History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 81

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

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1858, in which year they came to the then Territory of Nebraska and settled in the old village of Arago, in this county.

Upon locating at Arago, the elder Frederick Nitzsche became engaged as a freighter, hauling freight by ox-teanı from the river landing to the stores in Arago, and continued to make his home in that village until 1871, when he settled on a farm in the precinct of Arago, the place now owned by the subject of this sketch, and there spent the remainder of his life, becoming a well-to-do farmer. Upon taking possession of that farm he established his home in a log cabin there and that humble abode served as a place of family residence until 1882, when he erected the substantial farm house which still serves as a place of dwelling there. He and his wife were members of the Lutheran church and helped to organize a congregation of that communion at old Arago about 1868. Mrs. Nitzsche died on September 20, 1871, and Frederick Nitzsche survived her many years, his death occurring on June 10, 1910, he then being past ninety years of age. They were the parents of eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fifth in order of birth. One of the sons, Charles Nitzsche, ran away from home to join the Union army during the Civil War and went to the front with a Missouri regiment. During his service he was captured by the enemy and served for five months in Andersonville prison before being exchanged.

As noted above, Frederick E. Nitzsche was but two years of age when his parents came to this county back in territorial days and he grew to man- hood in the village of Arago and on the home farm in that vicinity, receiving his schooling in the little old log school house at Arago. He was a valued assistant in the labors of helping to develop the home farin after the family settled there in 1871 and after his marriage in the spring of 1883 established his home there and began to farm the place on his own account, renting the same from his father. In 1887 he entered a homestead tract in Logan county, Kansas, and moved to the same, making his home there until 1892, when he sold out and returned to the old home place in this county. In 1911 he bought from the other heirs their interests in the home farm and has since owned the same, a well-improved and profitably cultivated tract of two hun- dred acres in section 23, where he and his family are very comfortably situ- ated. In addition to his general farming, Mr. Nitzsche has given consider- able attention to the raising of live stock and is doing very well.

On March 29, 1883, Frederick E. Nitzsche was united in marriage to Louisa Bickel, who also was born in the city of Buffalo, New York, June 29, 1865, daughter of George J. and .Anna (Miller) Bickel, natives of Germany,

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and who was but a child when her parents came West and became pioneers of Richardson county. George J. Bickel died here in 1876 and his widow is still living in this county, now a resident of Falls City, in the eighty-fourth year of her age. Mr. and Mrs. Nitzsche have nine children, namely: Arthur E., now a resident of Grand Island, this state; Rena, wife of H. Brinegar, of Rulo, this county; George, of California, and Katherine, Martha, Louisa, Fred J., Gertrude and Leonard, at home. The Nitzsches are members of St. Paul's Lutheran church and have ever taken an interested part in church work, as well as in other neighborhood good works and in the general social activities of the community in which they live. Mr. Nitzsche is an independ- ent Republican and gives a good citizen's attention to the general political affairs of his home county, an earnest advocate of local good government.

JEREMIAH KANALY.

Jeremiah Kanaly, a well-to-do landowner and retired farmer and merch- ant of Richardson county and one of the best-known men in the county, now living at Falls City, where he has a splendid home, is a native of the great Empire state, but has been a resident of this county ever since he was thirteen years of age, with the exception of two years spent rather disastrously in the neighboring state of Kansas homesteading back in the old grasshopper days. He was born in New York state on January 15, 1853, son of Robert and Mary (Dillon) Kanaly, natives of Ireland, who later became residents of this county and whose last days were spent in the village of Rulo.

Robert Kanaly was born on August 23, 1817, and his wife, Mary Dil- lon, was born in 1820. They were married in their native Ireland and then came to the United States, locating in the state of New York, where they remained for a few years, at the end of which time, in 1855, they moved to the state of Illinois, where they remained until 1866, in which year they came to Nebraska and located at Falls City, thus having been among the earliest settlers of that place. Robert Kanaly was a blacksmith and he opened a blacksmith shop at Falls City. He and his wife were earnest members of the Catholic church and the first inass ever said in the parish of Falls City was celebrated at their home in the fall of 1867, a priest front Rulo being the celebrant and several families present, the Kanalys, the two

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Farrell families and the family of George Roy being among those now recalled. In 1869 Robert Kanaly moved with his family to Rulo, where he opened a blacksmith shop and in the neighborhood of which place he presently bought a farm, he continuing to run his blacksmith shop and his sons operating the farm. Robert Kanaly and his wife spent their last days at Rulo, his death occurring on May 14, 1892, and hers, August 9,, 1901. They were the parents of seven children, of whom four grew to maturity, those besides the subject of this sketch being John, of Rulo; Patrick, who died at the age of twenty-one, and Martin, who is farming on his well-kept place one and a half miles north of Rulo.

