History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 135

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742

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On October 10, 1911, James Kelly was united in marriage to Elizabeth Joyce, daughter of John and Mary (Cleary) Joyce, natives of Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly are the parents of two children, daughters, Eleanor. born on February 21, 1914, and Elizabeth Mary, July 25, 1917.

Mr. Kelly is a Republican and gives a good citizen's attention to local affairs, but has never been a seeker after office. He and his wife are members of the Catholic church and are interested in all neighborhood good works. Mr. Kelly is a member of the Knights of Columbus.

CHARNOCK W. WILLIAMSON.

One of the leading farmers of Nemaha precinct. Richardson county, is Charnock W. Williamson, who was born near Lawrence, Kansas, October 7. 1859. He is a son of Robert and Maria (Cade) Williamson. The father was born in Coshocton county, Ohio, May 5. 1830, and died in 1912. He left Ohio about 1858, going to Iowa, later moving to Missouri. In 1860 he went to Kansas, but moved back to Missouri, but in 1861 went to Kansas again. In June. 1865, he bought the farm on which the subject of this sketch resides in Nemaha township and moved here at that time. He built a small house and began improving the place in a general way. He carried on general farming and fed large numbers of cattle, having plenty of range on the prairies at that time. He became one of the most successful farmers of the county, owning at the time of his death seven hundred acres, which he divided among his children. He was well known and held in high esteem.

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He was a son of Henry Williamson and wife, the latter of whom was a Haxton, natives of Ohio, where they lived and died. The mother of the subject of this sketch was born in Maryland, July 2, 1828, and her death occurred in 1910. She was a member of the Presbyterian church. Robert Williamson was a pioneer in three states. He bought his first land in Ne- braska from the government, paying one dollar and twenty-seven cents an acre for the same. It was part of an Indian reservation. He paid for his farm by hauling lime about forty miles from White river. He used ox- teams to break up his land. He endured many hardships, including the grasshopper years, but he was a man of courage and by perseverance won out. His wife made all the clothes for the family for several years, spinning the cloth herself. To these parents five children were born, namely: Mrs. Martha Runyon, who lives in Nemaha precinct, this county; Samuel, who lives in Durant, Oklahoma; Lucinda, the wife of C. L. Lynch, of Sabetha. Kansas; Charnock W., the subject of this sketch, and Robert E., who lives on a farm in Nemaha precinct.

Charnock W. Williamson grew to manhood on the home farm, where he worked hard when a boy, assisting his father develop the place and culti- vate the general crops. In the winter time he attended the local schools in district No. 71. When a young man he herded cattle on the plains a great (leal. In 1884 he began farming for himself on eighty acres which his father gave him and also on rented land. He later purchased a part of the estate. He is now owner of two hundred and forty acres of excellent land in section 36, Nemaha precinct. He has made all the improvements on the same, and now has a comfortable home and a good group of outbuildings. He set out a large orchard some years ago, which was destroyed by a storm, but he planted another and now has an excellent orchard on his north eighty. He is a breeder of Shorthorn cattle. He raises a large quantity of grain each year, much of which he feeds to live stock.

Mr. Williamson was married on October 30. 1884. to Maggie Smith, who was born in Richardson county, where she grew to womanhood and was educated in school district No. 71. She is a daughter of Julius and Rosalee Smith, a sketch of whom appears on another page of this volume. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Williamson, named as follow : Floyd, who is farming in Nemaha county, Kansas; Robert, who is farming in Salem precinct, this county; Dottie, deceased; Elva, deceased. and Loring is at home. Politically, Mr. Williamson is a Democrat. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and to the Modern Woodmen.

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FREDERICK H. HARKENDORFF.

Frederick H. Harkendorff, proprietor of a well-kept farm in section 29. Ohio precinct, and one of the best-known and most progressive young farmers and stockmen in that part of the county, is a member of one of the very first families in Richardson county, his grandfather, John F. Harkendorff. having come here in 1854 and settled on a pre-emption claim on the Muddy river at a time when there were but three other white men within the con- fines of what is now Richardson county. Two of these earlier comers were horse thieves whose careers not long afterward were cut short at the end of ropes, the not-uncommon fate of their ilk in those days.

