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 49

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 49

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Charles Buche, our subject, was married in 1893 to Miss Alberta Hayhurst, and they are the parents of three children, whose names are as follows: John Clayton, Hilda Lenora and Edith Alberta.

Mr. Buche returned to Antelope county, Ne- braska, and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in northwest section fifteen, township twenty-seven, range five, his present home. He has four acres of fine trees. Mr. and Mrs. Buche enjoy the respect and esteem of all who know them.

RUDOLPH FEDDERN.

Among the leading old-timers in eastern Ne- braska who have succeeded in accumulating a good property by dint of industry and honest dealings, supplemented by thrift and good man- agement, the gentleman whose name heads this review deserves special mention. He has been closely identified with the development and up- building of the region where he lives, which is in section twenty-eight, township twenty-seven, range two, Pierce county, Nebraska.

Mr. Feddern is a native of Germany, born in the village of Goetzberg, province of Holstein, January 12, 1868, and is the son of Hans Fed- dern, who was born iu 1832 and served in the Danish army in 1850 and 1851. The mother, Katie (Steinbach) Feddern, was born in 1842. The father came to America in 1880, and after three years' work near Omaha, sent for his wife and son. They sailed from Hamburg to New York on the "Fresia," the voyage lasting ten . days. The father rented for nine years and then had a farm of his own.

Wheu Rudolph Feddern started out for him- self, he rented for four years seven miles south of Randolph, Nebraska, and in 1891 bought the land where he resides at the present time, owning a well improved farm of three hundred and twenty acres, on which are planted two acres of fine trees. The house and other buildings he erected, and made many other improvements on the place.

In the spring of 1897, Mr. Feddern was mar- ried to Miss Henrietta Iseublatter, and to this union five children have been born, whose names are as follows: George, Adolph, Herbert, Luella. and Rosa.

Mr. Feddern is a member of the German- Lutheran church, and votes the democratic ticket.

Mr. Feddern came to this region in its early days of development and has passed through all the strenuous Nebraska times, becoming by his labors in behalf of his adopted state one of the leading citizens and well known supporters of all that goes to make the locality a prominent section in the eastern part of the state.

H. A. ELLIS. (Deceased.)

H. A. Ellis, now deceased, was during his life time a prominent citizen and one of Howard county 's early settlers, who through his personal aid and influence helped in a large measure to make of that region the thriving and prosperous community it has now become.

Mr. Ellis was born on August 2, 1823, on a farm near Syracuse, New York. He started working for himself at an early age, taking up his work in the lumber regions of Michigan, where during his younger days he was known as the greatest sawyer on the Grand river. He was married there in 1850, to Jane E. Briggs, and they remained in Michigan up to the fall of 1865, then removed to Iowa, settling in Rising Sun, where our subject became interested in the mercantile business for one year and then pur- chased and moved onto a farm. He resided there for eighteen years, at which time, in 1884, the family came to Howard county, Nebraska, Mr. Ellis purchasing a farm on Canada Hill. This he operated for a number of years, but always re- sided in the city of St. Paul, which was his home until his death, on December 30, 1890. He was a man of exemplary character, industrious and progressive and succeeded in building up a nice home and competence, enjoying the highest es- teem of all who knew him.

Mr. Ellis was survived by his widow, Jane E. Ellis, and two daughters, Clara J. Young, also a widow, who resided with her mother until Mrs. Ellis' death, January 21, 1911, and Mrs. Lizzie F. Leftwich, mother of three children, two of whom are living, they residing in St. Paul also, Mrs. Ellis was a native of Oneida county, New York, born July 26, 1831. Her father served in the war of 1812 and her grandfather in the revolutionary war, the family be- ing a prominent one in public life for many generations back. Mrs. Ellis received her education in her native state and at the age of sixteen years began teaching school. In 1846, in company with her mother, she went to Chicago, arriving there four years ahead of the railroad through the then small city. After about four years there they moved into Michigan, where Mrs. Ellis met and married Mr. Ellis. From 1884 she lived in St. Paul until the time of her death, and notwithstanding her seventy-nine

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years, she regularly prepared and read interest- ing papers on various subjects before different clubs and societies. Mrs. Ellis was also a poetess of more than ordinary ability, and a number of her efforts have appeared in print, and won for her much praise. She was a charming woman, and was beloved throughout the region for her bright and happy disposition and her kindness to all.

