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 140

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 140

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In 1863, Mr. Collins went with his parents to the state of Wisconsin, where the family lived for nine years, engaging in farming. On January 30, 1869. he was married to Miss Amanda M. Thurston, of Maine, and later of Wisconsin. In the spring of 1872, Mr. Collins came with his wife and one son to Valley county, Nebraska, driving through from Wisconsin, the jonrney occupying some fifty-three days. For a few weeks they camped under their wagon cover, then built a dugout on Mr. Collins' sister's land, in which they all lived for a month or two, during which Mr. Collins suffered an attack of typhoid fever, with no physician to attend him. He homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land in section thirty-two, township nineteen, range thirteen. Here he erected a dugout with a log front, and in this they lived ten years before erecting a com- fortable dwelling. During these days Grand Island was their nearest market. It required ten weeks to haul ten loads of wheat to Grand Island. Grasshoppers consumed their crops for three years, making mere existence a hard prob- lem. During the early days, hospitality was uni- versal. Every one would find a place for the wayfaring, no matter how many there might be nor how small the house. Frequently Mr. Col- lins' floor would be so full of sleepers-men freighting cedar posts of poles to Grand Island or supplies to the sand hills-that it would be difficult to pass through without treading on them. Every one carried his own "grub box" and blankets, otherwise he might go hungry and be exposed to cold and storms as he slept. A view of Mr. Collins' primitive dugout, together with the modern dwelling on the farm, are shown in contrast on another page.

In 1907. Mr. Collins retired from the farm and

DUGOUT, FIRST RESIDENCE ON FARM

"RIVERVIEW FARM," PROPERTY OF WARREN G. COLLINS.

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moved to Ord, where he purchased a good home where they now live. He has been prosperous and successful, owns six hundred acres of good land, which is utilized for grain and stock raising. and is widely and favorably known.

Mr. and Mrs. Collins have had eight children : Oscar E., who is married, has six children, and lives on the old homestead; Carrie M., wife of W. .J. Seeley, lives in Milford, Nebraska, and has three children, (Mrs. Seeley was the first white child born in Valley county ) ; Helen E., a nurse, who resides in Mitchell, Nebraska; Earl W., who is married and also lives in Mitchell, Ne- braska; Ralph H., who is married and lives in Valley county; Lynn V., resides in Valley county, Nebraska ; Rex E., also a resident of Val- ley county, and Floyd M. R., who resides under the parental roof.

JOHN B. ROBERTS.

To the men of perseverance and stalwart de- termination who went to Nebraska when it was yet undeveloped as an agricultural and com- mercial region, the present prosperity enjoyed there is due. Among the early settlers of Pierce county who have been intimately identified with its development and who have gained enviable reputations as citizens, may be mentioned John B. Roberts, a prosperous and successful farmer of Clover Valley precinct.

Mr. Roberts is a native of Illinois, born August 5, 1855, and lived in Logan county, Ohio, until 1865, when the family removed to Fremont county, lowa, crossing the Mississippi river the day of Lincoln's assassination. Here they lived sixteen years, and three years in Monona county. The father was a native of Ohio, and the grand- father came from Wales, and settled in New York state in the early years of the Republic.

In 1885, Mr. Roberts, our subject, moved by team to Nebraska, where he took up a claim in Pierce county, on section twelve, township twen- tv-five, range four, and built a good frame house, and planted fifteen acres of trees. After seven years' starvation on the land, he traded it for a team of horses and for eleven years rented from George Littell and John or Henry Spink. In 1900 he bought his present place of three hundred and twenty acres in section twenty-four, township twenty-six, range three, owning besides a quarter section within sight of the home farm. Around the home he has a grove of some twelve acres in extent, and two acres of fine orchard.

Mr. Roberts has been very successful in every venture he has undertaken of late years, but, like others who lived on the frontier of Nebraska in earlier days, he has seen hard times. During the blizzard of January 12, 1888, Mr. Roberts was too ill to leave the house, and to keep them from freezing, Mrs. Roberts and a small son carried corn from the barn some distance from the house;

this was their only fuel at that time. For two winters they burned twisted hay.

