USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 9
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and has passed all the chairs; he is also a Woodman of the World, and he and his wife are charter members of the Rebekahs. In politics he is a Democrat, and has been school director for nine years. : Mr. Armstrong's parents held their golden wedding anniversary on November 29. 1888, and at their death they had the unusual record of leaving thirty-three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
MRS. SARAH ELIZABETH FULLER.
Mrs. "Sarah Elizabeth Fuller, an honored resident of the city of Nemaha, Nebraska, is the widow of Job Fuller, whose death occurred at his home three miles from Nemaha in 1900, when nearly sixty-nine years of age. He was born in the county of Kent, England, about eight miles west of London, and was reared as a farmer lad, remaining at home until reaching years of maturity. He then sailed from Liverpool to New York city, spending two months on the ocean, and during the time celebrated his birthday. He came to this country with small means, as his parents were in limited circumstances, but was a scholarly man and possessed a retentive memory. For about five years Mr. Fuller made his home in Canada, during which time he was employed as a farm hand, and was there married in about 1857. He then removed with his wife and two children to Illinois, in which state his wife died, leaving two of the four children born to them. During his residence in that state he also served as a soldier in the Civil war.
Soon after the close of that struggle, in 1866, Mr. Fuller came to Nebraska, and in that year was married to Mrs. Beckwith, the widow of Asal Beckwith and also of Jesse Ewing. She was twice married. She is a daugliter of Huston and Lavina ( Livingston) Russell, the former of
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whom was born in Kentucky in 1807 and the latter in Pennsylvania in 1819. Their marriage was celebrated in 1837, and they became the parents of ten children, only three of whom grew to years, of maturity, namely : Mrs. Fuller, who was born in Shelby county, Indiana, August 24, 1836; Tirrell, an agriculturist in Nemaha county ; and Nathaniel, who died in Auburn, Nebraska, June 17, 1903, leaving a wife and six chil- dren and a small estate. He also served as a soldier in the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Russell removed from Indiana to Iowa, and about five years later, on the 10th of February, 1855, came to Nemaha county, Ne- braska, crossing the river on the ice, and at this time the Indians were plentiful but the white settlers few. The city of Nemaha then contained but one small store, poorly stocked, and with the exception of its proprie- tor, who was named Brown, the only other resident was a Mr. Edwards. Their worldly possessions at the time of their arrival consisted of two yoke of oxen, two cows and two yearlings, and they pre-empted a quar- ter section of land three-fourths of a mile from Nemaha. Six children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Fuller, but only three are now living, namely: Dora Mertsheimer, whose husband is engaged in the railroad business in Wyoming, and they have three children : Jolin, a resident of Evanston, Wyoming, and the father of five children; and Mary, the wife of Theodore Ginn, by whom she has three children, and the family reside in Auburn, Nebraska.
JAMES RAYNOR.
James Raynor, a retired farmer of Auburn, Nebraska, dates his birth in Nottinghamshire, England, May 1, 1834. He is a son of Thomas Raynor, who was born in Lincolnshire, England, December 18, 1796, and who emigrated with his family to America in 1837. Three times
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married, by his first wife he had one daughter, by his second wife one son and one daughter, and by his third wife eight children. His third wife was Jane Wetherell, a native of York, England, born in 1808, daughter of Thomas Wetherell, an innkeeper. Their eight children were as fol- lows : Elizabeth, wife of George W. McIntyre, of Lowell, Massachusetts. has one son; Thomas Wetherell, a retired railroad man of Jackson, Mich- igan, has one son and one daughter: George, who died in Waterville, Maine, left a widow and one daughter: James, whose name introduces this sketch; Jane, wife of B. S. Gillman, of San Francisco, California ; Robert W., a locomotive engineer and foreman of the round-house at Battle Creek, Michigan, has four sons; John W., who died in Kansas City, Missouri, April 26, 1896; and William B., of Muskegon, Michigan, has been twice married and has one son and two daughters. The father of this large family died in Orange, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, March 16, 1864, and the mother died at the home of her son in Mount Vernon, Illinois, in April, 1875. at the age of seventy-four years.
James Raynor was three years old when he was brought by his parents to this country, and his boyhood days were spent in Vermont, the removal of the family to Ohio being in 1854, when he was twenty. He attended the public schools up to the time he was seventeen, when he began learning the trade of carriage painter. After serving an appren- ticeship of three years to this trade, he continued work at it until the outbreak of the Civil war.