VIGGO MULLER.

Viggo Muller, a progressive farmer and ranchman of Valley county, Nebraska, resides on section twenty-nine, township twenty, range fifteen, where he has a good home and farm, and in 1910 built a fine new residence. He is a young man who has a promising future, and bids fair to emulate his father before him, who was one of the highly esteemed old settlers of Valley county.

Mr. Muller was born in the village of Bros- trup, province of Schleswig, Germany, July 15, 1874, and is fourth of five children in the family of Jess I .. and Johanna (Schmidt) Muller. He has two sisters and one brother in Iowa, and one brother in Minnesota; the father died in Valley county, Nebraska, in 1904, and the mother in 1909 in Iowa.

In 1885 Mr. Muller came with his parents to America, sailing from Copenhagen, Denmark, in the steamer "Eisland," landing in New York after a voyage of fourteen days. Locating in Valley county, Nebraska, the father bought one hundred and sixty acres of good land, on which our subject grew to manhood, receiving his edn- cation in the local schools, and later engaged in farming.

In 1904 Mr. Muller purchased the old home stock and grain farm of one hundred and sixty acres in section twenty-nine, township twenty, range fifteen, where, as before stated, he is now residing.

Mr. Muller is one of the younger men among the early settlers, coming from one of the well- known families of the county, and is widely and favorably known. He is a progressive man of affairs, always taking a keen interest in matters pertaining to the welfare of his home state and county.

On August 24, 1910, Mr. Muller was married to Miss Marie Kappel, a native of Denmark, and daughter of Jens and Marn (Nielsen) Kappel, who came to America in 1906. Mr. and Mrs. Muller have the good wishes, and respect and es- teem of a host of kind friends and acquaintances. They are the parents of a son named Jess, for his grandfather. Mr. Muller was reared in the Inth- eran church, and is independent in politics.

At the time of the blizzard of January 12, 1888, Mr. Muller was at school, which was dis- missed at three o'clock, the children making their way home in the storm. He well remembers the cyclone of 1885, which wrought such great

havoc in Valley county. A sod house was the first dwelling, to which a frame addition was built in 1887. This was moved to a new site in 1910 and a large front built to it, making a very comfortable modern house.

RUFUS GEORGE CARR.

Rufus George Carr, a portrait of whom is presented on another page, was one of the very early settlers of Custer county and is one of the best known men of central Nebraska. He is a prosperous and successful business man and has built up several local enterprises, in some of which he still has an interest. He was born in Redfield, New York, September 7, 1836, eldest of the seven children of George R. and Mary (Dick- inson) Carr. He has three sisters now living in Nebraska : Mrs. Ida Phelps, Mrs. James Bene- dict, and Mrs. Harriett R. Peters; another sister, Mrs. Sarah Whiting, of Los Banis, California. The father was born in Onedia county and the mother in Oswego county, New York, and both died in Custer county, where they located in 1878.

In infancy Rufus G. Carr was taken by his parents to Illinois, growing to manhood on a farm in that state. As a young man he worked at the trade of carpenter and later engaged in the mer- cantile business. On September 18, 1859, he was married, in Wisconsin, to Miss Sarah Daniels, a native of Colebrook, New Hampshire. They lived about one year on a farm in Illinois, then moved to Wisconsin and thence to Iowa. In the spring of 1878 they accompanied a party to Ne- braska, taking with them nine wagons, one hun- dred cattle and thirty-five horses, and going by way of Sioux City. The other members of the party were: Mr. and Mrs. John Orvis, with her father, George Sweet; Mr. Carr's father, G. R. Carr ; Mr. and Mrs. William A. Coslor and Gilbert Scott. After reaching Nebraska the party camped at Compton's Ford on Cedar river, and R. G. Carr and John Orvis left the others to look in Custer county for a suitable location, choosing a place on Loup river northwest of the present site of the town of Sargent. They returned to their party, still in camp, and all moved on to- ward the chosen home. Upon reaching St. Paul they met a number of friendly settlers, including Judge Paul and others who gave them unfavor- able reports of Custer county, telling them they would be liable to have trouble with the Indians and cowboys and saying that the country was unhealthy. However, the little band of home- seekers would not be discouraged and pushed on. After a time they saw an old man sitting on a stump and crying. Upon their inquiring of him what was the canse of his grief they were told his father had whipped him for being saucy to his grandfather, and the entire party agreed that if people in the locality lived to such an age it was the proper place for them to settle. They

RUFUS G. CARR.