Mr. Roberts was united in marriage to Miss Rebecca Hawhee, a native of St. Louis, and daughter of William and Nancy A. (Morgan) Hawhee, who moved to Page county, Iowa, when Mrs. Roberts was a child. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts have had eleven children, named as follows: Alphareta, married Charles Staley, of Tecump- seh ; William Frederick, married Nancy Murphy, and lives near Blake, in Holt county; Blanche, married Raymond Huckens; Cecil, married Her- bert Smith, of Oshkosh, Nebraska; Claude, mar- ried Lona Garvey and lives near Pierce, and Thomas W., married Bertha Kloke. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts are proud of the fact that they are the progenitors of seven sturdy grandchildren.

Mr. Roberts is affiliated with the Masonic and Woodmen lodges. He has the greatest faith in the possibilities of this country, and with good management and industry, he has acquired a po- sition of ease and prosperity, to which his beanti- ful home from its high point of view stands tes- timony.

SOPHUS A. SORENSEN.

Sophus A. Sorensen, a successful and ener- getic young farmer of Howard county, Nebraska, is owner of a fine home near Nysted and ac- counted one of the prominent citizens of his lo- cality.

Mr. Sorensen is a son of Larke and Johanna Sorensen, and was born on January 12, 1880, in Howard county. He lived at home until about twenty years of age, then started for himself. His education was obtained in the local schools. and he also attended the Danish academy at Ny- sted for one year. He purchased a farm and be- gan in the stock raising business in which he has been very successful, carrying on also with suc- cess diversified farming. He now owns and lives on his father's original homestead situated on section thirty-two, township fourteen, range eleven. All of this land is highly improved and well equipped with fine buildings, and he is recognized as one of the progressive and thrifty young men of his vicinity.

Mr. Sorensen was united in marriage on June I, 1904, to Dorothy K. Faaborg, of Audubon, Iowa. Mrs. Sorensen is also of Danish parents. born and raised in Iowa where her parents still occupy the homestead which they settled on many years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Sorensen have one son, Larke F., a bright boy and of whom the father and mother are justly proud. The family have a pleasant and comfortable home and enjoy the so- eiety of a large circle of friends and acquaint- ances in their community.

JOHN W. POCOCK.

John W. Pocock, a prominent citizen of Valley county, and the owner of the Maiden Valley

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Farm, is known as one of the earliest pioneers of Nebraska.

Mr. Pocock was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on the thirtieth day of March, 1838, in a two-story hewn log house-a very pretentious dwelling for those days. He was the ninth child in a family of six sons and four daughters born to Eli and Catherine (Knestrick) Pocock. When he was only four years old, the family moved to Fulton county, Ohio, where Mr. Pocock grew up on a farm. In the spring of 1858, he left Ohio, and came to Cass county, Nebraska. He came by rail to St. Louis, then by steamer to Weston, Missouri, by stage to St. Joseph, thence to Glen- wood, Iowa, and from there on foot to Platts- mouth, Cass county.

On August 16, 1860, Mr. Pocock was married to Miss Lucinda Patterson, in the Platte Valley House in Plattsmouth. Mrs .. Pocock is an older pioneer than Mr. Pocock, as her family came to Cass county in 1855, three years before he put in an appearance. Mr. Pocock engaged in farming until October, 1862, when like thousands of others, he decided that the country was in need of his services, and he accordingly enlisted in Company H, Second Nebraska Cavalry. He was in frontier service in the west during almost the entire time of his enlistment, and was discharged at Plattsmouth in December, 1863. His services extended as far west as Fort Pierre, and he par- ticipated in the battle of Whitestone Hill where the cavalry captured five hundred hostile Yank- ton Sioux, who had been guilty of the New Ulm massacre in Minnesota in 1862.

After leaving the army, Mr. Pocock returned to Cass county, where he remained on his farm until January, 1881. At that time he and his family removed to Nemaha county, but they re- mained here only about four years, when they decided to move again, going this time to Nance county. In 1901, having at last secured a place which suited him, Mr. Pocock moved to Valley county, and he and his wife now reside there in their comfortable and cozy home.

Since buying the Valley county farm, Mr Pocock has made many improvements on it, and the Maiden Valley Stock Farm, as it is now called, is considered one of the finest in the county.

Mr. Pocock has had the varied experiences through which all Nebraska pioneers were forced to struggle and now he and his wife are enjoying the fruits of their toil. Of the eight children born to them, six are living : Laura Ida, now Mrs. J. Q. Churchill; Glenn E., Edward, who is the active manager of the farm; Jessie, now Mrs. Charles Russel, of Genoa, Nance county, Clara Lela, (Mrs. Roscoe Williard), and Stella. All of the children, with the exception of Stella, were born in Cass county. The family is well and widely known in the several counties named be- fore, and have the respect and esteem of a large circle of friends.

