Compendium of history, reminiscence, and biography of Nebraska : containing a history of the state of Nebraska also a compendium of reminiscence and biography containing biographical sketches of hundreds of prominent old settlers and representative citizens of Nebraska, Part 136

Author: Alden Publishing Company
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : Alden Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1402

USA > Nebraska > Compendium of history, reminiscence, and biography of Nebraska : containing a history of the state of Nebraska also a compendium of reminiscence and biography containing biographical sketches of hundreds of prominent old settlers and representative citizens of Nebraska > Part 136

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Ten children have been born to Mr. Cutler and wife: Albert L., of Kansas City, has one child; Maggie, wife of L. W. Wilson, of Merna ; they toured the continent of Europe in 1910, at- tending the Passion play at Oberammergau dur- ing the summer ; Ernest, who is married and lives in Montana, has two children; John, married and living in Montana; Pearl, wife of J. W. Roberts, lives in Merna and has five children; Herbert. married and living in New Helena; Aralı, wife of Oscar Wilson, of Edgar, Clay county, has one child; Frank, Dac and Laura, are at home. Dae is a successful teacher in the Custer county schools. The family have a wide circle of friends. Mrs. Cutler has two sisters in Clay county, Ne- braska, Maggie, now Mrs. J. B. Johnson, and Mary, wife of Doctor F. D. Anderson. Although Mr. and Mrs. Cutler have been married over forty- three years, they retain their capacity for en- joying life, and seem to have the secret of re- maining young and active. They have a keen interest in the progress of events, and have the gratification of knowing their children are well settled in life and doing well. In politics Mr. Cutler is a republican, and affiliates with the Merna lodge Modern Woodmen of America.

HENRY J. BILLERBECK.

The career of H. J. Billerbeck, veteran mer- chant of Osmond, is one that should be an in- spiration to the rising generation-a career worthy of earnest emulation. He has been con- tinuously in business since 1855, and in Pierce county since 1884, antedating all other firms in the county. Nearing four score years, his step is as firm and his business judgment as keen as that of most men thirty years his junior. Mr. Billerbeck is proud of the honor of having heard the famous Lincoln and Donglas debate at Free- port, in 1858, and in celebrating the fiftieth an- niversary in 1908, he was one of the guests of honor, occupying a chair on the grandstand. He has a vivid recollection of that memorable event, remembering the appearance of the two illus- trious speakers and many of their expres- sions word for word. The men who were present on that occasion are now very few and soon none will remain who can say "I was there."

Mr. Billerbeck is a native of the city of Nie- heim, Province of Westphalia, Germany, born on January 11, 1832. He grew to manhood there, the entire family emigrating to America in 1853, em- barking March 19, in the sailing vessel,"Herman," and landing at New Orleans the thirtieth of April. They at once took an up-river steamer to St. Louis and another from there to Savanna, Illi- nois, from which point they crossed the country to Freeport by stage. Here in the fall of that year the father fell ill and died, leaving the family to care for themselves.

The three sons engaged in farm labor, saving their earnings, and after several years had accu- mulated enough to start a general store, building up a good business, and continuing in partner- ship up to 1871, when our subject sold out his interest and removed to Carroll, Iowa. There he was engaged in the implement business for thirteen years, then disposed of it and came to Nebraska, locating in Pierce, and engaging in the implement and hardware business. He also opened a branch store at Osmond in 1890, putting his son in charge, and two years later sold the store at Pierce and moved to Osmond, taking personal charge of the business, which had grown to large proportions, and has since developed into the largest business of the kind in Pierce county. In fact, he does as much business as all the other implement houses combined. The store has large stocks of other wares, including harness, which the firm manufactures on a big scale, every piece fashioned under Mr. Billerbeck's own roof. The furniture department is always stocked with a stylish line of modern workmanship, and the vehicle department contains a fine lot of wagons, buggies and carriages, in styles and prices to suit every taste. A splendid assortment of hardware is carried also, and every kind of implement adapted to the operations of a modern farm. The salesrooms cover an area of fifty by one hundred and fifty feet, and ninety feet of the building

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proper is two stories high. The value of stock carried is over thirty thousand dollars. He buys by the carload, and frequently has two carloads on the siding at the same time.

On September 5, 1857, Mr. Billerbeck was mar- ried at Freeport, Illinois, to Miss Wilhelmina Cossman, who is a native of the village of Voer- den, Province of Westphalia, three miles from the city of Nieheim, Germany. She in company with two sisters, came to America in 1856.