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continued on their way and all took up home- steads in the same neighborhood. Mr. Carr se- cured a half of seetion two, township nineteen, range nineteen, and on his farm laid out the town of West Union, serving as its first postmaster and also conducting a general store. In 1890 he ac- quired about fourteen hundred acres of land in West Union township and there established the postoffice and pleasure resort known as Doris. He erected and operated a flour mill, having a capacity of one hundred barrels a day, the power being furnished by Doris Lake, an artificial body of water fed from the middle Loup river. This is a handsome lake, surrounded by fine trees and having islands and rustie bridges to add to its beauty. It is a place where the entire country- side enjoys boating, fishing and skating in their proper seasons. Mr. Carr also erected and con- dueted the Doris hotel and dance hall, as well as a machine shop that was run by power furnished by the water in the lake. In 1887 the West Union property was almost entirely destroyed by fire, the loss amounting to about twenty-one thousand dollars, there being an insurance of only one thousand dollars on it. However, he rebuilt and continued in business there and still has va- rious interests. In the summer of 1911 he sold his business to James W. Lundy, retiring from active life and purchasing a comfortable home in Sar- gent. He has always been known as a public- spirited and enterprising citizen, interested in all that benefited his locality. In establishing the village of West Union he furnished the first mar- ket for many miles around. He was the first no- tary public in the county and served in this ca- pacity twelve years.

Five children were born to Mr. Carr and wife: Alda, wife of William A. Coslor, of Sargent, has three children; Eben J., deceased; Stanley V., married and living in Sargent, has six children ; Rodney V., deceased; Cora J., wife of Henry Pointer, of West Union, has three children.

Many of the earlier settlers were assisted by Mr. Carr and encouraged to continue as residents of the county, and through his capacity as a pub- lic official and the sound advice and the offer of his money which he advanced, enabled many of them to file on their elaims.

BARNEY McDOWELL. (Deceased.)

The MeDowells were pioneers in Sherman county and are of the few families who still own the original homestead secured upon their com- ing to the region. They have done much to- ward the development and advancement of the community and have always stood for its best interests. The late Barney McDowell was well known throughout the county as an industrious farmer and a public-spirited citizen, who was always ready to do his duty in every relation of life. Ile was a true friend and kind neighbor,

much esteemed for his sterling qualities. He was born in England and his wife in New Orleans, Louisiana, whenee her father returned to Eng- land after a sojourn in the southern states. They were married at Whitehaven, England, in 1860, and came to the United States about 1866, moving from Pennsylvania to Harrison county, Iowa, in 1877. In the fall of 1882 Mr. McDowell went to Sherman county and secured a homestead com- prising the southeast quarter of section six, town- ship sixteen, range sixteen. The following spring Mr. McDowell and his family located in their Nebraska home. Mr. McDowell improved and developed a fine farm, and the home place now contains three hundred and twenty acres of valuable land. He lived there the remainder of his life and pas ed away May 5, 1910, survived by his wife and six children. He was in his eightieth year, and his widow, though in advanced years. is well and active, and lives on the farm with her sons, Barney and James, who manage the place. One daughter, Bessie, is teaching in the district schools. The oldest daughter, Mary, is the wife of Edward MeDowell, a sketch of whom appears in this work, and their farm adjoins the Me- Dowell farm on the south. The other two daugh- ters are Kate, wife of Phil Lynch, of Custer county, and Nellie, Mrs. John Sweeney, also of Custer county. The family are well known and popular in social circles and have many friends.

HENRY HIRSCHMAN.

It would be impossible to give a sketch of the early history of the northeastern section of Ne- braska, without ineluding more than a few words concerning the above mentioned gentleman, who is one of the most prominent of the old settlers. He has an extensive acquaintance and is held in the highest esteem by all. He is a man of strong character and active public spirit and well merits his present high standing.

Mr. Hirschman is a native of Wisconsin, and was born in 1854, the son of Francis and T. Hirschman. The parents came from Austria in 1852, being six weeks on the ocean in an old- fashioned sailing boat. Upon arriving in Ameri- ca, they came directly to Wisconsin and bought forty acres of land there. The father was a carpenter and part of the time worked at his trade, and part of the time, with the assistance of his family, worked on the little farm. Finally, in 1872, the family decided to join the migration westward. Accordingly, with a team of horses and a prairie schooner, they started to drive to Cedar county, Nebraska. They were on the road three weeks, and upon their arrival the father filed on a homestead in seetion eight, township thirty. range three.