Mr. and Mrs. Pocock celebrated their golden

wedding anniversary in August, 1910, many of their family and friends being present.

Mr. Pocock is independent in politics, is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Mr. Pocock endured the many privations of pioneer life in the west. While in Nance county he lost forty acres of corn by a hail storm June 27, 1894, when hailstones fell the size and shape of door knobs. While in the cavalry in 1863, he was out in a hailstorm which covered the ground to the depth of four inches. Grasshoppers de- vastated his crops two seasons, the summers of 1874 and 1875.

PHILIP MILLER.

Philip Miller, the subject of this review, is one of the representative farmers of Madison county, Nebraska, and a man who has done his full part in promoting the development of the agricultural interests of the community in which he lives. Mr. Miller owns a valuable estate in section thirty- one, township twenty-four, range four, and is one of the prosperous and highly esteemed citizens of this region.

Mr. Miller claims Wisconsin for his native state, his birth occurring there April 29, 1854; he is a son of John and Sabina Miller, both na- tives of the German Empire. They embarked at Bremen on a sailboat and were sixty days on the sea, and upon arriving near American shores landed in New York City. From here they pro- ceeded to Wisconsin, remaining there the rest of their lives. The father died in 1904 and the mother in 1909.

In 1872, Mr. Miller went to Illinois, where he remained until 1884. He then came to Madison county, Nebraska, bringing his family with him, as he had been married in the meantime. Upon reaching Madison county, Mr. Miller bought the Hanson homestead, and on this land built a good frame house, and has steadily improved this place until now he has one of the finest farms in this locality.

Mr. Miller now owns three hundred and twenty acres of good land, and has four acres of fine trees on his place.

Mr. Miller was united in marriage October 16. 1879, at Champaign, Illinois, to Mrs. Mary McEwen, who is a native of New York state, and a daughter of Edward and Catherine (Lyons) McEwen who claim Ireland as their native land. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Miller, and are named as follows: Arthur, Ivy, Irwin, Mayme, and Grace.

Mr. Miller is a prosperous man of affairs, well known and highly esteemed and respected in his community, and he and his family are surrounded in their pleasant home by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.

He is an independent voter, and a member

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of the Modern Woodmen and Ancient Order of United Workmen lodges.

JAMES T. BURDICK.

James T. Burdick is a well known and highly respected citizen of Custer county, Nebraska, and has had many varied experiences in different lines in several states. He was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, April 8, 1860, the eldest of six children born to Isaac Newton and Annetta (Wood) Burdick, who had five sons and one daughter. He was reared in the usual manner of farmers' sons, receiving his education in the pub- lic schools, and he remained in his native county until young manhood. October 14, 1878, he left home and came to Shelton, Buffalo county, Ne- braska, reaching there October 17. He was em- ployed on a railroad and at farm work three months and then found employment on a cattle ranch on the South Loup river, where he re- mained several months. In December, 1879, he returned to Shelton and worked on a farm near there until August, 1881. Then he came to Cus- ter county and secured a homestead on section seven, township fifteen, range sixteen, Sherman county, which remained his home until July, 1894.

On April 21, 1889, Mr. Burdick married Miss Ellen A. Marsh, daughter of one of the old pio- neer families, their union taking place in Cus- ter county. In 1894 he and his family removed to Mitchell county, Iowa, where they remained until October, 1899, then went to Pennsylvania. Mr. Burdick learned the trade of mason as a young man, and besides farming, has also spent considerable time at his trade. In 1908 he brought his family from Pennsylvania back to Custer county, where he has since been engaged in farm- ing and stock raising.

Mr. Burdick and wife have four children : Myrtle B., born in Sherman county, wife of Charles Milks, lives on the farm and they have two children; Mabel May, also born in Sherman county, married Milton G. Crist, and they live in Custer county; James Newton, and Arthur George, born in Custer county, are both at home.

HEMAN TAYLOR. (Deceased.)

Pierce county, Nebraska, will long remember, for his many sterling qualities, the man of whom we write this brief review.

