USA > Nebraska > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. II > Part 3
USA > Nebraska > Clay County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. II > Part 3
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J. C. SPRINGER
The three hundred and twenty acre farm of J. C. Springer, located in section 11, Union township, Hamilton county, is one of the finest farms in his section of the state. It has been brought to a fine state of cultivation and with its orchards and grain fields is one of the show places of the county. It is known as Cedar Lawn farm.
J. C. Springer is a native of Illinois, his birth having occurred in Woodford county on the 25th of February, 1863. His parents removed to Livingston county, that state, when Mr. Springer was but six weeks old and there he resided on the parental farm until 1881. At that time the father brought the family to Nebraska and settled in Seward county, where he had purchased some fine land. J. C. Springer remained on his father's farm until he was twenty-one years of age, at which time he rented a farm and a team from his father and started farming on his own account. In 1887 he was married and continued to farm in Seward county for a few years and then purchased one hundred and sixty acres, paying five hun- dred dollars down on the property. About that time the house on this land burnt to the ground and he lost all of his household goods. For sixteen years he with
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a brother ran a threshing machine in the county and achieved a great amount of success with this enterprise. In 1903 he bought his present farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Hamilton county and it is now one of the most beautifully improved farms in that section of the state. Mr. Springer has always specialized in the raising of grain, hogs and cattle and along these lines has gained wide recognition. An abundance of all kinds of fruit is also grown on the farm, there being over three hundred apple trees, eighty cherry trees, peaches, apricots, plums and grapes.
In October, 1887, occurred the marriage of Mr. Springer and Miss Emma Eicher, who was born in the same vicinity as her husband, and to them nine children have been born: Albert, whose death occurred at the age of eighteen years ; Joseph M .; Salome; Benjamin J .; William E .; Lydia ; Emma E .; Mabel R .; and Leroy M.
Although the greater part of Mr. Springer's time has been devoted to his agricultural interests he has also been prominent in the business circles of Giltner, where he is now a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company. He also had the distinction of being the first president of that company. Mr. Springer is always interested in any movement for the improvement and development of the community and for many years has been a member of the school board. Both Mr. and Mrs. Springer are consistent members of the Mennonite church and Mr .. Springer serves that institution as treasurer. Mr. Springer is a self-made man in every sense of the word and is readily conceded to be a representative citizen of Hamilton county.
JOHN HERGENROTHER
In the passing of John Hergenrother, Clay county lost another pioneer citizen. For twenty-two years he made his home in that county and at his demise in 1892 a deep feeling of bereavement swept the community.
John Hergenrother was born in Germany in 1815 and received his education in that country. Later in life he came to the United States, first settling in New York and there his marriage occurred. Soon after that event took place he went to Iowa and located at Iowa City, where he followed the stone mason's trade until 1870, when he came to Clay county. He made the journey through from Iowa with wagon and team. Mr. Hergenrother homesteaded eighty acres of land, his first house consisted of part log and part dugout and he also erected a log barn. Provisions were hauled from Lincoln, the trip taking several days. There were many antelopes, deer, elks, and buffaloes in the vicinity of the homestead and from one buffalo hunt in the vicinity of where Kearney now stands, Mr. Her- genrother returned with a wagon load of buffalo meat. Many Indians passed through the homestead on their hunts and stopped for food and warmth. During the grasshopper plague Mr. Hergenrother suffered a loss of crops and for several days during the Easter blizzard of 1873 he was snowed in the house. He put out some shade trees and an orchard but the latter mostly died out. On that homestead Mr. Hergenrother resided until his death in 1892. He was widely
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recognized throughout the county as a successful agriculturist and a representative citizen.
In New York the marriage of Mr. Hergenrother and Miss Marie Murhline took place and to them were born five children: Cora, who is the wife of John Bishop of Harvard; John, residing at Oxford; Peter, who owns and farms the homestead; Lena, the wife of Charles Smith of Harvard ; and Mattie of Harvard. The death of Mrs. Hergenrother occurred in 1910. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hergen- rother were members of the Catholic church.