In 1877, our subscriber married Miss Minnie Liseh, a native of Germany. During the first years of their residence in Nebraska, the family suffered the usual hardships incident to a

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pioneer's life in the west, and especially apt to trouble the settlers of this locality. For years they fought dangers threatening their crops by grasshoppers, prairie fires, and hot dry winds, and on more than one occasion sustained severe losses. In 1888, the subscriber lost most of his stoek in the January blizzard, which was a heavy loss at that time. However, he persevered in his efforts to wrest a home from the wilderness and succeeded.

Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hirschman, named as follows: John, Edward, Razina, Anne, Minnie, deceased; Ida, Julia, and Henry.

BELL E. BERRYMAN.

Bell E. Berryman, one of the prominent busi- ness men of Merrick county, is known through- out the county as a man of exceptional ability and straightforward principles.

Mr. Berryman was born in Hartford, Ohio county, Kentucky, December 25, 1847, and was the seventh of nine children in the family of Thomas and Jane (Bell) Berryman who had seven sons and two daughters. Mr. Berryman was not only the seventh child in the family, but was the seventh son of a seventh son.

The Berryman and also the Bell family were of old English stock, coming to Virginia in the early years. Thomas Berryman, father of Bell Berryman, was a great grandson of Lord Berry- man who came over from England in his own ship and settled in Virginia about the time of the revolutionary war. Thomas Berryman died in Kentucky in the fall of 1847, and the widow later married Benjamin Wallace. They moved from Kentucky to Indiana, the son, Bell E. Ber- ryman going with his mother. About five years later the mother died. Our subject then returned to his old home town in Kentucky and grew up to young manhood in Hartford, receiving his education in the local schools.

Mr. Berryman's brother, James, was a veteran of the civil war, being in the southern army, and was taken prisoner and sent to the Roek Island, Illinois, prison. In 1865 he was paroled, enlist- ing as a United States soldier for frontier serviee in the west, and making final settlement in Mer- rick county, Nebraska, about 1868, where Bell Berryman joined him in August, 1871. Then the brothers went into partnership in the general merchandise business which was known as J. H. Berryman & Brother. James H. Berryman died in Central City, about 1904. James Berryman put up one of the first buildings in Central City which was devoted to the general mercantile trade.

Father Marquette's first sermon in Lone Tree was preached in this building, and the first court to convene in Merrick county was also held here. The original building is now a part of the Bell Berryman residence which is a commodious two- story frame house of sixteen rooms.

From 1871 until about 1900 the Berryman brothers were in the general mercantile trade. About 1900 the firm dissolved and the brothers continued in business separately. Mr. Bell Ber- ryman remained in business until 1905 at which time he retired from active mercantile business going into the bee industry and bee-supply trade.

In the spring of 1873 Mr. Berryman returned to Kentucky and was married to Miss Ellen Riley at Owensboro, Kentucky, returning to Central City, Nebraska, immediately after marriage.

Mr. and Mrs. Berryman have had four children born to them: William R., who is married and lives in New York City; Carrie, married to Mr. Fred Guthrie, has three children and lives in Omaha, Nebraska; Clyde V., married and living in Kansas; Mary Sue, the eldest born died in in- fancy. Mrs. Bell Berryman died in 1903.

Mr. and Mrs. Berryman were one of the old time families, leaving their impression on the history of Merrick county, socially, education- ally, and also in the business world. Mr. Berry- man is a successful man of pleasing personality and high character.

CALVIN KELLER.

Judge Calvin Keller, now a resident of Creigh- ton, has been a resident of Nebraska since the latter days of 1879, reaching the state on the 13th day of December of that year. He came here direct from Gallia county, Ohio, where he was born in a pioneer log cabin on the 23rd day of November, 1857, near the place now known as Cadmus, a hamlet on Symmes' creek, where the old mill, that ground the wheat and corn of early days, is still situated. He was educated in the common schools and his primary lessons were recited in a log school house with a huge fire place, and he distinctly remembers that the seat on which he usually sat was a long puncheon bench running along one side of the room, with a desk equally long in front of it, and a seat for the smaller pupils in front of that. When a pupil sitting in the middle of the row on the puncheon bench wanted to get out he was obliged to crowd in front of the others, or walk on the seat behind, stepping between them. Crude as the equipment of those old school houses was, they turned ont men and women better grounded in the fundamentals and better qualified to fight battles of life than some of the institutions of a later date that are supplied with all the modern appliances.