John F. Harkendorff, the pioneer, and his wife, Mary ( Kephandt) Harkendorff, were natives of Germany, who left their home in Mecklenburg- Schwerin with their family in 1852 and, after a nine-weeks voyage on a sailing vessel, reached the shores of America, and proceeded from port on out to Illinois, settling in Jackson county, that state. Two years later, they pushed on West into what then was the great territory of Nebraska, just created that year from what formerly had been somewhat indefinitely known as the Indian country, and settled on a tract of land he had pre-empted on the banks of the Muddy, about where the village of Stranssville now stands in this country. As noted above, there were, at that time, but three other white men in the territory now included within Richardson county, two of these being horse thieves and the other a real settler. It was about this time that Jesse Crook, the Goolsbys and others of the early colony of Ten- nesseeans settled here. John F. Harkendorff put up a log cabin on his claim and, with the oxen which had drawn his covered wagon, family and household goods over fron Illinois started in to break the sod and develop his farm. He and his family were always on friendly terms with the Indians, who were then present in large numbers hereabout, and when he got a start with his herd of cattle the Indians bought his surplus cattle. The scrupulous fidelity with which the Indians observed their part in the transactions was proof to the pioneer that his red neighbors were inher- ently honest, for when they had no money with which to pay for the cattle they would leave with him ponies double in value the amount of their pur- chase as a pledge against the time of the government's periodical payment to the Indians. The Harkendorffs were an earnest, peaceable family and were not much bothered by the horse thieves, only one of their horses being stolen during those early days when horse stealing was all too com-

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mon. On that pioneer farm and on their later farm in Ohio precinct, John F. Harkendorff and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, rearing their family and developing a fine piece of farm property, useful and influ- ential pioneers and good neighbors. The old log cabin in which they began their residence in this county is still standing, one of the most precious relics of the pioneer days to be found within the whole confines of the county.

Fred J. Harkendorff, son of John F. Harkendorff and wife, was born on March II. 1841, and was eleven years of age when he came to this country with his parents and about thirteen when they came from Illinois to the then Territory of Nebraska and settled in this county. His youth was spent on the pre-emption claim on the site of the present village of Straussville, and he then moved with the family to the farm in the precinct of Ohio on which the subject of this sketch now lives. There he grew to manhood and, after his marriage. established his home, remaining there until 1903 in which year he retired from the farm and moved to Falls City, where he spent his last days, his death occurring there on November 3. 1913, and where his widow is now living, past sixty years of age. She, Mary C. Hasenyager, was born on a farm ten miles from St. Louis, Mis- souri, daughter of John. Hasenyager and wife, who became pioneers of Richardson county and substantial residents of Ohio precinct. Fred J. and Mary C. (Hasenyager) Harkendorff were the parents of seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the sixth in order of birth, the others being as follow: John, a farmer, of Ohio precinct; Anna, deceased; Mary, wife of F. W. Wittrock, of the precinct of Ohio; Charles, of that same precinct : William, deceased, and Louisa, who chied in infancy.

Frederick H. Harkendorff was born on the farm on which he is now living, in section 29 of the precinct of Ohio, July 11. 1889; and has lived there all his life. His early schooling was received in what is still known as the Harkendorff school in that precinct, and he supplemented the same by two years of attendance at the Falls City high school and attendance for two terms at the business college in that city. From the days of his boyhood, he had been a valued aid in the labors of developing and improv- ing the home place. Several years before his father's death, he was given eighty acres of the home farm, including the home place, and has ever since farmed the same, establishing his home there after his marriage in the spring of 1912. In addition to his own farm, Mr. Harkendorff is farm- ing adjoining land and is now successfully cultivating three hundred acres

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of land. In addition to his general farming, he is giving considerable atten- tion to the raising of live stock and is doing quite well.

