USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. II > Part 30
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Our subject was but a boy when the family moved to the United States. His education was received in the pioneer log schoolhouses of his day, and he has supplemented these limited advantages with study and close observation. In 1870 he was married to Matilda Howard, who was born in Douglas county, Missouri. She is a daughter of Philip J. and Winnie Howard, both deceased. Mrs. Cowperthwait died
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at the age of twenty-six, leaving two children, namely : John H., of Pawnee county, and Mrs. Maggie May Crawford, of Pawnee city. In 1880 Mr. Cowperthwait married Mrs. Jane (Sage) Leper, the widow of Sam Leper, who died in 1878 in Nebraska, leaving four children, two now living, namely : John Leper and Mrs. Nancy Brown, of Pawnee county. By her second marriage she had three children : Myrtle, Arthur Clyde and Minnie Pearl. She died and Mr. Cowperthwait was again married, to Sarah Hollinsaid, who was born in Pennsylvania. Her parents left that state for Indiana and for a time resided in Bureau county, Illinois, near Princeton, where her mother died at the age of thirty-two, leaving four children, of whom Mrs. Cowperthwait is the only one living, the other three being George W .; Matilda and John. The father of Mrs. Cowperthwait died in Nebraska. He had been married twice.
Mr. Cowperthwait located in Howell county, Missouri, in 1871 and remained there for a short time then moved to Dickinson county, Kan- sas, where he made his home for two years. In 1890 he located on his present home in Clay township, where he owns two hundred acres of some of the best farming land in Nebraska. He devotes it to general farming and stock-raising, making a specialty of blooded horses. His entire property is surrounded by the best grade of hedge fences and the premises indicate a good manager. His home bears the name of Pleasant Mound, and is one of the most inviting rural homes of this part of the state. Both he and his wife are very hospitable, and their many friends are made welcome within their gates. Mr. Cowperthwait is a stanch Republican and has served as delegate to county conventions and always may be depended upon to take an active part in local affairs. Mrs. Cowperthwait is a consistent member of the Union Baptist church, and her husband and family attends its services. Successful themselves,
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Mr. and Mrs. Cowperthwait always generously give of their plenty to those less fortunate than themselves and never turn anyone away.
GEORGE F. LITTLE.
George F. Little, one of the prominent men of Beatrice, Nebraska, and an honored veteran of the Civil war, has been a resident of Gage county since 1880. His war record commenced September 17, 1861, when he enlisted, when only fifteen years of age, in Company C. Seventy- fifth New York Volunteer Infantry, Colonel John A. Dodge command- ing. He was taken prisoner and confined at the rebel prison at Camp Tyler, Texas, for five months. In addition to his sufferings as a pris- oner, he was wounded three times, once at Port Hudson in the breast. He was honorably discharged November 25. 1864.
The birth of Mr. Little occurred in New York state, January 19, 1846, and he was a son of Isaac and Mercy ( Merrill) Little, both of whom were born in New York, and the latter a daughter of a soldier of the war of 1812. Another ancestor on the Little side of the house was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Isaac Little was also a soldier in the Civil war, serving in the One Hundred and Sixtieth New York Volunteer Infantry. Of his seven children there is the following record : Henry was in the Nineteenth New York Volunteer Infantry, served for four years and died in Rochester, New York ; Ellen Clark is deceased ; George F. is our subject; Ettie, of Rochester, New York; Elizabeth died at the age of ten years; one child who died in infancy. The mother died at the age of seventy-eight years, and the father passed away at the age of eighty years. By occupation he was a teacher, fraternally he was a Mason.
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George F. Little was reared and educated in New York state, and after the war was over he returned home, but in 1866 removed to Iowa, and for two and one-half years lived in Buchanan county. His next change was made when he located in Kansas City, Missouri, but in 1868 he returned to New York. In 1874 he located in Ellis county, Kansas, and took up a homestead, and also worked as foreman on the stonework of the Union Pacific Railroad until 1881, when seeing a good opening he located at Odell, Gage county, and found plenty of employ- ment at his trade of mason. Soon after he finally settled in Beatrice, where he has since made his home.
