History of Custer County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religous, and civic developement from the early days to the present time, Part 109

Author: Gaston, William Levi, 1865- [from old catalog]; Humphrey, Augustin R., 1859- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western publishing and engraving company
Number of Pages: 1180

USA > Nebraska > Custer County > History of Custer County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religous, and civic developement from the early days to the present time > Part 109

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October 27, 1880, Mr. Purcell married Miss Fannie Scherr, of St. Louis, Missouri. They established an ideal home, in which were all the comforts to be obtained in that day, and to which every convenience was added as the years went by and modern conveniences were obtainable. Mr. and Mrs. Purcell have three children. The first. Caroline, is the wife of J. P. Hayden, a prominent citizen of Peters- burg, this state, and they have one child, Emma Walker. The second child and only son. Theodore, maintains a home of his own, and his wife, who presides graciously over the home, was formerly Miss Margaret Orr, of Broken Bow. In their home is one child, Elizabeth. Theodore learned the printer's trade in his father's establishment, but at the present time has forsaken the "art preserva-

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tive" and is farming his father's place, where he has developed into a practical and success- ful farmer. The younger daughter, Marietta, is a trained nurse. She began her career at Kearney, but is now with Dr. Ramsey in the Lincoln Hospital, where she has had charge for several months. She will soon go to St. Louis, Missouri, where she will finish her training course.

The family are members of the Episcopal church, faithful and ardent supporters upon whom the church depends for much of its active service. As a prominent Odd Fellow, Mr. Purcell is past grand patriarch of the Nebraska grand encampment, and past grand representative of the sovereign lodge. He is connected also with the Highlanders, in the circles of which he has been prominent for a number of years. He is a Republican in his political affiliations, but has never aspired to any political position in the gift of any party. He has been a member of the school board, and has served in other official capacities in a minor way. He has a splendid business at the present time, and is rated in Broken Bow as one of the substantial and dependable citi- zens. The Purcells are fine people and Custer county is deeply indebted for the services they have rendered.

ARINCE T. HILLMAN. - In recounting the men who have come from other states and have acquired substantial standing in Nebras- ka, attention may be called to Arince T. Hill- man, who is a heavy landowner in Custer county and one of the responsible citizens of Broken Bow. In business operations cov- ering many years, he has built up a reputa- tion for business astuteness as well as for personal integrity.

Mr. Hillman was born in Johnson county, Indiana, March 10, 1878. His parents were Nelson and Eliza (Alderson) Hillman, na- tives of Mercer county, Kentucky, and farm- ing people all their lives. They had three daughters and two sons, and two of the daughters are deceased. The family survivors are: Arince T., whose name introduces this review; Sixton, who is a farmer in Moragn county, Indiana, and a sound Democrat in politics ; and Malvina, who is the wife of El- mer Wing. Mr. Wing is a farmer, located eleven miles southwest of Broken Bow. He is a Democrat in politics and belongs to the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. Mr. and Mrs. Wing have one daughter, Mary, who is five years old. By a former marriage Mrs. Wing had three sons : llerman, Carl, and Robert Krembzow.

Arince T. Hillman attended the public schools in boyhood and was reared on his father's farm, remaining with his parents un- til he was nineteen years old. In February, 1897, he was united in marriage. at Broken Bow, to Miss Ina B. Williams, who was born in Indiana, a daughter of John L. and Cath- erine ( Fisher ) Williams, and a granddaugh- ter of John P. Williams. Mrs. Hillman has four sisters, namely: Etta is the wife of William Waffensmith, a well known business man of Merna, Nebraska, an Odd Fellow, and a Democrat, and they have three children : Isa is the wife of Leish Davis, who is tele- graph operator at Hazard, Nebraska, an Odd Fellow and Democrat, and they have three children; Nondice is the wife of Albert Car- ter, who is a farmer near Gibbon, Nebraska. and is a Democrat : and Mamie is the wife of Robert Winchester, who is a farmer and a Republican, and they have two children. Mr. and Mrs. Hillman have five children, namely : Lawrence D., who is a farmer and lives at home; John R., who works on a farm claim but still lives with his parents; Nelson and Kenneth, both of whom are students in the Broken Bow high school, and Floyd, who is vet in the graded school.

Mr. Hillman not only owns 500 acres of valuable land, well adapted to both farming and grazing, but he also has one of the most attractive residences in Broken bow, the fam- ily residing here mainly in order to give the children the best of educational advantages. While never very active in politics and al- ways declining every suggestion of holding public office, Mr. Hillman has always been a thoughtful and earnest citizen ever ready to do his full duty to country, state and com- munity.

