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 43

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 43

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At the close of the war Mr. Thompson serv- ed six months in the first Wisconsin cavalry, enlisting March 3, 1865. The regiment was sta- tioned at Edgefield, Tenn., and saw little active service, as the backbone of the rebellion was broken soon after its date of enlistment. Mr. Thompson was a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic until the local post was abandoned.

In politics Mr. Thompson is a republican, and he belongs to the Independent Order Odd Fellows. He is a devout member of the Meth- odist Episcopal church and interested in ev- ery worthy cause which comes to his notice. He is one of the oldest settlers of Holt county and well remembers his early struggles to ob- tain a good crop. Deer, antelope and elk were often seen after he came to the state, and soon after his arrival a lone buffalo was seen to . cross his farm. He suffered much loss from grasshoppers for several years, and until about 1876 he was unable to save his corn from these pests, that devastated a field of corn in a very short time, leaving nothing but the black, naked stalks. It is hard for one to real- ize what a menace these pests were to the early settler, who depended upon his grain for his profits. Mr. Thompson was an intelligent and industrious farmer, and his fields soon began to produce bountiful crops, and even in the first years he was able to save his small grain. He is one of the best known men in the coun- ty and has a reputation for integrity and re- liability which attests his high character and standing.

W. H. STEPHENSON.

W. H. Stephenson, abstracter and dealer in real estate, of Hartington, made his first jour- ney into Nebraska in the summer of 1871. He found work near Fremont on the farm of the father of George W. E. Dorsey, for many years the member of congress from the third district. He returned to his native city in Canada, and did not re-visit Nebraska until he came to make it his permanent home in February of

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1885. He saw the need of an expert abstracter in the settlement of a new country and opened an office in Hartington, winning an extensive clientelle from the start. He writes insurance for a number of the substantial old line insur- ance companies and deals extensively in real estate, in which his judgment is unerring.

Mr. Stephenson was born in the city of St. Thomas, Ontario, January 19, 1848. His father was born in Cayuga, New York, in 1795; he attended college with Thaddeus Stevens, Ther- low Weed and that group of illustrious men who were a power in the nation over half century ago. He was a prominent Mason, and was indicted, along with others, at the time of the Morgan excitement in western New York in the first half of the last century. He went to Canada, settled in St. Thomas, and at the age of fifty-four was married; he died in St. Thomas in the year 1854. In early manhood he had served in the war of 1812. The mother of Mr. Stephenson was Miss Huldah Warner, a native of Canada. After the death of the father she removed, in 1856, with her family to Mich- igan state, where both of her boys enlisted in the Union army; the younger, Samuel A. Stephenson was killed in an engagement at Murphysboro, at the tender age of fifteen years, a member of Company G, Twenty-ninth Michigan Volunteers.

Mr. Stephenson . enlisted July 30, 1864, at the age of sixteen, at Port Huron, Michigan, in Company A, Nineteenth United States Reg- ulars, and was stationed first at Fort Wayne, where he was broken into army tactics under the drill master there. The regiment was sent to the front at Atlanta and engaged in the siege and several of the battles around the city, and at Acken and Jonesboro, Georgia. When Sherman cut loose from his base of supplies and swung his army through Georgia on his famous march to the sea, the Nineteenth regi- ment was sent back into Tennessee to inter- cept Hood, who was threatening an invasion of

the North. There were skirmishes around Chattanooga, after which the regiment went into winter quarters on Lookout Mountain. Here in November Mr. Stephenson, though not yet seventeen, cast his first vote for presi- dent ; he voted for Lincoln at that time and has voted with the republican party ever since.

After the war Mr. Stephenson returned to his native city, where he married and for ten years was engaged in the grain and produce business. This being a fine dairy country, he engaged in cheese-making, having three to four factories running at one time until 1878, when he disposed of all his interests here. Re- moving again to the states, he settled in Har- lan, Iowa, where he engaged in the live stock and grain business until his removal to Ne- braska, as stated, in 1885.

Mr. Stephenson was married near St.