Heman Taylor came to Nebraska in 1885. and from his advent proved himself to be a man of deeds. He was born at Yarmouth, Barnstable county, Massachusetts. March 9, 1843. His an- cestors since colonial days had lived on Cape Cod and, perforce, were seafaring men. There were two Richard Taylors in the colony, and to distinguish them, one was known as Richard "Rock" Taylor, because he lived in a rock

house, and the other as Richard Taylor, the tailor. Mr. Taylor descended from Richard "Rock" Taylor. His father, Heman, senior, and the grandfather were captains of the Yankee Clipper ships that in those days made American seamanship famous. Some of their vessels cap- tured during hostilities left a claim that would have enriched the whole family, had they been allowed by the earlier sessions of congress or had the documents proving the claims not been lost or destroyed when a later congress did jus- tice to those who suffered for their country's cause.

In company with six other youths who desired to learn seamanship, Heman, junior, spent a year on the sea, sailing to London, thence to Callao, Peru, and back to Glasgow, Scotland. As he had had a taste of the sea, and the ship was bound for India, Mr. Taylor went to Liverpool, England, and embarked for home on a trans-Atlantic liner. Coming to Chicago, he secured employment with the Toby Furniture Company, rising in position from year to year until after seven years he was sent to Omaha as manager and partner of their branch house there, known as the Heman Taylor Furniture Company.

After so many years under roof, he felt the need of life in the open, and so located at Red Oak, Iowa, where he bought and fed cattle on a large scale. Cattle growing scarce and his trips for stock growing longer, sometimes as far as Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he decided to move to some point nearer the ranges, renting a tract of land at Tilden, Nebraska, in 1885, where he fed and shipped cattle for two years.

In 1887, he came to Pierce county, Nebraska, purchased a half section a mile south of Plain- view, and developed it into one of the best stock farms in this section of the state. Here he pros- pered until his untoward death, February 9, 1909, in a blizzard that was raging at that time. He had ventured out into the storm to see that his cattle were faring well; heart failure in the suffo- cating storm is supposed to have caused his de- mise.

Mr. Taylor's parents, Heman, senior, and Lydia (Nash) Taylor, were natives of Yarmouth and Boston, Massachusetts, respectively. The father had learned the cabinet-maker's trade, his father having had each son learn some handicraft, and when he quit the sea after many years in com- mand of a vessel, he plied his trade in his native town, leaving in the family many specimens of his skill in furniture building.

Mr. Taylor was a republican, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church in Plainview. In the east he had been a communicant of the Congregational church.

Mr. Taylor was married at Creighton, Nebras- ka, July 4, 1894, to Miss Mary Effie Reynolds, a native of Moravia, lowa, born March 2, 1872. Her parents, Thomas Marshall and Emeline (Pol- lard) Reynolds, were natives of Indiana, and de- scended from old Virginia colonial families that

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had successfully migrated to Kentucky and then across the Ohio river. They were married at Albia, lowa, whither the bride's parents had moved by wagon from Indiana about 1850. Mrs. Reynolds came here about 1859.

In 1861, Mr. Reynolds enlisted in the Third Iowa Cavalry, and served to the close of the war. Soon after reaching the front, he, with many others of his regiment, contracted measles, which so wasted his strength that he was unfitted for the field. He was often offered a disability dis- charge-twice General Noble, who was later secretary of the interior under Mckinley, offered to secure his release, but he declined, serving in the hospital, hoping to be able to again mount his horse, which he kept, and join his comrades at the front.

After the war, Mr. Reynolds farmed in Iowa until 1877, when he removed with his family to Douglas county, Nebraska, locating at a settle- ment known as Elk City. In 1881 they removed to Knox county, where the father died, March 25, 1889, at the age of forty-nine. The mother is living at present at Creighton.

Mr. Reynolds' family endured all the priva- tions of the early days in northern Nebraska. For a year or so they burned hay, sometimes var- ied by cornstalks or corn. At one time their sup- ply of twisted hay, lying near the stove, was ignited by a spark, and came near burning the house. During the blizzard of 1888, Mrs.' Taylor was a student in the Creighton High school, and was rescued by the citizens, who, taking two chil- dren at a time, found their way through the storm to the various homes. So thick was the air with snow dust that the children's eyes were fre- quently frozen shut with a coating of snow.

To Mr. and Mrs. Taylor one son was born. Melville Heman Taylor, a student in the Plain- view schools.

The Taylor residence is one of the most pre- tentions residences in the county, furnished in quiet elegance. One of the chief treasures is an old colonial hall clock that, despite its many years of service, is as accurate as a chronometer. All the fine elms surrounding the residence, together with the orchard, were put out by Mr. Taylor's hands, and the home place was always kept trim and tidy, as were the tenant houses on the place.