Jeremiah Kanaly was but three years of age when his parents moved from New York to Illinois and he was thirteen when they came to this county and settled at Falls City. There he continued his schooling and upon the family's removal to Rulo he helped on the farm until he was eighteen years of age, meanwhile continuing his schooling, and then began to work for himself as a clerk in a grocery store at Rulo. After eighteen months of that form of experience he started a grocery store of his own at Rulo and was thus engaged in business there until 1874, when he went over into Phillips county, Kansas, and entered a homestead but the grasshoppers came along and ate things up faster than he could raise them, placing an effectual damper on his ambitions as a farmer, and he gave up the home- stead after two years of unprofitable struggle and returned to Rulo, where he again engaged in the grocery business and remained thus engaged until 1881, when he sold his store and bought a farm southeast of Falls City. The quarter section he bought at that time was wholly unimproved and he set to work to improve and develop the same, presently having one of the best-improved and most profitably cultivated places in that part of the county, every building, every tree and every shrub on the place having been looked after by himself. As he prospered in his farming operations Mr. Kanaly added to his holdings until he now owns seven hundred and thirty-four acres in three farms, one of one hundred and fifty-four acres : one of one hundred and six acres and another of four hundred and eighty acres, thus being accounted one of the most substantial landowners in the county. In 1903 he retired from the farm and moved to Falls City, where he built a fine residence and where he and his family are now living, very comfortably situated. During his residence on the farm Mr. Kanaly held various precinct offices, such as supervisor and as a school director in the precinct of Jefferson and has ever given his earnest attention to the general

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political affairs of the county. He has seen this region develop from pioncer days to its present high state of progressive development. At the age of seventeen he helped in the construction of the old Burlington & Missouri River railroad and after he moved on the farm, when the Missouri Pacific road was being built out this way, he worked as a teamster in the con- struction of that road. He and Samuel M. Philpot, formerly of Humboldt, were pals from boyhood, having clerked together, homesteaded together and gone broke together. Though Philpot was a Presbyterian and a Repub- lican and Kanaly a Catholic and a Democrat, their political and religious differences, even in the days long gone when such differences were more acute than they are now, never had any disturbing effect on the perfect quality of the fine friendship that bound them together. Another of Mr. Kanaly's activities in the early days of Rulo was the handling of the bulk of the pine lumber that was brought up the river for the establishment of the first lumber yard in Salem. He thus very properly may be regarded as one of the real old timers of Richardson county and he has a wide acquaintance throughout this part of the state.

On January 10, 1875, Jeremiah was united in marriage to Elizabeth Murphy, who was born in Iowa on January 16, 1856, daughter of Michael and Ella (Tobin) Murphy, natives of Ireland, who settled in Iowa upon coming to this country, later, in 1870, moving to Kansas and settling in Nemaha county, where they lived until 1875, when they came up into Rich- ardson county and further and fitting mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. To this union nine children have been born, namely: Rob- ert, who is living on a farm three miles north of Falls City; William, who is farming the old home place in the precinct of Jefferson; Elmer, who is on the Miles ranch ; John, a farmer, of Wessington, South Dakota; Thomas, who is on the home place; Lawrence, of Wessington, South Dakota; Frank, who is connected with the plant of the Ford Motor Car Company at St. Paul, Minnesota; Helen, wife of Frank Bucholz, of Falls City, and Alfred who is at home. Mr. and Mrs. Kanaly have thirteen grandchildren, in whom they take much delight. The Kanalys are members of the Catholic church and have ever taken a warm interest in parish affairs. Mr. Kanaly contributed very material assistance in the erection of the fine Catholic church at Falls City and has also done his part in promoting the general good works of the community, helpful in many ways in advancing the gen- eral welfare of the community of which he has been an active member since the days of his boyhood back in pioneer times.

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THOMAS M. WILKINSON.

It is not the kind of work, but the kind of spirit with which it is done that dignifies and exalts human service. This is a thought that should put heart into every worker, put cheer into his service and fill him with a large degree of satisfaction in doing the work that nature seems to have, in a way, appointed for him. Thomas M. Wilkinson, one of the most extensive farm- ers and stockmen in Richardson county, is a man who gets satisfaction out of his daily tasks. He was born on March 27, 1860, in Metcalfe county, Kentucky, being the first child born after the organization of that county. He is a son of William and Nancy B. (Hughes) ~Wilkinson. The father was born in West Virginia in 1814 and died in 1890. The mother was born in Kentucky in 1824 and died in 1893. She was a daughter of Jesse and Mary (Roundtree ) Hughes, both natives of Virginia. William and Nancy B. Wilkinson were the parents of nine children, namely: John D. is deceased; Robert G. lives at Orvin, Nebraska; Julia is the wife of Charles Henderson, of Verdon, Richardson county; William M. lives in Beatrice, this state: Bettie, who married Charles Brown, is deceased; Thomas M .; of this sketch; Charles lives at Haddam, Kansas; Gilbert is deceased; Laura is the wife of Edward Tracy, an attorney at Victoria, Texas. William Wilkin- son, the father, was a son of William Wilkinson, a native of Virginia, from which state he moved to Kentucky in an early day, about 1825, where they took charge of a plantation, on which they carried on general farming and tobacco raising and there they spent the rest of their lives, and there the father of the subject of this sketch grew up, married and made his home until 1865, when he removed with his family of seven children to St. Joseph, Missouri, reaching there about the middle of April of that year. A few months later the family came on to Rulo, Nebraska, traveling up the Mis- souri river by boat. There they bought a team and drove to the present site of Verdon. Liberty precinct. William Wilkinson bought one hundred and sixty acres in Liberty precinct and by hard work and perseverance he developed a good farm from the raw prairie land, building first a small rude house. but later made excellent improvements on his place. He first rented the, land where the present town of Verdon now stands, and in 1866 bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres for which he paid five hundred dollars. He broke ten acres of it with oxen, which. to a Kentuckian, looked like quite a large field, for he was of the old Southern type that wanted little more than a home and a living. However, he was a good business man and succeeded.

