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 232

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 232

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Mr. Buhrow first filed on a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres and later paid fifty dol- lars per acre for one hundred and sixty acres more; to these he added until he was the owner of one thousand acres of fine Knox 'county land,

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from which he has recently sold two hundred acres. Mr. Buhrow lived on his land for thirty- eight years, moving to Bloomfield and purchasing a comfortable cottage home in 1902.

Mr. Buhrow is a native of Pommerania, a pro- vince of Prussia, and was born in the village of Pensen, near the city of Demmen, February 11, 1829. He was a farmer in the old country until his emigration in 1852. Leaving home on Octo- ber 8, he crossed the North Sea from Hamburg to Hull and proceeding thence to Liverpool, em- harked in a sailing vessel for New York, landing December 17. It was a stormy passage and sick- ness broke out on the vessel to such an extent that but three hundred of the five hundred em- barking reached land, two-fifths of their numbers being buried at sea.

After two days in the big city, Mr. Buhrow took his few belongings under his arm, crossed the river and walked the railroad track into New Jersey where he found work, cutting wood at thirty-five cents a cord for a charcoal burner. In order to keep him when done, the man held back eight dollars of the young imigrant's money, and it has not been collected to this day. At Bloomingdale he found work in a rolling 'mill, for one year. He worked then for a summer on the Erie Canal and then returned to the rolling mill at Bloomingdale for another year. Going to Albany, he found work at the same trade in a suburb of the city, where he remained until 1859, when he and his wife went to St. Louis, Missouri. Here he worked for a time in the mills he understood so well, and then bought a wagon and sold fruit until the outbreak of the war.

Mr. Buhrow enlisted in Company H, Fifth Missouri Infantry, and fought under Sigel and Lyon in the Ozark region of Missouri, participat- ing in the engagements of Arcadia, Springfield, and Wilson creek, and later at Fort Pillow. At the expiration of his four months' service he re-enlisted and was on garrison duty around St. Louis until the spring of 1864, when he received his discharge. For a time he again engaged in the rolling mill business, but his health would not permit him to remain there, and in the spring of 1865 he took passage in a river steamer for Frankfort, now Herrick, Nebraska, and has since been a citizen of Knox county, as recountered above.

Mr. Buhrow is a son of Fritz Buhrow who died when the boy was but seven, and the mother passed away nine years later.

Mr. Buhrow was married in Albany, New York, October 25, 1857, to Miss Lena Lueders, a native of the village of Forben, near the city of Loetz, in Pommrania, the date of hier birth being January 6, 1837. She emigrated to America in the fall of 1857, sailing from Hamburg to New York, the voyage extending into the seventh week. She secured work in Troy, and here she

met Mr. Buhrow and was married in the capital of the state. Of their eight children, four sur- vive: Bertha, wife of William Zuercher, and Mina, wife of William Muelbrand, both families of whom live on farms near Herrick; Lena, who is married to Sam Thompson of Leadville, Colo- rado; and Anna, the wife of Charles Ruden, post- master of Crofton.

. Mr. Buhrow is a republican in politics, and a member of the German Lutheran church. He was a comrade of the local post of the Grand Army of Republic until depleted numbers caused its abandoment.

Mr. Buhrow and his family suffered during the early days by fire and flood, as well as through hunger, cold and exposure. One of their little ones was caught in a prairie fire October 25, 1881, and breathed in the flaming gases in sight of her father, whose hands and wrists to this day bear scars of the burns received in extinguishing the flames from her clothes and hair. Anna, now Mrs. Charles Ruden of Crofton, was at the house of a neighbor, Mr. Mishke, at the time of the great flood, and was rescued on a raft after cross- ing part of the waters on floating ice. At the time of the three days' blizzard of April, 1873, a son and the hired man were in Yankton, where they remained until the storm abated, but the home folks were none the less uneasy until word of their safety was received; they did not know that the wayfarers were not frozen and buried in a snow-drift. At the time of the blizzard of October 15 to 18, 1880. they suffered little in- convenience ; the residence was situated in a creek bottom back a short distance from the bluffs, and being thus protected was not so easily affected by the cold winds. The blizzard of January 12, 1888, in which so many lives were lost in the great northwest, found them in their stone house, built in the summer of 1881; and thus housed and protected, with plenty of fuel at hand, howling winds could not affright them.