Mr. and Mrs. Billerbeck have had twelve chil- dren, as follows: Mary, Gertrude, Ed, John, William, and Charles, are deceased, while the surviving are Mary, Henry, married Frances Backes and has six children; Frank, Andrew, married Lena Backes; Minnie, Albert, married Annie Frey, and Charles, married Anastasia Neu- bauer, all occupying honorable positions in life.

In politics Mr. Billerbeck is a democrat, and an active member of the Foresters. With his family, he has always been a strict member of the Catholic church.

LEELON B. KENYON.

Leelon B. Kenyon, a leading citizen of Boelus, Nebraska, formerly proprietor of a flourishing general merchandise establishment at that place, is also president of the Boelus State Bank.

Mr. Kenyon has for the past thirty-six years taken an active interest in the commercial and educational advancement of his locality, and is amply rewarded by the steady growth and thriv- ing condition in which it is now to be found. He owns considerable town property in Boelus, and also a quarter section of good farm land ad- joining Boelus on the east, a quarter section in Sherman county, and seventeen hundred and sixty acres in Rock county, Nebraska.

Mr. Kenyon was born in New York state, on October 12, 1852. He grew up on his parent's farm, remaining at home until he was twenty years of age, at which time he went to Michigan and spent about one year in farming, then came to Howard county, Nebraska, arriving here in the fall of 1873. He was among the very earliest settlers in the county, picked out a choice location as his homestead, also filed on a timber claim, and proved up on both. He succeeded in building up a good farm, and lived on the place up to 1889, then moved into Boelus, where he has resided continuously since, with the exception of about one and a half years spent on the Sherman county farm. Several years ago Mr. Kenyon in partnership with a son, purchased and conducted a general merchandise store in Boelus, but in 1909 they traded the stock for the Rock county ranch.

For twenty years past Mr. Kenyon has been engaged in the stock business, and during most of that time was known as the heaviest stock buyer in his section of the country.

Mr. Kenyon was married November 29, 1883,

to Clara Green, also a native of New York state, who came to Nebraska with her parents, Laten and Electa (Simons) Green, in the same year our subject settled here. She has one sister living in Boelus, and another in Antelope county, Ne- braska, both father and mother, also two broth- ers, being dead. Mr. and Mrs. Kenyon have had six children, named as follows: Arthur, Leslie, deceased; Albert, Leelon, junior, Clara and Glenn. Arthur, is married aud lives on the ranch in Rock county ; Albert, is also married and works the Sherman county farm, while the last three mentioned remain at home.

The family have a pleasant home, and all are popular in their community.

Mr. Kenyon served for five years as treasurer of the Boelus school board and is still a member of that body. He has done much in the way of bettering conditions locally.

In 1905 Mr. Kenyon and Anders, Peter and Niels Jensen, purchased the Boelus State Bank, Mr. Kenyon being elected president, and has con- tinued holding that position up to the present time.

HUBERT A. WEED.

Another of the enterprising and prosperous farmers of Valley county, is the above named gentleman, who owns a fine farm near North Loup. He has been located there only in recent years, but has become known throughout the community as a progressive citizen and energetic farmer.

Mr. Weed is the third in a family of four children born to Theodore and Sarah (Green) Weed. He was born at Milton Junction, Wis- consin, on the second day of May, 1870. His father, a native of New York, who died in 1891, in Valley county, was a civil war veteran, hav- ing been a member of Company E, of the Fifth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, which was en- gaged in many conflicts. The mother, who was a native of Pennsylvania, is still living in North Loup.

When Mr. Weed was eight years of age, the family came to Blaine county and three years later moved to this county, where the father took a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres near North Loup. The son, Hubert, received the greater part of his education in the schools of this state, and as he grew older, engaged in farming.

On the tenth of November, 1891, he married Miss Fanny Wheateraft, a native of Jasper county, Iowa, who came here with her parents when she was hut a small child. She is a daugh- ter of James Wheatcraft, a native of Ohio, while the mother, who was Helen Bishop before her marriage, was born in Vermont; the family came to Nebraska in 1879, sojourning one year in Hall county prior to settling in Valley county, where they made permanent settlement.