When twenty years of age he was married at Auburn, New York, to Annie Boscomb, a daughter of William Boscomb. Three children have been born to them, namely : Frank E., secretary of the bricklayers' union at Beatrice; Jessie married Abe Homer, of Beatrice; Georgiana married H. J. Kemp, of Rockford, Nebraska. In politics our subject is a Repub- lican, and voted for Abraham Lincoln when only sixteen years of age, at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. As is only natural, he is one of the ac- tive members of the G. A. R., Rawlins Post No. 35. In religious affiliations he is a Methodist, and in that body as throughout the city, he is very well and favorably known, and his family are a credit to him and the several communities in which they reside.
J. H. F. ROGGE.
J. H. F. Rogge, or Fred Rogge, as he is known among his ac- quaintances, is one of the most extensive farmers and stock-breeders in Nemaha county, and now when he has nearly arrived at the seventieth milestone of his life's journey he can look back on a career of grati-
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fying prosperity and most useful endeavor. He is a stanch American transplanted from Germany, where he spent the first half of his life. Although he had some money when he arrived in this country, the greater part of his prosperity has been gained in this land of opportunity, where his industry, capable management and faithful endeavor have re- sulted in much greater fruit than in the old country. His home farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Washington precinct, with post- office at Auburn, is one of the model places in this vicinity, and is a delightful spot in which to spend the years of retirement which he has so richly merited through his earlier toil. He has been a resident of this county since 1870, and is classed as a pioneer and representative citizen of a county whose organized existence does not antedate by many years his arrival.
Mr. Rogge was born in Hanover, Germany, August 6, 1835, a son of Jonas and Annie Kathrina (Hopeman) Rogge, the former of whom was born in the same place in 1803, and was a freeholder farmer in Germany, where he died at the age of fifty-eight and his wife at the age of forty. Mr. Rogge was one of their seven sons who were reared to manhood. He had a fair education in his native place, and from an early age has been accustomed to the duties of farm life. He was a tenant farmer in Germany for some years, and in 1868 brought his fam- ily to the new world, landing in New York, August 4th. He and his wife then possessed eight hundred dollars in gold, and they began as tenant farmers in Scott county, Iowa, where they remained two years. In 1870 they started for Nebraska, taking the boat at Quincy, Illinois, and going by way of the Missouri river to Leavenworth, Kansas, whence they arrived in Nemaha county in April. For the first three years he rented land, and then bought one hundred and twenty acres near Au- burn ; paying three hundred dollars for the twenty-year lease and seven
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dollars an acre for the land. That farm remained his home for nine years, and he then bought a quarter section where he now lives, and two years later the other quarter section, paying sixteen hundred dollars for the first and twenty-one hundred for the second. In all he now owns six farms, aggregating one thousand acres, with eight sets of build- ings, of which he has built four sets. His leading enterprise has been the raising and the fall-feeding of stock. He has shipped about two cars each year, and has fed some fine shorthorn stock. He has also marketed from fifty to one hundred hogs each year. Over one hundred acres have annually been devoted to the raising of corn, producing from fifty to eighty bushels an acre, and about eighty acres of wheat, some of which has gone as high as thirty-five bushels to the acre, while from fifty to seventy-five tons of hay have been put away each year. He has also planted several orchards on his place. Since coming to this coun- try Mr. Rogge has cast his vote with the Republican party, and he and his family have adhered to the Lutheran religion.
Mr. Rogge was married in Germany in 1863 to Miss Anna Marie Boling, who was born May 28, 1838, in Hanover, a daughter of John and Anna (Eggis) Boling, farmers and landowners of Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Rogge have had six children: Henry, born in Germany, is a farmer in Washington precinct, and has a wife and a son and a daugh- ter; Emma, the wife of William Kinkal, of the same precinct, has three children ; William F. is a bachelor farmer on one of the one hundred and sixty acre farms ; John, who is running the home farm of three hundred and twenty acres, married Anna Mary Boehlin; Anna Mary is at home; and Frederick died in Iowa when one year old.
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WILLIAM SMITH.
William Smith, a leading farmer at Filley, Gage county, Nebraska, has lived in southeastern Nebraska for about thirty years, so that he is classed among the old citizens, both in point of years of residence and of life. While now past the threescore and ten mark, he is active and capable withal, still bearing the responsibilities of life, and enjoying with a zest the comforts which his past labors have provided.
