USA > Nebraska > Buffalo County > Buffalo County, Nebraska, and its people : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 12
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Into other fields he has also extended his activities. In 1911 he was appointed
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by the Kearney Commercial Club as chairman of a committee to see about establishing a canning company at this place. The project was reported upon favorably, a company was organized and since that time Mr. Bowker has been its secretary. He is also the owner of a small tract of land, on which he installed the first irrigating system in Buffalo county. This he has converted into a truck farm and plant nursery, which he conducts with the aid of his sons under the name of the Bowker Plant Nursery. His business affairs are always wisely directed and his energy and enterprise enable him to overcome all the difficulties and obstacles in his path and work his way steadily upward.
On the Ist of March, 1885, Mr. Bowker was united in marriage to Miss Rosa B. Mercer, of Jasper county, Iowa, and to them were born twelve children: Chauncey Pearl and Grace, both now deceased; J. Sherman ; Ethel B., the wife of Stanley McCormack; Charles; Harold; Edward, deceased; Mabel, the wife of Bert Dady ; Elwood; Vera; Wesley ; and Kenneth.
Mrs. Bowker is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Bowker belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. Both are widely known in Kearney and other parts of the county and have a circle · of friends almost coextensive with the circle of their acquaintance. In a review of his life it will be noticed that from an early age he has depended upon his own resources and that his advancement has been won at the price of earnest, self-denying labor. Working his way steadily upward, he has gained a position in business circles that is the direct result of persistent, earnest and intelligently directed effort and his substantial qualities are recognized and appreciated by many with whom he comes in contact.
SWAN FARRIS.
The history of Swan Farris is the record of a self-made man who owes his advancement entirely to his ability, enterprise and determination, and his record proves that success and an honored name may be won simultaneously. Moreover, he has reached out into the broader realms of thought, keeping in touch with many modern questions and problems, and is today a most interesting as well as vener- able gentleman, his mind being a storehouse of valuable information and remin- iscence. A native of Sweden, he was born in Skanay, June 12, 1836, a son of Farris and Swanberg (Olsen) Handricks. The father was born in the village of Trolle-Ljungby, Sweden, June 13, 1804, and was a carpenter and building contractor of his native town. There he passed away May 4, 1863, and after his demise his widow came to the new world, joining her son Swan at his home in Galesburg, Illinois, where she died October 21, 1867.
Swan Farris, an only child, was reared in Sweden and obtained his educa- tion in the graded and high schools of Trolle-Ljungby. At the age of seventeen years he went to Copenhagen, Denmark, to learn the trade of stone engraving, remaining there for two years, and on one of his frequent visits home to his parents in Sweden he met a party of neighbors who were his old schoolmates, who were coming to America. They induced him to join them and he left the old home village in the spring of 1856, when nineteen years of age, to come to the
SWAN FARRIS
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new world. He spent nine weeks on a sailing vessel, after which he landed in New York city, passing through the old immigrant station of Castle Garden. After a few days spent in the eastern metropolis he made his way to Chicago by rail, canal and the Great Lakes. He recalls the fact that the railroad train made such slow time that some of the boys of the party left the train, picked apples in an orchard near the track and again caught the train.
Mr. Farris remained in Chicago for several weeks, but not finding employ- ment, went to Moline, Illinois, where he obtained a situation with the John Deere Plow Company, making parts of plows. After two years he left that position and began to work as a raftsman, running rafts on the Mississippi river from Black River, Wisconsin, to Alton, Illinois. He was afterward cabin waiter on Mississippi river steamboats and gradually drifted to the contracting business, building levees along the Mississippi in the states of Mississippi and Louisiana. He built canal ditches and did other such work and afterward became an express driver in New Orleans, conveying negro slaves from Arcade Hall in that city, the slave market place, to the railroad and boat landings as they were being shipped to their new owners. This was a responsible job owing to the value of the negroes in his charge. In 1859 he left New Orleans and went to Utica, Mississippi, where he again engaged in the contracting business, building ponds and dams on the cotton plantations to hold the water for the cattle to drink. When war was declared, as he was not a believer in slavery, he left the south and removed to Galesburg, Illinois, where he conducted a restaurant and bought and sold land. In connection with a business associate he purchased in 1878 ten thousand acres of good land in Phelps county, Nebraska, but his health began to fail and he sold most of his land again for about two dollars and seventy-five cents per acre, having paid for it two dollars and fifty cents.
