USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 48
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume II > Part 48
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when the nation became involved in the great World war. In 1917 he entered the Atlantic transport service, at Norfolk, Virginia, and with this important arm of the service he continued to be identified until the close of the war, his honorable discharge having been received December 31, 1918. He then returned to Fremont, where he has since continued in the independent practice of his profession. He is a popular and appre- ciative member of the American Legion, composed of those who served in the late war, and in November, 1919, he had the distinction of being elected commander of the Fremont Post of this fine patriotic order. He is affiliated also with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is a democrat in politics and his wife is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In September, 1919, Mr. Mahlin wedded Miss Lula M. Walker, who was born near the City of Peoria, Illinois, a daughter of Frederick J. and Anna Walker, who now reside at Fremont, Dodge County, where the father is a prosperous retired farmer.
CHRIST H. CHRISTENSEN is one of the sturdy sons of the far Norse- land who has proved his constructive powers most effectively since establishing his residence in Nebraska, where he has maintained his home in Dodge County for fully thirty-five years. He now owns and conducts a prosperous general insurance business in the City of Fre- mont, and in connection with this enterprise he has given no little atten- tion to the real estate business. As an insurance underwriter he repre- sents a number of the best and most popular fire, life, accident and tor- nado insurance companies, and his agency is one that controls a large and representative supporting patronage.
Mr. Christensen was born in the Province of Vandsyssel, Denmark, on June 18, 1862, and is a son of Christ and Mary (Petersen) Nelson, his own surname being derived from the personal or Christian name of his father, in accord with the ancient Danish custom. His parents passed their entire lives in Denmark, where the father, a man of superior education, was long a successful teacher, as well as a citizen of promi- nence and influence in community affairs, both he and his wife having been earnest communicants of the Lutheran Church. Of the ten children five are now living, and two of the number reside in the United States- Christ H. of this review, and Louis, who is engaged in the hotel business in the City of San Francisco, California. To the excellent schools of the Town of Sterup, in his native province, Christ H. Christensen is indebted for his early education, besides which he had the advantages of a home of distinctive culture and refinement. As a youth he served an appren- ticeship to the blacksmith's trade, and he continued work at his trade in his native land until 1884, when he came to the United States, his arrival at Fremont, Nebraska, having occurred on April 17th, of that year. For the first few months he was employed at farm work in Dodge County, and for four years thereafter he was employed at his trade, in. the shops of the Fremont Foundry and Machine Company. He then, in 1887, initiated an independent business as owner of a cafe and as a dealer in cigars, which enterprise he successfully conducted at Fremont for several years. Through this business he won substantial success, and it may well be understood that this fact gave him special satisfaction when he reverted to his having arrived in Fremont with an available capital of less than $2, besides which he still owed the price of his transportation from Denmark to America. Mr. Christensen has been engaged in the insurance business since 1902, and his careful and progres-
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sive policies have enabled him to build up a most prosperous business, to the management of which he gives the greater part of his time, Loyal and public spirited, he is aligned in the ranks of the democratic party, but has had no ambition for public office. He and his wife are devoted and influential communicants of the Danish Lutheran Church of Fremont, of which he is not only a trustee but also the treasurer. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, in which he is secretary of the aerie at Fremont; and the Danish Brotherhood, in which he is secretary of the local lodge. He is well known in Dodge County and his circle of friends is limited only . by that of his acquaintances.
In 1888 Mr. Christensen was united in marriage to Miss Anna Jensen, who likewise is a native of Denmark, and who is a daughter of Jens Jensen, whose death occurred in Denmark when a young man, and whose widow later married Hans Wolf and still resides in this city. Mr. Wolf died in Fremont in 1917. Mr. and Mrs. Christensen have three chil- dren : Lillie is the wife of Arthur W. Lucas, train dispatcher at Fre- mont for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad: Alfred is assistant cashier of the Fremont National Bank ; and Henry a registered pharma- cist for the firm of Kerlin & Christensen, one of the leading drug stores of Fremont. He had the distinction of serving eleven months in Field Hospital No. 12 in France during America's participation in the late World war, and thereafter he was with the allied forced in occupying German territory along the Rhine until June, 1919, when he departed for home, his honorable discharge having been given on July 5th of that year.
