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 61

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 61

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In the earning of his first dollar, Harry C. Kimball, showed himself a lad of resource and initiative. A circus was showing to the populace at Ansley, and notwithstanding the fact that the youth was unable to obtain from his father the price of admission, he attended the exhibition and soon had struck a bargain with the clown. Whereupon, in the parade,

young Kimball was found driving a little grey mule hitched to a cart, the lad sitting under a screen and holding aloft a monster papier-mache head on a pole. Not only did he see the circus, but when he returned to his home that night he was able to display his earnings, and was, perhaps, the proudest boy in Custer county. In 1897 he was graduated in the Ansley high school, and following this he began working on the farm during the summer months, while in the winter terms he taught school in the country, for six sea- sons. In 1904 he came to Broken Bow and entered the employ of S. P. Groat, in the furniture and hardware business, subse- quently holding a clerkship with Rockwell & Armstrong and their successors. In 1906, however, he engaged in business on his own account, and since that time he has steadily advanced in fortune and reputation, being known as the proprietor of one of the leading undertaking and embalming establishments in Custer county. Mr. Kimball has installed every appurtenance known to the art of mod- ern undertaking, and is prepared in every way for the reverent handling of the dead. Possessing tact of the rarest kind, he is a sincerely appreciated friend at the homes which the angel of death has visited, and the confidence which is reposed in him comes from the manliness and integrity which he has displayed upon all occasions.

Mr. Kimball was married June 17, 1908, at Lodi, Nebraska, to Miss Emma Ward, daugh- ter of Martin and Mary Ward, farming peo- ple of English descent and members of the Evangelical church. One son has been born to this union : Hugh C. W., eight years of age and attending school. Mr. Kimball is a prominent Republican, and has served Broken Bow four years as a member of the city council. He is affiliated with the Odd Fel- lows, Woodmen, and Highlanders, and he and Mrs. Kimball belong to the Christian church.

ELISHA TAYLOR. - Prominent among the operators in real-estate, loans, and insur- ance in Custer county is Elisha Taylor, a resi- dent of this locality for thirty-five years. Long a farmer and ranchman, he gave his attention strictly to those pursuits until 1900, when he established himself in business at Broken Bow, and since that time he has so ably di- rected his activities and operations that to-day he is listed among the leading business citizens of the county seat. Mr. Taylor was born in Green county, Wisconsin. December 20, 1851, a son of Miner and Anna (Norder) Taylor.

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

Miner Taylor was born in the old Empire state, in 1825, and was a son of Elisha Taylor. a New York miller who passed his last days in Michigan. Miner Taylor was just past his majority when he moved to Green county, Wisconsin, where for a time he followed his trade of cooper. Later he became a saw-mill owner and after operating a business of that kind for a number of years he eventually con- centrated his energies in farming. He was engaged in the latter pursuit when the Civil war came on, and in January, 1863, he enlisted in Company K, Sixteenth Wisconsin Volun- teer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. He advanced to the rank of corporal, and in numerous hard-fought en- gagements, several of them during Sherman's "march to the sea," he displayed soldierly qualities that made his record an excellent one. In 1888 Mr. Taylor came to Custer county, Nebraska, and bought a farm near Merna, where he passed the rest of his life in farm- ing. He was a Socialist in his political belief, but took no active part in political or public affairs. His death occurred in 1906. In Green county, Wisconsin, he married Miss Anna Norder, who was born in Switzerland, in 1830, and who died in 1854. They had two children : Louisa J., the wife of G. A. Wiggins, a farmer at Cooper, Iowa; and Elisha, of this review. For his second wife Mr. Taylor married Lenore Stearns, and they became the parents of nine children, of whom seven are living: Jerome, who owns a stock farm of 5.000 acres. in North Carolina; Jessie Dietz, who is the wife of a Custer county farmer ; Allen, who is traveling in Missouri; Frank, who is a photographer of Broken Bow ; Hetty, who is the wife of Florin Jacobs, a farmer and president of the Co-operative Company store of Broken Bow ; Nellie, who is unmarried and a resident of Broken Bow ; and Willis W., who is a farmer near this place.