Grasshoppers devastated this region six or seven years, and Mr. Buhrow suffered with the rest, but only two or three years did they lose everything by the devouring pests. So bad werc they some seasons, that trees were denuded of bark, as well as leaves, and killed. Deer and an- telope were frequently seen in the early days, and two elk passed within sight of Mr. Buhrow one spring; antelope were frequently seen graz- ing with the cattle.

For several years wheat bread was seldom seen. Mrs. Buhrow being ill, a supply was se- eured from Ponca, as above recounted. Althoughi the usual diet of cornbread was distasteful to her, when the children cried for the wheaten loaves she divided it with them when the father was away from the house; he always punished them for asking when he was at home. For one whole year they lived on cornbread, having little else on the table but that and milk; even the garden

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vegetables failed to mature that year. Their only substitute for coffee was parched rye.

But hardships in those days fell lightly upon them. Youth and hope buoyed them up, and the ever present thought of better times coming helped the dreary days to glide swiftly by and leave no impress but in memory.

WILLIAM ALEXANDER.

William Alexander, who resides on the county poor farm, is one of the enterprising and pros- perous agriculturists of Howard county, Ne- braska. He is numbered among the very earliest homesteaders of Fairdale precinct, Howard county, which was his home from 1871 until he became superintendent of the Howard county farm.

Mr. Alexander was born in Clinton county, Iowa, October 14, 1849, and received his early education in that state. He was married there December 21, 1869, to Maggie Coottey, who is a native of Kenosha county, Wisconsin, and the fifth member in a family of six. On May 8, 1871, our subject and his wife and one child, in com- pany with Thomas Coottey wife and one child, and Nicholas Coottey, started by wagon through the country for Buffalo county, Nebraska. On reaching this state they changed their plans and stopped in Boone county, spending one week there, and not being favorably impressed with the country turned around and started back for Iowa. They journeyed as far as the Indian vil- lage Genoa, situated on the Loup river, where they met Major North, a government scout. He persuaded the party to follow up along the Loup river until coming to Howard county, which they did and reached the present location of the vil- lage of Elba. Here the three men of the party located pre-emption rights, proved up by com- mutation, and sold.

At the time of Mr. Alexander's coming into the county there was not an actual white settler on the north side of the Loup river. The south side was sprinkled with soldiers, and shortly afterwards five familes settled on the Loup river bottom lands. In 1874 our subject homesteded on sections twenty-seven and twenty-eight, town- ship fifteen, range eleven, which is known at the present time as the Moffitt Creek ranch, and is a valuable tract. His first trip to Grand Island for supplies after coming here, was made under strenuous difficulties, necessitating the fording of the Loup river, and after obtaining his goods at the only store the place then afforded, started on his return trip. He had a wagon load of furni- ture, provisions, etc., and on arriving at the river, was obliged to ask assistance of the sol- diers in crossing, but finally arrived at home safely and with his load intact.

Mr. Alexander was the only child of his parents, and never saw his father, as he had died shortly before his birth. His mother came to

Howard county after he had settled here, and her death occurred in August, 1899. Both Mrs. Alexander's parents are dead.

Mr. and Mrs. Alexander have raised a large family, twelve chlidren in all, and eight are now living, namely: William C., who is ex-sheriff of Howard county; George F. who has the honor to be the first white boy born in the county, and now resides in Elba with his family. Nicholas J., Maggie, Alva H., Grover C., Warren H., and Raymond S. All are married excepting the three last mentioned, and all held in high esteem as worthy and enterprising citizens of their respee- tive localities.

Our subjeet has had a wide experience in pioneer life in Nebraska as well as Iowa, and is widely known, in past years filling numerous local precinet offices. He now is active super- intendent of the Howard county farm, having been appointed to that position in March, 1907. His home is on the farm which he operates.

SAMUEL R. MCFARLAND.

Samuel R. McFarland who is among the old settlers in northeastern Nebraska, is a man of exceptional ability and superior intelligence, and has made for himself an enviable reputation by his honest and energetic labors, and enjoys the esteem and confidence of his fellowmen.

Mr. McFarland was born in Clinton county, Indiana, October 31, 1862, and was third of eight children in the family of Alexander and Eliza- beth MeFarland, both natives of Indiana.

