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 139

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 139

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Mrs. Sherman was born January 28. 1844. at Morgantown, West Virginia (then Vir- ginia), a daughter of William and Amy (Gapen) Courtney, the former a native of

Morgantown, and the latter of Greensboro, Pennsylvania. In 1859 the father, who was a farmer, took the family to Missouri, but two years later the Civil war came on and, as the sympathies of the Courtneys all rested with the Union, matters became so unpleasant for them in that state that they disposed of their interests there and moved to Illinois. That state continued to be their home until 1880, when they came to Custer county and home- steaded close to the present site of Sargent, and there Mr. Courtney continued to be in- dustriously engaged in farming until his re- tirement He moved then to Lincoln, where his death occurred in 1892, Mrs. Courtney fol- lowing him to the grave during the next year. They were consistent members of the Method- ist Episcopal church, in which Mr. Courtney played an important part, assisting to build the first church of that denomination at Sargent and always being a liberal contributor. He was an ardent Republican, and so outspoken was he during the troublous times immedi- ately preceding the outbreak of the Civil war that he was classed among those who were known as "Black Republicans." He and his wife were the parents of twelve children: Thomas, a farmer of Palmyra, Missouri, who married Elizabeth Nicker ; W. Fletcher, a resi- dent of Arbela, Missouri, who married Mar- garet Stroh; Maria L., who married D. M. Shaw, a cement manufacturer of Sargent ; Ruth; Hannah M., of Sargent, the widow of William Sherman ; James D., a farmer six miles south of Omaha, who married Itasca Perrin : Miller W., a coal operator of Strea- tor, Illinois, who married Eliza Worthington ; Laura H., the wife of S. W. Perrin, who for twenty-nine years has been superintendent of the State Farm, at Lincoln; Ella, is the wife of Levi Gapen, of Whitewater, Wisconsin ; and the three others are deceased.

Mrs. Ruth Sherman received her early edu- cation in the public schools of Virginia and Illinois, and was reared in a manner that fitted her admirably for the duties of a farmer's wife. She was married January 14, 1866, at Sunbury, Illinois, to George W. Sherman, who was born at Byron, New York, September 7. 1835. a son of Reuben and Almeda (Shedd) Sherman, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of Byron, New York. In 1874 Mr. and Mrs. Sherman moved from their farm to Streator, Illinois, and in 1879 came to Cus- ter county and homesteaded one and one-half miles northeast of the present site of Sargent. There they continued to live for twenty years, but in the fall of 1899 Mr. Sherman retired from active life and the family moved to Sar- gent. Mrs. Sherman had the honor of being

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

THOMAS CONDON

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the first postmistress here, the postoffice being located in the family farm-house, where mai! was delivered by stage from North Loup once each week. When the village of Sar- gent was started, in 1883, Mrs. Sherman re- linquished the office in favor of John Spacht. She is a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which she has been an active worker. Mr. Sherman was a Repub- lican in politics and served as supervisor of Custer county for one term. He was a mem- ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. and was a prominent figure therein, passing all the official chairs and being a delegate to several conventions. He passed away Novem . ber 11, 1904, at the age of fifty-nine years.

Mr. and Mrs. Sherman became the parents of two children: Nellie S. is the wife of Andrew F. Phillips, a banker of Sargent ; and Harry A., who married Ora S. Spooner, is a banker, real-estate operator and insurance man of Sargent, a sketch of his career being given on another page of this volume.

JOSEPH A. HARRIS. - Living not far from Walworth, on what is for this day an extensive stock ranch, is one of the successful stockmen and farmers of Custer county, and this sterling citizen is he whose name intro- duces this paragraph.

Joseph A. Harris hails from the Hoosier state, in which commonwealth he was born March 16, 1862. His parents were Aaron and Elizabeth ( Winkoop) Harris, both excellent people and natives of the Buckeye state. Aaron Harris was a farmer all his life. Dur- ing the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army, but after serving only three months he was discharged, on account of injuries which he had received and from which he died before he could reach his home. Of his thirteen child- ren only three are living at the present time - one resides in California, one in Oregon, and the third surviving child is the subject of this sketch.