WILLIAM IHLOW. - The Ihlow farm, in the eastern part of Custer county, may be said to constitute one of those landmarks on which may be found evidence of almost every phase that has marked the progress of agri- cultural industry in Custer county during the past thirty-seven years. This fine landed es- tate now comprises 640 acres - an entire sec- tion - and it includes the old homestead on which the present owner located when he came as a pioneer to this county. In addi- tion to fulfilling its mission as a medium of financial profit. this farm property has been developed to a state in which it compares most favorably with any other Custer county landed estate likewise accumulated through pioneer courage and determination. The owner of this property is William Ihlow, who is now

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one of the sterling and honored pioneer citi- zens of Ansley, in which pleasant village he has maintained his home since the time of his retirement from the farm, in 1915.

William Ihlow was born in Brandenburg, Germany, on the 14th of May, 1855, and is a son of Michael and Louise Ihlow, who passed their entire lives in that part of the empire of Germany, the father having been a shepherd by vocation. Michael and Louise Ihlow be- came the parents of two children, of whom

the subject of this review is the younger, his sister, Amelia, born in 1853, being the wife of August Coody, a resident of Nebraska City, Nebraska. The family name of the second wife of Michael Ihlow was Walter, and they had three children, all of whom are deceased. The religious faith of the family in Germany was that of the Lutheran church.

William Ihlow received in his youth the advantages of the schools of his native land, and he early learned the lessons of practical toil. As he grew to maturity he found em- ployment at various occupations - principal- ly as a brick-maker and farm hand. In his native land was solemnized his marriage to Miss Louise Wittkey, and concerning their children brief record may consistently be giv- en at this point : Bertha is the wife of Roger Zummerille, a farmer in Buffalo county, Ne- braska; Frank is engaged in agricultural and stock-raising enterprise in South Dakota ; Fred is a prosperous farmer in Custer county ; William is secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association at Aurora, Nebraska ; John has active management of his father's farm, in Custer county ; Charles is engaged in farming operations in South Dakota; and Ruby, the younger daughter. remains at the parental home.

Determined to avail himself of the greater advantages that America offered to the young man of ambition, in 1881 Mr. Ihlow, in com- pany with his wife and their infant daughter, immigrated to the United States, and within the same year the little family arrived at Riv- erton, Fremont county, Iowa. In 1884, as a pioneer, Mr. Ihlow settled on a homestead, in Custer county, amidst primitive surroundings, and he and his devoted wife bravely fortified themselves for the meeting of the trials and hardships of life on the frontier. Like other pioneers, Mr. Ihlow had to overcome many obstacles during those early years, but he did not falter in courage, persistence or self-re- liance, with the result that he gradually made his way forward to the position of success and definite prosperity. As returns from his vigorous activities as an agriculturist and

stock-grower justified such action, he grad- ually added to the area of his landed estate until he had accumulated an entire section of as fertile and valuable land as can be found in this favored section of Nebraska. On the property he erected good buildings and made other excellent improvements of a permanent order, and through his individual achievement, as well as his civil loyalty and liberality, he contributed his due quota to the development and progress of his community and the county in general.

In 1915, feeling that he had done his part in the work of social and material develop- ment and advancement, Mr. Ihlow retired from the active labors that had long challenged his energies, and has since lived in comfortable and well earned retirement in his pleasant home in the village of Ansley. Aside from his valuable farm property and interests Mr. Ihlow has other important capitalistic invest- ments, and he is president of the Security State Bank of Ansley, the policies of which he has effectively directed in his executive capacity. As a man of broad experience and mature judgment he has done much to foster the success of this substantial financial insti- tution.

In politics Mr. Ihlow is found aligned with the Republican party, and while he has had no desire for the honors of public office, his civic loyalty has prompted him to give characteris- tically efficient service in the various school offices to which he has been elected. He and his wife are members of the Baptist church, and as sterling pioneer citizens of Custer county it may consistently be said that their circle of friends is limited only by that of their acquaintances. Mr. Ihlow has proved himself a man of inviolable integrity, and is known as a citizen of intense public spirit.

CHARLES JARUSEK, the proprietor of a flourishing hardware business at Comstock, has shown during his comparatively short bus- iness career the possession of qualities which are rapidly placing him in the ranks of the successful merchants of this thriving locality. He is a native Nebraskan, having been born in Valley county, January 28, 1894, and exempli- .fies in his daily activities the true western spirit of progress and energy.