Elisha Taylor attended the district schools of Green county and the normal school at Whitewater, Wisconsin, and for his first voca- tion adopted the educator's profession. After five terms of teaching, he resumed farming. and he continued to till the soil of Wisconsin until 1880, in which year he came to Nebraska and took up a homestead in Blaine county. He entered the stock business, which he fol- lowed there for four years, and in 1886 he disposed of his interests and came to Custer county, where he commenced to give practi- cally his entire attention to the buying and shipping of live stock. In this field he made great strides and was known as one of the prominent and successful men in his line, but a broader field of opportunity opened before

him in 1900, when he embarked in the real- estate, loan, and insurance business. This en- terprise has grown surprisingly and now is one of the most important of the city's busi- ness adjuncts. Mr. Taylor has a collection agency which handles a large amount of busi- ness annually ; he owns land which he takes care of on his personal account, as well as do- ing a big commission business ; and he repre- sents a number of the leading insurance com- panies, in addition to handling farm and other loans. Straightforward in all his dealings, his reputation is beyond question or reproach.

In 1888 Mr. Taylor married Louise J .. a daughter of Charles Heusinger, a machinist of Grand Island and Omaha. Mrs. Taylor. who was born at St. Louis, Missouri, had one child by a previous marriage : Kathryn, the wife of William Jenkins, manager of the ship- ping department of the wholesale grocery house of Coffin Brothers, Yakima, Washing- ton. To Mr. and Mrs. Taylor there have been born five children : Charles E., who is asso- ciated with his father in the real-estate busi- ness ; Fred L., who is county agricultural agent at Chadron, Nebraska ; Louise A., who is the wife of Dr. Dale G. Houlette, now in France, where he is connected with the navy dental corps of the United States Navy : Clara H., who is residing at home and is steno- grapher for the Security State Bank ; and Margaret A., who is attending school. Mrs. Taylor is a member of the Christian Scientist church. Her husband is a Socialist in poli- tics, and has served as a member of the Broken Bow Council for several years.

LEVIER B. CRAMER, whose life in Cus- ter county has covered a period of thirty-six years, is now one of the honored citizens of Broken Bow. He was born November 3. 1851, in Putnam county, Illinois, a son of Paul and Elizabeth (Basor) Cramer, the for- mer a native of Urbana, Illinois, and the lat- ter of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There were four sons and six daughters in the family. and all were faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Paul Cramer, who was a mason and stone-cutter by trade, came to Custer county in 1882 and located one and three-quarter miles south of New Helena. on Victoria creek, where he purchased, for $200. land which afterward sold for $4.000.

During the boyhood of Levier Bitner Cra- mer there were several principles which were enforced upon the family, these being the ones of honesty and industry and the value of money. In the latter connection he still retains a vivid remembrance as to how this

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

was impressed upon him. He and a neigh- bor boy, living near-by, found a hub band from an old Pennsylvania wagon, took it to town and sold it to a blacksmith for four cents, which money they proceeded to spend for candy. The matter in some way reached the elder Cramer, and when young Levier reached home, his father got down a new blacksnake whip and without warning or ex- planation gave him an old-fashioned warm- ing up. The lesson had the desired effect, for subsequently and throughout his career Mr. Cramer has respected the value of money and has profited by this attitude. Mr. Cra- mer was never given the benefits of a school education, but his mind is bright and active. he possesses the knack of gaining knowledge in a manner not learned in books, and being intelligent he has obtained a good practical education. He accompanied his father to Cus- ter county in 1882 and remained with him as his assistant until the elder man's death, in 1890. Since that time he has been engaged in business on his own account, at Broken Bow. He is a stone mason and has always followed the mason's trade, besides giving his attention to the cement contracting business and to broom manufacturing. Mr. Cramer is a natural mechanic and an expert in his line of business. His good workmanship and his industry have combined to assist him in the development of a prosperous enterprise. He has never cared for political matters, and has few interests aside from those of his home and his business.

In 1877, in Putnam county, Illinois, Mr. Cramer married Miss Lucinda Hartman, daughter of William Hartman, a farmer of that locality. To this union there were born fifteen children, of whom eight are living at this time: Lee, who is a farmer near Merna. Custer county, has been for four years a niemi- her of the police force at that point; John Al., a resident of Broken Bow and a , farmer by vocation, married Grace Thistle, and they have two children ; Henry, a farmer and stock- buyer of Broken Bow Rural Route No. I. married Christina Simonson, and they have six children : Frank, a farmer and stock raiser and buyer, of Broken Bow, married Maple Ralph, and they have two children: Roy, a farmer of Broken Bow Rural Route, married Maplet Givens and has one daughter ; Gilbert. single, is a farmer on the Broken Bow Rural Route : Sadie is the wife of John Clarks, pro- prietor of a laundry at Broken Bow, and they have three children ; and Ella is the wife of William Rudy. a contractor of Florid, Put- nam county, Illinois, and they have two sons.

