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 165

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 165

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Mr. Lundy was united in marriage to Miss Laura Anderson, daughter of Frank Anderson, an early settler of Nebraska. Three girls and one boy have blessed this union : Sadie, Alpha D., Lelia M. and Albro H.

VACLAV CIZEK.

The experiences of some of the early comers to the west, especially of those from foreign shores who came with little and suffered poverty and privation while making the beginning of a fortune in a new country, are almost beyond comprehension. And of such is Vaclav Cizek. now a retired business man of Osmond, Ne- braska, who has accumulated enough to retire and take life easy in a comfortable, well furnished home.

Mr. Cizek was born in the village of Lelzohe. Bohemia, July 26, 1862. His father died when he was about a year old, and the lad came with his grandfather, George Cizek, to America in 1868. Sailing from Hamburg, Germany, in an old sailing vessel, the voyagers spent six weeks on the water before sighting land. A few cases of smallpox had broken ont on the vessel and all the immigrants were held in quarantine for six weeks and before landing were lined up on deck between two lines of rope and vaccinated. After the usual period on Ellis Island, they were re-

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leased and allowed to proceed to their various destinations.

Grandfather Cizek and his company reached Omaha the seventeenth of July. Here he leased for a small sum a lot on Thirteenth street, then entirely vacant, and fashioned a dugout in which the family lived for seven weeks while he sought work to earn enough to release part of his goods held for a balance of their passage money. As soon as their possessions arrived a bargain was made with a man to move them with an ox team to Saline county, where they had relatives who had preceded them to the new world. At the crossing of the Platte river, the ferry landing was so primitive and the boat so small that the wagon had to be taken apart and swung aboard in sections, and the oxen taken in tow. Passing through Lincoln when there were but a few houses in the new capital, they visited a few days with an uncle, Joseph Kopilski, a watchmaker who ran restaurant to help along. From Lincoln to Saline county, they journeyed again by ox team, and in fording the Big Blue river, near where Crete now stands, the oxen went down in the stream, and Mr. Cizek had to carry all his family ashore through water in places up to his breast.

On reaching Saline county, the grandfather homesteaded a quarter section and built a sod dugout in the side of a hill, which for two years had no door, so hard were the times that they could not afford to buy sufficient lumber for that purpose; and when circumstances permitted this improvement the grandfather carried the pieces of flooring from which to construct the door from Pleasant Hill, some seven miles or more, on his shoulder, this requiring several trips. After set- tling on the place, Mr. Cizek left his wife and grandson to take care of the place while he sought work as far away as Omaha, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, to earn a little cash for necessary provisions until the farm could be made to produce profitable crops. He secured the contract for digging the mill race at Pleasant Hill in 1871, and did the work so thoroughly that he was employed around the mill as long as there was any work to be done. During high water one season while living here, when shocks of wheat were drifting down Turkey creek, their potato patch was flooded and to get their daily supply they had to be grubbed up from beneath two feet of water. The boy, Vaclav, was sent at times to herd cattle along the stream and found snakes plentiful, killing at times fifty to sixty in a day, some of them venomous varieties. Coffee was too expensive for them in the first years, so they used as a substitute parched wheat and rye. The grandfather first filed on an eighty acre homestead, and later on bought one hundred and sixty acres additional, making a fine piece of property after land values increased-as they rapidly did as the country became settled. The grandfather died in 1881 at the age of seventy-

six years, and the grandmother died in the spring of 1888, at the age of eighty-eight years.

In 1876, the mother, who had remained in the old country, joined her son, and later marrying John Kisok, they moved to Fillmore county, Ne- braska, where Vaclav cultivated his mother's farm for a year or two after the death of his stepfather some two years after the marriage.

In 1882, Mr. Cizek was married and began life for himself. He farmed in Fillmore county until 1889, when he moved to Pierce county, having purchased three hundred and twenty acres four miles northwest of where Osmond now stands, the year before. November 22, 1889, they took possession of their new home, residing there until 1893, when Mr. Cizek moved to Osmond and be- came one of the business men of the town. He disposed of his business in March, 1909, and re- tired to live on the rentals of his farms in Pierce and Saline counties, and his business blocks in town, one of which is occupied by the Farmers' State Bank.