Mr. Smith was born in Rush county, Indiana, near Rushville, May 9, 1833, a son of Peter and Alice (Smith) Smith (not related by blood). Peter Smith was of German parentage, and followed the trade of wagon-maker until his early death at the age of thirty-five years. His wife was born in Virginia, of an old family of that state and originally from England. They were parents of six children, four sons and two daughters, and two sons, Thomas and William, were soldiers, the former serving in both the Mexican and Civil wars and dying in Indiana at an advanced age. The parents were both members of the United Brethren church, and the mother lived to be seventy-five years old.
William Smith was reared on a farm in Indiana, and learned the mason's trade, which he followed for many years. He moved to Grundy county, Missouri, in 1858, and worked at his trade there until the war. Although he was living near the Iowa line, he was in a hot- bed of bushwhackers and guerillas during the war, and he and his fam- ily were in constant danger. He served for nine months in the state militia, and then enlisted in Company G, Thirty-third Missouri In- fantry, under Captain Murphy, and the regiment was commanded suc- cessively by Colonels Fisk, Pyle and Heath. After remaining in the barracks at St. Louis for several weeks, they were sent into Arkansas, taking part in the battle at Helena; was in the Yazoo river expedition, and saw much hard fighting as a part of the Sixteenth Army Corps
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of the Western Army; was in the battle of Sabine Cross Roads, and sev- eral other engagements of the same campaign; was then ordered back to Tennessee, and from then until the end of the war was in the south- ern fringe of states, participating in the operations about Mobile and Fort Blakely and Spanish Fort. Mr. Smith received his honorable dis- charge at St. Louis in August, 1865, and, with the consciousness of duty well performed to his country, returned home and took up the peaceful pursuits of the civilian. In 1872 he left Missouri and came to Lancaster county, Nebraska, and was located near Lincoln for a few years, was then near Sterling, Johnson county, and then came to Gage county. In 1897 he moved to Phillips county, Kansas, near Phillipsburg, but four years later returned to Filley, Gage county, where he at present resides. He has four lots in the town, besides some land near by, and has a most comfortable home in which to spend the evening of his life.
Mr. Smith was married in Grundy county, Missouri, to Miss Nancy J. Williams, a daughter of David and Elizabeth (Esty) Williams, the former of an old Kentucky family, and both died in Missouri. Mrs. Smith was one of seven children, three sons and four daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have had eight children, and the five now living are: Alice, the wife of Charles Kay, of Auburn, Nebraska; David, who lives near Republican City, Franklin county, Nebraska; Thomas, of Austin, Texas; Jewell, the wife of Steven Holbrook, of Filley, Nebraska; and Kate, the wife of Frank Parker, of Filley. The children that died were Judy, at the age of two months; James, at eighteen months; and Steven, at the age of thirty-three years, in Austin, Texas. Mr. Smith is a stanch Republican, and affiliates with the Grand Army post at Phillips- burg, Kansas. Mrs. Smith is a member of the Christian church.
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JOHN NIDER.
John Nider, the proprietor of Fair View, one of the beautiful country seats of Jefferson county, has resided in Nebraska for forty- two years, and has been closely identified with the development and im- provement of this part of the state. He has had considerable influence in community affairs and is now serving for the second term as county commissioner, his capability and promptness winning his re-election. He is also an extensive landowner, and his property holdings are now quite valuable.
A native of New Jersey, John Nider was a son of Bartholomew Nider, whose birth occurred in Switzerland and who was a representa- tive of an old Swiss family noted for integrity, industry and patriotism. He was reared in his native country, learned his trade there and on com- ing to America settled in New Jersey. Subsequently he removed to St. Louis county, Missouri, thirty miles west of the city of St. Louis, and in 1862 he went to Gage county, Nebraska, being one of the first settlers to establish a home within its borders. Afterward he settled in Jefferson county near Plymouth. He was a carpenter, displaying excel- lent mechanical ability, and this enabled him to keep everything upon his farm in excellent condition and repair. His wife died at the age of fifty- five years. In their family were nine children, of whom three are liv- ing : Mrs. Bertha Coffin, John and Leander.
John Nider was about ten years of age when his parents removed to Gage county, Nebraska, and he was reared upon a farm there and in Jefferson county, learning to do all the work in connection with the operation of a farm, and receiving valuable instruction also concerning industry, perseverance and honesty. His literary training was received in the public schools.