In 1901 Mr. Weed purchased eighty acres

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adjoining his father's homestead, where he lived for a number of years. Finally, in 1904, he pur- chased forty acres in section thirty-five, about a miles south of North Loup, and he is now living in a comfortable home at that location. Mr. Weed has made many improvements since pur- chasing his farm, and is in every way a most successful farmer. Although one of the younger settlers, he remembers many of the hardships and curious experiences of the pioneer days, including the overland trip from Wisconsin, all of which made a deep impression upon his mind at the time. From 1878 to 1891 he enjoyed the pioneer privilege of living in a sod house. Raising noth- ing in 1894, the dry year, he spent part of the next winter in the western part of the state. He suffered the loss of his barn by fire in the sum- mer of 1910, but with true western grit soon rebuilt. For a number of years he was road overseer of the township. In politics he is a re- publiean.

Two children, Bessie E. and Ervie H., were born to Mr. and Mrs. Weed. The family is prom- inent in a social way, and worships with the Davis creek congregation of United Brethren. Mr. Weed is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and with Mrs. Weed, has at- tained the Degree of Honor.

ERNEST NATHAN, SR.

In compiling a list of the representative farm- ers of Madison county, Nebraska, a prominent place is accorded the name of Ernest Nathan. For many years past he has been engaged in the pursuit of agriculture in Kalamazoo precinet, where he has aided in every way possible in building up that locality. He is one of the really old settlers who has done his utmost to promote the development of the better interests of his community, and now after years of labor enjoys the knowledge that he has the respect and esteem of all with whom he has had to do.

Mr. Nathan is a native of Prussia, Germany. He was born August 3, 1845, and was the young- est in a family of five children, whose parents were Fred and Wilhelmina Nathan, worthy farmers in Prussia. When a young man Ernest was apprenticed to a butcher and thoroughly learned that trade, devoting his time entirely to that while in his native country.

In 1869 he left home, went to Hamburg, and there embarked for the United States, taking passage on the steamship Brushegea, and after a tedious voyage was landed in New York City, a stranger in a strange land. lle spent some lit- tle time in Wisconsin, and in 1872 started for Nebraska, traveling by wagon team across the country, and arriving in Madison county in the month of May.

Ile immediately took homestead rights on a quarter section in section twenty-five, township twenty-one, range three, and later took a timber

claim, proving up on both tracts in due time, al- though during the first few years he had a hard struggle to make a living and make any pro- gress, owing to the severe weather conditions, ete. He built two sod houses, living in those up to 1882, when he erected a comfortable frame dwelling. For the first few years Columbus was his nearest trading station, and all supplies had to be hauled from there.

Mr. Nathan was married in July, 1868, in Germany, to Miss Caroline Karskezn, a native of Prussia. Mr. and Mrs. Nathan are the parents of six children, namely : Julius, Ernest, Herman, Otto, Martha and Minnie.

JOHN FINCH.

Among the men who were influential in secur- ing the railroad which has recently been con- structed through Arnold, Nebraska, John Finch deserves special mention. Mr. Finch is a native of Cedar county, Iowa, born September 6, 1860, third of nine children born to Thomas and Mary Ann Finch, natives of Ohio, who were married in lowa. The family moved from Iowa to Kan- sas in 1871, and in the spring of 1873, the father and the eldest son took a trip overland to Lincoln county, Nebraska, taking with them four yoke of oxen and a span of mules, taking up land two miles west of Brady. They had put in a crop in Kansas before starting, returned and harvested it, then with the family came back to the home- stead and claim in Lincoln county, being the first white settlers on Pawnee creek. In the fall of 1876 the father, the eldest daughter and eldest son, besides one younger daughter, died of ty- phoid fever. The mother now lives at Crooks, Idaho; William, lives on the Finch ranch in Cus- ter county; Ephraim, lives in Colfax, Washing- ton ; Ira G., and Dennis G., live at Crooks, Idaho; Nancy, Mrs. Walter James, lives at Landore, Idaho; John, lives at Arnold.

Mr. Finch lived in Lincoln county until his father's death. Early in the fall of 1875 the father and two brothers, Ephraim S. and David F., had come to the country eight miles below what is now known as Arnold, and established the first ranch, that far up the South Loup river, and the cattle were moved from the Lincoln county place to this ranch during the same year. Since that time this has been known as the Finch ranch, and was the home of E. S. Finch, one of its original owners, until the time of his death, July 25, 1905. The ranch, which contains two thousand four hundred and forty acres of land, belongs to the widow. Mrs. Sarah A., and a nephew, John Finch. William Finch, brother of the subject of this sketeli, lives on it.