Thomas, September 10, 1874, to Miss Agnes Lynn, daughter of Hugh and Sarah (Milligan) Lynn, the former a native of county Antrim, Ireland, the latter of Glasgow, Scotland. The grandfather, William Lynn, came to Canada with his family in 1834, and died there at the age of eighty-three years. Mrs. Stephenson's parents moved to Redlands, California, in 1890, where the father died at the age of eighty- three years; the mother still lives there at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. Six chil- dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson, namely: William, is in business at Glenn Ullin, North Dakota; Hugh L., resides in Sioux City, engaged in the mail service between that city and Omaha, having been promoted to the position of chief clerk; Helen Hope, after com- pleting the high school course graduated with the degree of B. A. in the college of Tarkio, Missouri; she has taught successfully, her last engagement being as principal of the schools of Clearfield, Iowa; Blanche A., graduated in music at the conservatory at Macomb, Illinois, under Professor Jackson, with whom she be- gan her higher musical studies at Tarkio; Samuel G., began the course in Tarkio college, but feeling the call to adventure in the big world outside enlisted in the American navy, and has sailed many seas abroad the United States Steamship Montana; and Walter I., the youngest, is a pupil in the Hartington school.

Mr. Stephenson has been commander or ad- jutant of the Osawatomie post number one hundred seventy-nine, Grand Army of the Re- public at Hartington since removing to the town. The veterans hold their meetings in his office and their charter hangs on his office wall. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and their higher branch, the Dramatic Order of Khorassan.

When he first came to Nebraska the rail- roads had but recently been opened to the coast; the Northwestern had extended only to Missouri Valley, Iowa, and the Burlington and Rock Island to Council Bluffs. The only hos- telery of note at Omaha, the United States hotel, was about a mile from the ferry; and the Union Pacific bridge was under construction, and for a time Mr. Stephenson was employed on the structure. He was here at the time of the Chicago fire and hastened his return home that he might see the ruins of the stricken city of which he had read so much in the daily press ; so recently had the flames been subdued that the sidewalks were too hot for use when he was there, all on foot being compelled to take their chances with vehicles in the middle of the streets.

Mr. Stephenson had an uncomfortable ex- perience in the blizzard of January 12, 1888; after taking his own children home he re- turned with a neighbor to accompany the two little daughters of Dr. J. W. Hitchcock; they became bewildered in the icy blast and

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failed to reach their destination; they did finally run into a house and warmed their almost frozen charges. Making a fresh start, they reached the doctor's residence, where they found he and his wife almost frantic.

Deer and antelope were to be seen on the prairies of Cedar county when Mr. Stephenson first came, and the best of land sold for four to five dollars per acre. A tract Mr. Stephen- son bought at two dollars and fifty cents he sold at six dollars and twenty-five cents per acre; this purchaser held until it brought him fifty dollars, and it is worth from eighty dol- lars to one hundred dollars an acre now after the short lapse of twenty-five years.

Mr. Stephenson comes of a long-lived race, His mother died in 1908 at the age of eighty- three; her father, a pensioner of the American army, attained the great age of eighty-eight; she was descended on her mother's side from Reverend John Robinson, who became enamor- ed of Abagial Olmstead, a fellow passenger on the Mayflower and married her soon after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. Others of his ancestors attained great age, be- ing of the hardy race that springs from north- ern Ireland and the Scottish counties around Glasgow.

On another page we are pleased to present portraits of Mr. Stephenson and his son Will- iam.

FRANK J. PIERCE.

Frank J. Pierce, retired farmer and son of Samuel and Cemantha Pierce, was born in Juno county, Wisconsin, September 23, 1855. He was the second child in a family of six chil- dren, of whom one sister is deceased, three brothers reside in Louisiana, and one brother in Albion. The mother died in 1908, and the father is living, at the ripe age of eighty-eight years, in Boone county.

In 1862 the family moved to Minnesota, where they engaged principally in farming, and in 1878 they came to Boone county, Ne- braska, where our subject homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land three miles southwest of Albion.

On December 26, 1882, Mr. Pierce was joined in matrimony to Miss Eva T. Mansfield, and they continued to live on the homestead until 1883, when Mr. Pierce purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land on the north- east quarter of section seventeen, township twenty, range six, which is located two miles northwest of Albion, and which remained the home for twenty-six years.