Mr. Nider was married at the age of twenty-four years to Miss
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Eldora Harvey, who was born in Wisconsin and spent her girlhood days in that state and in Nebraska. Twenty-four years ago Mr. Nider set- tled upon his present farm. It was a tract of wild land that came into his possession, but the improvements he has made upon the place cause it to be appropriately called Fair View. His is one of the beautiful country seats of this part of the county. He has a fine residence well furnished and standing upon a natural building site. Shade and orchard trees have been planted and have now attained to good size, and there are substantial barns, sheds and outbuildings, while the fields are highly cultivated. Here Mr. Nider has two hundred and forty acres of land in the Cub Creek precinct, in addition to which he owns one hundred acres of land in Richland township and other lands elsewhere, making a total of eighty hundred and twenty acres of rich land, which yields to him a very gratifying financial return. He has a large barn sixty by forty- two feet, with wagon and carriage sheds and a fine hay house. He pastures one hundred and fifty head of cattle and raises and feeds a large number of horses and hogs. He has made a success of all that he has undertaken and is one of the most progressive agriculturists of this part of the state. He understands thoroughly the possibilities of the state as an agricultural district, and by making practical use of his knowl- edge has prospered in his business.
To Mr. and Mrs. Nider have been born eight children, seven sons and one daughter, namely: Charles, William, Frank, Bessie, Leslie, Claude, John and Mckinley. The family is well known in Jefferson county and the Nider household is justly celebrated for its hospitality.
In his political views Mr. Nider is a very stanch Republican and is recognized as one of the leaders of the party in this section of the state. He has served as a delegate to county and congressional conven- tions and has been an enthusiastic worker for his party and friends.
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In 1897 he was named as the strongest candidate for the position of county commissioner and after a service of three years was re-elected, and is now the incumbent. His course has been characterized by the utmost loyalty to duty, and the confidence reposed in him by the public is indi- cated by the fact that he was re-elected by a largely increased majority over an independent and a Democratic candidate. He is a man of broad views, whose progressiveness is tempered by conservatism, making him a safe public official as well as reliable and trustworthy business man. His long residence in southeastern Nebraska has given him a wide ac- quaintance, which his sterling worth has rendered a favorable one.
DAVID A. SHERWOOD.
For a number of years David A. Sherwood has made his home in Alexandria, where he is well and favorably known. In him we find one who has labored most effectively in public office for the public good, and is now accorded that recognition which is justly due the public-spirited and progressive citizen whose unselfish efforts in behalf of the general welfare have been attended by splendid results. He is a native son of the Empire state, his birth having occurred in Chenango county, New York, on the 7th of February, 1844, and he is a son of George Sherwood, a Pennsylvanian by birth and a member of an old and prominent family of that commonwealth. The father remained in the last named state until twenty-five years of age, when he removed to New York and was there married. In 1852 he took up his abode in Green Lake county, Wisconsin, being numbered among the early pioneers of that section, and in Madison, that state, Mrs. Sherwood was called to the home be- yond. He followed the occupation of a farmer through life; was a
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Republican in his political affiliations, and both he and his wife were worthy members of the Methodist church. In their family were nine children, and three of the sons were soldiers in the Civil war: Jacob, who served as a member of the Thirty-second Wisconsin Infantry; Erastus, a member of a Minnesota regiment; and David A., of the Thirty-seventh Wisconsin Infantry.
David A. Sherwood spent the early years of his life on his father's farm, and his educational training was received in the schools of Wiscon- sin. For a time he made his home in Mankato, Minnesota, but later returned to Green Lake county, Wisconsin, and in 1874 came to Alex- andria, Nebraska, where for many years he was engaged in business as a merchant and blacksmith. When the Civil war was inaugurated Mr. Sherwood nobly offered his services to his country, enlisting at Mar- quette, Wisconsin, in March, 1862, in Company C, Thirty-seventh Wis- consin Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel Samuel Harriman and Cap- tain H. W. Belden. After remaining in camp at Madison, Wisconsin, the regiment was ordered south to Baltimore, Maryland, and thence to Arlington Heights, Washington, D. C., where Mr Sherwood joined the Army of the Potomac, becoming a member of the Ninth Army Corps, under General Parks and General Meade. He was under fire at the bat- tle of Cold Harbor, also took part in the engagements of White Horse and Weldon Railroad, and at the battle of Petersburg, under General Burnside, his regiment made the famous charge, and was present at the great mine explosion where so many lives were lost. They were stationed at Petersburg until the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court House, and the regiment was later ordered after General Johnston, and thence on to Washington, D. C., near which city Mr. Sherwood served on provost duty until August, 1865, when he was discharged. He en- tered the ranks as a private, but was later made sergeant and was subse-
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quently promoted to a lieutenancy, as a reward of gallant conduct on the field of battle.