August 15. 1861, Mr. Raynor volunteered his services for the pro- tection of the country into which he had been adopted. At this time he was in Albany, Green county, Wisconsin. As a member of Company E, Thirteenth Wisconsin, he served one year to the day. He was then transferred to the Thirty-first Regiment, Company F. the fortunes of which he shared until July 6, 1865, when he was mustered out at Madison,
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Wisconsin. He was during the first year of his army life made a second lieutenant, later was promoted to first lieutenant, and was in command of the company twenty-two months, as first lieutenant. He was brevetted captain. Mr. Raynor was in four hard-fought battles-Parksville, Peach Tree Creek, Nashville and Decatur.
After the war Mr. Raynor returned to Albany, Wisconsin, and en- gaged in the manufacture of wagons and carriages, under the firm name of The Tilleys & Raynor. Selling his interest in the establishment in December, 1869, Mr. Raynor came further west the following year, landing in Washington county, Kansas, in June, where he engaged in farming. He still owns one hundred and sixty acres of land in Barnes township, Washington county, Kansas.
April 9, 1854, Mr. Raynor married Miss Harriet Vrooman, a native of Ohio, born in 1831, daughter of Frederick and Elizabeth (Becker) Vrooman, both of Otsego county, New York. To Mr. and Mrs. Raynor were given two sons. One died in infancy and the other, Willis J., is a practicing physician of Auburn. Mrs. Raynor died Octo- ber 31, 1902, in Barnes, Washington county, Kansas, at the age of sev- enty-two years, after the term of their married life had lengthened out to nearly fifty years. A true wife, loving mother, noble woman-her death was a sad loss to Mr. Raynor.
Fraternally, Mr. Raynor is identified with the Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Oder of Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of the Republic. In the last named organization he was post commander three terms, two terms in Beadle Post, Nebraska, and one in Barnes Post, Washington county, Kansas. He has been a life-long Republican. He was a justice of the peace and police judge many years, in both Kan- sas and Nebraska. Mr. Raynór may be called a self-educated man. All his life he has been a close observer and a careful and constant reader.
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Naturally of a genial disposition and with a retentive memory, both physically and mentally well preserved, and with a rare store of interest- ing reminiscences, he is indeed a cheerful companion for both young and old.
Willis James Raynor, son of James and Harriet Raynor, was born in Wisconsin, January 14, 1856. He attended the district and high schools in his native state, spent two years in the Kansas State Normal School, and then took a course in the Medical College of Ohio, at Cin- cinnati, where he graduated in 1880. He has also taken two post-graduate courses in New York. After finishing his studies in Cincinnati, Dr. Ray- nor located in Hardy, Nebraska, where he was engaged in the practice of his profession twelve years. In.1896 he removed to Denver, Colorado, where he had a nice home and where he spent one year practicing medi- cine. In 1898 he enlisted in the United States service, as assistant sur- geon, and was on duty at Fort Logan, Colorado, until June, 1899, in full charge of the hospital. With the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry he was ordered to the Philippines, where they landed in due time and where he was in the field during the Lawton campaign. Afterward he was transferred to the general hospital of the regular army, and re- mained on duty until August, 1900. At this time he secured a leave of absence and came home, being away seven months and returning, accompanied by his family, and with the rank of captain. He was mus- tered out in December, 1902, and at once embarked for home. He landed in San Francisco, California, the day his mother died in Kansas, but it was not until a week afterward that he reached the old home place and his bereaved father.
Dr. Raynor was married June 5, 1883, at Hardy, Nebraska, to Miss Mary A. Shore, a native of Pennsylvania. She was born May 9, 1858, daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (Whitehead) Shore, both now de-
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ceased, her mother having died at the age of sixty-five years and her father at seventy-three. Mrs. Raymond is one of a family of five children, four of whom reached maturity. To the Doctor and his wife have been given five children : Ivy, May, Iris, Ruth and Willis James, Jr. The son and youngest child was born in the Philippines, April 13, 1902. Like his father before him. Dr. Raynor is a Republican and a member of the Masonic order.
JAMES COWEL.