Mr. and Mrs. Cramer and their children are members of the Methodist church.

HORACE .F. KENNEDY was born at Brownville, Nemaha county, Nebraska, Sep- tember 2, 1873, a son of Charles H. and Catherine ( Randall) Kennedy. His pater- nal grandfather was Stephen H. Kennedy, a native of Virginia, who followed the west- ward tide of civilization to Missouri at an early date in the history of that state and later located in Nemaha county, Nebraska. where he died. Mr. Kennedy's maternal grandfather was John Randall, who came from Tennessee, and was one of the early set- tlers of Nemaha county, Nebraska.

Charles H. Kennedy was born in 1850, in Missouri, and as a young man moved with his, parents to Nemaha county, Nebraska. where he married Catherine Randall, who was born in Tennessee, in 1848. Not long after his marriage, Mr. Kennedy engaged in the hotel business at Auburn and later was simi- larly engaged at Broken Bow, but after twenty years of successful operation of hottses which were popular with the traveling public, he retired and he and Mrs. Kennedy still survive to enjoy the comforts which have come as rewards for industrious and honor- able lives. They are members of the Method- ist Episcopal church. Of the four children in the family, three are living: Mrs. S. L. Muller, of Omaha, Nebraska; Horace F., of this review ; and W. B., a farmer and ranch- man of Wiggins Colorado.

The district schools of Broken Bow and Lincoln furnished Horace F. Kennedy with his early education, and his first occupation in life was found in employment on his father's homestead in Custer county. Later he was associated with his father in the hotel business at Broken Bow. H. F. Kennedy was sheriff of Custer county for four years, from 1909 to 1913, and is a Republican in politics. After his retirement from office, he engaged in the moving-picture business, and is now owner and manager of the Lyric, Broken Bow's beautiful theatre, one of the finest and best of its size in the state.

Mr. Kennedy was married December 25 1900, to Nannie R. Talbot, who was born about eight miles east of Broken Bow, a daughter of Dr. R. C. Talbot, one of the old- time medical practitioners of the county. They have two children, Ruth and Howard, both attending school. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy are members of the Baptist church. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and has

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passed the official chairs in the blue lodge. Mr. Kennedy has an honorable military record, having served as a lieutenant in the Spanish- American war, as a member of Company M, First Nebraska Volunteer Regiment. For sixteen months he fought in the Philippines, and during the fighting with the enemy he re- ceived a bullet through his right lung, which sent him to the hospital for two months. Mr. Kennedy is one of Broken Bow's substantial business men whose success has been well merited.

WALTER M. BRITTAN, a young farmer and business man who lives in the city of Callaway, is a native of Adams county, Iowa. He was born August 2, 1881. Concerning his father, Clifford N. Brittan, and his family, adequate record is given on other pages of this volume. Walter claims that his first money was earned as a mail carrier, although he was not in the service of the government. His mail-carrying operations consisted of taking notes for his uncle to the uncle's sweetheart, but the emolument received for this service, and its subsequent investment, are not re- corded. Likewise, the name of the uncle and also of the sweetheart are withheld. So, other than that this is where the subject of the narrative makes his debut into business life, this item has very little historical value.

During his boyhood years, Walter M. Brit- tan lived in a hotel and worked in a livery stable. When only eight years of age he drove a team for the surveyors who were laying out the lines of the present Callaway branch of the Union Pacific Railroad. On these occasions he was out with this survey- ing party for two or three weeks at a time.

Mr. Brittan was married January 10, 1916. at Grand Island, to Maude L. Manyon, who is a young woman of gracious personality. she being a native of Illinois and a daughter of Jesse Manyon. Her mother's maiden name was Lettie Reed. In the comfortable home of Mr. and Mrs. Brittan, at Callaway. there are every form of home comfort and everything to contribute to happy home life. They have one child, Fern R., who is the pet of the family, and every one in the home musters to her command. Mr. Brittan has a son by a former marriage, Walter L. Brittan, who is attending St. Mary's College at St. Mary's, Kansas.