Peter Hergenrother now owns and farms the old homestead, to which he suc- ceeded upon the death of his father. It now consists of one hundred and sixty acres of land well improved and highly productive and Peter Hergenrother has taken his place among the leading agriculturists of the county. He remembers the trip from Iowa to this country, having been ten years of age at the time, how the family crossed the river at Nebraska City and how he followed behind and drove the two cows and one heifer. His education was obtained in this county and he had to walk a distance of a mile and a half every day to his school. Mr. Hergenrother always made his home with his parents. Like his father he has proved to be a successful and progressive farmer and is also conceded to be a representative citizen.
JOSEPH H. LYSINGER
Joseph H. Lysinger, who was well known as a pioneer farmer and respected citizen of Hamilton county, here passed away April 30, 1919, when about seventy- one years of age, his birth having occurred at Rays Hill, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1848. His parents were Isaac and Rachel (Sparks) Lysinger, who removed from the Keystone state to Illinois when their son Joseph was but four years of age. There he was reared to manhood amid pioneer conditions and surroundings. Fol- lowing the outbreak of the Civil war he joined the army as a member of Company H, One Hundred and Forty-sixth Illinois Infantry, when but sixteen years of age and was mustered out in July, 1865. His company was made up of farmers and mechanics and won a notable reputation for its splendid morals. The command largely did provost duty in Quincy, Illinois. When the country no longer needed his aid Mr. Lysinger returned to his home in Illinois and there resided until March, 1873, when he came to Nebraska and secured a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres. As the years passed and his financial resources increased he acquired considerable land and city property and in addition to the development of his farm he also engaged in the lumber, coal and grain business at Aurora. He was successful in all that he undertook and was numbered among the men of affluence in the county at the time of his death.
In 1891 Mr. Lysinger was married to Miss Ella R. Lyon, who was born in De Kalb, Illinois, a daughter of George W. and Sophia (Richardson) Lyon, natives of New York and Vermont respectively. They were married, however, in De Kalb, Illinois, where they spent their remaining days, the father there engaging in busi- ness as a carpenter and farmer. He was active and prominent in local affairs and served as a member of the school board of De Kalh.
MR. AND MRS. JH LYSINGER
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Mr. Lysinger voted with the republican party but was never ambitious to hold office. He made no professions of religious faith and united with no lodges but left behind him the record of a good name, his reputable business career and his sterling worth gaining for him the respect and confidence of all who knew him. Mrs. Lysinger has recently tendered to Hamilton county as a memorial to Mr. Lysinger a clock with four faces to be placed in the courthouse tower at Aurora-a gift whose financial worth will amount to between two and three thousand dollars. She occupies a nice home at No. 812 Twelfth street in Aurora, which was built in 1906. She has long been prominent in the social circles of the city and is interested in all those forces which make for moral and civic progress in the community.
JOHN W. SILVER
Nebraska, once a broad barren prairie, its wide stretches of flatland covered with a million wild flowers in June and in December with a dazzling and unbroken sheet of snow, has been transformed into a great agricultural state and many men recognizing the opportunities in the way of cultivating rich crops here, have won substantial success that has placed them with the men of affluence in the state, now enabling them to live retired. Such is the record of John W. Silver who now makes his home in Sutton. He was born in Bedford township, Bedford county, Pennsyl- vania, October 10, 1850, a son of Asa and Rachel R. (James) Silver. The mother was born in Rainsburg, Pennsylvania, while the father's birth occurred in Hope- well township, Bedford county. They were married, however, in Rainsburg, after which the father devoted his attention to farming and thus provided for the support of their family, which in the course of years numbered six sons and two daughters, but John W. Silver is the only one living. The parents were members of the Pres- byterian church and the father was a whig in his political views until the dissohi- tion of the party, when he joined the ranks of the new republican party. He was a son of Richard Silver, who was born in Frederick, Maryland, and went to Pennsyl- vania when eighteen years of age. The great-grandfather, John Silver, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war and had in his possession the oath of allegiance dated February 21, 1771, a valuable and interesting document which has since been handed down to his descendants. Two of his brothers, Samuel and James Silver, were also heroes of the Revolution and later obtained land at Lexington. Kentucky, in recognition of their services in the cause of Independence. The maternal grand- father of John W. Silver was George James, who came from south Wales to the new world, the James family being founded on this side the Atlantic while America was still numbered among the colonial possessions of Great Britain.