LOUIS M. WARNER was born and reared in Dodge County and has never wavered in his allegiance to and appreciation of his native county and state, within the borders of which he has found ample opportunity for the achieving of worthy success through association with farm enter- prise. He is now one of the representative farmers of the younger gen- eration in Cotterell Township, where his operations are carried on in section 18, his farm comprising the eighty acres that he owns and 460 acres also in this part of Dodge County. He is a son of John H. Warner, of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this vol- ume, so that in the present connection further review of the family history is not demanded.
Louis M. Warner was born on the old homestead farm of his father in Everett Township, this county, and the date of his nativity was August 11, 1881. He early gained practical experience in connection with the operations of the home farm and his youthful education was acquired in the excellent schools of Dodge County. He began his inde- pendent career as a farmer when he was twenty-two years of age, and he has since improved his land in many ways, including the erection of buildings and the providing of the various equipments that mark the up-to-date farm. He gives his attention to diversified agriculture and the raising of excellent grades of live stock, is loyal and liberal in com- munity affairs, is a stockholder in the Farmers' Union at North Bend, is independent in politics and is now serving as treasurer of the School Board of his district.
The year 1905 recorded the marriage of Mr. Warner to Miss Mabel Snover, who was born in Dodge County and who is a daughter of Syl- vester Snover, now a resident of Fremont, the county seat. Mr. and Mrs. Warner have five children: Hazel B., Howard I .. , Grace L., Bernice E. and Irene M.
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JAMES CASSELL endured his full share of the hardships and trials marking the pioneer period in the history of Nebraska, his parents having come to Dodge County when he was a lad of six years-and within a short time after the admission of the state to the Union. His memory compasses the time when grasshoppers laid waste all growing crops of the pioneer farmers and entailed privation and distress ; he recalls sea- sons of drought, with attendant failure of crops, but he was reared under the conditions that begat courage and self-reliance and in the later years has shared in the prosperity that has attended those who remained in Nebraska and had faith in the now great and progressive commonwealth. He still has active supervision of his well improved farm of 120 acres, in section 30, Elkhorn Township, as well as of the adjoining farm of eighty acres owned by his venerable mother.
Mr. Cassell was born in Whiteside County, Illinois, July 28, 1862, and is a son of John and Fannie (Green) Cassell, the latter of whom still remains on the old homestead, with her son James, as one of the most venerable and loved pioneer women of Dodge County. John Cassell was born and reared in Scotland and was about twenty-five years of age when he came to the United States and established his residence in Illinois, where his marriage was solemnized. In 1868, with team and covered wagon, he brought his family overland from Illinois to the new State of Nebraska, and he established the family home on the farm now owned by his son James, of this sketch. He hauled lumber from Omaha to erect the primitive dwelling on the pioneer farm and earnestly applied himself to reclaiming the wild prairie and making his land productive. He bravely met the trials incidental to pioneer life, but did not live to realize the prosperity of the later years, as he died about six years after coming to Nebraska, his wife and children being left to face the heavy burdens entailed by his death. Indians were still much in evidence through this section of the state and the prospect that faced the widowed mother was not an alluring one. It has been her good fortune to witness the splendid development and progress of Nebraska and to enjoy the gracious rewards that compensate for earlier trials and privations. She is a devoted member of the Methodist Church, as was also her husband.