Mr. Farris made five trips back to his old home in Sweden and while on one of these visits his father died May 4, 1863. He then brought his mother back with him to the new world and they established their home at Galesburg, Illinois. Mr. Farris still owns one and a half sections of the ten thousand acres of land which he and his partner purchased in Phelps county in 1878 and his landed possessions also include one and a half sections in Buffalo county, four hundred and eighty acres of this being on section 17, Odessa township, and eighty acres on section 18, Odessa township. He also has a quarter section in Holland county, Nebraska, near Scandinavia. All this land is improved and much of it has been brought under cultivation, while some is used as pasture land. All is rented to good tenants and from his property Mr. Farris derives a substantial annual income. He has never personally cultivated the land, for he is not a farmer. On leaving Galesburg, Illinois, he removed to Chicago, where he remained for four years, and on the advice of his physician that he seek a change of climate for the benefit of his health, he removed to Kearney in 1888 and purchased a handsome residence at 1810 Seventh avenue, where he lives retired save for the supervision which he gives to his invested interests. His investments have been most judiciously made and notable success has crowned his efforts.
In the fall of 1863 Swan Farris was married to Miss Ellen Isapson, a native of Sweden, their wedding being celebrated in Galesburg, Illinois. She died a year later and at Galesburg, on the 9th of September, 1869, Mr. Farris wedded Miss Cecilia Petersen, who passed away at Kearney, March 30, 1913.
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Mr. Farris is a member of the Lutheran church at Kearney and has always given his political allegiance to the republican party. He possesses one of the fine libraries of the state. He has many books that he has purchased on his trips through Europe, including seventy-five volumes which are very old and rare editions. One is a textbook on religion, published January 15, 1496. He also has a history of Rome printed in the Latin language at Venice, Italy, in August, 1475. The book published in 1496, a volume of large size, still has its original binding, but the history of Rome was rebound in the sixteenth century. Of the seventy-five volumes none was published subsequent to 1550. He also has many small Bibles, prayer books and other volumes of that character which are more than four hundred years old and most of these have the original binding. They are printed in German and Latin languages, both of which Mr. Farris reads. He also has in his library some books written by hand by the old monks before printing was invented. He possesses one of the world's rarest collections of coins of all nations, some of which were issued before the Christian era and all collected by him prior to forty years ago. These include copper, gold and silver coins and he has almost a complete set of Scandinavian coins, including four of the old plate coins six by four inches and a quarter of an inch thick. Some of these date back to the eighth century. Of the rare plate coins he secured three in Sweden and one in Germany. Sweden is the only nation that ever used a copper coin that was not round. His collection is valued at many thousands of dollars and Mr. Farris has exhibited the collection at various times He keeps the coins in the safe deposit vault in the bank at Kearney, as they are worth too much to be in his home.
Mr. Farris has arranged by his will that his valuable library of old books and his collection of coins shall be given to some Swedish institution of learning. He has no living relatives and he intends that his estate shall go to some charitable or religious institution which in his opinion will do the most possible good with it. He is a man of religious tendencies, actuated in all that he does by his Chris- tian faith and belief and is most charitable, again and again extending a helping hand where aid is needed. He is a public-spirited citizen, at all times aiding in matters for the benefit of his community. He enjoys excellent health at the age of eighty years and is one of Buffalo county's most honored and valued citizens, a man with whom association means expansion and elevation.
ANDREW KNOBEL.
Andrew Knobel, deceased, was one of the pioneer settlers of Buffalo county, who during the years of his active life here followed the occupation of farming and contributed in substantial measure to the agricultural development of the district. A native of Switzerland, he was born in Canton Glarus in October, 1837, and when a young man came to the United States, settling in New York. Five years later he sent for his sweetheart to join him and they were married in the state of New York. She bore the maiden name of Katharina Hefti and was born in Canton Glarus, December 10, 1842, being twenty-one years of age when she crossed the Atlantic to the new world. She had worked in a muslin factory
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in Switzerland but saw no bright outlook for a business future there and desired to get away.