The parents of Mr. Jarusek. Frank and Mary ( Nenaskal) Jarusek, natives of Bohemia, were early pioneers of Valley county, where the father settled in 1884. He located first at Ord, in which neighborhood he worked faith- fully by the month and saved industriously un-

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til he had enough to purchase a farm. Since then he has been engaged in farming and stock- raising, his ventures having placed him in the well-to-do class of citizens. He has also made a place for himself among the representative men of his locality, and his worth and integrity have been appreciated by his fellow citizens, who have elected him as director of the school board and member of the road commissioners on several occasions. The family belongs to the Catholic church. Mr. and Mrs. Jarusek have had four children: Charles, who is the subject of this review : Mary, who is the wife of Joseph Novak, a farmer of Valley county ; one child who died in infancy : and Miss Alice, who remains with her parents.

Charles Jarusek received his early education in district school No. 53, this discipline being supplemented by one year's attendance in a business college at St. Paul, Nebraska. He remained at home and assisted his father un- til he reached the age of twenty-one years, and after leaving business college he entered mercantile pursuits by accepting a clerkship in the hardware store of J. T. Arthur. In that capacity he thoroughly informed himself in all details of the business, and August 17. 1918, he bought out his employer's interest and be- came proprietor of the establishment. Dur- ing the short time that he has been at the head of the business he has accomplished much in the way of securing new business, and now presents to a large patronage a clean, attractive and up-to-date stock of shelf and heavy hardware, complete in every particular. It would seem as though this progressive and energetic young man is in a fair way to be- come one of Comstock's substantial men of business.

At Sidney, Nebraska, February 14, 1917, Mr. Jarnsek married Miss Madge Yarmon, a daughter of Richard and Sadie (Gage) Yar- mon, early settlers of Howard county, Ne- braska. Mr. Jarusek has been to some extent handicapped in his rise by the state of his health, which in the past has not been all that it should be, but in large measure he has ben- efited his condition by taking long automobile trips, and in this way has covered practically the entire state of Nebraska.

OLIVER J. KOLBO. - When compilers of the real history of Custer county go to old settlers like Oliver J. Kolbo, who has lived on his farm south of Callaway for the past thirty-five years, they learn at first hand of the struggles and hardships that attended the pioneers here, when settlers were few and far

apart, when the land was entirely undeveloped and when crops were lost and stock died be- cause of lack of water. Mr. Kolbo knows all about it. for he came here in November. 1883. He was born in Nanstad, Norway. December 22, 1853. His parents were John and Karen ( Statum) Kolbo, also natives of Nanstad, Norway. In 1860 they immigrated to the United States with their children, and settled in . Coon Prairie, near Westby, Wisconsin. where the father was engaged in farming during the rest of his life. His children were as follows: Mrs. Mary E. Mohlmann, Hans, Oliver J., Martin, Christen, Mrs. Dena John- son, John, and Berant.

Oliver J. Kolbo lived at home with his par- ents until he was twenty-five years of age. In boyhood he had district school advantages to some extent, but his time was mainly taken np with work on the home farm. In those days prairie chickens and quail were plentiful in Coon Prairie, and he became quite skillful in trapping them, thereby earning pocket money, for he could always find purchasers. Farming has been his occupation all his life, and in following it, carefully, persistently, and intelligently, he has become possessed of ample means and owns a half-section of as fine land as can be found in Custer county.

Mr. Kolbo was married December 29, 1878. in the Lutheran church in Coon Valley, Ver- non county, Wisconsin, to Miss Christena Lien, who was born in Norway. Her parents were Peder and Marit ( Toreson) Lien. Mrs. Kolbo had two brothers. Peter, who is de- ceased, and Frantz, who lives in Norway. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Kol- bo, namely: Melvin C., who is a farmer near Lodi, Nebraska, married Lillian Johnson and they have six children. They attend the U'nited Lutheran church. Hilmer E .. who conducts a garage at Callaway, married Flossy P. Maze and they have four children. They attend the Evangelical church. Paul G., who is a farmer in the neighborhood of Lodi, Ne- braska, and who belongs to the Woodmen lodge at Lodi, married Lorene Simonsen and they have three children. Julia is the wife of John Olson, who is a farmer and stockman near Paso Robles, in San Luis Obispo coun- ty. California, and they have three children. Mr. and Mrs. Olson belong to the Lutheran church. Selmar N., who is sales manager for the Sample & Hart Motor Company, Omaha, married Eva E. Willy, and they have two chi !- dren. They attend the Lutheran church. Ru- dolph N., who is a soldier in the national army, was at Camp Funston at the time when this sketch was written. T. A., remains

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at the parental home. The other children died in infancy. Mr. Kolbo and his sons vote the Republican ticket. He and his wife are of the Lutheran faith and all the children have been well instructed religiously and are church members.