Our subjeet is a son of Robert N. Keller and Adeliza P. Keller, both natives of Gallia county, Ohio. The former died in 1877 and the latter is now living with her daughters near the old homestead, at the age of seventy-three years. Robert N. Keller served in the "hundred days service" during the civil war. The grandfather of our subject, on the father's side, emigrated

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from Pennsylvania to the wilderness of southern Ohio, and was a "Pennsylvania Dutchman."

At the age of nineteen Mr. Keller was teaching school in his native county, his leisure time be- ing spent in working on the farm. He came west in 1879, stopping at Oakdale, Antelope county, which was then the terminus of the F. E. & M. V. railroad. Almost a steady stream of emigrants in covered wagons passed up the valley to settle in the open country farther west, and the railroad soon made its way to the Black Hills. He followed farming and teaching for a time; not being well equipped for farming, for a lack of funds, he took the civil service examination at Omaha with the idea of going into the mail service, and then went to clerking in a store in Neligh at a salary of $25.00 per month, where he remained a short time, when he received an appointment as railway postal clerk on the run between Creighton and Norfolk, and for seven years he traveled the route, a good share of the time on a slow, mixed train and was often on the road from before day- light until after dark for six days in the week. During his spare time, while on the road and at home, he studied law under the tutelage of his friend, Hon. J. H. Berryman, who was one of the early practitioners of Knox county. Often when there chanced to be an attorney on the train Mr. Keller would spend his spare time conversing with him on the subject of law, gathering much information in this way that was valuable to him, and he still holds in kind remembrance the attor- neys who so patiently gave him assistance in this way. He was admitted to the bar in 1896 after a rigid examination before the Supreme Court com- mission, and soon after formed a partnership with G. E. Lundgren at Wausa, Nebraska, and to- gether they carried on law and real estate busi- less for a number of years.

In 1905 Mr. Keller was elected judge of the county court of his county, which place he filled creditably and was re-elected for another term. serving four years altogether. His second term closed January 10, 1910, and he moved to Creigh- ton to secure the benefit of the higher schools for his children. Here he purchased the law business of his old instructor and friend, Mr. Berryman, who, tired of the long years of practice, was mov- ing to Rock'county to prove up on a homestead and go into the real estate business. During the time he has lived in Creighton he has enjoyed his full share of the legal business of the community. He has always taken a deep personal interest in the public good, sometimes laying aside his own interest for the purpose.

While he is not a member of any church or- ganization, he says he has been accused of being a "brother-in-law" to the Methodist Episcopal church," which he attends and in which he has taught a class in Sunday school for many years past. Judge Keller doesn't believe that it lowers a man's dignity or advertises a weakness to at- tend Sunday school, even at the age of fifty-three

years. He is a firm believer in the gospel of the Nazarene as the saving quality of the race and that our present state of civilization is due to the preaching of that gospel, and that in propor- tion as we as a nation adhere to the elementary principles of that gospel will our nation finally prosper. He is occasionally called on to address the young people's meetings, and his talk on the wrong of taking in vain the name of the Gallil- eean, King of Men, has been given in a number of different places.

Mr. Keller was married in Gallia county, Ohio, to Miss Serenna A. Wright, who died near Oakdale, Nebraska, in 1890. Three children were born to them, two of whom survive, Maud, wife of W. T. Johnson, a prominent rancher of Col- orado, and Madge, wife of Geo. L. Bosse, who is at the head of a large real estate firm in Denver. Mr. Keller was married the second time at Neligh, Nebraska, in 1902, to Miss Maggie J. Wright. He counts his mother-in-law, who was a native of Virginia, deserving a place among the humble heroines of the world for her lasting devotion to her family and her success in raising her nine children and educating them to lives of usefulness after the death of her husband; her source of in- come being what could be raised on a poor eighty- acre farm in the hills of southern Ohio and her earnings at carding, spinning and weaving the "jeans" and "flannels" for the clothing of that day. The names of all the heroes are not record- ed in the hall of fame.

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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 49

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