History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time, Part 102

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company
Number of Pages: 1120

USA > Nebraska > Gage County > History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time > Part 102

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In 1896 Mr. Spilker wedded Miss Mary Meier, who was born in Germany and who was twenty-nine years of age at the time of her death, October 24, 1903. She came with her parents to America in 1881 and her father, Ernst Meier, became one of the prosperous farmers of Gage county, where he established his home in Clatonia township and where he passed the remainder of his life, his widow, whose maiden name was Mary Pohlmann, be- ing now a resident of Jefferson county. Mr. and Mrs. Spilker became the parents of two children, Sophia and Martha, both of whom

remain at the paternal home. On the 10th of February, 1905, Mr. Spilker married Miss Anna Tegeler, who was born in Clatonia township, this county, on the 18th of Feb- ruary, 1886, a daughter of Frederick and Charlotte (Schnele) Tegeler, who came to this county from Germany in 1882, Mr. Tegeler having been one of the representative farmers of Clatonia township at the time of his death and his widow remaining on the old home- stead place. Mr. and Mrs. Spilker have four children, - Amanda, Paul, Benjamin and Esther.

In politics Mr. Spilker is found staunchly aligned in the ranks of the Republican party and he served three terms as assessor of Grant township. He and his wife are earnest com- municants of the German Lutheran church in their home township and he has served since 1907 as a member of its board of trustees. The old homestead farm which he received from his father comprises one hundred and sixty acres, and through his own ability and resources he has accumulated and paid for the remainder of his now large and valuable landed estate. He is one of the shareholders in the farmers' co-operative grain elevator in the village of Dewitt, where he also assisted in the organization of the Farmers' & Mer- chants' Bank, his stock in which he later sold. On his fine farm he keeps the best of live stock, and at the time of this writing, in the winter of 1917-1918, he has nearly two hun- dred head of Hampshire swine. A man of splendid energy, he has achieved large and worthy success, the while he has so ordered his course as to prove a valuable citizen and command the respect and confidence of those with whom he has come in contact in the varied relations of life.

ELMER L. ROOT is a son of the late Wil- liam H. Root, to whom a memorial tribute is given on other pages of this volume, and he is doing well his part in upholding the prestige of the family name in connection with farm industry and civic affairs, his base of oper- ations being the farm of one hundred acres which he inherited from his father's estate, in

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Rockford and Sherman townships, and his home place, improved with excellent buildings, being situated in Section 30, Sherman town- ship.

Mr. Root was born in Rockford township, this county, March 9, 1888, was afforded the advantages of the public schools and has been actively allied with farm enterprise from the time of his youth to the present. He married, in 1910, Miss Sadie Ault, likewise a native of this county, and she is the popular chatelaine of their attractive home.

WILLIAM CRAIG .- For thirty-six years William Craig has been an honored citizen of Gage county, residing at Blue Springs. He is descended from staunch Pennsylvania stock, his father, Thomas Craig, having been born in Northampton (now Carbon) county, that state, in 1797. As a young man he en- gaged in farming for a time and later, for nearly quarter of a century, conducted a hotel at Lehigh Water Gap, besides operating a general merchandise store at the same place. He was also the owner of a stage line running from Mauch Chunk and Easton, as well as being extensively engaged in boating and transporting lumber from his mills, on the upper Lehigh, over the Lehigh Coal & Navi- gation Company's canal, to Easton, Mauch Chunk and other points. He owned and op- erated his own boats and made considerable money in the enterprise. He owned three saw mills and an immense tract of timber land During the memorable freshet of 1841 he lost heavily in boats and lumber, and his entire store and contents were washed away. He continued as a hotelkeeper until about four years before his death, which occurred in 1859. The maiden name of his second wife, who was the mother of William Craig, was Catherine G. Hagenbuch. She was a native of Lehighton, Pennsylvania, her death occur- ring at Lehigh Gap, in 1871. She was the mother of six children, all of whom lived to maturity. The maiden name of the first wife of Thomas Craig was Kuntz and of the two children of this union one died in childhood, the other growing to manhood. The paternal

grandfather of our subject was Thomas Craig, who was a native of Northampton county, Pennsylvania and who served as a general in the Revolutionary war; he lived to the ripe old age of ninety years.