James Cassell acquired his early education in the pioneer schools of Dodge County, and he reverts with satisfaction to the fact that as a boy and youth he attended the Sunday school that was held in the old-time railroad station at Arlington. He was but twelve years old at the time of his father's death and yet his youthful courage and determination did not fail in the face of the heavy responsibilities and arduous labors that came to him. He and his mother did not leave the home farm, but he assumed the practical management of its operation and as the years passed by he achieved worthy and enduring success through his zealous labors as an agriculturist and stock-grower. His appreciation of present conditions is enhanced by his memory of those of the pioneer days, and he is one of the loyal and public-spirited men of the county to whose civic and industrial development he has contributed his full quota. His farm is equipped with good buildings and he has made profitable both the agricultural and live-stock departments of the industry to which he has here devoted himself during his entire active career. Mr. Cassell is not constrained by strict partisanship in politics, but supports men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment. He has served as a member of the Township Board and has been moderator of the School Board of his district for thirty-six years. He and his wife, and also his
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venerable mother, hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church at Arlington and he is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.
March 23, 1896, Mr. Cassell wedded Miss Nora Clark, who was born and reared in Kansas, and they have three children : Edward, George and Fannie, the daughter now being the wife of Robert Hansby of Arlington, Nebraska.
HERMAN MONNICH. Occupying a noteworthy position among the esteemed and valued citizens of Everett Township, Herman Monnich was for many years conspicuously identified with the agricultural inter- ests of this section of Dodge County, and having through wise manage- ment secured a comfortable annual income is now living retired from active pursuits, enjoying a well-earned leisure. A son of Gerhard and Anna (Osterloh) Monnich, he was born November 3, 1855, in Iowa County, Iowa, where his parents lived for three years.
Born, reared and married in Germany, Gerhard Monnich immigrated to the United States in 1854, and having taken up Government land in Iowa was there engaged in carpentering and farming until 1857. Com- ing with his family in that year to Dodge County, he journeyed across the intervening country with ox teams, the trip being long and tedious. Taking up a homestead claim in what is now Everett Township, he improved his land, and was actively employed in farming and stock raising until his death in 1878 at the age of sixty-three years. His wife survived him, passing away in 1907, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. He was a democrat in politics, and both were members of the Lutheran Church. Of the thirteen children born of their union, four are living, as follows : Mary, wife of Menke Von Zeggen of California ; Herman, of this brief personal review; Bernard, residing in Hooper; and Dora, wife of Caspar Heller of Hooper.
Having acquired a practical education in the common schools of Dodge County, Herman Monnich, ,who was of an active and enterprising disposition, turned his attention to agriculture, and having become thor- oughly familiar with its many branches, began farming on his own account. When ready to settle permanently, he bought his present prop- erty in section 1, Everett Township, and in its improvement met with unquestioned success, his place being one of the most attractive in the vicinity, reflecting credit on his good judgment and ability. Mr. Mon- nich was actively engaged in general farming and stock raising until 1917, when he gave up hard labor, and has since lived retired from active business cares. An active and influential member of the republican party, he has served a number of terms as county supervisor. Frater- nally he is a thirty-second degree Mason. He is not affiliated with any religious organization, but his wife is a devout member of the Catholic Church.
Mr. Monnich married, in 1881, Margaret Parkert, and into the house- hold thus established seven children have been born, namely: George W., managing the home farm; John, a garage owner of Fremont; Ber- nard, engaged in farming in Dodge County; Nettie. wife of Norman Schaffer of Hooper, cashier of the First National Bank; Edward served in the signal corps during the World war, being trained at Lincoln, Nebraska, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and at Baltimore, Maryland, and now a resident of Oakland, California; Celia, a nurse, resides in Ohio ; and Clarence, now at home, enlisted May 21, 1918, in the field artillery, and after being trained at Camp Jackson went with his command over- seas, took part in the Argonne Forest engagements, and was discharged from the service May 10, 1919.
Je Maughan.
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FRED W. VAUGHAN, an influential citizen of the City of Fremont and a representative member of the Dodge County bar, has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Nebraska for fully forty years, and his qualities of leadership have been manifested not only in connection with the activities of his profession but also in the field of politics and general civic affairs, where his influence has been marked by high ideals and utmost loyalty.