Mr. Finch has been a resident of Custer county since 1875, and has had much to do with the growth and development of the locality. Since his fifteenth year he has been active in cat- tle and ranch interests which were owned by his

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father, and well remembers the time when the county was organized. He has continued to make his home on the South Loup river, with the excep- tion of one year in Wyoming and one at Cozad. He has diversified business interests in Custer county and since 1886 has been a resident of Arnold, where he engaged in the drug business in 1887, being the pioneer druggist of the town. He owns large farming and ranch land interests and has dealt extensively in real estate.

Mr. Finch was married in Cozad, November 28, 1883, to Miss May Kelley, daughter of William Kelley and wife. She is a native of Booneville, Indiana, her father being county sheriff there at the time of her birth. Two children were born to this union, one of whom survives, Fay G., in business with his father in Arnold. In 1883, Mr. Finch was appointed postmaster of Cozad, where for one year he was engaged in the mercantile business. He was active in securing the extension of the Union Pacific railroad from Callaway to Gandy, taking in the business part of Arnold, which has been such a factor in insuring the pros-, perity of the town. He is one of the best known business men in central Nebraska, and is promi- nent in many circles. He has taken thirty-two degrees in Free Masonry and is also an Odd Fel- low.

MICHAEL M. HAVEL.

Michael M. Havel, whose name heads this personal history, is a thrifty and energetic resi- dent of Pierce county, where he owns an interest in seven hundred and eighty-three acres of land situated in sections thirty-two, thirty-three and thirty-four, township twenty-six, range two, all of which is finely improved, and also contains one of the finest groves in the county.

Mr. Havel was born July 16, 1870, in Bohemia, from whence he came when but a child to Amer- ica with his father, Mathions Havel. The family sailed from Hamburg on the "Red Star," a sail- ing vessel, and landed in Baltimore after a voy- age of nearly seventeen weeks. They journeyed on to the state of Wisconsin, finding a home in Manitowoc county, where the father found work in a saw mill until 1872.

Mr. Havel comes of a sturdy race, his father's history telling of perseverance and endurance in the early days of Nebraska; our subject being a young lad, did not realize the hardships so greatly as his parents. His father served his native country for twelve years in the wars between Russia and Austria and France and Germany, and was honorably discharged in 1866. He was gone so long, and being reported dead, his wife's parents urged her to marry again, but she in- sisted her man would return. One day a bearded soldier came to the house whom none knew except the wife; taking the shears she cut off half his beard and disclosed his identity.

After coming to America. he worked in a saw

mill one year, then walked from Manitowoc, Wis- consin, to Omaha, where he worked in the con- struction of the Missouri River railroad bridge for six months and earned enough money to bring his family to Omaha. He then took his family to the homestead in Saunders county in February, 1873, where they experienced very great hard- ships, going through the grasshopper raids which destroyed all the crops, and also experienced losses from the hailstorm of 1874. In the spring of 1873, he bought three quarter sections of land northeast of the county seat in Pierce county, and also filed on a timber claim. December 5, 1883, he bought a house in Pierce and traded for farm land south of town. In 1897 he retired from ac- tive labor and became a resident of Prague, Saunders county, where he is passing his days in comfort and ease. Of four children born to him, three survive: Barbara, Michael and John.

The subject of our sketch was married Janu- ary 1, 1898, to Miss Mary Faltys, a native of Col- fax county, and daughter of Joseph and Chris- tina (Sousek) Faltys. They are natives of Bo- hemia, emigrating in the early seventies, and lived near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, some two years before moving to Nebraska. They were highly respected early settlers. Mr. and Mrs. Havel are the parents of two fine children: Michael and Anna.

Mr. Havel is affiliated with the Modern Wood- men of America, and is independent in politics.

ALEXANDER S. NICHOLAS.

Should the reader ask for the name of a rep- resentative old timer of eastern Nebraska, who has spent many years of his life in the building up of a farm and later a good home in a country where but a few years ago there was a vast wil- derness, and who is familiar with the early growth and development of this section, we would mention Alexander S. Nicholas as a typical west- erner, a man of sterling character and energetic force of will, who has helped to make the his- tory of this locality.

Alexander S. Nicholas, son of Isaac and Sarah Nicholas, was born in Strongsville, Ohio, January 25, 1839. When eight years of age our subject went with his parents to Lafayette county, Wisconsin, where he grew to manhood, receiving his education in the home schools, and later engaged in farming. Mr. Nicholas was third in a family of seven children, two sisters of whom are living in Wisconsin, the parents be- ing deceased, the father having died in August, 1860, and the mother in August, 1850.