On April 18, 1912, Frederick H. Harkendorff was united in marriage to Freida Lentzsch, who was born at Craig, Missouri, daughter of the Rev. C. H. and Elizabeth (Haartje) Lentzsch, natives, respectively of Germany and of Indiana, who were the parents of six children, of whom Mrs. Harken- dorff was the fifth in order of birth. She was reared in Missouri and there received schooling both in the German schools and the English-speaking schools. Mr. and Mrs. Harkendorff have two children, Erwin and Alma. They are members of the German Lutheran church at Falls City and take a proper interest in church work, as well as in the general good works and social activities of the community in which they live. Mr. Harkendorff gives a good citizen's attention to local civic affairs, but is "independent" in his political views.

HON. CHARLES FRANK REAVIS.

Charles Frank Reavis, more familiarly known as Frank Reavis, son of Judge Isham and Annie M. Reavis, was born in Falls City on September 5, 1870, and has lived all of his life as a resident of the city of his birth.

Mr. Reavis is a graduate of the Falls City high school and attended the Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, for one year. He studied law in the office of his father, the late Judge Isham Reavis, and was admitted to practice in March, 1892. Immediately upon his admission to the bar, he entered into the practice as the law partner of his father under the firm name of Reavis & Reavis, which partnership relation continued until the death of his father in the spring of 1914.

Mr. Reavis was married in June, 1895, to Myrta L. Abbey, daughter of W. W. and Azelia Abbey, widely known and universally beloved pioneers of Richardson county. Two children have been born of this marriage. Licut. Charles Frank Reavis, Jr., and John Wallace Reavis.

Mr. Reavis is both a York Rite and a Scottish Rite Mason, and is fraternally connected with the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the World. He affiliates with the Methodist church.

He was elected county attorney of Richardson county in 1894 and was defeated for re-election in 1896. In 1914 he was elected to the Sixty- fourth Congress to represent the first congressional district of Nebraska and is now serving his second term to which he was elected in 1916.

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ERNEST WICKHAM.

Fruit growing is both pleasant and profitable to the man who loves nature and is willing to devote his closest attention to the work. One of the successful fruit growers and gardeners in Richardson county is Ernest Wickham, of Salem precinct. He was born, December 14, 1867, on his present farm, being a son of James and Eliza (Barrows) Wickham, pio- neers of the county. The father was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, December 18, 1833, and his death occurred in 1905. He spent his earlier years in the Buckeye state, coming to Richardson county, Nebraska, in 1867, settling in Salem, where he engaged in the fruit business until his death .. He was a soldier in the Civil War and took part in many important engage- ments and was with the army that marched under General Sherman from Atlanta to the sea. He and Eliza J. Barrows were married in 1860. She was born in Linn county, Iowa, in February, 1831, and is now making her home in St. Petersburg, Florida, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. To these parents seven children were born, named as follows: Mrs. Clara A. Bohrer, who lives in Florida, and whose husband is deceased; Blanche, the wife of C. A. Hassenyager, who lives in Bern, Kansas; James E. and Olive both living in St. Petersburg, Florida; Bertha, wife of Drew McCulley, living in Chicago, Illinois; Una, the wife of F. Fitch, of St. Petersburg, Florida; and Ernest, of this sketch, who was fourth in order of birth.

Ernest Wickham was reared on the farm and he received a common- school education, including one year in the Salem high school. After teach- ing one year, he went to Florida, where he worked as a telegraph operator for nine years, then returned to Salem, Nebraska, and took up the fruit business with his father. They shipped as many as one hundred and twenty- seven carloads of fruit in one year. He owns thirty acres of rich and well- improved fruit land, on which he has seven acres of strawberries and rasp- berries. In 1913 he began growing the "ever-bearing" brand of strawberries, which he has since made a specialty. He has made horticulture a special study for many years and is one of the best-informed and best-known men in his line in southeastern Nebraska. In 1904 he began in the printing busi- ness and he was editor of the Salem Index until the building burned in 1911, whereupon he discontinued that line of work, although he had been very successful in the same and made the Inder one of the popular and influential newspapers in Richardson county.