It is most gratifying to find in this vital western commonwealth of the Union a man who can claim the stanchest of American lineage for generations, for representatives of Colonial ancestry are all too few in this day of rampant commercialism and heterogeneous social stand- ards. It is to be recorded that Mr. Vaughan is a scion of fine Colonial ancestry in both the paternal and maternal lines, and that ancestors on both sides were found aligned as patriot soldiers in the War of the Revo- lution. Richard Vaughan, great-grandfather of Fred W., was in service in the Revolution, as a member of Capt. Peter Grant's company in the regiment commanded by Colonel Grayson, in the Continental foot forces commanded by Col. William Gearson. He enlisted as a private Sep- tember 1, 1777, and made a record of loyal and efficient service in the ranks. May 1, 1789, Governor Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania appointed him a lieutenant of the Fifth Company in the Second Battalion of Militia in Luzerne County. His commission, attested by Charles Biddle, sec- retary to the governor, is now in the possession of him whose name introduces this sketch. Elias Vaughan, son of Lieut. Richard Vaughan, was one of the very early settlers in the vicinity of Wyalusing, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, where he reclaimed a farm from the virgin forest, his land holdings being such that he was able to give to each of his sons a farm of good area, as gauged by the standards of the locality and period. On June 8, 1812, Elias Vaughan was commissioned deputy post- master at Asylum, Luzerne County, and his commission is still retained as an interesting family heirloom. He likewise received appointment as lieutenant of the Fifth Company, One Hundred and Forty-Fourth Regi- ment, Pennsylvania Militia, which was a part of the Second Brigade of the Ninth Division. This commission, for four years' duration, was signed by Governor Thomas Mckean and Secretary T. M. Thompson.
Evander R. Vaughan, son of Elias and father of Fred W. Vaughan, to whom this sketch is dedicated, was born and reared in the old Key- stone State, and became the founder of the family in Nebraska, where he passed the remainder of his life, his death having occurred at Fremont November 12, 1900. While still in his native commonwealth he was commissioned first lieutenant of the Wyalusing and Asylum Invincibles, attached to the Fourth Battalion of the uniformed militia of the state, besides which, at the time of the Civil war, he enlisted for service as a private in the military body formed to repel invasion of Pennsylvania by Confederate troops, Governor Curtin having called for volunteers for this temporary service.
In 1882 Evander R. Vaughan came with his family to Nebraska and established himself in the furniture business at Fremont. He continued this enterprise until about 1890, when he sold the business and retired, by reason of advanced age, and he was one of the revered citizens of Dodge County at the time of his death.
On the maternal side Fred W. Vaughan is a scion of the seventh generation in descent from James York, who was a member of the royal house of Orleans and who came to America in 1635. He became seized of a large landed estate in Connecticut. One of his descendants, Amos
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York, great-grandfather of Fred W. Vaughan, was taken prisoner by the Indians and Tories in 1778 and all his live stock was confiscated, besides which he suffered the indignity of being compelled personally to drive this stock to the British lines. After being held a prisoner several months his exchange was effected in New York, whence he made his way on foot to Connecticut, where his death occurred a few days prior to that of his wife, who had escaped from the fort at the time of the his- toric Wyoming massacre in Pennsylvania, she having eluded the Indians and escaped by making her way in a canoe down the Susquehanna River and thence to her home in Connecticut.
Evander R. Vaughan, as a young man, was united in marriage to Miss Jessie E. Hinman, a native of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, and she preceded her husband to eternal rest, her death having occurred, at Fremont, October 13, 1901. Her father, Curtis Hinman, of Wysox, Pennsylvania, was the first abolitionist in that part of the state, and his home was a station on the famous "underground railroad," by means of which many slaves were assisted to freedom, in Canada, prior to the inception of the Civil war.