In 1881 Joseph A. Harris came with his mother to Custer county and located a home- stead in section 28, township 20, range 19. On this place he lived about nine years That definite and well merited success has attended his efforts during the intervening years is fully vouched for by his status at the present time, and he is to be designated as one of the progressive pioneers who have been resource- ful factors in the development of the splendid resources of Custer county, where to-day he is the owner of 1.120 acres of land, the most of which is in pasture and well stocked with cattle and horses, the while the building equip-

ments and other improvements are of excel- lent order.

On the 23d of September, 1890, at Taylor, Loup county, Nebraska, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Harris to Miss Louisa M. Long, the estimable daughter of Mrs. Sus- annah Long, who was a widow at the time when she came to Nebraska and numbered herself among the pioneers of Custer county, her husband having died June 18, 1882. In the autumn of 1884 Mrs. Susannah Long, ac- companied by her two sons and three daugh- ters - Jim, Patterson, Louisa, Mattie, and Emma -came to Custer county, the son Jim, who was married at the time, having re- turned to Indiana about two years later, on account of the ill health of his wife. Mrs. Long, her son Patterson and her daughters Louisa and Mattie, all homesteaded land north of Walworth this county, and the other daughter, Emma, became the wife of John Stephenson, of Broken Bow. Mr. and Mrs. Harris still reside on the homestead which Mrs. Harris thus obtained in the pioneer days. The claims of the mother and children were adjoining, and by exceedingly hard work and the enduring of many privations and other hardships, they succeeded in holding the prop- erties. Jim Long took a homestead in an ad- joining section, and still another homestead was located by W. T. Morford, a brother-in- law of Mrs. Harris. All this gave to repre- sentatives of the Long family extensive land holdings, but of the immediate family Mrs. Harris is now the only one remaining in Cus- ter county.

Until the time of her marriage Mrs. Harris made her own way and improved her claim to the best of her ability. At the time of her homesteading it was impossible for her to ob- tain work, so she made three different trips to Boone county, this state, where she secured work and saved money with which to improve her claim. She made the trips overland in an old-fashioned buckboard. Later she se- cured work in Broken Bow, at the famous Marble Top hotel. Her indomitable spirit prevailed over all obstacles and she suc- ceeded in her homestead enterprise.

Mr. Harris was educated in the district schools of Boone county, Indiana, and has made splendid use of every advantage afforded him. Practically all his life has been spent in Custer county, and the privations and hard- ships incident to pioneer life are known to him by actual experience. He recalls that on one occasion a party of five, consisting of himself, John Welsher, Ed. Roberts, Bruce Smith, and Roland Richardson, were hauling grain to the Stems ranch when they were overtaken

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

by one of the unfriendly blizzards so well re- membered by the old-timers. All night long they had to cut green willows and keep up a fire with green wood, in order to keep from freezing to death. After getting to their destination they received twenty cents a bushel for the corn they were hauling. It was on this trip that they lost their water- bucket while trying to get water out of an air hole in the ice-covered river, and, with noth- ing with which to stir up their pancakes, they subsisted for the rest of the trip on cold meals.

Into the Harris home two children were born : Aaron lives north of Walworth, on one of his father's farms. His wife's maiden name was Gladys Williams. James is single and lives at home. Susie Stephenson, a niece of Mrs. Harris, has made her home with her aunt and uncle since the death of her mother, February 2, 1901.

Mr. Harris had his experience with horse thieves and was one of a party who tried to stop a man and woman who had stolen a pair of horses farther south in this county. The thieves drove across the country without re- gard to roads and when their horses became exhausted, at the point of a revolver they compelled some farmer to exchange teams, and then drove on as far as they could drive the fresh horses. Of course the owners of these teams followed up the trail and secured their horses after the thieves had abandoned them. They tried to elude their pursuers by concealing the woman in the bottom of the wagon-box. It was Mr. Harris' young boys that saw her prostrate in the wagon and thus identified the parties. The thieves succeeded, however, in evading capture. At the time their trail was lost by the pursuers they were driving a team appropriated from Mr. Gold- son, who was not fortunate enough to recover it.

Politically Mr. Harris affiliates with the Republican party. Mr. and Mrs. Harris are representative citizens, are well established in a comfortable home and enjoy the confidence of their neighbors.

JAMES B. HARTSON. - The man who develops a farm, maintains a home and rears a family, every member of which is a con- tribution to good citizenship, is entitled to equal rank with the "noblest Roman of them all." That is the kind of a man this story concerns.