Mr. Wickham was married in December, 1888, to Fannie B. Butler,

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a daughter of N. F. and Fannie Butler, natives of Fruitland Park, Florida, but Mrs. Wickham was born in South Carolina. The following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wickham: Roland, who was graduated from the Salem public schools after which he spent three years in the normal school at Peru, Nebraska, and is a civil engineer, living at Atlanta, Georgia ; Mary, who was graduated from the normal school at Peru and is now engaged in teaching at McCook, Nebraska; Faye, who is attending the normal school at Peru at this time (May, 1917) ; John, a student in the Salem high school, and Kenneth and Vernon, both at home. These children have been given excellent educational advantages and are making a splendid start in life.

Politically, Mr. Wickham is a Democrat, and is now assessor of his township and formerly was a member of the county board.

CHARLES F. PRIBBENO.

Charles F. Pribbeno, of Preston, one of Richardson county's most exten- sive landowners, the owner of nearly three thousand acres of land in this state and in the neighboring state of Kansas, is a native of Wisconsin, but has been a resident of this county since he was about four years of age and has therefore been a witness to and a participant in the development · of this region since pioneer days. He was born in the city of Madison, capital of the state of Wisconsin, June 27, 1859, son of Charles and Caro- line (Thompson) Pribbeno, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Norway, who became residents of Richardson county in 1863 and here spent the remainder of their lives, useful and influential pioneers of the precinct of Arago and of the village of Preston, where they both died.

Charles Pribbeno was born in the city of Berlin on June 3, 1837, and was seventeen years of age when he came to this country and located in Madison, Wisconsin, where he presently engaged in the butcher business. There he married Caroline Thompson, who was born in the kingdom of Nor- way on June 17, 1831, and who was but a girl when she came to this country. It was in 1858 that Charles Pribbeno was married and after his marriage he remained in Wisconsin until 1860, when he went to Pike's Peak, Colorado, where he became a mine owner. In 1862 hè came back East. driving through by ox-team, and decided to locate in the then Terri- tory of Nebraska. He settled in Richardson county and for several sim1-

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mers following was engaged in freighting to Denver and other points West, at times going on to Salt Lake City. He would freight corn, corn- meal and cured pork across the plains with two or three big freight wagons, three yoke of oxen to each wagon, and sometimes would sell out in Denver, at other times going on to Salt Lake City to dispose of his stuff, returning with a load of furs and buffalo robes. During this period of his career the elder Pribbeno gained the apt soubriquet of "Pike's Peak Charley," which name persisted among his friends as long as he lived, and so accustomed did he become to the name that he seemed to prefer to be thus addressed than by his real name. In 1863 Charles Pribbeno moved with his family to the then Territory of Nebraska and settled in the precinct of Arago, this county, renting the farm now owned there by his son, Henry Pribbeno, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume, on that farm getting a start as a farmer and stockman on which he gradually improved until he eventually became one of the leading farmers in that part of the county and the owner of eight hundred acres of land. There he and his wife lived until their children were grown and married, after which they retired from the active labors of the farm and turned the home place over to their son Henry, afterward taking a trip to Spokane, Washington, on a visit to their daughter, Mrs. Anna Ernst. Six months later they returned to this county and bought a house in the village of Preston, where they spent the remainder of their days, her death occurring on March 28, 1909, and his, March 4, 1917.

Reared on the home farm in Arago precinct, Charles F. Pribbeno received his schooling in the schools of district No. 27 and remained at home, a valued aid in the labors of developing and improving the home place, until he was twenty-two years of age, when he married and bought an "eighty" in section 27 of Arago precinct, the start of his present extensive land hold- ings. This place had on it a little twelve-by-fourteen house, plastered with yellow clay, the house having a seven-by-fourteen lean-to made of common boxing, the side wall of which was five feet high, which was used as a kitchen. While Mr. Pribbeno then could only buy eighty acres, his father paying part cash for him for the same, he assuming a mortgage at eight per cent interest for the balance, he was able to rent one hundred acres on the side, giving one-half the crop for rent the first year, and his start there- fore was made more as a renter than as an owner. Years ago Mr. Prib- beno found himself in possession of a mortgage claim on the land of a dis- couraged homesteader in Chase county, this state, and took a couple of