James Cowel, who died at his late home in Bedford precinct, Howe postoffice, Nemaha county, July 4, 1903, at the age of fifty years, was one of the honored old settlers of Southeastern Nebraska, having come here before the admission of the state to the Union. Although he finished his life's work early, his career was filled with useful efforts and was successful from every point of view. His citizenship and manhood were above reproach, and to his family he was generous in fatherly devo- tion, kind in action, and himself a high ideal for their subsequent life. Both he and his wife were taken from their children when their parental affection and counsel and aid were indispensable, but the son and daughters have bravely taken up the duties of home and life and are carving for themselves honorable places in the world.
Mr. Cowel was a son of Reuben Cowel, who was a farmer of Ohio, from which state he came to Cass county, Indiana, and in 1868 followed his son to Nebraska, where he farmed during the rest of his life. He was a soldier in the Civil war, and was a man of character and ability in every sphere of life. He was twice married, having ten children by his first wife, who died in Delaware county, Ohio. Of the eight sons
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and two daughters, two sons died in infancy, and the four now living are: Lida, wife of Adam Wilson, at Red Oak, Iowa; Jay and Andy, farmers of Oklahoma, and the latter a stock-dealer; and Uriah, in Lawrence, Michigan.
James Cowel was born in Delaware county, Ohio, December 13, 1852. He came to Nebraska in 1865, and began as a tenant farmer in Nemaha county. He came to the present homestead of one hundred and sixty acres in 1886, and in 1888 bought it for thirty-five dollars an acre, but it is now worth considerably more. He was a good farmer, and longer life would undoubtedly have made him one of the most prosperous men of the county.
August 21, 1880, Mr. Cowel was married in Sheridan (now Au- burn) to Miss Margaret Hughes, a daughter of A. D. T. Hughes, one of the pioneers of this part of the state, and whose brother William home- steaded the Cowel farm. Mr. and Mrs. Cowel had four children : Oliver C., who since his father's death has assumed the conduct of the home farm and is doing well; Clara E., who is a teacher and living at home; Dollie C., who is just out of school; and Neva N., aged eleven years and in school. They were all educated in Auburn, and Oliver graduated in 1901, and the two sisters were in the classes of 1903 and 1905 when their parents died. Mrs. Cowel died February 13, 1903, of dropsy, while her husband was afflicted with rheumatism and Bright's disease. Mr. Cowel was a Master Mason, and in politics a Democrat, but later a Populist. His wife was a Methodist, and he was reared in the Lutheran church, but throughout life placed deeds above creeds. By his will he left his estate to his children, and notwithstanding their sore bereavement they are reflecting credit on their noble and worthy parents by the manner in which they have taken up the burdens of life.
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LIEUTENANT JOSEPH K. PITTMAN.
Lieutenant Joseph K. Pittman, of Nemaha township, Gage county, Nebraska, is a resident here of fifteen years' standing. His life of over sixty years has been passed in various localities, all of which have been honored by his substantial citizenship and worthy performance of every duty devolving upon him. When in the flush of young manhood he gave his services to the nation to preserve union and personal liberty, and the meritorious and gallant part which he took on the field of battle is attested by the title which he won. Since that time he has gained suc- cess equally great in civil life, has devoted himself without reserve to individual work and the discharge of those responsibilities which come up between man and man, and for all this deserves the honor and esteem which are shown him and his excellent family.
Lieutenant Pittman was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, in 1840, and comes of a family well known in that state, some of whose members took part in the early wars of the colonies and republic. His great-grandfather Benjamin, his grandfather Joseph and his father, Ezra, were all born in Pennsylvania. Ezra Pittman was a native of Bedford county, followed farming there all his life, was a Democrat of the Jack- sonian type, and a church member and honored citizen. His wife was Elizabeth Knable, a native of Bedford county and a daughter of John Knable, of an old Pennsylvania Dutch family. She is also deceased.