The marriage of Mr. Sherwood occurred in 1871, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, when Miss Mary Hitchcock became his wife. She is a daughter of Amasa Hitchcock, of Wisconsin, and a member of an old and well known family of New York. Two children have been born of this union : Leon, a prominent merchant of Daykin, Nebraska, and Lillie, the wife of C. N. Ross, a banker of Alexandria. Mr. Sherwood main- tains pleasant relations with his old army comrades of the blue by his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic. Fraternally he holds membership relations with the Masonic order, being master of Lodge No. 74, of Alexandria, and is a member of the Masonic Chapter of Hebron. His political support has ever been given to the Republican party and in 1898 he was its choice for the office of county commis- sioner of Thayer county, in which position he is now serving his second term. His public duties have ever been discharged by marked prompt- ness and fidelity, and during his long residence in Alexandria he has been closely connected with its progress and advancement, supporting all measures for the public good.
STERLING P. GLASGOW.
For a decade and a half the subject of this review filled the office of postmaster of the town of Auburn, Nebraska, and there is probably not a man in the town better known than he.
Sterling P. Glasgow was born in Peru, Nemaha county, Nebraska, August 7, 1863, son of William Gilbert Glasgow. The latter, a native of Ohio, was born in 1834, and died on his farm near Peru, Nebraska,
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in 1900. Grandfather Sterling P. Glasgow was an Ohio farmer, who became one of the early pioneers of Washington county, Iowa, where he died about 1875, after having lived more than threescore years and ten. He had a large family, four sons and four daughters, and of the former two were soldiers in the Civil war, one of these two being John M. Glasgow, M. D., who was a practicing physician in Auburn and afterward in Omaha, where he died in 1901, at about the age of sixty years. William Gilbert Glasgow married, in Iowa, about fifty years ago, Miss Sarah Majors, who was born in Libertyville, Iowa, daugh- ter of S. P. Majors and sister of Thomas Majors. And soon after their marriage they came to Nebraska and settled on a farm in Nemaha county, near Peru, where, as already stated, he died. During the Civil war period he was engaged in general merchandising, in addition to carrying on his farming operations. And he spent four years in the sheriff's office, to which position he was elected by the Republican party, of which he was all his life a stanch member. During the last twenty- five years of his life he was afflicted with rheumatism and was a great sufferer. To his widow and children he left a good estate, all of which he had accumulated by his own earnest and honest efforts. His widow still resides in Peru. Of their seven children, four daughters and three sons, we record that Alice, wife of J. F. McReynolds, died at the age of thirty-five years, leaving an infant son; Ida is the wife of Thomas B. Simpson, of South Dakota, and has a family of sons and daughters ; Joseph E., a brick manufacturer at Peru, is married and has six child- ren, two pairs of twins being included in the number; Sterling P. is the fourth in order of birth; W. G. has charge of the farming opera- tions at the home place near Peru; Jessie is the wife of Dr. Houston, a dentist of Nebraska City, and they have two children; and Sadie, a popular and successful teacher.
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Sterling P. Glasgow was educated in the Nebraska State Normal School. As a boy he was employed as clerk in his grandfather Majors' store at Peru, and later when the store was moved to Ainsworth he went with it.
December 31. 1884, at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Glasgow mar- ried, in Peru, Miss Hattie Perry, who was born in Peru, Nebraska, in 1868, daughter of Milton and Frances (Faulkner) Perry, both natives of Missouri. Her father died about the year 1873, leaving his widow with five children, viz .: John D. Perry, at this writing a foreman in the B. &. M. freight office at Denver, Colorado; Anna, wife of Jefferson Poe, died in 1898, leaving one son; Belle, wife of Frank Shadley, of Reynolds, Nebraska, has four children living : Hattie ; and Robert Perry, a barber at Hebron, Nebraska, has a wife and two children.
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