Mr. Knobel was employed as a coachman in New York and after carefully saving his earnings he purchased a little tract of land of four acres, upon which they established their home. While living thereon he worked by the day at a wage of a dollar and a half. Later they removed to Wisconsin, but soon afterward returned to New York and in 1880 they arrived in Buffalo county, Nebraska, influenced to make this change by the fact that Mrs. Knobel had a sister and a brother-in-law, John Streif, living in this county. They made the journey by train to Buffalo county and for a short period remained in the home of Mr. Streif, after which they purchased the farm upon which the family has since resided. It was a tract of railroad land and the people who had previously owned it had abandoned it.
Mr. Knobel purchased the property and for five years he and his family occupied a sod house. There was also a sod stable upon the place giving shelter to his stock. He was a good manager and hard worker and in time became a successful farmer. He was building the present frame residence, which was almost completed, when he caught cold and died within four days, passing away in the latter part of October, 1891.
Several years ago Mrs. Knobel became convinced that the Bible authorized the observance of Saturday as the real Sabbath and since that time she has been identified with the Seventh Day Adventists and Mr. Knobel also adopted the same belief. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Knobel: Andrew, who lives with his mother and owns and cultivates five hundred acres of land; David, who is married and follows farming on a tract of eight acres belonging to his mother in Elm Creek township; Fred, who is married and follows farm- ing in Odessa township; and Libby, the wife of Tom Elliott, a resident farmer of Odessa township.
Mrs. Knobel tells many interesting tales concerning pioneer times. On one occasion, before experience had taught them the lesson, her husband set fire to the stubble on their place. The wind was in the south and swept the blaze across the fields like a race horse. The thatch roof on the stable caught fire and the building was destroyed, but neighbors rushed in and saved the sod house. A couple of chickens belonging to the family living on the place were burned to death and a young dog was tied in the stable with a chain. No one thought of the animal, so he too became a sacrifice to the carelessness and inexperience of the easterners. When the family left New York Mr. Knobel was told that he must carry a gun, feeling that it was unsafe to penetrate so far into the west unprotected. Accordingly he bought a gun and carried it over his shoulder, but it proved to be a nuisance on many occasions, for the conductors would not allow it to be taken into the coach but would take charge of it on the train until it was handed back to Mr. Knobel when he had reached his destination. Many of the old settlers had little ambition and therefore failed to make good in their new suroundings, not being willing to endure the hardships and trials which are always incidents of pioneer life. In those days cornmeal mush was the staple article of diet. Soon after arriving Mrs. Knobel attended a quilting, at which her companions of the party asked her if the family were eating mush. She did not even know what the dish was but she did not plead ignorance, saying simply that they had not eaten
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any as yet. They told her that she would have to eventually come to it, but the family went to work, raised wheat, had it ground and have never yet had to resort to the dish mentioned. Mrs. Knobel has continuously lived upon the old home farm, which was willed to her by her husband. It comprises one hundred and sixty acres of land in Odessa township, in addition to which she owns another eighty acre tract in Elm Creek township.
Her parents, Andrew and Elizabeth Hefti, came to Buffalo county when Mr. and Mrs. Knobel removed here and both her father and mother passed away in this county. Mrs. Knobel is still hale and hearty and enjoys excellent health, although she has now passed the seventy-third milestone on life's journey. There is no feature of pioneer life in Buffalo county with which she is not familiar and her experiences, if told in detail, would constitute a most interesting volume, giving an excellent picture of conditions which existed here in the early days.
WALTER KNUTZEN.