Joseph K. Pittman was reared on the home farm in Pennsylvania, and during limited seasons attended school, but the greater part of the practical training which has helped him through life was acquired by experience which began when he was a boy. He was twenty-one years old when the Civil war came on, and on November 19, 1861, he enlisted, at Werefordsburg, Pennsylvania, in Company B, and taken into the
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Third Maryland Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Cardiff and Colonel Downey, and gave three years and three months of faithful service. He participated in the battle at Harper's Ferry and in many of the engage- ments in Virginia, and assisted in repelling General Mosby's raiders from the northern states. He was in West Virginia for some time, and his regiment was ordered to Gettysburg, but arriving there too late to take part in the crucial conflict of the war. Mr. Pittman entered the service as a private, was made corporal, orderly sergeant, and then promoted to first lieutenant, with which rank he was honorably discharged, with the commendation of his superiors and the personal regard of the men of his company. In 1865, after he had returned from the war, he came west to Knox county, Illinois, and was engaged in farming near Gales- burg for thirteen years. In 1878 he moved to Lincoln county, Kansas, and in that new country took up a homestead, on which he lived until 1888, when he came to Gage county, and since then has been successfully engaged in farming and stock-raising.
In 1868 Mr. Pittman was married in Knox county, Illinois, to Miss Mary F. Bower, and they have enjoyed a most happy union of over thirty-five years, gladdened with life's pleasures and made sweeter and closer by its sorrows. She is a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Jacob and Susan (Bryan) Bower, both of whom are deceased, the latter at the age of seventy-eight. Twelve children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Pittman. One son died in childhood, and the others are: Jasper D., Joseph, Ulysses G., Ezra, William, Edwin, Roy, Robert, Susan, Jessie, and Mary. Mr. Pittman is a stanch Republican, and enjoys old army comradeship with the Sergeant Cox Post No. 100, G. A. R., at Adams. He is also a Mason, and he and his wife are members of the Baptist church. He is a well informed man, genial and frank with his
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associates, and his home is a place of hospitality and good cheer for all who enter its doors.
CASNER BARNES.
Casner Barnes, a prominent farmer near South Auburn, on mail route No. 2, has been a resident of Nemaha county for forty-five years, from the pioneer epoch down to the twentieth century present. He has been a successful farmer from youth, and has made a reputation in this line, as also as a citizen and man. Few men could have put their diligent efforts to better use than Mr. Barnes has in making one of the fine farms for which this county is noted, and to whatever he has turned his hand he has done well.
Mr. Barnes is a grandson of John Barnes, a Pennsylvania farmer, who in 1840 came west to Lee county, Iowa, where he died in 1860, at the age of seventy-five. He had nine children, five sons and four daugh- ters, and the only survivor is Alexander, living in Smith county, Kansas. John Barnes, the father of Casner Barnes, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1821, and died at Nemaha city, Nebraska, Sep- tember 8, 1896. He and his wife inherited eighty acres of land in Iowa, and in 1857 they came to Richardson county, Nebraska, and two weeks later to Nemaha city, settling one mile north on one hundred and sixty acres of land, only ten acres of which had been broken, and they paid the claimant seventeen hundred dollars for his "squatter sovereignty" and then pre-empted. He bought and sold several farms and was in good circumstances. He was a Republican in politics, and was county commissioner and register of voters. He and his wife were Presbyterians. and he was an elder in the church at Brownville. He was married in 1846, at West Point, Iowa, to Miss Elizabeth Harger, who was born in
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Indiana, December 20, 1829, and died at Nemaha city, June 20, 1883. They were the parents of the following children : Casner ; Catherine E., wife of James H. Drain, at Red Cloud, Nebraska, has nine children ; Amanda is the wife of Charles M. Welton, of Johnson, Nebraska; Isham B. is a farmer of Coolidge, Kansas, and has seven children; John S. is a farmer of Smith county, Kansas, and has seven children living ; Luther H. is a farmer, real estate man and contractor in Bison, Oklahoma, and has six children living ; David, who was county superintendent of schools at Lamar, Colorado, died at the age of thirty-four, leaving a wife and three children ; Lydia H. is the wife of H. O. Hermle, in California, and has two children; Mary E. is the wife of B. L. Shellhorn, M. D., of Peru, Nebraska, and has two children living.
Casner Barnes was born at West Point, Lee county, Iowa, Novem- ber 14, 1847, and was reared on the farm and lived at home until his mar- riage in 1877. He bought his first land, ninety-two acres, in 1873. He now owns three hundred and twenty acres of choice land, upon which he has placed all the improvements, including three acres of orchard and shade trees. He does general farming and stock-raising, and in 1903 had in one hundred and thirty-five acres of corn and sixty of wheat. His cattle are of mixed breeds. He has been especially successful in the feeding of hogs, and ships about two carloads each year and always keeps on hand about a hundred.