The Brittans are owners of 400 acres of good land, which Mr. Brittan oversees and operates in intensive farming. In addition to this, he is the agent for the Dort Motor Company, and is doing a splendid business.

The family is connected with the Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Brittan is a prom- inent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

JOSEPH F. WILSON was the efficient and popular sheriff of Custer county from 1911 until January 1, 1919, when he retired from office as a result of political exigencies which compassed his defeat for re-election in November, 1918. During his tenure of office he established and maintained a record for loyalty, fidelity to duty, and courageous and diplomatic handling of the important work that was assigned to him, with the result that he gained a secure place in the confidence of the citizens of Custer county.

Mr. Wilson was born at Ottawa, Illinois. on the 17th of September, 1869, and is a son of John and Bridget (Fitzgerald) Wilson. John Wilson was born in Scotland, in 1829. and was a young man when he immigrated to the United States and made settlement in the vicinity of Ottawa, Illinois, where he found employment as a miner in the coal mines, this line of work having been his vo- cation in his native land. Finally he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, to which he continued to give his energies until his death, October 22, 1882. Vitally loyal to the land of his adoption, he tendered his aid in de- fense of the Union when the Civil war was precipitated, and he served three years and three months, as a member of Company D, Nineteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he took part in many engagements. in- cluding several of the important battles that marked the great conflict between the states of the north and the south. In politics he was a Republican, and both he and his wife were consistent communicants of the Catholic church. After the death of her husband Mrs. Wilson continued her residence in Illinois until 1885, when she accompanied her son Joseph F. to Broken Bow, Nebraska, where she subsequently became the wife of David Broam and where she passed the remainder of her life. She was born in Ireland and was forty-eight years of age at the time of her death, in 1887. Of her four children by her first marriage the subject of this review is the only survivor.

Joseph F. Wilson acquired his early educa- tion in the public schools of Streator, Illinois, and after his graduation in the high school he found employment in a roller-skating rink. He continued in this service eight months, and thereafter found more profitable employment in connection with railroad construction work.

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After having given eighteen months to work in this connection, the romance of railway service palled upon him, and he resumed the vocation of his earlier years, that of farming. He continued his association with agricultural enterprise in Illinois for one year and then, in 1885, he came to Adams county, Nebraska, where he was similarly engaged for one year. He then came to Custer county, where he continued to be actively engaged in farming until 1911, when he was elected county sheriff. He immediately impressed himself upon the community as a man of vigor, resourcefulness and executive power, and the estimate placed upon his service was best shown in his reten- tion of office for a period of seven years, dur- ing which he gave an administration that shall always figure as one of the most admirable in the annals of the official history of the county. In politics Mr. Wilson is aligned as a stalwart in the ranks of the Democratic party, and he has been active and influential in its councils in Custer county. He still re- tains active association with farm industry and is the owner of a half-section of land in Custer county. As in the past, he here gives much attention to the raising of live stock upon a somewhat extensive scale, and he has been specially successful in the raising of cat- tle. Mr. Wilson is a royal-arch Mason and is affiliated also with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Knights of Pythias, in each of which his popularity is of unequivocal order.

March 3, 1892, recorded the marriage of Mr. Wilson to Miss Nellie M. Harris, the ceremony having been performed at Loup City, this state. Mrs. Wilson was born in Ohio and is a daughter of John Harris, who was one of the sterling pioneers of Custer county, where he obtained a homestead and where he became well and favorably known. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have six children : Hazel is the wife of Harry Holly, of Broken Bow: Gladys is the wife of Ora Swancutt, a farmer near Ansley, this county ; Beulah was graduated in the Broken Bow high school as a member of the class of 1918; and Clarence. Doris, and Leland (called "Woodrow" by his companions) are attending the public schools. Mrs. Wilson is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and is actively interested in its work.