Walter Knutzen, a prominent contractor of Kearney who has been promi- nently identified with important building operations in this part of the state, is one of those citizens whose lives indicate what may be accomplished by young men of foreign birth who seek the opportunities of the new world and who are ruled in their activities by enterprise and energy. Mr. Knutzen was born near Mandal, Norway, November 8, 1848, and there spent the days of his boyhood and youth. He began to learn cabinetmaking when sixteen years of age, devot- ing five years to the trade, after which he shipped as a sailor before the mast, sailing between ports of England, United States, Canada, France and Holland for two years. In the spring of 1872 he came to New York and thence went by coast steamer to Savannah, Georgia. After a short time he removed to Buf- falo, New York, and sailed upon the Great Lakes for a season. In 1872 he made his way to Chicago, where he spent two years working at the carpenter's trade. He afterward removed to Houghton county, Michigan, where he followed car- pentering for five years and also took some contracts. He then returned to the old home and married. A few months later, or in May, 1879, he arrived in Kearney, which was then a small town, and here he has since engaged in con- tracting, being very closely identified with the building operations of the city throughout the intervening period covering thirty-seven years. For four years he engaged in contract work in Colorado but during that period regarded Kearney as his home. He built the high school at Fort Collins, Colorado, also the State Normal School at Greeley and, in fact, was accorded a large number of con- tracts in that state. In Kearney he has probably erected more buildings than any other one man and has received contracts in other parts of the state. He erected a fine high school building in Kearney and many substantial and beautiful structures stand as monuments to his skill and enterprise.
In 1879 in Norway Mr. Knutzen was married to Miss Abelone Jensen, who was also born at Mandal, Norway, and they have become the parents of five children : Annie C., at home; Julia P., a teacher at Helena, Montana ; Agnes, a teacher in the Nebraska State Normal School; Henry, a student in the Nebraska
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University; and Harriet, who is in the State Normal. The children have been provided with excellent educational advantages and all are graduates of the high school. Mr. Knutzen is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He has many substantial qualities, among which are the sterling characteristics of industry, reliability, progressiveness and determination. His life has been well spent and he has been the architect and builder of his own fortune.
FRED A. NYE.
The bar of Buffalo county has for twenty-eight years numbered Fred A. Nye among its members and his position has ever been an honored one. Ability has brought him steadily to the front and his powers as an advocate have connected him with much of the important litigation heard in the courts of middle western Nebraska. A native of Iowa, he was born in Muscatine county, June 26, 1862, a son of Alfred and Sarah R. (Silverthorn) Nye. The ancestral line is traced back to Benjamin Nye, who came from England in 1635, in young manhood, and established his home in the village of Sandwich, Barnstable county, Massachu- setts. He was the progenitor of the family in the new world and among his descendants were those who served with the colonies in their struggle for inde- pendence. The father was a farmer and dealt extensively in stock. In 1885 the family first came to Buffalo county, not with the intention of making a loca- tion at that time but more with the view of a possible return. The same year they made their way back to Iowa and in 1886 the father passed away in that state. Mrs. Nye with her youngest son, Fred A. (the other children having then reached years of maturity and located elsewhere), removed to Buffalo county and established her permanent home, settling in Kearney in 1888. There she continued to reside until called to her final rest in 1902.
Fred A. Nye was reared on the old homestead farm in Iowa and obtained his primary education in the district schools and in the academy at Wilton. Later his parents removed to Iowa City in order to accord him the benefit of educa- tional opportunities there, after which he matriculated in the State University in September, 1883. He completed the full four years' course and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. He not only pursued that course but also took work in law which enabled him to graduate from the law depart- ment in the year 1888.
Mr. Nye began his professional career in Kearney in the following August and has continued in active practice here since that time. No dreary novitiate awaited him. He made steady progress, study and broadening experience quali- fying him for active professional duties. Careful analysis enables him to readily ascertain the relation between cause and effect and his reasoning is characterized by terse and decisive logic, while in argument he is strong and in expression is clear and felicitous.
On the 17th of May, 1893, Mr. Nye was married to Miss Helena M. Barlow, of Kenton, Ohio, and they have become the parents of six children, Lucile E., Maurice Barlow, John H., Mary N., Sarah Gertrude and Benjamin I. Mrs: Nye
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is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Nye, who belongs to the democratic party, has taken an active part in shaping the political history of the community but has never save on one occasion aspired to political preferment. This exception was when in 1896 he became county attorney, to which office he was reelected, serving for two terms, or four years. He is a member of Phi Kappa Psi, a college fraternity, and he possesses attractive social qualities which render him popular, while his ability has gained for him a foremost place in the ranks of the legal profession in his county.