Alexander McFarland and family of wife, three sons and two daughters, came to Stanton county, Nebraska, October 11, 1868, taking up a homestead about four miles northwest of Stan- ton, ccming overland by team and wagon; a small Indiana colony of six or seven families coming in together and becoming pioneer settlers of Stanton county. Samuel R. MeFarland, subject of this sketch, received his education in the com- mon schools of Stanton county, and in his seven- teenth year practically went out for himself as a farm hoy.

On March 9, 1882, Mr. McFarland was mar- ried to Miss Hannah P. Bowman at the home of her parents, Edward and Nancy Bowman, who came to Stanton county in 1880, and both now being deceased. Mr. and Mrs. McFarland have three children: Nancy Elizabeth, a teacher in the public schools of Madison, Nebraska; Clarence H., who teaches in district schools of Madison county ; and Walter R., a stenographer.

Mr. McFarland remained on the home farm until 1882, and in the meantime taught three winter terms of school and learned the printers' trade during the summer months. In 1887 in connection with his brother James J., he went into the newspaper business, editing the "Pilger Review," selling same in about six months, and then went to work for his brother on the "Stan-

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ton Democrat, " and was in the newspaper field of work until 1889, when he owned and operated a dray and transfer line in Stanton; and in 1891. again returned to the newspaper work. In 1893 Mir. MeFarland became connected with a fra- ternal insurance company as field representative. In the fall of 1894 he became a resident of Nor. folk, Nebraska, and went to work for H. E. Hardy, coal dealer of Norfolk, and remained with Mr. Hardy until 1905. During the years prior to 1905 Mr. McFarland was elected city clerk of Norfolk and re-elected for five successive terms. In the spring of 1905 Mr. McFarland en- raged in the real estate, insurance and loan business, and in January of 1906 became deputy county clerk of Madison county under George E. Richardson, and in the fall of 1909 was nominee of the republican party for county clerk of Madison county, and was elected by a fine major- ity. Mr. McFarland is still a young man and since his sixth year has been a resident of Ne- braska. He has held positions of responsibilty, and has been at all times an advocate for ad- vancement along lines for the betterment of poli- tical, educational, and social issues. The Me- Farland family are all interested in educational and moral questions, and live in a pleasant home in Madison, where they have the respect and warm friendship of a large circle of friends.

JOHN O. TAYLOR.

John O. Taylor, a widely known and popular citizen of Custer county, Nebraska, has for many years been identified with the various interests and upbuilding of the county and state, and is a prosperous and successful man of affairs. He is now serving acceptably as postmaster of Berwyn, and owns six hundred acres of fine farming land, most of which is under cultivation. He was born at Columbia, Wisconsin, next to the youngest of seven children born to Ole and Julia Taylor. There are two daughters living in Minnesota and others of the children are deceased. The father was a native of Norway and came to America in 1842. He removed from Wisconsin to Iowa, where the children were reared, and later he removed to Minnesota dying in the northern part of that state in January, 1894. His wife died in Min- nesota in 1873.

In childhood John O. Taylor accompained the rest of the family to Minnesota, where he was educated and grew to manhood on a farm. In 1874 he went west and spent about one year traveling along the Pacific coast, then engaged in the agricultural implement business. He was married in Fillmore county, Minesota, November 28, 1876, to Caroline Chilson, a native of Dane county, Wisconsin, and they made their first home in Minnesota. In the spring of 1879 they brought their little daughter with them to Custer county, and pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of

land in Round Valley and also secured a timber claim of one hundred and sixty acres, Mr. Taylor establishing the postoffice in the valley in January, 1880, serving as its first postmaster.

In August, 1880, Mr. Taylor secured a home- stead of one hundred and sixty acres of land, comprising the northwest quarter of section seven- teen, township sixteen, range nineteen, and there ,lived about six years. In 1886 he came to Berwyn and established a store, selling his busi- ness interests in 1893, when he purchased a large stock and grain farm on section seven, town- ship sixteen, range nineteen, which is still the home place, although in 1907 Mr. Taylor re- purchased his former business loeation in Berwyn and again engaged in general mercantile busi- ness. In December, 1909, he had the misfortune to lose his building and stock by fire, the loss amounting to some ten thousand dollars in all. He rebuilt the following spring and now owns the largest mercantile establishment in the town and carries a large and well selected stock of up-to-date goods. He is well established in the confidence of the community and is respected as a man of business integrity and ability. He has always taken an active interest in public affairs. In 1884 he was elected county supervisor and served one term in this office. In 1896 he served as delegate from the sixth congressional district to the national convention which convened in St. Louis, June 16th, and nominated William Mc- Kinley for president. He took the first census of the town of Broken Bow and served as the first assessor of Broken Bow township. He is one of the few who retain the ownership of the original homestead, and he now lives on his farm near Berwyn.

