his daugh- ter was receiving her education. He returned to Johnson in 1891, and in the following year built his fine two-story residence, which is one of
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the architectural adornments of the town. He owns a farm of three hundred acres in the county, and also has a section of land in Decatur county, Kansas. He has been in the stock business on an extensive scale, and still handles and feeds many cattle and hogs. His home is truly a place of beauty and domestic comfort. The large lawn which surrounds the dwelling is made especially attractive by some thirty-five red cedar bushes, which are kept neatly trimmed into cone-shaped mounds some five feet high, besides a variety of ornamental trees. In 1902, while at Nebraska city, he cut some limbs of a weeping willow tree at J. Sterling Morton's Home (by name "Arbor Lodge"), which he brought home and planted on his lawn, and which are now living and doing well.
September 5, 1871, Mr. Aumiller was married to Miss Susan She- mer, who was born in Stark county, Ohio, August 27, 1850, a daughter of John and Mary Magdeline (Wickard) Shemer, the former of whom was brought from his native Switzerland to America when eight years old, and the latter was a native of Stark county. Of these parents, the mother died in Crawford county, Ohio, at the age of seventy-three, but the father is still living, active in body and mind, at the age of eighty- four. They were farmers, and reared ten children. Mrs. Aumiller was educated in the public schools, and remained at home until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Aumiller have one child, Emma Grace, who is the wife of L. P. Welch, of Nebraska City, and is the mother of six children, as follows : Hazel Ruth Welch, a bright little girl of twelve; John Guy, aged ten ; Gladys Fern, aged eight ; Herschel V., six; Jennie Lucile, four; and Willa, three years old. These children are the joy and pride of both parents and grandparents. Mr. Aumiller affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in politics, though reared in the faith of the Democracy, is a Republican, but has declined all official preferment.
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JOHN F. HOLTGREWE.
John Holtgrewe, who has been a leading merchant at Johnson, Nemaha county, for the past fifteen years, dealing in dry-goods, cloth- ing, groceries and all the staple articles demanded by the trade, is one of the enterprising individuals who are responsible for much of the growth and prosperity of towns like Johnson. He is essentally a busi- ness man, both by training and instinct, and, beginning with no capital except his earnings, he has been progressing toward prosperity ever since he left the home farm and took up mercantile life.
Mr. Holtgrewe was born in Franklin county, Missouri, May 20, `1857, of German parentage and inheriting many of the best characteris- tics of that race. His father, John H. Holtgrewe, was born in Hanover, Germany,, in October, 1819, and married Miss Anna Catherine Pohlman, who was born in Westphalia, Germany, September 29, 1825, and who came to America with her parents. John H. Holtgrewe died in Decem- ber, 1897, and his wife in August, 1890, leaving a good estate which they had made through their own diligent efforts. They began their domestic life in this conutry in the heavy timber of Missouri, on govern- ment land for which they paid the regular price of a dollar and a quar- ter an acre, and some land they purchased for as little as a bit an acre. There were two hundred and forty acres in the home farm, and they also owned other farms. These worthy people were Lutherans in faith and afterward of the Evangelical church. He had enjoyed very little schooling in Germany, and when he wrote his first letter home after coming to America it was a whole day's labor. He at once resolved to learn to read and write English, which he did. There were nine chil- dren born to these parents, as follows : Mary, born in 1851, is the wife of Frank Meyer, a carpenter in Missouri; Henry, born in 1853, is a large farmer in Otoe county, Nebraska; Herman, born in 1855, is a resi-
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dent of Johnson; John F. is the fourth in order of birth in the family ; Wilhelmina died when two years old; Annie, born in 1862, is the wife of Henry Birkman, a farmer in Nemaha county; Caroline, born in 1864, is the wife of Henry Damme, a merchant of Talmage, Nebraska; Fred, born December 29, 1868, is manager of a lumber yard in Johnson, and is unmarried; and William, born in 1871, is also manager of a lumber yard at Talmage.