ANDREW PETERSON is a representa- tive farmer and good citizen of Custer county. Nebraska, who has spent almost his entire life here. He was born near Copenhagen, Den-

mark, November 5, 1882, and is one of a fam- ily of eighteen children born to his parents, Milter and Mary ( Peterson) Peterson, who are still living, hale and hearty, at Weissert, Custer county, to which village they retired from their homestead, in 1915. They came to the United States and to Callaway, Nebraska, July 4, 1888, and took up a homestead claim in Custer county, north of Oconto, where they continued their residence until they moved to Weissert, as previously mentioned. Of their large family the following survive : Peter, who is superintendent of a screw factory in the city of Hartford, Connecticut, married Hannah Gould; Pete, a bachelor, lives near Oconto: Mary, who is the widow of Nels Johnson, lives five miles south of Berwyn ; Milter, who is a farmer and lives at Weissert, married Mabel Govier: Carrie, who is the wife of Christ Peterson, lives at Fremont, Nebraska ; Lena is the wife of Henry Hen- derson, who is clerk in a furniture store in Council Bluffs. Iowa; Andrew is the subject of this sketch; James, who is a section boss on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail- road, at Broken Bow, married Lucy Luther ; Christ, who is fireman on a railroad and who lives at Grand Island, Nebraska, married Ruby Woods; and Pretrena is the wife of Daniel Lewis, a railroad section hand, at Oconto, Nebraska. The parents of the above family were members of the Lutheran church in Denmark, but since coming to the United States have been united with the Church of God. The father is a Republican in his po- litical views.

Andrew Peterson was six years old when he accompanied his parents to the United States and his education was obtained in the public schools in Nebraska. He was reared on his father's farm and has followed agri- cultural pursuits ever since. He was married March 3, 1909, to Mrs. Effie (Barnes) Mc- Caslin, a daughter of John and Emma (Lef- fler) Barnes. The father of Mrs. Peterson was born in Illinois and the mother in Ohio. They came to Custer county in the spring of 1885 and homesteaded in the neighborhood of Swiss valley, where they lived until 1910, when they removed to Superior, Wisconsin. There Mr. Barnes bought the farm which he continues to operate. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes had six children, namely: Effie, the wife of the subject of this review ; Clarence, who is a carpenter by trade and who lives at Brokeu Bow, married Edna Evans ; Orville, who is a railroad man living at State Line, Wisconsin. married Eva Spraker : William, Merle, and Osa, the younger daughter. remain with their parents at Superior, Wisconsin. By her first

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

marriage Mrs. I'eterson had three children, the one survivor being Jesse MeCaslin, who was born August 23, 1902, and who assists Mr. Peterson on the farm. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson have one son and two daughters: Elmer C., born February 2, 1910: Dorothy, born December 19, 1912; and Emma, born June 24, 1916. Mr. Peterson belongs to the Church of God. He is a Republican in his political views, like his father, but has never been a candidate for office.

CLIFFORD N. BRITTAN was born Oc- tober 9, 1854, in Lafayette, Indiana. His parents, Francis and Louisa (Gates) Brittan, were natives of England and of their thirteen children only four are now living: Luther A., Mrs. Clara Beard, Mrs. Laura Dix, and Clifford N. The father came to the United States when twenty-one years of age. He landed in New York and at once entered into the silk mercantile business, in which he con- tinued the rest of his life - or until ripe old age caused his retirement.

Mr. Brittan's first recollection of money earned was assorting the small nuggets of mineral that were removed from mines and thrown into the refuse dumps by the miners. His father moved from New York to Indiana. and from there to Dodgeville, Wisconsin. From the Badger state he moved to Burling- ton, Kansas, about the year 1855. Three years later, in 1858, he moved to Kansas City, but he decided that it was a very unsafe place for a man of Union proclivities. Accordingly, he started for Peoria, Illinois, to look for a situation, and expected his wife and seven small children to follow later by boat. Travel was by water, for the reason that railroads were very scarce and poorly operated in those early days. The steamboats made regular trips. Mrs. Brittan succeeded in getting her family aboard without accident, and the same evening the Confederate soldiers captured the boat, near Boonesville, and started down the river with their prize. Some time during the night they learned that General Lyons had de- feated the Confederate army near Boones- ville, and this caused them to abandon the boat. The next morning General Lyons took charge of the boat, which he held for three days. Mrs. Brittan sent word to the General concerning her situation and finally the boat's crew were allowed to proceed with the boat to St. Louis, where they landed the passen- gers. From here Mrs. Brittan and her family proceeded by boat to Peoria, Illinois, where they met the father.

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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 61

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