Mr. Cizek was married in Fillmore county, Nebraska, July 10, 1882, to Miss Annie Kopp, a native of Bohemia who came to America in 1881. Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Cizek, all of whom are living: Joseph, who was assistant cashier in the Farmers' State Bank until December 15, 1910, when he became cashier of the Security State Bank, which he helped organize and of which he owns a goodly block of stocks; Tina, an experienced clerk in Osmond stores; Emma, studies music in a Chicago conservatory ; James, local representative for the Hanford creamery of Sioux City; Annie ; Eddie, clerking in a drug store and studying pharmacy ; and Melton.

Mr. Cizek has been a witness of all the devas- tation wrought by grasshoppers during the sev- enties. One year his grandfather had his wheat in the shock at three o'clock p. m. and the pests settled down hardly an hour after, but wrought little damage to the harvested crop or even the growing corn which it stripped to some extent of leaves.

The spring of 1877 or 1878 was known as the dry year. Fields plowed for crops turned to dust, the loose dirt was blown away forming in deep drifts in the weeds and high grasses along the roadsides. Settlers at once planted trees around their fields which today they are chopping ont, there being no need for them, owing to no repe- tition of the drouths. For three weeks there was so much dust suspended in the air that the sun turned red and at times was darkened.

Mr. Cizek barely escaped being in the blizzard of 1888. He had been teaching a relative his method of catching fish through the ice and had caught seventy-five or one hundred pounds dur- ing the forenoon. While at dinner the storm broke and so thick was the whirling cloud of ice dust that one could not see the hand at arm's length.

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Antelope were in the country when Mr. Cizek settled in Saline county and frequently grazed with the cattle, but scampered away on the ap- proach of human beings. He has seen two or three deer at a time in the same region, but on the settlement of the country they disappeared.

After the early years of hardship conditions grew more favorable, and Mr. Cizek can now live at ease and comfort without a care to worry him or his family.

WILLIAM J. HILL.

William J. Hill, proprietor of an extensive and well equipped farm in St. Paul precinct, richly deserves the abundant success which has come to him as a reward of industry, economy and thrift. He now has a fine place consisting of five hundred and twenty acres, located on sec- tion seventeen, three and one-half miles southwest of St. Paul, which he purchased in January, 1909, and here he is extensively engaged in the cattle feeding business. He is prominent in all affairs of his county and state, and is held in the highest esteem by his fellowmen.

Mr. Hill was born in Waterloo, province of Quebec, Canada, on July 29, 1869, and was the third member in a family of four children. He made that country his home until he was twelve years of age, at which time, in company with his father, mother, one sister and a brother, he came to Howard county, landing here in October, 1881. The father purchased a farm and all helped in developing the land into a productive tract, William remaining with his parents up to his twenty-first year then went out for himself, purchasing two hundred and forty acres ou section thirty-six, township fifteen, range eleven. He was very successful in improving the land and rapidly became one of the progressive and successful agriculturalists in his locality, carry- ing on the place up to January, 1909, when he sold out, having previously purchased his pres- ent home. Here he is devoting considerable of his time and attention to the stock business, feeding a large number of cattle, also hogs, and is the owner of a number of fine horses.

Mr. Hill was married on September 23, 1901, at St. Paul, to Mary Emma Welsh, who was born in Huron county, Ontario, and came to Howard county with her mother, four sisters and two brothers, they arriving here in the same month Mr. Hill did. The father, Joseph Welsh, died in Canada several months prior to the family's emigration into the states. Our subject has four children, named as follows: Alice, born August 1, 1892; Robert R., born October 9, 1893; Maggie Pearl, born April 19, 1898; and Paul E., born August 2, 1903, all at home and making a very interesting family group. They have a fine country home and many friends who enjoy its hospitality at all times. Mr. Hill's father died at St. Paul in May, 1909, and his mother now resides 25 1/2

in St. Paul, while his wife's mother lives in War- saw precinct, Iloward county.

Mr. Hill has at different times been connected with school district number twenty-seven, serv- ing as director.

FRANK WATTS.

Frank Watts, son of John and Sally (Collins) Watts, was born in Trumble county, Ohio, No- vember 7, 1835; he was ninth in a family of eleven children, and has a sister residing in Pennsylvania, the other children being deceased. The parents were of English descent, but natives of New York state, and both passed away in Ohio.