April 1, 1877. Mr. Barnes was married to Miss Ophelia McIninch, who was born February 4, 1860, on a part of Nemaha county that has since been washed into the turbulent floods of the Missouri river. Her parents, W. H. and Catherine (Dunkle) McIninch, the former a native of Ohio, and the latter of Virginia, came to Nebraska in 1857, and are still living on the old farm near Auburn. They had eight children : Mrs. Barnes is the eldest ; James H. McIninch is a farmer near Brown-
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ville; Miss Wille Kate is at home; David C. is a farmer near Auburn; Belle is the wife of D. E. Zook, a farmer near Auburn; M. S. McIninch is an attorney in Auburn; Barnett is at Brownville; and Julia, aged eighteen, is in school at Auburn.
Nine children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Barnes. Katie E. is the wife of W. H. Linn, a dentist of Auburn, Nebraska; Miss Mattie M. is a teacher in Auburn, having taken the training course in the normal at Peru ; Miss Lydia B. is a student in Auburn; Welton C. is also in the Auburn schools; Edna T. attends the district school at home; Mary; Delbert M. is eight years old; Guy died at the age of five; and Ishanı Bartlett is a boy of three. Mr. Barnes is a Republican in politics, and was once a candidate for county commissioner, and has been on the school board for twenty-five years. He and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church.
LOUIS H. ROHMEYER.
Louis H. Rohmeyer, editor and publisher of the Westlicher Beo- bachter, the official organ of the German Farmers' Insurance Company in Nebraska and the leading German paper in the southeastern part of the state, is a thoroughly Americanized German. Bringing with him to this country the characteristic energy and enterprise of the German and taking advantage of the opportunities for advancement which he found here, he has pushed his way to the front and is justly deserving of the representative position which he holds among the leading citizens of the locality in which he lives.
Mr. Rohmeyer is a native of Hanover, Germany, and was born Feb- ruary 5, 1860. His ancestors were tradesmen, noted for honesty and
LOUIS H. ROHMEYER
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industry, and longevity as well. Frederick Nolte, his maternal grand- father, lived to the advanced age of ninety-six years and retained his faculties, mental and physical, to the close of his life, his death occurring in Hanover, in 1865. Mr. Rohmeyer's father, William Rohmeyer, a shoe merchant of Hanover, is now past eighty years of age and is still active in business. The fiftieth anniversary of his marriage to Johanna Nolte was celebrated September 6, 1902. Their pictures in the souvenir designed and published by their son. Louis H., in memory of this anni- versary, show them to be still well preserved. Of their four children Louis H. is the only son now living. His two brothers, William and August, died in Hanover-the former at the age of nine years, and the latter on his fourtieth birthday, leaving a widow and three children. His sister, Louise Frerichs, now resides in Bremerhaven, Germany.,
Louis H. Rohmeyer received a common and high-school education in his native city. In 1874, at the age of fourteen years, he began work at the printer's trade, and served an apprenticeship of four years. Afterwards he worked in Switzerland and Germany as a journeyman printer, for several years, until 1890, when he came to America. His first location in this country was at St. Louis, where he was for some time employed as compositor on a German newspaper, and from whence, in 1898, he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. Up to this time he had been able to save but very little if any of his earnings, and when he landed in Lincoln he had only thirty-five dollars. The following year he opened a job printing office, which he successfully conducted in Lincoln for nearly two years, at the end of which time, December 1, 1900, he came to Auburn and purchased the Western Observer, which had been established ten months previous to that date. Mr. Rohmeyer has increased the cir- culation of his paper to two thousand three hundred, six times its original subscription list, and not only has the circulation of the paper been
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increased but the standard of the publication also has been raised. He owns the plant, and in connection with running the paper he does a large job printing business in both German and English.
Mr. Rohmeyer married, in Hanover, Germany, in 1884, Miss Johanna Tieman, and they have had five children, all of whom are living except Alfred, who was born in St. Louis, Missouri, October 29, 1891, and died at the age of four years. Amelia and William were born in Hanover, the former September 5, 1885, and the latter September 2, 1887. Louis was born in St. Louis, January 6, 1894, and Elizabeth in Lincoln, January 1, 1892.
Fraternally Mr. Rohmeyer is identified with a number of fraternal organizations, including the Ancient Order of United Workmen, Knights of Maccabees, Sons of Herman, and the German Society of Lincoln. Politically he is a Republican.
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