John W. Silver was educated in the free schools of Pennsylvania, attending the Brush Run school in Bedford county. He afterward worked on a farm in the Keystone state until he reached the age of twenty-eight years, and then made his way westward crossing the Missouri river, November 12, 1871, en route to Nebraska. He only remained in this state, however for about a month, after which he returned to Pennsylvania and again resided there for three years. On the expiration of that
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period he once more came to Nebraska. In 1878 he located in Fillmore county, Nebraska, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he improved and developed. He has rented this farm for nearly thirty-nine years, but still owns the property and throughout the intervening period has gained a good rental therefrom.
On the 19th of February, 1878, Mr. Silver was married to Miss Emma Clark, who was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, and they have become the parents of one child, Josephine, who was educated in the Sutton schools and in a musical school in Chicago. She now teaches music in Sutton. The parents are members of the Presbyterian church and the daughter, Josephine, has membership in the Congregational church. Mr. Silver gives his political endorsement to the republican party.
Sutton numbers Mr. Silver among its residents from 1885. He had spent the years 1883 and 1884 in the Union Pacific shops and then he came to Sutton, where he has always been highly esteemed as a progressive citizen and reliable business man. He had enough to buy his farm and put it in condition when he came here and as the years have passed success has crowned his efforts. He is now living retired from all kinds of business, enjoying in well earned rest the fruits of his former toil.
HARRY E. TOOF
Hamilton county has been signally favored in the class of men who have occupied her offices for on the whole they have been men of splendid calibre, devoted to the welfare and progress of the community which they thus represent. To this class belongs Harry E. Toof who is now filling the office of county treasurer and makes his home in Aurora. A native of Illinois he was born in Dallas City. July 1, 1874, and his parents, Daniel L. and Emily C. (Burr) Toof, were married in Illinois of which state the mother was a native, while the father was born in Iowa. They resided in Illinois until the fall of 1878 and then came to Nebraska, settling in Gosper county where Mr. Toof homesteaded, but later sold his right for one hundred dollars. He then removed with his family to Hamilton county in 1880 and here purchased land, acquiring one hundred and twenty acres of which he retained possession for a year. He then sold that property and invested in eighty acres more upon which there were no improvements. He built a little house which he occupied for a short time in 1881 and then removed to a rented place which he occupied for four years. He next bought property and gave his attention to its further development and cultivation until the fall of 1902, when he removed to Aurora. There he made his home until December, 1917, when his wife passed away. He is now living retired at Long Beach, California. His business affairs had been carefully and ably managed and he won a substantial measure of success. He had two wagons, three horses and two cows when he came to Nebraska and in the early days picked corn for two cents per bushel and boarded himself, but long ago that period of financial hardship passed and his labors brought him prosperity as the years advanced. To him and his wife were born eight children, of whom seven are living: Harry E .; R. E., who is
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the owner of a farm four miles south of Aurora; R. B., living on a farm of his own four miles southwest of Aurora; Mrs. Clara Gable, a widow residing at Sidney, Nebraska; Clyde B., who follows farming east of Dalton, Nebraska ; Minnie, the wife of Walter C. Mower, a farmer of Sidney, Nebraska ; and Della, the wife of W. E. Wright, residing at Long Beach, California, where he is engaged in the real estate business. The mother was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and the father is a loyal follower of the teachings and purposes of the Masonic fraternity, of the Woodmen and of the Highlanders. His political allegiance has long been given to the republican party and he has always main- tained a progressive attitude in matters of citizenship.