John F. Holtgrewe attended the common schools of Missouri until he was seventeen, and was also in school one year after he had reached his majority. He remained at home until he was twenty-six years old, and in 1884 began clerking in a store in Talmage, Nebraska. His first business on his own account was in western Nebraska, but on account of a severe drought he was compelled to leave within five months. He came to Johnson in the fall of 1889, and has made this town the center of his business activity ever since. He had a capital of twenty-five hundred dollars, all of which had been saved from his earnings. His lowest salary as a clerk was twenty dollars a month and board, and his highest four hundred dollars a year, but from this he had made his start and gained that vantage ground in the business world from which he has never had to retreat. He has conducted a steadily growing business, carrying at present a stock worth thirty thousand dollars, and employ- ing from two to four salesmen. He owns one of the large stores of the town; twenty-five by eighty feet in dimensions, and also rents another building of the same size. He purchased his pleasant home in 1891, and he also owns two tenant houses in the town and a section of land in Chase county, Nebraska.
Mr. Holtgrewe was married January 7, 1892, to Miss Emilie Blinde, who was born February 16, 1873. Her father, August Blinde, was from Germany, and became a farmer in Lafayette county, Missouri, where he
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was married to Bertha Walkenhorst, also of Germany. They have since removed from their farm and have built in Johnson a brick hotel, which they are now conducting. Mr. and Mrs. Holtgrewe have four children : Bertha, born December 13, 1893; August, born October 28, 1896; Clara, born March 24, 1900; and Ida, born January 4, 1903.
REV. CONRAD DEUBLER.
Rev. Conrad Deubler, the beloved pastor of the Zion Lutheran church at Johnson, Nebraska, is practically the founder and builder of this congregation, with which he has been connected as its official head since its inception over twenty years ago. The church edifice was dedi- cated October 4, 1883, and Rev. Deubler, fresh from his theological studies, at that time entered upon the task of developing, in the strength and love of the Lord, a society which should be influential for good throughout this community. The heads of nine families composed the official church register in that day of small beginnings, and their names are as follows : George Ihrig, Jacob Schaffer, John Kaiser, John Schmidt, Charles Wagner, T. Klugherz, H. H. Berg, Fred Woerlen and Joseph Sadtler. The congregation has since had a steady growth, and there are sixty families represented in the church at the present time. Mr. Deubler has devoted himself without stint to this noble work, and has not only gained the love and esteem of his parishioners, but is respected throughout the community for his ability, his kindness and benevolence and his public-spirited citizenship. He is the owner of an eighty-acre farm about three miles from the church, but his time is now almost en- tirely taken up by his ministerial duties. He is the teacher of the parochial school, the confirmation session lasting from the first of Janu-
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ary to Easter, and the parochial term from Easter to July I and from September to November.
Rev. Deubler was born in the grand duchy of Hessen, Germany, February 19, 1863. His grandfather was a watchman in the govern- ment forests. His father, Johannes Deubler, is still living in Ger- many at the age of sixty-nine, having followed the occupation of farm- er and barber. He married Catherine Riedel, who died in Germany in January, 1896, at the age of fifty-one years. Her father was a brick and stone mason. Johannes Deubler and wife reared four of their five children, as follows: Rev. Deubler ; Mrs. Eliza Koch, who is a widow in Germany and has one child; George, who is a farmer in Nemaha county, Nebraska, and has three sons and one daughter, and Johannes, unmarried, who is a farmer in Germany.
Rev. Deubler passed the first seventeen years of his life in Germany, and was educated in the private schools. August 18, 1880, he arrived in Mendota, Illinois, where he spent three years in the Lutheran The- ological Seminary, being graduated June 15, 1883, and at once entered the ministry. November 26, 1885, Thanksgiving day, he married Miss Emilie Stutheit, who was born in Clayton county, Iowa, November 10, 1866. Her grandfather came over from Germany and was a farmer in Bremer county, Iowa, whence he came to Nebraska in 1866. He died at the age of eighty-one, and his wife at the age of seventy-four, and they had a family of nine children. Mrs. Deubler's father, B. F. Stutheit, was born in Hanover, Germany, and was brought to this country when an infant. He married Catherine Hempler, who was born in Oldenburg, Germany, October 4, 1839, and came to America in 1839, being twelve weeks on the ocean voyage. She died in Johnson county, Nebraska, at the age of forty-nine, leaving all her eleven children, and her husband was again married, having a son by his sec-
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ond union, and all the twelve children are still living. Mr. and Mrs. Deubler lost a daughter in infancy, and now have eight children : Rosa, a girl of sixteen, who was educated in both German and English ; Eleanor, aged fifteen, also through school and having taken the Ger- man and English courses here; Charlotte, aged twelve years; Emilie, aged ten ; Freddie, aged seven : Emma, three years old; and Conrad and Ottilie, twins, who were born May 23, 1903.
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