THOMAS T. VARNEY, whose standing as a citizen of Custer county is very high and who has been intimately identified with the material growth and industrial and financial development of the county for many years, is now a resident of Ansley. Mr. Varney is well known to the people of this community, hav- ing been before them as merchant, postmaster and bank cashier, in each of which capacities he established a reputation for integrity and conscientious performance of duty, but he is now retired from active pursuits. He is a native of Corinth, Saratoga county, New York, and was born May 2, 1872. a son of Edgar and Mary Amelia ( Tiffany ) Varney.

Edgar Varney was born in Saratoga county, New York, June 30, 1839, a son of Hosea and Anna (Conklin) Varney, who passed their lives within the confines of the Empire state. Edgar Varney was educated in the public schools of his native place, where he was reared to manhood, and in 1864, at Saratoga Springs, he married Miss Mary Amelia Tif- fany, who was born in Saratoga county, Octo- ber 1. 1847. a daughter of Thomas and Ar- villa (Hogle) Tiffany, natives of New York and farming people all their lives, as well as devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Varney continued to live in New York until 1871, in which year they came to Nebraska and settled in Hall county, where they located on a homestead and engaged in farming for a period of eight years. In 1879 they came to Custer county, Mr. Varney becoming pro- prietor of the first store at Westerville, and later being the pioneer merchant at Ansley, where he remained in business until his re- tirement. eighteen years prior to his demise. Mr. Varney was a Mason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his wife belonged to the Order of the Eastern Star. They were faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church and in poli- tics he was a Republican. His death occurred September 23, 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Varney were the parents of eight children: Etta is the wife of Judge Armour, of Broken Bow ; Millie is the wife of Richard Brega, a well known attorney of Calloway: Lavina is the wife of Anthony Wilkinson, a retired ranch-

man of Grand Island, Nebraska ; C. E. resides at Thermopolis, Hot Springs county, Wyom- ing; Thomas T. is the subject of this review ; Seth is engaged in the barber business at Ans- ley : James is engaged in merchandising ; and Clara is the wife of E. P. Gaines, a banker at Ansley.

Thomas T. Varney received his education in the public schools of Ansley, where he was brought as a lad, and he supplemented this by a commercial course in the Lincoln Business College, at Lincoln. He began his business career in a commercial way, as a merchant at Ansley, where he conducted a general store during 1892 and 1893. From that time for- ward for ten years he was postmaster, an of- ficial position in which he did much to improve the postal service in this locality, and he then became cashier of the First National Bank of Ansley, now known as the State Bank of Ans- ley. He continued about fifteen years in that capacity, but in July. 1916, he disposed of his interests, and since then he has lived in retire- ment. Mr. Varney has been somewhat active in local political affairs, as a Republican, and on various occasions has been called to public office, in which he has demonstrated the pos- session of marked executive ability and a de- sire and ability to perform his duties conscien- tiously and in such a manner as to benefit the community. He was for several years a mem- ber of the town council, and he served also as a director on the school board, and as city treasurer and township treasurer. His official record is a splendid one. He is a thirty-sec- ond degree Mason and a Shriner, and is past master of his Masonic blue lodge. With Mrs. Verney. he belongs to the Christian church and supports its movements liberally.

Mr. Varney was married June 15. 1895, to Miss May Sargent, who was born at Maynard, lowa, a daughter of John S. and Laura ( Rich) Sargent, the former a native of Meigs county, Ohio, and the latter of Belvidere, Illi- nois. Mr. and Mrs. Sargent were married in Fayette county, Iowa, where Mrs. Sargent had been taken as a child of five years, while her future husband was four years of age when taken to Delaware county, Iowa. Mar- ried in December. 1875, they came to Custer county, Nebraska, in 1883. Here they settled on a homestead farm, Mr. Sargent having al- ways been engaged in his present occupation of tilling the soil. He was very prominent in local politics during the early days, was inde- pendent in vote, thought, and action, and in 1889 was sent by his fellow citizens to the Nebraska state legislature, in which he made a good record. He and Mrs. Sargent are

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members of the Christian church and take an active part in the various movements which make for higher education, cleaner morality and better citizenship. They have three chil- dren : May, who is now Mrs. Varney ; Allie, who is the wife of J. A. Moore, of Pasadena, California ; and Sarah, who is the wife of Frank Hawk, of Custer county. Mr. and Mrs. Varney are the parents of two children : Vivian and Thomas T., Jr., aged sixteen and thirteen years respectively ; they are attending school.