Nine children were born to Mr. Taylor and wife: Julia married (first) Edward Bryant, by whom she had three children, and she is now the wife of John Harley, of Custer county ; Carl O., a merchant at Merna ; Fred I., of Berwyn, is mar- ried and has one child; Stephen L. and Gust C., at home; Ella, wife of N. G. Morgan, lives in Montana; Herman E., Nora and Ora, at home.

HENRY STAMER.

For few men is there a more universal kindly feeling than for the venerable Henry Stamer, now conducting a flour and feed store in Spencer, Nebraska.

He was born in the village of Oldenberg, Hol- stein province, Germany, August 26, 1836, and lived the first score of years in his native village. In emigrating to America, he embarked at Ham- burg in July, 1856 on the sailship "Deutchland" and although the passage was not a stormy one, head winds delayed them and it was fifty-four days before a landing was made in New York. He came directly west to Davenport, crossing from Rock Island on the ferry, the bridge not hav-

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ing been constructed at that time. A farmer living ten miles west of town gave him work and here he remained for nine months. The next year and a half he did farm work in Benton connty, and bought three yoke of oxen and broke prairie for the settlers two seasons, working with a threshing crew the other months of the year. In the spring of 1861 he sold his oxen, bought & team of horses and eighty acres of Benton county land, to which he later added one hundred and twenty acres adjoining. He married in the mean- while, and for eight years lived on his farm here.

In 1869 he sold and moved to Crawford county, bought eighty acres of land and farmed it thoroughly for eight or nine years before mi- grating to Adams county, Nebraska, in Janu- ary, 1878. He worked at the carpenter's trade on first coming to Nebraska, living in the country southeast of Hastings the while. Later he leased a half section and farmed three years before coming to Boyd county in 1891. Here he filed on a homestead four and a half miles northeast of where Spencer now stands; later he added a quarter section to his holdings and farmed here until 1902, when he retired. For two years he lived with a son until the mother recovered from an attack of rheumatism, and in 1904 moved to town. Four years later he opened a flour and feed store in which he has developed a comfortably large trade.

Henry Stamer is a son of Martin and Eliza- beth (Suchsdorf) Stamer, both of whom died when the boy was quiet young, the father in 1843, and the mother three years later.

Mr. Stamer was married in Iowa, August 26, 1861, to Miss Sophia Doebel, who had been a schoolmate in their childhood. Her father settled in Benton county soon after his immigration in 1857. Of their children, four survive. They are: Elizabeth, wife of Adolph Roseberg of Crawford county, Iowa ; Herman, who is living on a claim in Tripp county, South Dakota; Henry, who makes his home in Clay county, Nebraska and Fredrika, widow of Claus Smith, is on a claim in Tripp eonnty, South Dakota.

Mr. Stamer is a democrat in politics, and a member of the Lutheran church, their congre- gation having a house of worship a few miles north of town.

At the time of the blizzard of January 12, 1888, Mr. Stamer was attending a meeting of the board of county commissioners of Adams county, of which he was a member, and had just departed from the poor farm for home when the storm struck. The company with difficulty returned at once to the farm two miles distant and re- mained for the night. The fourteen-mile ride home the next day in the cold and deep snow was a trip to be long remembered for its dis- comfort and suffering.

Mr. Stamer lived four years in a "soddy" on first coming to Boyd county. The small

amount of lumber used had to be hauled from O'Neill or Niobrara, nearly fifty miles. There was good timber on his land, so fuel was plenti- ful, a condition to be desired in the west. A prairie fire in November, 1892, came near proving fatal to Mr. Stamer. It swept down from the north and came so suddenly there was little chance for escape, and he ran to a small creek and lay down in the water until the flames swept over and the smoke blew away, when he crossed the smouldering, blackened waste to his home. Mr. Stamer was one of the earliest craftsmen of Boyd county, and erected for R. Roller the first house built in Spencer.