Harry E. Toof obtained his early education in the country schools and later attended the high school of Aurora and the Western Normal College at Shenandoah, Iowa. He likewise spent a year as a student in the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He had to assist in making his way through school and to provide for his tuition he taught in rural schools for six years. He divided his time between farming in the summer months and teaching in the winter seasons and subsequently purchased land in Hamilton county and began farming for himself. In April, 1910, he removed to Aurora, where for eight years he conducted the mill and elevator but put aside business cares to assume official duties when in the fall of 1918 he was elected county treasurer, which office he has since capably filled. The major part of his time and attention is given to his official duties but he also supervises his farming property, comprising one hundred and sixty acres of land south of Aurora and an equal tract north of the city.
In 1900 Mr. Toof was married to Miss Sarah MeKern who was born in Hamilton county, a daughter of William and Louisa McKern who arrived in Hamilton county in 1871, after which Mr. McKern homesteaded. He passed away in this county but his widow survives and makes her home in Aurora. Mr. and Mrs. Toof have become parents of five children : Vernon, Emily, Alycea and Ruth, all in school; and Robert, who completes the family.
Mr. Toof has always given his political allegiance to the republican party and feels that its platform contains the best elements of good government. Fraternally he is connected with the Woodmen and with the Highlanders and in Masonry he has attained the eighteenth degree of the Scottish Rite. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, leading consistent lives and in social circles they occupy an enviable position, enjoying the warm friendship and kindly regard of all who know them.
ANDREW G. GUSTAFSON
Among the sterling citizens to whom may be ascribed pioneer honors in Hamil- ton county is Andrew G. Gustafson who here purchased a tract of raw land at a time when development was in its initial stage in this section of Nebraska and who has been a resourceful figure in connection with the splendid exploiting of the agricultural resources of the county, where he is now the owner of a large and valuable farm property, situated in Monroe and Phillips township.
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Mr. Gustafson was born in Sweden on the 17th of August, 1851, and he and two of his sisters are the only survivors of a family of eight children. The father, Andrew Gustafson, passed his entire life in his native land and there also the mother died, though she came to America and remained here for some time. The schools of Sweden afforded Mr. Gustafson his youthful education and he was about eighteen years of age when he severed the home ties and set forth to seek his fortunes in the United States. He came to this country in 1869 and became identified with the grain business in the city of Chicago, his residence in that great metropolis having continued until 1881, when with but limited financial resources but with determined ambition to make for himself a place of independence and cumulative prosperty, he came to Nebraska and established his permanent home in Hamilton county. In Chicago he had effected the purchase of a tract of Hamilton county land which he obtained from the Union Pacific Railroad Company and for which he paid five dollars per acre. This original purchase comprised one hundred and sixty acres. He and his wife established their home in a pioneer sod house of the type common to the locality and period and vigorously set themselves to the task of reclaiming their land and developing a productive farm. They endured their full share of the hardships incidental to pioneer life in this now favored section of Nebraska and with the passing years substantial and ever-increasing prosperity attended their earnest and well ordered endeavors. Mr. Gustafson is now the owner of a well improved property of three hundred and twenty acres, and in former years the area of his landed estate in the county was even greater than this. His present home farm, one of the excellent places of the county, he purchased for eight dollars an acre and this land he reclaimed from the virgin prairie. When he established his residence in Hamilton county the little farm home had as its nearest town the village of Chapman and his principal trading points were Central City and Grand Island. His brother, John Nordgren, then employed by the Union Pacific Railroad Com- pany, aided him materially in the initial development of his first land, about ten Swedish families having come from Chicago and settled in this locality.
Mr. Gustafson has proved himself a thoroughgoing and progressive agriculturist and stock raiser and has been essentially loyal and liberal in his civic attitude, so that in all lines he has contributed his quota to the social and material development and upbuilding of Hamilton county, where he commands secure place in popular esteem. He gives his allegiance to the republican party and is an active member of the Swedish Mission church near his home, as was also his wife.