James B. Hartson was born February 9, 1848. and is a son of Lucius D. and Elizabeth ( Robinson) Hartson, splendid people whose life history runs much the same as that of

the major portion of the generation to which they belonged. Lucius D. Hartson was a na- tive of Connecticut, and his good wife first saw the light of day midst the Pennsylvania hills. Lucius D. Hartson, born September 8, 1821, lived in the day when opportunities were rare and childhood was expected to pay its way in manual labor from tenderest years. Accordingly, he was apprenticed as a boy and learned the machinist's trade, but this voca- tion being not entirely to his liking, he later studied veterinary surgery and made that the profession which he followed more or less dur- ing his entire life. In early life he moved to Pennsylvania, where he formed the acquaint- ance of the one who was to be his wife and the mother of his children, and here he led her to the marriage altar in 1842. Into their home came nine children, five sons and four daughters: Namon W. is deceased: James B. is the successful farmer of whom we write ; Jerod D. lives in Charles City, Iowa ; Riley A. is in South Dakota; Holley has his home in Nevada, Missouri; Julia M. became the wife of Andrew Parker but is now a widow and conducts a hotel at Lenion, South Dakota : Elsie is the wife of T. N. Moore, of Riverton, Nebraska ; Lucy J. is the wife of James Cul- lom, of Lawrence, Kansas ; and Adelia is de- ceased.

In 1860 Lucius D. Hartson mnoved to Chickasaw county, Iowa, where he followed farming until 1876. He then removed with his family to Smith county, Kansas, which place was then on the Kansas frontier, and there he became a successful farmer. He re- mained in Kansas until 1909, when he came to Custer county to make his home with his son James, the subject of this sketch, and herc he lived until his death, in 1913. His good wife had preceded him to the other land by eleven years. Her demise occurred in Kan- sas.

James B. Hartson's migrations run almost the same course as those of his father before him. When he was eight years of age the family left Pennsylvania for Wisconsin, and four years later they removed to Iowa. The education by which Mr. Hartson was enabled to make a success of business was received in the public schools of Wisconsin and Iowa, and in the latter state he began his first farm- ing operations. He also inclined to the veter- inary profession, and has practiced the same with success until the present time, in connec- tion with his farming and stock-raising. He remained in Iowa several years, when he, too, removed to Kansas and settled in Smith county, where he rented land, and continued to farm for seventeen years. He came north

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MR. AND MRS. B. FRANK COULTER AND CHILDREN

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to Nebraska and settling in Custer county in the spring of 1902. He immediately became one of the forces of the central county in Ne- braska, and in every operation he has proved himself to be a "live wire." He located near Sargent, where he lived one year, until the fall of 1903, when he bought 480 acres of land located in section 14, township 20, range 21. where he now resides, engaged in active and successful ranching in all its different phases, but making a specialty of stock-rais- ing. Not content with what stock he can raise, he conducts a general business of buying and selling cattle and hogs, horses and mules. He has made a decided success of these opera- tions, and in the last decade has laid the foun- dations of what a few years ago would be called a neat fortune. He came to Custer county without money and heavily in debt. He now owns 1,200 acres of land, on which he has four set of good buildings, all practically new. Three of the houses have full base- ments and are more or less modern in the in- ternal construction.

The domestic and family life of Mr. Hart- son began January 16, 1875, when he was married to Miss Mary Etta Snyder, daughter of Thomas H. and Sarah ( Brock) Snyder. Mrs. Hartson's father was a native of Wis- consin and her mother a New York lady of high standing. Both passed away in Septem- ber, 1867, leaving three daughters, mere chil- dren - Mrs. Hartson; Ida Maria, the wife of Fred Ably, now living in the state of Wash- ington ; and Mrs. Randall, now residing in Atlantic, Iowa. One brother died in infancy. Mrs. Hartson was born November 12, 1857.

Into the splendid home maintained by Mr. and Mrs. Hartson has come a splendid group of eight bright, happy children, who are now assuming the responsibilities and obligations of life with credit to their parents : Ralph I .. was born October 17, 1877 ; Mattie May, was born August 25, 1879, and is now the wife of John Molesworth, of Almeria, Nebraska : Florence E. was born November 18. 1881. an:1 is the wife of Samuel Marick, of Riverton. Franklin county, Nebraska ; Nellie M., who was born May 25, 1884, is the wife of Edward Marick, and resides in Smith county, Kansas : George Thomas. born May 22, 1889, is mak- ing good as a Custer county farmer : Marv A., born September 7. 1896, is the wife of Raymond Reny, and lives in Custer . county ; Mabel Grace, born in September. 1899, is at home : Virdie L., born March 13. 1891, died March 27, 1911 : Ralph L. remains at home with his father and assists in the management of the ranch and stock business.