Though there were many hardships and many privations in the opening of the west, most every pioneer fervently declares that those were the happiest days of his life; though such is the dis- position of Mr. Stamer that all are happy days.

FRED UEHLING.

Mr. Fred Uehling, of Bloomfield, is truly one of the pioneers of the state of Nebraska, having been a resident of the state since the fourth of July, 1864. On that day his father, John Uehl- ing, settled in Dodge county, four and a half miles north of where Hooper now stands. Omaha, seventy miles distant, was the nearest trading town and the trip took nearly a week in going and coming. His was one of nine families who migrated across the country from Wisconsin, their calvacade consisting of eleven teams; some owning horses, some oxen.

John Uehling was a native of Saxony, as was the mother, Elizabeth Toutfetter. The former died in the spring 1885, at the age of eighty-six, and the latter in July, 1880, at the age of sixty- eight. They came to America in 1852 in a sail- ship, embarking at Hamburg. After a voyage of fourteen weeks, they landed in New York and came direct to Wisconsin, settling in Dodge county in 1852. Here he farmed for twelve years, until migrating to Nebraska. He was in better circumstances than most of his neighbors, having two wagons drawn by a yoke of oxen and team of horses. He had started with four oxen, but traded for horses on the way. The father home- steaded a quarter section and bought two hun- dred and forty acres additional, and here he lived until his death, as above stated, in the spring of 1885. The son Fred, was running the farm at the time, the father having retired. The mother's death had occurred five years before. while visiting with her daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Wagner of Dodge county.

Fred Uehuling was born in Dodge county, Wisconsin, June 29, 1853; his eleventh birthday was celebrated in Iowa on the way to the west. Mr. Uehling began his own business career farm- ing his father's land until 1882, when he moved to Scribner, the father at the time making his

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home with another son. In Scribner, Mr. Uehl- ing engaged in the furniture and implement busi- ness.

In 1881 he moved to Oakland, and opened a meat market in which he was engaged for nine years. Under the firm name of Holmquist and Company, he entered the grain and lumber busi- ness in 1892, selling in 1900 to come to Wausa. Here he built a mill and elevator, which in 1901 he .traded for a farm in Knox county and moved to Wisner.

In the spring of 1902 he came to Bloomfield and opened a lumber yard and also a bank; he erected a business block on the main street, and for a few years engaged in the hardware busi- ness. In 1909 he traded the stock of goods for a farm, and on May 20, 1909, sold his interest in the bank, retiring to private life. He now gives personal attention to his landed estates and town property keeping them in good repair and oc- cupied by thrifty tenants. As a business man and manager, Mr. Uehling is a pronounced suc- cess. What he has, was accumulated by his own effort, and invested in a safe and profitable way under his own judgment.

Mr. Wehling was married in Dodge county, November 3, 1877,to Miss Marie Kruger, a native of Mechlenburg, Germany, daughter of Joachin Kruger, who emigrated to America in 1868. Mr. and Mrs. Wehling have six children, namely : Ina, wife of W. H. Bosse, of Meadow Grove, Nebraska; Feodor, in business in Omaha; Emil, Fred, Hen- rietta, wife of George Bloodhart, a merchant of Bloomfield and Dorothy.

Mr. Uehling is a democrat in politics, and a member of the Lutheran church. He holds mem- bership in hoth the Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the World.

During the first two years of their life in Nebraska, the Uehling family occupied a dugout, building material being scarce as were also money, and provisions. They had a cow, so en- joyed milk and butter. A mill on Logan creek ground their scant supply of wheat. The many blizzards that swept the plains are well remem- bered. Mr. Uehling was living at Oakland at the time of the blizzard of January 12, 1888. Mrs. Uehling, in attempting to get the children at sehool was herself lost for a time on her way home.

Deer and antelope were plentiful when the family setled in Dodge county, and wild turkeys were still to be found, Mr. Uehling having bagged many of them in his hunting days. They have seen hailstorms of the worst kind, one of them having come since the family has been living in their present house; in the country they have seen hail blown into hollows two feet deep.

Mr. Uehling is one of the substantial men of Nebraska, self-made, self-reliant and self-sustain- ing. Of such is the best blood of the community and the bulwark 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 232

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