The subject of this review was born at Le- high Gap, Pennsylvania, April 22, 1841. His early education was acquired in his native vil- lage, later he became a student at Allentown Seminary and he completed his education in the agricultural college of Center county, Pennsylvania (now the Pennsylvania State College). He then began teaching, and later, in company with his brother, Colonel John Craig, he engaged in the general merchandise business at Lehigh Gap. To this enterprise he added the business of boat building and railroad contracting. These interests he op- erated extensively and successfully, and also dealt largely in lumber, railroad ties and coal, at the same place, until the fall of 1882. The family was widely and favorably known; three of his brothers served as members of the Pennsylvania legislature, two of them being elected to the state senate.

Mr. Craig, in 1882, came to Nebraska and established himself in the stove and hardware- business at Blue Springs, where his progres- siveness and reliability gained him an envi- able place in the community. When the Farmers' Elevator Company was organized, sixteen years ago, he assumed the position of manager, which executive post he has held continuously since.

On September 26, 1866, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Craig to Miss Mattie Gish, who was born at Berlinsville, Pennsylvania, January 29, 1844, a daughter of Abram and Elizabeth (Hummel) Gish, natives of the Key- stone state, where the father was a man of prominence as a farmer and merchant. The parents of Mrs. Craig both passed their entire lives in Pennsylvania, the death of the father occurring in 1878, and that of the mother in 1884.

Mr. and Mrs. Craig became the parents of the following named children: Annie, un- married, is a teacher in the Wymore schools ; W. A. married Miss Alice Welch and resides.

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

at Rochester, New York; F. G. married Miss Elsie Noah and resides in Lincoln, Nebraska ; Jesse V. married Miss Beatrice Fenton and resides in Lincoln, Nebraska; and Martha E., unmarried, is a teacher in the schools of Omaha. The mother of these children was called to her final rest in 1914.

Mr. Craig cast his first presidential vote for McClellan, and now supports the Democratic ticket. He has been called to public office and gave efficient service as a member of the school board many years. In 1888 he was elected and served as mayor of Blue Springs. He has also served as treasurer of the town- ship and city. Mr. Craig has won and held the esteem of the people of the community in which for thirty-six years he has lived and labored and in which his influence and sup- port have always been on the side of those things which are best.

It is a matter of definite record that the Craig family name has been worthily linked with the annals of American history from the colonial period, and it is specially pleasing and consistent to enter in this work a record con- cerning a distinguished Revolutionary pa- triot of the ancestral line of William Craig of Gage county. It was General Craig, then a lieutenant-colonel on the staff of General Washington, to whom the noble Quaker woman of historic note, Mrs. Lydia Darragh, reported the intended surprise attack that would be attempted by the British commander, General Howe, upon the forces of General . Washington that were encamped above Phila- delphia, the timely information resulting in the frustration of General Howe's plan. Of this Revolutionary incident definite mention is made in an old history which was published in 1827 and which is now in the possession of William Craig, of this review. From this old history the following quotations are taken : "Colonel Craig was also with General Wash- ington encamped at White Marsh, fourteen miles above Philadelphia. It was through him Mrs. Lydia Darrah, of Philadelphia, conveyed to General Washington warning of General Howe's intended attack on December 2, 1777, she having heard the order read for

the attack, through the keyhole of the door in the chamber of her house. The British troops marched out of the city as planned, to attack by surprise, defeat and capture the army and take General Washington prisoner. Finding General Washington fully prepared, and can- nons mounted, the attack was not made, and the British marched back again, - as General Howe expressed it, 'like a parcel of fools.'"

P. M. ANDERSON, who conducts a thoroughly well ordered automobile garage in the village of Filley, was born in Schleswig- Holstein, Germany, on the 15th of December, 1867, a son of Marcus and Marie (Rasmus- sen) Anderson, both likewise natives of that district, which was formerly a part of Den- mark. There they continued their residence until 1871, when they came to the United States and settled at Princeton, Illinois. Later they removed to the city of Chicago, where they remained six years. Marcus Anderson then engaged in farming enterprise near Princeton, Illinois, where he remained until the spring of 1883, when he came with his family to Gage county, Nebraska, where he purchased a farm and turned his attention with characteristic vigor to agricultural and live- stock industry. Later he sold his farm and purchased another, in Thayer county, but eventually he returned to Gage county, where he passed the closing years of his life. He had no financial resources when he came to America but by energy and good management he here gained independence and a gracious measure of prosperity. The children of his first marriage were four sons : Nis is a farmer in Cheyenne county, this state; Andrew An- derson is serving in 1918 as county treasurer of Gage county ; P. M., of this review, was the next in order of birth ; and L. C. owns and operates a well improved farm four miles north of Filley, this county. For his second wife the father wedded Margaret Hendrick- son, and they became the parents of two children: Anna, who is the wife of George Hendrickson, of Broken Bow, Custer county ; and Marie, who is the wife of Henry Rem- mers, of Firth, Lancaster county. The father