Mr. Watts, our subject, received his education in the schools of his home state and spent some years traveling through various parts of the United States. In 1858 he went to Onarga, Illi- nois, where he engaged in the shoe and harness business. On November 7, 1858, Mr. Watts was united in marriage to Miss Mary Louise Maxson, who was born in New York. Miss Maxson was a graduate of Alfred University in Allegany county, New York, and was for some years a teacher in New York schools.

In the winter of 1873 Mr. Watts came to Val- ley county, Nebraska, homesteading one hun- dred and sixty acres of land one mile west of North Loup, which was the home place for about twenty-two years. He then sold and purchased one hundred and sixty acres three miles north- west of North Loup, and after residing there moved, in 1902, to Wisconsin, farming for a few years near Bruce. He then returned to Valley county, Nebraska, making his home in North Loup, where he purchased a good home and where he now resides.

Mrs. Watts died April 22, 1908, at her home in North Loup, survived by her husband and three children : Henry A., who is married, has four children, and resides in North Loup; Earl A., also married and residing in North Loup; and Lester, married, has one child, and lives in Gree- ley county, nine miles southeast of Scotia. Mr. and Mrs. Watts for many years were active members of the Seventh Day Baptist church.

During his Nebraska years Mr. Watts has served in the various offices of the school board of North Loup, and district number forty-six for over twenty-two years. He is one of the earliest settlers of Valley county, and has passed through much of its history, and all the trying expe- riences and hardships incidental to frontier life. He has been prominent in the county, standing for the upbuilding of his home state and county, and is widely and favorably known. In politics he is a republican and fraternally is a member of the Masonic order, having been raised to his Master Mason's degree at Onarga.

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HERMAN WOHLFEIL.

It would be impossible to give a complete History of northeastern Nebraska without includ- ing a sketch of the life of Herman Wohlfeil, who is one of the most prominent of the old settlers of Madison county, where he resides on section twenty, township twenty-three, range four. He has done much toward the developing of the best interests of his home county and state, and is widely known in his community as a successful and prominent eitizen.

.b.Mr. Wohlfeil is a native of Germany, he hav- ing been born in Prussia, October 22, 1855; he is a son of Frederick and Dora (Conrad) Wohlfeil, both of whom were natives of Germany, where they followed the occupation of farming. Our subject grew to be a lad of about thirteen years offrage in his native land, receiving the usual schooling, and helping his parents on the farm.

+l'in'$1873, Mr. Wohfeil left the fatherland for the new world, embarking on a steamship at Ham- burg, Germany, and coming by way of Liverpool, England, to New York. After landing in the United States, he proceeded westward, locating n Columbus, Wisconsin, remaining there about five years.

In 1879, Mr. Wohlfeil came overland by team and covered wagon to Madison county, Nebraska, where he took up a homestead of forty acres, builta` dugout and "batched it" for two years. In those first years of settlement of this region, NIrasWohlfeil experienced many hardships and discouragements through storms, drouths, etc. January 12, 1888, he lost considerable stock in the memorable blizzard that raged during that year and in which so many lives, both human and bruite, paid toll. As late as 1894, Mr. Wohlfeil lostBall that season's erops in the severe drouth that caused the hot winds which burned out the ground and killed all manner of vegetation for miles; in extent. But those trying times have passed2 to history, and our subjeet now lives in peace and comfort and is a comparatively pros- pengus (man, owning two hundred and forty acres of land, on which he has ten acres of orchard and forest trees. Mr. Wohlfeil is a substantial, pros- peropas; citizen, and well deserves the reward he now enjoys after his years of hard labor and hardships.

bidaly 12, 1904, Mr. Wohlfeil lost all his crops, fruits and poultry by hail, which were as large as Tens n'eggs.

He is a member of the German Lutheran church and is an independent democrat.

Mr .. Wohlfeil was united in marriage April 13, 1881, to Miss Gusta Rikofski, and they are the parents of four children, namely: Fred, William, Bertha and Otto. They are a fine family and enjoy a wide acquaintance and have many good friends.

THOMAS E. TWOMBLY.