Fred W. Vaughan, the only child of his parents, was born in Wyalu- sing, Pennsylvania, on December 9, 1858, and he acquired his early edu- cation in the public schools of Pennsylvania and the Susquehanna Col- legiate Institute, at Towanda, that state. Thereafter he was graduated in the Wyoming Commercial College, at Kingston, Pennsylvania, and in August, 1879, shortly before his twenty-first birthday anniversary, he came to Nebraska and found hospice in the home of his uncle, Beach I. Hinman, at North Platte. There he studied law in the office of Hinman & Neville, of which firm his uncle was the senior member, and he was admitted to the bar of Nebraska September 28, 1881. On February 22d of the following year he established his home at Fremont, and here he has since continued in the active practice of his profession, as one of the leading members of the bar of this section of the state. An effective resume of his political career is gained by quoting from records appear- ing in a recent publication : "Mr. Vaughan had always been a democrat, but upon the division of the party in 1892, on the silver question, he became identified with the gold-standard wing of the party, of which he was a representative as a member of the state central committee of Nebraska until 1897. In the preceding year he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, in Chicago, and with others of the Nebraska delegation, he was unseated by the convention. On the 23d of the following July he was a member of a conference of forty-five gold democrats, from the states of Illinois, Indiana. Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Nebraska, who assembled to protest against the Chicago platform of the democratic party. As a result of this con- ference was held the National Gold Democratic Convention, at Indian- apolis, in which were nominated the standard bearers of the gold or single standard branch of the democratic party, with General John M. Palmer as presidential nominee. Mr. Vaughan was a delegate to this convention, and he was secretary of the Sound Money Democratic League of Nebraska in 1895. In 1897, believing that the sound-money democrats must choose either the free silver democratic party or the republican party, he transferred his allegiance to the latter, with which he has since continued his active and loyal affiliation. He wielded influ- ence in political councils, but the only office to which he was elected was mayor of Fremont in April, 1899."
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Mr. Vaughan was one of the organizers and incorporators of the Fremont Club, and has served as president of the same. He is promi- nently identified with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has served as grand commander of the Nebraska Grand Commandery of Knights Tem- plar. He takes deep interest in the affairs of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and was president of the Nebraska state organization of this great patriotic order one term. He and his wife are active members of the Presbyterian Church in their home city. He has been for a number of years a member of the Board of Trustees of the Fremont public library.
In 1904 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Vaughan to Miss Ora Reynolds, daughter of M. C. Reynolds of Culbertson, Nebraska, and the three children of this union still remain at the parental home-Maude, Jessie and Reynolds.
OSCAR WIDMAN was reared and educated in Sweden and was a youth of seventeen years when he established his residence in Nebraska. Here he has gained independence and prosperity through his own efforts and he is now one of the successful merchants of the City of Fremont, Dodge County, where he owns and conducts a grocery store of the best standard of equipment and service.
Mr. Widman was born in Sweden on January 6, 1868, and is a son of Carl and Eva (Danielson) Widman, the former of whom passed his entire life in that fair country of the far Norseland, where his widow still resides, he having followed the carpenter's trade during his entire active career. Of the four children three are living: Sophia is the wife of David Saunders, a farmer in Saunders County, Nebraska ; Oscar, of this review, was next in order of birth; and Emily remains in Sweden. The religious faith of the family has long been that of the Lutheran Church.
After having profited by the advantages afforded in the schools of his native land.' Oscar Widman, at the age of nineteen years, manifested his youthful ambition and self-reliance by severing the home ties and coming to America. For three years thereafter he was identified with farm enterprise near West Point, Cuming County, Nebraska, and in 1890 he came to Fremont and began work as a railroad section hand. While thus engaged he sent home honey to repay the amount which he had borrowed to pay his passage to America. He continued to follow railroad work three years and then, in 1902, became a clerk in a grocery store at Fremont. With characteristic ambition, he applied himself to learning all details of this line of enterprise, and in 1911 he established his independent grocery business, in which he has since continued with marked success, his finely appointed establishment receiving a liberal and representative patronage.
Mr. Widman is a democrat in politics and his high standing in the community is shown by his having been twice elected a member of the Board of Supervisors of Dodge County, a position of which he is still the incumbent, through election in the autumn of 1918. He is affiliated with the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and he and his family are earnest communicants of the Lutheran Church.
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