Mrs. Pierce's father, Augustus G. Mans- field, died December 2, 1906, and her mother, Mary Mansfield, on December 19, 1893. Mrs. Pierce was the eldest of ten children, five brothers and one sister of whom reside in Ne-

braska, one brother in Illinois, one sister is de- ceased, and another sister lives in Texas.

In 1907 Mr. Pierce retired from active farm life and with Mrs. Pierce went to California, where they enjoyed a year and a half tour, re- turning to Albion, where he is building a fine home.

Mr. Pierce formerly owned a good fruit farm of twenty-four acres of trees, three hun- dred cherry trees, two hundred plum, and two thousand apple trees, all of which he set out in 1895 and sold in 1910. This is the largest or- chard in Boone county.

Mr. Pierce has done his full share as an old settler, and is recognized as one of the leading residents of the county in which he makes his home. He has the confidence and esteem of his fellow men, and his name will figure prom- inently in the history of Nebraska.

MENKE VON SEGGERN.

For over forty-three years Nebraska has claimed the allegiance of Mr. Menke Von Seg- gern. With a colony of thirty of his fellow countrymen, he crossed the Missouri river at Omaha in the spring of 1868, at which time the town was not as large as Wayne. He came on to Dodge county, and filed on an eighty acre homestead six miles north of Hooper, and later purchased three hundred and twenty acres of railroad land and eighty acres out of a school section. He cultivated and improved this large farm until 1884, when he sold and moved to Wayne county, seven miles north of Wisner, and purchased three hundred and twenty acres in the southeast corner at eight dollars per acre, and four hundred and eighty acres across the line in Cuming county at eleven dollars, making a fine estate of eight hundred acres,

Mr. Von Seggern resided on this farm until 1899, when he rented it and resided in Omaha for three years for the benefit of Mrs. Von Seg- gern's health, and to give the children the ad- vantages of the city schools. In March, 1903, they moved back to Wayne county, to eighty acres a short distance north of Wayne, which he had owned for some time, and in 1907 pur- chased his present place of twenty acres ad- joining the northeast corner of town. Here on a well graded terrace, encircled by an orna- mental hedge, he erected a nine-room, two- story dwelling which commands a grand view of the town, the valley and the hills to the south, The house is equipped with all improvements- furnace, lights, bath and water connections- making it a comfortable and complete modern home.

Mr. Von Seggern was born in the village of Sandhatten, province of Aldenburg, Germany, December 5, 1840. He lived in his native coun- try until 1868, following farming for a livli- hood, although he had learned the blacksmith

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trade. Sailing from Bremen, one of a party of thirty, he landed in New York after a voyage of fourteen days. Thence they proceeded to Ne- braska, since which time Mr. Von Seggern has be- come a prominent citizen of the state; and well has he done his part, leading an honest, upright life, and winning the respect of his fellow men. Mr. Von Seggern is a son of Menke Von Seggern, senior, who married Mary Sanders. The parents joined their son in 1872 and passed their declin- ing years in Nebraska.

The marriage of Mr. Von Seggern was cele- brated in Dodge county, June 16, 1870. His bride, Mary Monnich, a daughter of Gerhart and Anna (Osterloh) Monnich, was also a native of Oldenburg, born in the village of Holle.

The Monnich family emigrated to America in 1854, sailing in the "Hansa," a fast passenger steamer for those times which made the passage in fourteen days. They came to Iowa and lived two years in lowa county, renting land and en- gaging in farming. They moved to Nebraska in the fall of 1856 with ox teams, camping in their covered wagons along the way; crossed the Mis- souri river at Omaha, and found that town's busi- uess buildings to consist of one store. In ascend- ing a steep hill on the way up from the river, they found part of it too slippery from recent rains, so essayed to make a way of their own up a steeper bank on the grass. Hitching both yokes of oxen to the uncle's wagon, the steep ascent was attempted. Near the top the chain of the front team broke, the pole team could not hold the load, and wagon, oxen and all made a hasty back trip to the bottom, upsetting and spill- ing everything in the wagon; half a day was re- quired to set things right again and make a sec- ond start. They settled in Dodge county where their remaining years were spent.