Thomas E. Twombly has lived in Nebraska sinee 1880 and in Custer county, where he is a successful farmer and stockman, since 1884. He was born in Brown county, Illinois, October 31, 1869, the youngest of the six children in the fam- ily of Calvin and Susan (Wiley) Twombly, who had four sons and two daughters. The father was a native of Vermont and died in August, 1869. In 1880 the mother brought her children from Illinois to Saunders county, Nebraska, purchas- ing a farm there, where the family remained until 1884. The mother then came to Custer county and took up a homestead on section fourteen, and section fifteen, township eighteen, range eighteen. on which she proved her title. With her she brought her three sons, William, Samuel and Thomas E., and one daughter, Mary. In the fall of 1890 she went to live with C. W. Bedford, an only son by a former marriage, where she died in 1906. He had come with the family to Saunders eounty, but came to Custer county to live one year prior to the others. C. W. Bedford and Thomas and Samuel Twombly were all original homesteaders of Custer county. Thomas and his sister, Mary, Mrs. Gallagher, still live in Custer county ; William lives in South Dakota, and Sam- uel in Missouri.

Mr. Twombly was born and reared on a farm and farming and stock raising has always been his occupation. In 1890 he secured a homestead on the northwest quarter of section twenty-five, township eighteen, range eighteen, and now has two hundred and forty acres of well improved land in his home farm. It is well equipped with suitable buildings and modern machinery and applianees, and he is one of the enterprising and successful men of his community. He has a large number of friends and is well regarded as a substantial and public-spirited citizen.

On February 14, 1900, Mr. Twombly was mar- ried at Broken Bow, to Miss Georgia Shannon, a native of Tennessee, and a daughter of George and Sarah Shannon. Three children have blessed this union : Ray, deceased; and Jessie and Andy' at home.

JOHN SAHS.

of Wayne county, may be mentioned John Sahs,

Among the public-spirited and useful citizens an early settler of his part of the county, who now has a beautiful home on section twenty-one, town- ship twenty-seven, range three, where he is sur- rounded by every possible modern convenience and comfort. He has brought his land to a high state of cultivation, has improved his estate by the erection of suitable buildings for his stock and grain, and keeps everything in good eondi- tion and repair. Mr. Sahs has further beautified his place by planting a fine grove of ten acres, which includes shade and fruit trees, both a source of much pleasure to the family.

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Mr. Sahs was born in 1859 in Cook county, Illinois. He was reared on a farm and received a common sehool education. He is a son of John and Sophia Sahs, the father a native of Holstein, and the mother of Prussia, Germany. John Sahs, senior, came to America as a young man, spend- ing seven weeks on the ocean voyage, and his wife also came in youth, spending six weeks on the water. They were married in the United States and settled on a farm in Cook county, Illinois, where they reared their family. They were the parents of eight children.

John Sahs was the fifth child of his parents, and in 1888 started out in life for himself. He eame to Nebraska in that year and purchased a farm on seetion twenty-one, township twenty- seven, range three, Wayne county, which has sinee been his home. He is one of the best known men in the county and has a wide circle of friends. He has a valuable estate, and has been aetively interested in the progress and welfare of his locality, doing his share to bring about the pres- ent prosperity.

Mr. Sahs was married May 28, 1883, to Miss Minnie Grewe, who was born in Germany, and is a daughter of Fred and Mary Grewe, natives of Germany, who came to America in 1865, and located in what is now Chicago, on a farm, where they lived until their death. Eight ehil- dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sahs, namely : Albert, Clara, Alvena, William and Otto, who are living; and Carl, Lillie and an in- fant, are deceased.

CHARLES WIIERRETT. (Deceased.)

This honorable name of a man who has passed on to his final reward, but left behind him the record of good and useful years, should not be omitted from the list of Nebraska history makers. Mr. Wherrett spent an honorable and energetie life, and lived to a good ripe age.

Charles Wherrett was born in Glocestershire,' England, February 6, 1839, and came to America with his father and family in 1853, loeating near Cleveland, Ohio, where Mr. Wherrett grew to manhood, receiving his education in the local sehools. In 1861, Mr. Wherrett enlisted in Com- pany D. First Ohio Volunteers as orderly ser- geant for the three months' eall and after serv- ing for that period returned to Cleveland, Ohio, where he re-enlisted in August of 1861 in Com- pany D), First Ohio Volunteers, serving until March, 1862, when he was discharged owing to injuries received by the explosion of gun powder. Ile participated in the battles of Bull Run, Shiloh, and others. After the war, he returned to Cleve- land and a few months later went to Illinois, engaging in farming.