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

was a Republican in politics and his religious faith was that of the Lutheran church.

P. M. Anderson acquired his youthful edu- cation in the public schools of Illinois and Ne- braska, besides completing an effective course in a business college in the city of Beatrice. His independent career has been marked in earlier years by close and successful associ- ation with farm enterprise, and he is now the owner of a well improved farm of eighty acres, north of Filley, and another, of one hundred and sixty acres, south of this village. In 1909 Mr. Anderson removed from his farm to the village of Filley, where he engaged in the buying and shipping of live stock and later in the agricultural implement business. He now has a well equipped automobile garage and as local agent for the popular Overland automobiles he has developed a prosperous business. He still continues to handle agricul- tural implements and is one of the substantial and representative business men of this at- tractive Gage county village. In politics Mr. Anderson is a staunch Republican, and he has served as treasurer of Filley township, as well as township assessor. He is an active com- municant of the German Lutheran church, as was also his wife, whose death occurred June 2, 1911.

In October, 1895, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Anderson to Miss Christina Jen- sen, who was born in Denmark, and who is survived by one child, Blanche, the latter be- ing now the wife of Edward Protsman, a rep- resentative farmer of Filley township, and their only child being a son, Harold.

JULIUS NEUMANN. - The enduring satisfaction of successful achievement right- fully belongs to Julius Neumann, for along well defined lines of enterprise he has ad- vanced until he now holds a prominent posi- tion in the commercial circles of Gage county.

Mr. Neumann was born at Longenglons- heim, Bingen on the Rhine, July 7, 1848. His father, Gottlieb Neumann, was born July 26, 1790, and as a young man served in the Ger- man army. Later he held a government posi- tion until he was sixty-eight years of age. In

1857 he immigrated to America and settled on a farm near Cambridge, Henry county, Illi- nois, and there his death occurred December 25, 1861. His wife, who bore the name of Catherine Kehl, was born at Meisenheim, Ger- niany, March 18, 1805, and died August 4, 1880, the last years of her life being spent in the home of her son Julius. Of the family of twelve children, nine sons and three daughters. all grew to maturity. Four of the sons each served full three years in the Civil war. Frederick and Valentine were in the Forty- second Illinois Infantry, Charles in the Sev- enth Illinois Cavalry, and Jacob in the Forty- eighth Illinois Cavalry. All of the sons are living except Valentine, who died in May, 1917. The oldest lives in the city of Omaha, at the age of eighty-five years. Julius was the second youngest.

Julius Neumann acquired his education in the public schools of Cambridge, Illinois, and when a young man of twenty-one he found employment in a mercantile establishment in Henry county, that state. He was in business in several places in that state and finally es- tablished himself in business in San Jose, Illinois. March 19, 1882, he came to Wy- more, Gage county, Nebraska. Here he built a fine brick block, on Niagara avenue, and here he has been engaged successfully in busi- ness since that time. Seventeen years ago he erected his present business block, a two-story building with one hundred foot frontage, the main floor being occupied by his business es- tablishment, in which is the largest stock of general merchandise in the city. The upper story is used as offices by professional men, besides providing headquarters for the local Masonic bodies.

June 3, 1874, recorded the marriage of Mr. Neumann to Miss Amelia Wellmeyer, who was born at Wapello, Iowa, September 1, 1854. a daughter of W. H. and Elizabeth Well- meyer, natives of Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Neumann are the parents of seven children : B. W. is married and resides in Philadelphia. where he is engaged in the laundry business ; Clarice is the wife of Fred J. Kelly, Chan- cellor of the University of Kansas, at Law-

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

rence; Mahlon J., who married Miss Bertha Pirie, is associated with his father in business ; Gertrude is the wife of Harry W. Hinman, an instructor in the Case technical school at De- troit, Michigan; Wilhelmina is the wife of Dr. D. M. Ausmus, of Nashville, Tennessee ; Cecil H. married Miss Edith Kruger, and he is associated with his father's business; War- ren R. is a student in the University of Kan- sas.