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carloads of cattle out there to "range" the same. While there he bought land in that county and has since enlarged his holdings there until he has a considerable ranch in that county, grazing three hundred head of stock on the same. Mr. Pribbeno never lived on that ranch over two months at any time, the place now being operated by his sons, who also have farmed six hundred acres each year for the last ten years. In addition to his land holdings in Chase county Mr. Pribbeno is the owner of four hundred acres in Labette county, Kansas, three hundred and twenty-seven acres in Coffee county, same state, and two hundred and ninety-seven acres in the pre- cincts of Arago and Jefferson, this county, two thousand nine hundred and two acres in all, the greater part of which is well improved and profit- ably cultivated. In 1892 Mr. Pribbeno engaged in the mercantile business at Preston, but after six years and fifty days in the mercantile business traded his store for a bit of land in Coffee county, Kansas. After two years he bought the store building and a bankrupt stock of goods in for cash and resumed the mercantile business, continuing to operate the store for eighteen months, at the end of which time he traded the buildings and stock of goods for the Labette county (Kansas) farm' and has since given his attention to his land interests. He has owned and built several houses in Preston and now owns a modern home in the southern part of the village, where he and his family are very comfortably situated. The home farm of two hundred and fifty acres adjacent to the village and the one hundred acres he is still renting on the side, receive Mr. Pribbeno's im- mediate attention, his two younger sons having charge of the same. Mr. Pribbeno is a Republican and has ever. given a good citizen's attention to local civic affairs, but has not been a seeker after public office, though for ten years, consecutively, he served as a member of the drainage board in district No. I.

On September 23, 1880, Charles F. Pribbeno was united in marriage to Mary E. Zoeller, who was born at Buffalo, New York, September 26, 1858, daughter of Charles and Ernestina (Closa) Zoeller, natives of Ger- many, who settled in Richardson county in 1864 and both of whom are now deceased, and to this union eleven children have been born, two of whom died in infancy, the others being as follow: Mrs. Laura Pflum. of Chase county, Nebraska; Edward G., who is on Mr. Pribbeno's ranch in Chase county; Ida, wife of William C. Margrave, president of the Wil- liam A. Margrave Company, ranchers, and a biographical sketch of whom. together with a history of the late William A. Margrave and his extensive

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land development undertakings, is presented elsewhere in this volume; Elmer C., of Chase county; Howard H., of Coffee county, Kansas; Anna L., at home; Mrs. Mary M. Frasier, of Chase county, and William H. and Charles W., at home. The Pribbenos are members of the Evangelical Association and take an interested part in church work, as well as in the general good works and social activities of the Preston neighborhood. helpful in promot- ing all worthy causes thereabout.

STEPHEN BOYD MILES.

Stephen Boyd Miles, who though departed from this life this many years, left an impression upon the early pioneer history of Richardson county and Nebraska, which will long figure in the historical annals of the county and state. He was prominently identified with the early formation of the state and was a leader in that picturesque epoch of the old stage coach and overland mail route days. No man in his day was more actively identified with the industrial development of this section of Nebraska than Mr. Miles. He had the distinction of having established the first great stock ranch in the western part of the state of Nebraska, which ranch is being conducted at the present time by his son, Joseph H. Miles.

Stephen Boyd Miles was born on January 9, 1822, and was a son of Thomas and Sarah (Boyd) Miles, natives of York county, Pennsylvania, where Stephen Boyd Miles was born. Thomas Miles was a son of Joseph Miles, who came to the American colonies from Liverpool, England, in 1732, and became a well-established landowner in York county, Pennsylvania. where his family is still honorably and substantially represented. Joseph Miles was a soldier, who fought during the American Revolution.

When the development of the Great West began, Stephen B. Miles became interested in the possibilities presented by the opening up of what had previously been known as the great American desert, and secured from the United States government the contract for carrying the mails from Independence, Missouri, to Salt Lake City, Utah. He undertook this mail- route in the early fifties and remained with it for some years. The schedule time of the stages operated by Mr. Miles was thirty days each way. The distance between Independence and Salt Lake City was twelve hundred and fifty miles by stage road, and the drivers usually drove six horses or the same number of mules to the stage. The Indians were often rather trouble-

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 135

Author: Edwards, Lewis C Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1742

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742