In April, 1865, Mr. Wherrett was united in wedloek to Mrs. Harriet Parrotte, of Illinois, and in 1874 eame with his wife and four children to

Merrick county, Nebraska, and homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land in section eight, township fourteen, range eight, west, which re- mained the home place until 1900, when Mr. Wherrett retired from the farm and moved to Palmer, where he built a good home. Several years later he became interested in the banking business, and was made president of the Loup Valley Bank at Palmer. He had served as connty supervisor for some years and was also a mem- ber of the school board in his distriet for many years. He was prosperous and successful, owning three hundred and sixty acres of land all in Mer- rick county, aside from good city properties. Mr. Wherrett died February 12, 1909, survived by his wife and three children, viz: Graee, who re- sides at home; George M., living in Lineoln, Ne- braska ; Cornelia H., wife of H. N. Baird, has two children, and resides in Callaway, Nebraska. Mr. Wherrett had one brother in the state of Wash- ington, one sister in Iowa; the father died in 1869, near Cleveland, Ohio, and the mother died in England, in 1844.

Mrs. Wherrett lives on the old Palmer home place, surrounded by a large circle of friends. Her parents are deceased, and she has one son, Fred D. Parrotte, by a former marriage; he resides in Palmer, and has four children.

GUSTAV A. LEBLANC.

Canada has given its quota of sturdy sons to the worthy population of the United States, and of these, the LeBlane family is one of the worthy.

Oliver LeBlane, whose greatgrandsire, origi- nally from Normandy, was one of the Acadians driven out from Nova Scotia by harsh conditions, was born about thirty-six miles north of Mon- treal in a log house. His father had been a ship owner and sea eaptain who, on losing his vessel by wreck, moved to land, which he had previously purchased near Joliette, Lower Canada, and be- eame a farmer. Oliver LeBlane married Octavia Duhue, and became the father of eleven children, the youngest born after the family reached Ne- braska. Coming by way of Detroit and Chicago, they erossed the Mississippi river at Burlington and the Missouri at Plattsmouth. He rented one year and then purchased a farm from a fellow countryman twenty miles south of Fremont, in Saunders county, paying twelve dollars an acre when he might have bought equally good land at four dollars. Speaking little English and having faith in his French compatriot, he did not think it necessary to make inquiry as to the prevailing price. He brought some two thousand dollars and six big chests of clothing, bedding, etc., with him, much more than the average set- tler brought into the country. He lived in a dugout for a time, but it was a neat. ele: out with the inside boarded up, hiding the dirt bank. Later a log house was their dwelling.

Gustav LeBlanc, one of the younger children of his father's family, was born March 15, 1863,

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near the village of Joliette, Lower Canada, in a stone house which his father built on the site of the log house in which he himself was born. He remembers something of their trip to the west when he was a lad of six years; he recalls seeing in Omaha-then a small town-log houses with port-holes for defense against the Indians. While living in Saunders county, he had his first pair of boots, red-topped, copper-toed footwear, of which, boy like, he was very proud.

He started out for himself at the age of twenty years as a journeyman watchmaker. He had begun to repair guns at the early age of fif- teen and later took up watchmaking, at which he became an expert. He spent six or seven years in Denver with an old Switzer, August Courviser, who could make watches from the rough material. After leaving Denver, he worked for a short time in Omaha, and then packing his tools in a grip, bought a horse and cart, and became in truth a journeyman watchmaker, traveling as far south as central Kansas during the winter months and as far as Pierre, South Dakota, in the summer season. In this work he kept to the road until 1897, when fate found for him a helpmeet in the person of a woman of his own race whom he met in his wanderings at Verdel.

After marriage, he quit his wandering life, and for several years worked at his trade in Niobrara. Learning of a forty-acre tract of un- occupied government land about half way be- tween Niobrara and Bloomfield, he filed on it under the homestead law and there erected a small building and opened a store to trade with the Indians. He had become familiar with the Sioux tongue and soon became a great friend of the Indians, who never fail to visit his store when in Bloomfield. He established a postoffice at his store, to which he gave his own name, which will be perpetuated on the map of the state.

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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 165

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