Mr. and Mrs. Von Seggern have eight of their ten children living. They are: George who lives on part of the old home farm in the south part of the county; Bernhard, who occupies the other part of the land; Fred has an elevator and lum- ber yard in Gregory, South Dakota; Anna, is the wife of Herman Mullenhoff of Gresham, Oregon; Carl is in Gregory with Fred; Emil is with Bern- hard on the old farm : William is in the grain and lumber business in Wayne; and Dorothy grad- uated in the high schools, class of 1911.

When the Monnich family settled in Nebraska in 1856 it was all open prairie. Deer and ante- lope were numerous; an uncle of Mrs. Von Seg- gern killed two deer one winter in the Elk Horn valley. Their first dwelling was a log house. When times were the hardest and store provisions hard to procure, parched wheat and barley served them as a substitute for coffee. Omaha was their market place-fifty miles away, it re- quired three or four days to make the round trip. Their nearest mill was at Fort Calhoun. At the time of the Indian troubles, the family left the farm for a week and sought refuge in Fontenelle.

At the time Mr. Von Seggern came, deer and antelope had disappeared, but wild turkeys were plentiful and he kept his family board supplied with that fine game in season. Grasshoppers wrought havoc in their corn several seasons, but their small grain was usually harvested, and there was no year in which their crops totally failed; the worst season was in 1872. The near- est market at the time Mr. Von Seggern first came to the state was twenty-one miles from his home, and it usually required a day to make the trip. They lived through the severe blizzards of 1869, 1870, 1873, and 1880, but the worst experi- ence Mr. Von Seggern had was in that of Janu- ary 12, 1888. His children were at school and he went for them, facing the blinding, smothering storm for three-quarters of a mile, and brought them safely home.

Those times were hard in those days, and trials and privations were many, they were happy days -life was before them, they had youth and strength and resolute hearts. They endured, they toiled, they preserved, and now in the even- ing of life they enjoy all the good things the Lord has provided for those who serve Him.

Mr. Von Seggern is a democrat, and he and his wife are members of the Lutheran church.

H. WHITTENBURG.

H. Whittenburg, one of the oldest residents of Stanton county, is one of the first white children born within its limits. His entire life has been spent there, and he is closely identified with the best interests of his community.

Mr. Whittenburg was born in 1870, a son of Julius and Ernslena Whittenburg, both natives of Germany, who left there for the United States in 1868, landing at New York. The father believ- ed the west offered larger opportunities for the man with small capital, and located in Nebraska, securing a homestead on section eighteen, town- ship twenty-four, range one, of Stanton county, which has since been in the possession of the family. He began at once to make improvements, and at first they occupied a primitive dwelling, which was replaced with a better one when it was possible. He and his wife had eight chil- dren, six of whom are still living.

For some years after coming to their new home, the Whittenburg family were greatly troubled by grasshoppers that destroyed a large part of their crops, but they were triumphant over all difficulties and developed a fine grain and stock farm, and now have a comfortable dwelling. Upon their arrival deer and antelope were fairly plentiful and helped a great deal in furnishing their food. Many times they were obliged to fight prairie fires to save their home. During the early years of their residence in the state, the father planted fourteen acres of land with shade and fruit trees, and in many other ways added to the beauty and value of his estate. The family

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stand well with their neighbors and have many warm friends. They are among the compara- tively few who have retained in the family the land originally secured from the government, and are well known in their part of the county.

E. L. HEMENWAY.

E. L. Hemenway, owner of a fine estate in section fifteen, township twenty-seven, range eight, Antelope county, Nebraska, has resided in his present location for the past twenty-seven years and during that time has become one of the successful agriculturists and citizens of that re- gion. Mr. Hemenway owns a good home and valuable property, and has always done his share in the upbuilding of his locality, and is well and favorably known throughout this part of the state.

Mr. Hemenway is a native of Du Page county, Illinois, born on a farm January 3, 1860. His father Charles was born in North Hampden, Massachusetts, in 1815, and our subject's mother, Lucy (Fay) Hemenway, is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, but of English descent, her par- ents having come from England, and being early settlers in the state of Massachusetts. Our sub- ject was raised in his birthplace, receiving his education in the country schools, and helping his father work the home farm.