JOHN M. BAYLEY.
Among the retired farmers living at Gibbon is John M. Bayley, who is widely known and highly esteemed throughout the county. His birth occurred at Clin- ton, Wayne county, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of January, 1836, and his parents were William and Mary Ann (Morse) Bayley, both natives of Massachusetts. Their marriage was celebrated in that state and they resided there until 1814, when they removed to Pennsylvania, where the father became a landowner and engaged in farming. Both he and his wife passed away in that state.
John M. Bayley is one of a family of eight children, all of whom grew to maturity, but only four are now living. He was educated in his native state and remained under the parental roof until 1857, when he removed to Nebraska and located upon a farm in the vicinity of Table Rock. A year later he sold that place and returned to Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1871, in which year he came to Buffalo county, Nebraska, with the soldiers free homestead colony. He settled upon a farm on section 22, Shelton township, and for thirty-four years devoted his time and attention to the operation and development of that place. As the years passed his capital increased, for he was an efficient farmer and man- aged his affairs well, and in 1905, feeling that he had accumulated a competence, he retired and removed to Gibbon, where he is now living. He still owns three hundred and sixty-eight acres of land in Shelton township and also holds title to his fine residence in Gibbon.
Mr. Bayley was married in 1860 to Miss Adaline A. Adams, whose birth occurred in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, and who is a daughter of Lester P. and Margaret T. (Cooper) Adams, both natives of the state of New York. In 1830 they went to Pennsylvania and located on a farm there, where they passed their remaining days. Mrs. Bayley is the only one living of a family of eleven children. She had six brothers at the front at the same time during the Civil war and one died while in the army. Mr. and Mrs. Bayley are the parents of five children, namely; Harriet T., deceased; Lester W., who is farming in Buffalo county ; John A., who is living on a farm in Washington state; Mabel, the wife of Henry J. Clifton, now of Red Elm, South Dakota; and Nettie, who married S. A. A. Walker. Previous to her marriage Mrs. Bayley taught school for eight terms in Pennsylvania and was very successful in that profession.
Mr. Bayley supports the republican party at the polls and served on the school board for a number of years in addition to holding the office of road super- visor. His wife holds membership in the Presbyterian church. He went to the
JOHN M. BAYLEY
H. J. BAYLEY L. A. BAYLEY
L. W. BAYLEY
MRS. JOHN M. BAYLEY
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defense of the Union at the time of the Civil war, enlisting in Company E, One Hundred and Seventy-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and remained in the army until he was honorably discharged at Philadelphia in August, 1863. His brother Edgar died while in the service. Our subject began his career witlı practically nothing but is now a man of independent means, his enterprise, good judgment and hard work having brought him financial success.
THOMAS J. PARRISH.
No history of Buffalo county would be complete without extended reference to Thomas J. Parrish, who is one of the most extensive landowners in this part of the state, having about two thousand acres in the northern part of Buffalo county, whereon he and his sons are extensively engaged in farming and stock raising. He was born in Shelby county, Indiana, September 28, 1848, and was there reared and educated, attending the public schools. His youthful days were spent upon the home farm until he was about seventeen years of age, when he left home and began clerking in a hardware store in Franklin, Indiana, there remaining until 1874, which year witnessed his arrival in Kearney. He became identified with the business interests of the city as a clerk in the hardware store of V. B. Clarke, with whom he spent five years. The county seat at that time was a small village just emerging into some commercial importance. During that period he secured a homestead and timber claim in Sartoria township, proved up the property, secured title thereto and is still owner of the land. In 1879 he embarked in the hardware business on his own account and continued in active connection with the trade until 1885, when he sold his store and turned his attention to the live stock business, although he continued to make his home in Kearney. He purchased railroad land until he now owns about two thousand acres, his holdings making him one of the extensive landowners of the county. He breeds pure blooded Polled Angus cattle and Duroc Jersey hogs, conducting the business on a very large scale, his annual shipments constituting one of the important features of the live stock industry in this part of the state.
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