The religious views of Mr. Neumann coin- cide with the teachings of the Methodist church, in which he and his wife are active workers and liberal supporters. In politics he is a "dyed-in-the-wool" Democrat, and he has served efficiently as mayor of Wymore for three terms, besides having been a member of the municipal council and the school board for many years. He is affiliated with the blue lodge, the chapter, and the council of the Masonic fraternity.

Mr. Neumann has always upheld those things which he thought were best for his city and state, and for thirty-six years he worked in implacable opposition to the saloon and liquor traffic. While he has made a signal success of his own business, he has not been remiss in any duty incidental to the religious, educational, and general civic uplift of his community, and he is held in the highest es- teem by all who know him. Mr. Neumann is proud to have been born in Germany, the land of his fathers, but is as loyal an American as . were his brothers who served three years for the preservation of the Union during the Civil war.

JOHN C. EMERY, who holds the position of bookkeeper for the well known firm of Kil- patrick Brothers, of Beatrice, gained in his youth a wide and varied experience in con- nection with pioneer activities in the west, and he is a scion of the staunchest of American stock of English strain. Mr. Emery was born at Lawrence, Kansas, December 23, 1861, and this date indicates conclusively that his par- ents, Charles N. and Mary (Benson) Emery, were numbered among the pioneers of the Sunflower state, the father having been a

native of Augusta, Maine, and the mother of the city of Dublin, Ireland. The father of Charles N. Emery was of English ancestry and became a pioneer representative of lum- bering enterprise in the old Pine Tree state, besides which he went forth as a loyal soldier in the war of 1812.

Charles N. Emery immigrated to Kansas in 1853, and in the years that followed he lived up to the full tension of frontier and pioneer life. He engaged in overland freight- ing to Denver and to the mountain regions of the west, and on the 4th of May, 1858, at Lawrence, Kansas, was solemnized his mar- riage to Miss Mary Benson, who had come with two of her brothers to the United States and who had lived in Brooklyn, New York, and Chicago, Illinois, prior to her removal to Kansas. In 1864 Charles N. Emery and his family removed to Liberty Farm, Kansas, and on the 9th of August of that year their little home was burned by a band of marauding Indians. Removal was then made to Kear- ney, Nebraska, and in July, 1867, the family home was established at Beatrice, Gage county - in the year that marked the admis- sion of Nebraska to statehood. Here Charles N. Emery and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, as sterling pioneers of the county, and his death occurred in 1897, his widow having died in 1907. In a recapitu- latory way and as incidental to the stirring frontier experiences of these honored pio- neers, it may be stated that from March, 1862, until the spring of 1864, Mr. Emery was in charge of the Thirty-two Mile Creek station on the eastern, or Fort Kearney, division of the great stage line, and in the latter year he took the management of the Liberty Farm station, on the north bank of the Little Blue river. As before stated, this station was burned by the Indians during their historic raid in August, 1864, and several other sta- tions on the stage line likewise were destroyed at this period. In the spring of 1865, after new stations had been built by the stage com- pany, Mr. Emery was placed in charge of the station at Fort Kearney, where he remained until the eastern division of the line was

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

abandoned by the stage operators - after the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha to Fort Kearney. Mr. Emery proved a most valuable and resourceful employe of the stage company, as he was a fine judge of horses and when occasion required could mount the box of a stage and ably drive a four or six horse team. He and his wife kept an eating station that became famed for its effective service and was much appreciated by the travelers who passed over the stage route in those early days. Mrs. Emery was an excellent cook and the provender which she set forth cheered many a weary sojourner. Incidentally the historic frontier character, Ben Holliday, one of the best of the early stage operators, stopped at the Emery station on Two Mile Creek for breakfast one morn- ing, while on one of his stage trips from Cali- fornia eastward. This hardy pioneer, who had been reared on the frontier, had an in- ordinate fondness for the old-time "corn dodgers," and after Mrs. Emery had set forth for his delectation a goodly supply of his favorite frontier delicacies he threw on the table a twenty-dollar gold piece as his per- sonal tribute to Mrs. Emery and her culinary skill.