On July 2, 1859, Mr. Nicholas was united in marriage to Miss Salena Burge of Wisconsin, whose parents are deceased. She has one sister residing in Omaha, Nebraska, the other children being deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas have had twelve children, eight of whom are living: Isaac. who is married, has four children, and lives in

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Palmer, Nebraska; William A., married, has seven children and also resides in Palmer; Sarah, wife of Ira Griffin, has three children, and lives in Grand Island; Jemima, deceased in 1906, sur- vived by her husband, George Stratton, and nine children ; Alfred, married, has one child and re- sides in Palmer; Mary, wife of James Peck, has- eight children, and lives in Merrick county ; Samantha, deceased in 1909, is survived by her husband, Wesley Devny, has three children and lives in Palmer; Martha, married to Albert Strong, has three children and resides in Merrick county ; Charles, married, has two children and lives in Howard county ; Joseph, married, lives in Merrick county, has two children; Clara, de- ceased in infancy, and Myra, who died in 1885.

In the spring of 1872, Mr. Nicholas, with his wife and seven children came to Howard county, Nebraska, and pre-empted eighty acres of land one and a half miles east of St. Paul, where they lived until the fall of 1873, when they came to Merrick county and homesteaded eighty acres in section eight, township fourteen, range eight, which re- mained the home place for a few years; and he had also taken a one hundred and sixty acre tim- ber claim near by, on which he lived from 1888 to 1904, when he retired from the farm and moved to Palmer and purchased a good home where he now lives. Mr. Nicholas helped to organize his school district in Howard county, and also was instrumental in organizing the first Sunday school in that county. He has also served on the school board of district number seventy-one, in Merrick county for a number of years.

Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas are among the early settlers of this part of Nebraska, having passed through all the trying experiences incidental to the early Nebraska days, and are widely known and highly esteemed by all. They have been members of the Methodist Episcopal church since before they came west.

C. E. YOCUM.

C. E. Yocum, of Butte, who holds the office of treasurer of Boyd county, has been a resident of Nebraska since 1883, when his parents, James C. and Maria (Newell) Yocum, settled in Boyd county, selecting a location on the point between the Niobrara and Keya Paha rivers, and proving up on a homestead and timber claim. The family came from Wisconsin, where our subject was born on May 23, 1870. Ile attended the public schools in Charles City, lowa, as a boy, finishing his education in Nebraska after the family had settled here.

When Mr. Yocum was twenty-one years of age, he filed on a homestead for himself, situated on the north bank of the Keya Paha river. op- posite his father's place, and lived on the farm until his election as treasurer of his county, tak- ing possession of the office on January 9, 1910.

During his residence on the farm, Mr, Yocum

went through the usual experiences of the pio- neer, suffering storms, drouths, etc. The blizzard of January 12, 1888, which left disaster in its wake, will linger long in his memory, bringing to himself and family sorrow, in the finding of the bodies of his mother's sister and two of her grandchildren frozen on the prairies after the storm had passed. Nothing but the delay of tlie blacksmith in finishing the iron work of a sled Mr. Yocum was having made, saved himself and mother from the same fate. As it was, they were delayed in Stuart until after the storm was over and the intense cold abated, and they could start safely on their long ride across the snowelad plains.

As late as 1885, antelope and deer were to be seen on the prairies, and when the Yocum family first settled here, were quite plentiful. They suffered every discomfort in those days, but all had the fortitude to endure the hardships, firmly believing that better times would come, and in this they were more than right, as in no other part of the country has such a wonderful change taken place in the course of a few years, as in Nebraska.

On December 14, 1899, Mr. Yocum was united in marriage to Miss Augusta Lawton, a native of Illinois, who came to Nebraska with her parents about 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Yocum have three children : Percival, Sevilla and Florence, all bright and interesting young folks, and their home is one of the most pleasant and hospitable to be found in Butte.

Mr. Yocum is a republican.

DANIEL WERKMEISTER.

One of the most prominent of the very early settlers of Stanton county, is the above named gentleman. For forty years he has been a resi- dent of this state, and since 1894 has been living in this county. Through industry and good man- agement, he has built up a valuable estate and is now enjoying the fruits of his years of toil.

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Compendium of history, reminiscence, and biography of Nebraska : containing a history of the state of Nebraska also a compendium of reminiscence and biography containing biographical sketches of hundreds of prominent old settlers and representative citizens of Nebraska, Part 136

Author: Alden Publishing Company Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago : Alden Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1402

Author: Alden Publishing Company
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : Alden Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1402