Mr. Hartson is an independent voter, makes

up his own political platform and votes for candidates who, in his judgment, are best fitted to serve the people. He is a member of the Odd Fellows lodge in Anselmo, and is a Universalist in religious belief. Few men have accomplished more in the years of their life, and still fewer have achieved in the last fifteen years what Mr. Hartson accomplished from a start that was less than nothing. He has a splendid family and is an excellent citi- zen.

B. FRANK COULTER. - The story of B. Frank Coulter commences July 14, 1883, at which time he discovered America in Shelby county, Illinois. His father, William B. Coul- ter, was a Pennsylvanian, and his mother was Louise ( Burlew ) Coulter. In the father's family were eight children - William H. Coul- ter, Charles A. Coulter, Mary E. (Coulter) Harriger, John R. Coulter, Lambert Coulter, Benjamin F . Coulter (of whom this story is related). Nellie ( Coulter) Graham, and Mabel (Coulter ) Baker.

Mr. Coulter's parents died when he was less than seven years of age, and, left alone in the world, he was befriended by an uncle, B. F. Doyle, with whom he made his home until he was thirteen years of age. He attended the common schools, worked on the farm, did chores and made himself generally useful. I the matter of earning his first money, Mr. Coulter says one of his uncle's neighbors had a bulldog which persisted in making his home on the Doyle homestead. The neighbor prom- ised young Frank a pair of guinea hens if he would run the bulldog off and scare him so he would stay at home. This the boy under- took to do, and how well he succeeded is not recorded in history, but he got possession of the guineas and sold them for twenty-five cents. He added to this first capital by picking up potatoes all day for ten cents. This gave him a working capital of thirty-five cents, to which his brother donated another nickle. and the entire amount was invested in a pair of sheep- skin-lined mittens, with the result that no mat- ter how many times young Frank had cold feet that winter, his hands were always warm.

April 10, 1907, at Walnut, Iowa, Mr. Coul- ter was united in marriage to Catherine Gundy, who was born in Illinois. Mrs. Coulter's fa- ther. Albert Gundy, was a native of Germany. Her mother. Mary A. ( LeRette ) Gundy, like herself, was a native of Illinois. In the Gundy family were thirteen children, ten of whom are living to-day: Henry, Frank E., Frederick J., Mary Booth, Margaret .Allard, Catherine Conl-

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ter. Lewis A., Lucy A. Roucis. Andrew N., and George W. The Gundys have held earn- estly to the faith of the Catholic church. Mr. and Mrs. Coulter have four children, Ruth F., Gilbert B., Lyle E., and Marjorie M., all of whom are still at home.

Mr. and Mrs. Coulter came to Custer county in the early part of 1910 and for four years lived on a rented farm. They then bought 325 acres in section 5. township 16, range 22. Of this farm 260 acres are under cultivation and the place is well improved. Mr. Coulter is arranging to stock the farm with thoroughbred short-horn cattle and Duroc-Jersey hogs. He is one of the progressive young farmers of the county, a representative of the class of vigor- ous men who are coming on to take the place of the old-time settlers who turned the virgin soil over for the first time with "grasshop- per" breaking-plows.

Mr. Coulter does not belong to the school of farmers who believe that anything is good enough and any way good enough, and is al- ways ready to avail himself of better methods and facilities. Not satisfied with scrub stock of any sort, Mr. Coulter believes the best that can be produced will be the most profitable. Mr. and Mrs. Coulter are sterling people and have a host of warm friends.

RALPH CLEMENTS was born in Allegan county, Michigan, February 17, 1879. His parents were Eugene and Eva ( Belden) Clem- ents, and they were not only both born in the same town in Ohio, but in the same house. The father was a skilled mechanic and was foreman of a lumber mill in Allegan county until March 6, 1898, when he came to Valley county, Nebraska, and from then on until his death he followed blacksmithing. His family consisted of eight children and five of these are living, but Ralph is the only one residing in Custer county.