Mr. Taylor has left his impress on northern Nebraska, and a tender memory to all who had the privilege of calling him friend.

FRANCIS O. JUDKINS.

Francis O. Judkins, who is classed among the largest land-owners in his section, is a popular and esteemed citizen of Fullerton, having spent the past many years in Nance county, and prev- iously in adjoining counties. He has been en- gaged in the stock business, also being an im- portant factor in the upbuilding of the farming interests of his locality.

Mr. Judkins is a native of New Hampshire, born in Unity on March 16, 1844, and is a son of Joel and Betsy W. Judkins, the youngest of their four children, and the only one now living. The father died in Missouri in 1869, and the mother in Red Oak, Iowa, in 1876. Francis was reared and educated in his home state, attending a pri- vate school during 1862 and 1863, and afterwards engaged in farming.

In 1866, in company with a brother, Jasper W. Judkins, he went to Missouri, and began farm- ing and stock raising, continuing in the work there for five years, then the two brothers re- moved to Red Oak, lowa, at which place they opened a meat market, and run it for about two years. They next built a hotel, and carried it on successfully up to 1885, then sold out. In 1882, Francis had bought a controlling interest in the street car line at Red Oak, and he was acting manager of the same up to 1886. In that year he disposed of all his holdings in Red Oak, and came to Fullerton, having, two years previously, purchased, with his brother, sixteen hundred acres of land, the latter locating in Nance county at the time. They engaged in the cattle business on an immense scale, running fifteen hundred head of cattle on the ranch, also buying and ship- ping to the markets, and carried on the business for fifteen years, being known as the largest feed- ers and shippers in that part of Nebraska. In 1890, Mr. Judkins retired from the stock busi- ness, and turned his attention entirely to his land interests, in which he has been successful, owning at the present time one thousand acres of fine land in North Dakota and considerable in Nance county.

On April 12, 1870, Mr. Judkins was united in marriage to Miss Kizie Day, of Wellsville, Mis- souri, a charming and accomplished woman, she having been a teacher in the Wisconsin schools for a number of years prior to her marriage. Mrs. Judkins died in Fullerton on November 16, 1890. In 1901 Mr. Judkins was married the sec- ond time to Mrs. S. H. Bennett, who was a widow with two children, and well known in Fullerton. One son Joseph Bennett, is married, and lives in Springfield. Mississippi, while Millard S. Bennett, the younger son, is editor of a newspaper in Ful- lerton.

WILLIAM B. FRYMIRE.

William B. Frymire, proprietor of "The Pio- neer Hardware Store" at Bloomfield, Nebraska, is truly the pioneer hardware dealer of the place, having purchased his lot on the fourth day of October, 1890, the day of the first sale of lots in the new town. He at once erected a building, and installed a stock of hardware, to which he has added new lines from time to time, until now he has one of the best equipped establishments of its kind in Nebraska.

Mr. Frymire was born in Navarre, Stark coun-

----

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ty, Ohio, June 26, 1863. In 1869, his father moved with his family to Paris, Edgar county, Illinois. Here the boy attended the public schools until 1873. His mother died that year, and he, with his sister, returned to Navarre to make their home with their grandparents. When the father remarried, he sent for the children. The youth attended school until the age of seventeen, when he entered his father's store, learning the tinner's trade. When he was of age, his father gave him a third interest in the store, sold a third interest to his tinner, who had been with him many years, and enlarged the business under the firm name of Frymire, Bovell & Company, William B. being the junior member of the firm. The business continued under this management until 1888, when the stock was divided, and the father and son shipped their two-thirds to Pierre, South Dakota, and engaged in business there until com- ing to Bloomfield, on the founding of the town .in 1890. At Pierre, Mr. Frymire voted in the first election of the new state in 1888, and helped elect Governor Malette to his term as first execu- tive.

Mr. Frymire is a son of Benton J. and Emma (Bell) Frymire, natives of Stark and Holmes counties, Ohio. The father was born in 1843 at Navarre, a son of old Pennsylvania Germans, and here he grew to manhood, and served through two years of the war, in the One Hundred and Sixty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and then entered a mercantile life in Navarre. He was proprietor for many years of a hardware store at Navarre, Ohio; Paris, Illinois; Pierre, South Dakota, and Bloomfield, Nebraska. In 1900, he removed to Oklahoma, and, in 1905, retired and took up his residence in Santiago, California, where he has a thriving and profitable lemon grove.

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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 140

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