John C. Emery acquired the most of his early education in a Catholic school at Atchi- son, Kansas, and as a boy and youth he ac- companied his father on the latter's freighting expeditions over the plains and prairies, the experience having been one to which he re- verts with marked satisfaction in this later era of opulent prosperity. In coming to Gage county the family journeyed more than two hundred miles in a covered wagon, and after the home had been established in Beatrice he was enabled to supplement his education by attending the high school. In 1879 he became deputy county clerk, under the regime of Cap- tain Hill, and for a number of years he held a position in the office of the county recorder of Gage county. A skilled bookkeeper and accountant, he has for several years past held a position in the representative business house of Kilpatrick Brothers.

In 1881 Mr. Emery wedded Miss Helen

Jaynes, who was born at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on the 3d of January, 1861, a daughter of the late Henry C. Jaynes, who came to Gage county in 1871 and became a pioneer settler in Wymore township, he having been a gradu- ate of the University of Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Emery have two children. Mollie is the wife of Edward W. Clack, of Edgar, Clay county, where he is engaged in the real-estate business. Mr. and Mrs. Clack reside within seven miles of the place where her paternal grandfather's stage station was burned by the Indians, in 1864, as noted in a preceding para- graph. Robert J. Emery, the only son, is now (spring of 1918) first lieutenant of Company C, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth United States Infantry, and has been assigned to duty as instructor at the officers' training school at Camp Cody, New Mexico. In this connection it is interesting to record that out of a total of five hundred and twenty-five men he was one of three who successfully passed the examination that determined his eligibility for this post of instructor, all three of the suc- cessful aspirants having been Gage county boys. Robert J. Emery married Miss Mabel Willis, of Beatrice, and they have one son, Robert J., Jr.

Mrs. Emery is an earnest communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, and he is af- filiated with the Royal Arcanum and the Mod- ern Woodmen of America.

ERWIN W. SCHAEFER has distinct vantage-ground as one of the vigorous and representative business men in the city of Beatrice, where he is treasurer and general manager of the Sanitary Dairy, a corporation that has developed a substantial and impor -. tant industrial enterprise.

Mr. Schaefer was born in the fair little re- public of Switzerland, and the date of his nativity was May 28, 1873. He is a son of Joseph and Mary (Schlup) Schaefer, the father having been a farmer and also having developed in Switzerland a prosperous busi- ness in the handling of such waste materials as copper, iron, etc. The mother served for twenty-six years as postmistress at Ammann-

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

ERWIN W. SCHAEFER

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

segg, Switzerland, a picturesque village among the snow-capped mountains. The subject of this review is a member of a family of eight children, all of whom are living, and he is the only one of the number in the United States, the others all remaining in Switzerland.

Erwin W. Schaefer was afforded the ad- vantages of the notably excellent schools of his native land, where he completed a course in the high school at Solothurumswitz and also gave special attention to the study of French. He is thus conversant with the Ger- man, French, and English languages. After leaving school Mr. Schaefer found employ- ment in a mercantile establishment, and he was an ambitious young man of twenty-five years when he severed the home ties and set forth to make for himself a place of inde- pendence in America. He came to the United States in the year 1898 and established his residence in the city of Milwaukee, Wiscon- sin, where for three years he was employed in connection with the brewery industry. He then established in that city a creamery busi- ness and after conducting the same several years he engaged in the same line of enter- prise at Sheboygan, Wisconsin. There he continued his activities in a successful way until 1912, when he came to Gage county, Nebraska, and became head butter and ice- cream maker for the Beatrice Poultry & Cold Storage Company, of which Henry Fishbach is the executive head. This alliance he con- tinued until 1917, on the 1st of January of which year was effected the organization of the Sanitary Dairy, which was incorporated with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars and of which he has been treasurer and. general manager from the beginning. The capital stock is now one hundred thousand dollars. He has a thorough and comprehen- sive knowledge of the dairy business and his executive ability and progressive policies have brought about the substantial development of the business of the company with which he is now identified. Mr. Schaefer is distinctly loyal and appreciative in his civic attitude and in his political allegiance he is aligned in the ranks of the Republican party. He is

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History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time, Part 102

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849- Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company Number of Pages: 1120

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company
Number of Pages: 1120