JAMES LINDLY. - The gentleman whose name introduces this record is one of the pio- meers of Custer county who arrived within its borders when the work of development had hardly begun. and during a period of nearly forty years he has not only been a witness of the changes that have taken place but has also contributed his full share in the work of trans- formation and development. James Lindly is a native of the neighboring state of Iowa, where he was born. in Jones county. April 2. 1846. His parents, Amasa and Mary J. ( Gar- ison) Lindly, were natives of Ohio, their mar- riage occurred in Indiana and they became early settlers of Jones county, lowa, their ad- vent there being before railroads had entered that new country and when Iowa was still a territory. The mother of our subject passed away in Jones county in 1853, and the father's death occurred in 1908, when he had reached the age of eighty-four years. Of the four children, James and Albert are the only sur- vivors.

Reared on a farm in his native county, James Lindly was not yet nineteen years of age when he ran away from home and enlisted in Company G. Seventeenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. on the 6th of March. 1865, and he served until the close of the Civil war, being mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, and re- ceiving his discharge at Rock Island, Illinois. Ifis older brother, Albert, had enlisted in the fall of 1863. in Company G, Thirty-first Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and he served until the close of the war: he now resides in Marion county, lowa.

After the war James Lindly returned to Iowa and he was engaged in farm work in Cedar county until the spring of 1866. when lie obeyed the call of the west and came to Omaha, Nebraska, thence to Grand Island, and for several months found employment with the Union Pacific Railroad. Returning to Omaha, he became a driver of ox teams,

("deck hand on a bull train," as it was joking- ły called ) freighting across the plains to Den- ver, Colorado, where he remained from Au- gust, 1866. to December 15. 1867, when he went to Cheyenne, Wyoming, then a mush- room town of shacks. the terminal of the Union Pacific Railroad. From there he re- turned to Cedar county, lowa. and resumed farming. He there married Charlotte Wood. a daughter of George A. and Martha (Laughery) Wood, pioneers of lowa. They were married in the fall of 1868 and the fol- lowing spring moved to Marion county, Iowa. That year Mr. Lindly, with his wife and one child, came to Lancaster county. Nebraska. he driving through with team and his wife and child coming on the train. He traded for land in Lancaster county, but in 1874 the grass- hoppers took the crop and he returned to Iowa. where he remained until 1878. He then came again to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he re- mained till August. 1880. His wife died in Lincoln, in the fall of 1879, leaving one child, two others having died in infancy.

In September, 1880, Mr. Lindly came to Custer county and took a pre-emption in township 19. range 22. and also filed on a tree c'aim in the same township. In 1883 he took a homestead in this township and he is one of the few -if, indeed, there be any other - who proved up and took a patent on pre-emp- tion, tree claim, and homestead. In the fall of 1880 Mr. Lindly went to lowa, where he mar- ried Mrs. Mary J. Busby, who had three chil- dren by a former marriage. They were married February 3, 1881. and on March 17th they started for their Nebraska home, with a team and wagon. This was a strenuous trip and on the 22d of April they arrived at the pre- emption claim. They were unable to cross the Missouri river by ferry-boat, owing to the overflow, so they were compelled to cross on transfer train over the Union Pacific bridge between Council Bluffs and Omaha. They were among the real early settlers of this part of the county and for a time Mr. Lind'y op- erated the farm of Judge C. R. Mathews. he- ing penniless when he landed here and having spent his last dime for tobacco, at Westerville. From this humble beginning, at a time when hardships and privations were at hand. Mr. Lindly weathered all storms and by diligence and good judgment has become one of the successful farmers and extensive land-owners of Custer county. Instead of the primitive sod house, his home to-day is among the best to be found in the community. Ilis farm is named "Pilgrim's Rest," as for years it was the stop-

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History of Custer County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religous, and civic developement from the early days to the present time, Part 109

Author: Gaston, William Levi, 1865- [from old catalog]; Humphrey, Augustin R., 1859- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western publishing and engraving company Number of Pages: 1180

Author: Gaston, William Levi, 1865- [from old catalog]; Humphrey, Augustin R., 1859- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western publishing and engraving company
Number of Pages: 1180