On the 6th of October, 1877, in the city of Chicago, Mr. Gustafson was united in marriage to Miss Helen Leontina Orre, daughter of Colonel John and Helen Orre, who were natives of Sweden and who came to the United States many years ago. Mrs. Gustafson passed to the life eternal August 10, 1912, a kindly and gracious woman whose memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her influence. Mr. and Mrs. Gustafson became the parents of eight children : Mrs. Lydia Larson, whose husband is a prosperous farmer near Holdrege, Phelps county ; Reuben, at home, is associated with his father in the work and management of the home farm; Joseph is a successful farmer in Hamilton county, and is married, as is also Benjamin, who is engaged in farm enterprise in Phelps
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county ; Rachel is, in 1921, a student in the business college at York, this state ; Alma and John remain at the paternal home, and Theodore is at the time of this writing a student in the agricultural college of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln:
Mr. Gustafson has taken lively interest in all matters pertaining to the community welfare and while he has had no desire for public office his civic loyalty has been shown in his effective service as a member of the school board of his district, he having been both its treasurer and a director and his service having covered a long period of years.
J. W. WEEDIN
J. W. Weedin of Aurora, filling the office of district clerk and through prompt, capable and faithful discharge of duty winning the respect and good will of all who know him, was born near Princeton, in Bureau county, Illinois, August 18, 1875, a son of Andrew and Mary (Sandburg) Weedin, both of whom are natives of Sweden. Coming to the new world in 1868 they were married in Sweden and the father has since devoted his life to the occupation of farming. He removed to Hamilton county on the 5th of February, 1886, and rented land until he purchased eighty acres of land three miles northeast of Aurora in 1891 and in 1905 he took up his abode in the city, retaining the ownership of his farm, however, until the fall of 1919. In the meantime he had prospered, acenmulating three hundred and sixty acres of excellent land, which he sold at two hundred and twenty- five dollars per acre for the two hundred acres and two hundred dollars per acre for the other one hundred and sixty acres. He and his wife are now enjoying well earned rest in Aurora and have the esteem and warm regard of many friends. They are members of the Swedish Mission church and Mr. Weedin belongs also to the Modern Woodmen of America, with which he has been identified for many years. In politics he is a democrat. To him and his wife have been born eight children, seven of whom are living: Katie, the wife of James Ling, a retired farmer residing at Loup City, Nebraska; J. W., of this review ; Minnie, the wife of J. A. Johnson who is employed in a sash factory at Clinton, Iowa ; Millie, the wife of E. A. Zartman, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, professor in the public schools of that city and teacher of penmanship; Fred, who is engaged in farming in Hamilton county, six miles from Aurora ; Frank, who is a twin of Fred and resides on a farm near his brother; and Laura, the wife of Gregory Blomstrand, an Aurora druggist. Both Katie and Millie taught school for several years and the family has long been widely and prominently known in this section of the state.
J. W. Weedin obtained a high school education in Clinton, Iowa, and afterward took a course in the real estate and brokerage business through a correspondence school of Chicago. His first occupation was that of farming and he was foreman and manager of large farms in Minnesota. He remained in that state for about eleven years, leaving Hamilton county in 1896 and returning on the 23d of December, 1907. Ile then engaged in the real estate and insurance business, in
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which he remained active until 1911. On the 4th of November, of that year he was elected clerk of the district court and assumed the duties of the position January 4, 1912. So capably did he serve in that capacity that he was reelected in 1916 and once more in 1920, having no opposition at the last election. No higher testimonial of his capability and fidelity could be given than this statement.
On the 17th of July, 1913, Mr. Weedin was married to Miss Maude Ethel Saucer, who was born in Blackhawk county, Iowa, a daughter of Eugene H. Sancer, one of the early settlers of that state and a farmer who also conducted a dray line at New Hartford, Iowa. He was born in France, but the greater part of his life was spent on this side of the Atlantic. Mrs. Weedin was educated in the high school of Waterloo and in the State Normal and for three years engaged in teaching, after which she pursued a course in shorthand and was employed as a stenographer at Waterloo, Iowa, for six and a half years. By her marriage she has become the mother of one daughter, Gwyneth, now. in her fifth year.
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