Ralph Clements had educational advantages in Michigan, taking a high school course after the common school grades, and accompanied his parents when they came to Nebraska, in which state he has ever since made his home. Since the age of twenty-one years he has en- gineered his own path in life, beginning at the bottom of the ladder as a farm helper and gradually, through hard work, advancing until now he owns 3000 acres of land in this state and has his Custer county land well stocked with Shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs. The greater portion of his land lies in Loup county, but enough is in Custer to make him a heavy tax payer herc. He takes a good citi- zen's interest in all that concerns this section

and does his part in the matter of public im- provements.

Mr. Clements was married at Burwell, Ne- braska, December 21. 1907. to Frances E. McKenney, whose parents were early settlers in Garfield and now live in Loup county. Mr. and Mrs. Clements have two children, Ralph and Jesse, and an adopted son, Walter Lund, who is now sixteen years old.

JOHN FANTA. - The province of Mora- via should be given full credit for the bach- elor farmer to whom this paragraph pays tribute. He is making a mark in Custer county that will soon rate him as one of the thriftiest of our foreign born citizens to be found in any section of the Middle West.

He was born August 9, 1889, in Moravia. His father, Jolin Fanta, and his mother, Josie (Rouse) Fanta, were both natives of Mora- via, where the father worked at the carpenter trade at times, and followed farming occasion- ally. They never came to the United States. In the father's family were three children, two sisters besides young John. One of them still lives in the old country with her parents ; the other is Mrs. Mary Nekuda, who lives a few miles west of Sargent, on the Middle Loup river.

John Fanta received his education in the common schools of Moravia before he came to the United States, but feeling that the new world held more for him, and that here the opportunities would far exceed the almost hopelessness of his native land, he turned his face to the west, crossed the ocean, and the star of destiny led him on until he reached Custer county. April 1, 1903. It was All Fools Day, but John's coming was no joke. He meant business from the start, and with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up, the sturdy youth went to work. He worked wherever he could get a job. He worked for several years on farms. He saved his money, and recently has been able to buy 240 acres of land of R. P. Leach, on which he now lives, and which has been in his possession for two years. He is following farm and stock- raising operations, and is laying the founda- tion for a splendid business in these activi- ties. He never married. So far, he is the master of the situation in the home as well as on the farm, and must operate the range in the kitchen as well as the harvester in the field.

He is a member of the Modern Woodman of America, a Democrat in politics, a faithful adherent of the Roman Catholic church, and when you see his farm and the stock that he already owns and consider that when he

HC. Chase

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reached this country, fifteen years ago, in debt for his ticket that brought him to the land of opportunity, one feels like taking off his hat to such energy and thrift.

HIRAM C. CHASE. - From the year 1890 until his death, in 1913, the late Hiram C. Chase was prominently identified with the bus- iness interests of Mason City, where he estab- lished a lasting reputation for ability in commercial affairs, integrity in transactions and engagements, and probity in personal character. His career was one in which he attained success through merit and not by chance or fortunate circumstance, and his cit- izenship was of a public-spirited order that lent itself helpfully to every constructive movement for the general welfare.

Mr. Chase was born at Strawberry Point. Clayton county, Iowa, May 28, 1866, and was a son of Dr. Hiram C. and Eunice ( Lyon) Chase, natives of New York state. Dr. Chase had the distinction of being the first homeopath- ic physician to practice in Iowa, where for many years he followed his profession, but after the death of his wife he came to Mason City, Nebraska, where he passed away. He was long affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, was a staunch Republican, and held various offices both in the Masonic order and in public life. He was the father of eighteen children.

Hiram C. Chase, the subject of this memoir, received his early education in the public schools of Iowa, and under the instruction of his brother he studied pharmacy, his preceptor being Dr. Warren T. Chase. In 1886 he en- gaged in business on his own account, for in that year he opened a drug store at Ashton, Nebraska, but after four years he came to Mason City, where he rose to prominence and where he achieved success. He entered busi- ness life here as the proprietor of a pharmacy. which he conducted for a period of fifteen years, and in the meantime he became inter- ested in real estate, and, finding that he pos- sessed marked talents in that direction, he eventually disposed of his drug business and gave all of his attention to the handling of realty, a line in which he eventually became one of the best known and most successful men in Mason City and the surrounding coun- try. He was so engaged at the time of his death, July 10, 1913, when his community lost one of its most valued and capable men

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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 139

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