In 1883 our subject came to Nebraska settling in Antelope county. Mr. Hemenway had a pretty good practical training in a business way, and a fair education, and taught school, laying by enough money to get a start in life. In 1886 he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land from Mr. Dell Zell, this land originally being a pre- emption claim. After buying this land he began at once to make improvements, putting out five acres of trees, and making other changes and went into general farming and stock-raising. Mr. Hemenway now owns six hundred acres of good land with all improvements. He carries on gen- eral farming and stock-raising, has several head of high grade cattle and feeds about a carload a year for market.

On December 3, 1891, Mr. Hemenway was married to Miss Lucina Chase, and to this union three children were born, whose names are as follows: Clara, Walter, and Lucile. Mrs. Hem- enway died in the year 1902 deeply mourned by her husband and family and many kind neighbors and friends.

Mr. Hemenway again married, March 29, 1905, his bride being Eva George, and Mr. and Mrs. Hemenway are. the parents of two children, named Dalas and Irma. Mr. and Mrs. Hemenway and family enjoy the respect and well-wishes of all who know them, and their friends are many. Mr. Hemenway is a member of several fraternal societies, having been financial secretary of the A. O. U. W. for sixteen years, from 1893 to 1909; also is a member of the Degree of Honor. He is

a member of the United Presbyterian church, and a republican in politics. He takes an interest in educational matters and served as school di- rector of his district from 1896 to 1906.

On the 12th of January, 1888, the day of the great blizzard, Mr. Hemenway was at the school where he was teaching, but on ac- count of the shortage of fuel only two chil- dren were in attendance and these were sent home before the blizzard began, a fortunate thing as many school children in other districts were caught in it, or confined at the school houses during the continuance of the storm. Mr. Hemenway suffered severe losses by the great drought in 1894 but managed to save about three hundred bushels of small grain so he was able to supply his brothers with seed for the next year. In 1895 his losses were greater as he lost his entire crop by hail storms.

SANFORD PACKARD.

Few living at the present time can relate, as can the above gentleman, incidents of the over- land trail, early ranching in the open country when the outposts of civilization were hundreds of miles apart and of navigation on the Missouri river at a time when it was not the "Great De- serted Stream."

Mr. Packard was born near Burlington, on August 11, 1846, and is a son of Solomon and Susan (Hunt) Packard. The maternal grand- father of our subject was a soldier in the British army stationed in Canada, near the Vermont line. He met and married his wife in England and later came to Canada, moved with her across the line into the states. After arriving in the United States, he located in Columbia county, Wisconsin, where Sanford grew to manhood, and from there he went to Montana, traveling in a covered wagon, camping out along the road, and crossing the Missouri river at Omaha. He followed the California trail along the Platte river. Fremont at that time was but a shanty town. All went well until North Platte was reached, where warn- ings of the Indians were given by the soldiers stationed there, who directed them to take the south side of the river instead of the opposite bank, as was usual. One man, by the name of Barnett, from Missouri, failed to heed this warn- ing, went his own obstinate way, and was never heard from afterwards.

Mr. Packard carried all his goods across the railroad bridge, afterwards fording the river with the empty wagon, reloading on the other side, and proceeded safely on his way to Gallatin, Mon- tana, where he was employed for a year in look- ing after horses and cattle on a large ranch.

In the summer of 1869 he started home by boat down the Missouri river, passing through Helena and Fort Benton, and after a trip lasting seven days, landed in Sioux City, from there go- ing to Chicago, thence back to Columbia county,

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Wisconsin. He worked in a drug store there and in Poynette for several months, and in the fall of 1870 went into a lumber camp in the pine woods of northern Wisconsin, where he was soon made cook for the outfit. The illness and death of his father in the following spring called him home to take charge of the farm, which he later sold, and removed with his mother and family to Ma- nasha, Wisconsin. Here he worked in a feed store, his earnings affording a scant living for them all, so he accompanied a friend to Iowa and spent the summer in the harvest fields at good wages, and during the fall worked with a thresh- ing outfit near Iowa Falls.

In 1874, he joined his brother near Schuyler, Nebraska, where he rented a small warehouse and bought and shipped grain. He succeeded well in this venture until the grasshopper pests ruined the crops and left no grain to buy, so he returned to Iowa Falls, there purchasing grain for a dealer for two years.

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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 43

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