MR. AND MRS. THOMAS M. WILKINSON.

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becoming well established here. He helped to organize the first district school of Liberty precinct. His nearest trading post was Brownville for years, which furnished a poor market for his products. He raised sheep in large numbers and in the fall of the year, after the annual shearing, would laul the wool to Oregon, Missouri, and sell it or exchange it for dress goods from which his wife made most of the clothing for their children. Soon after he established his home in this locality, now over a half century ago, Indians, sometimes numbering as many as five hundred in a band, would visit his home and often steal much of his belongings. But when he would come home and find them there he would not be long in driving them off his place. The Indians continued to linger in Richardson county until 1880.

Thomas M. Wilkinson assisted his father to develop the home farm in Liberty township and lived at home until he was twenty-one years old. He received such educational advantages as the pioneer schools afforded, remain- ing in school until he was eighteen years old; and then entered college at Peru, Nebraska, pursuing a general course. After finishing his education he returned home and engaged in farming until his marriage, in 1886, after which he went West and took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres in Box Butte county, Nebraska, and also took up a tree claim and pre-empted. For some time he engaged in the cattle business there on an extensive scale. fencing sixteen sections for grazing purposes, not however without notifying the government of his act and of his willingness to remove the fencing upon its request. During his residence in Box Butte county he became owner of eight hundred and eighty acres and had a lease of three school sections. He bought and shipped cattle in large numbers to feeders. Selling out in 1902 he returned to Richardson county and bought the ranch he now owns, which consists of nine hundred acres in Grant and Nemaha townships, and he has been very successful as a general farmer and stock raiser and feeder on an extensive scale. He feeds about one hundred head of cattle annually and produces over four carloads of hogs annually. He lived on his farm until 1910, when he moved to Dawson, where he has since resided, owning a fine home there. His land is well improved and under a high state of cultivation. Mr. Wilkinson is a stockholder in the telephone and electric light companies at Dawson, also the Farmers Union and local grain elevator. He is a director in the telephone company and takes an active interest in local public affairs and aids in all movements having for their object the general welfare of his town, precinct and county. Politically, he is an independent Repub- lican. He is a member of the Evangelical church and he belongs to the Inde- (53)

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pendent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Wilkinson has given evidence of his love of country by a liberal purchase of Liberty bonds and donated to the Red Cross movement. He is chairman of drainage district No. I. .

Mr. Wilkinson was married on March 6, 1886, to Arminta Triggs, who was born in Richardson county, where she was reared and educated. She is .

a daughter of Isaac and Lucinda (McGinnis) Triggs, natives of Ohio and Kentucky, respectively. Her parents came to Richardson county, this state. and here they were married and established their home and reared a family of four children.

To Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson five children were born, named as follows: Roy. deceased; Edna, the wife of Guy Snethen and they live in Grant pre- cinct on the Wilkinson ranch; Ethel, the wife of H. Auxier and they live in Grant precinct, and Laura and Alice, both at home.

DAN J. RILEY.

Dan J. Riley, cashier of the Dawson Bank of Dawson, this county, was born in that village and has lived there all his life with the exception of about eight years- during which time he was engaged in the practice of law at Omaha, returning to Dawson in 1908 to take the place of his late father in the bank. He was born on July 7, 1875, son of M. and Bridget (Ryan) Riley, natives of Ireland, who had come to this country with their respective parents in the days of their childhood, the families settling in Connecticut.

M. Riley was born in August, 1848, son of Bryan Riley, and he grew up in Connecticut, remaining there until 1867, when he came to Nebraska and settled on a farm in Grant precinct, this county, one of the first settlers in that precinct. When the Dawson townsite was laid out he moved to that place and there engaged in the lumber business, shortly afterward taking up the general mercantile business there, as a member of the firm of Mead, Riley & Company, which presently was succeeded by the firm of Mead & Riley, Mr. Riley later becoming sole proprietor. In '1887 he assisted in the organization of the Dawson Bank and was made cashier and active manager of the same, the affairs of the bank being carried on in his store, but in the early nineties the bank outgrew the store and he thereafter devoted his whole attention to the bank, which in 1895 erected its present substantial bank building, and Mr. Riley continued serving that bank as

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cashier and manager until his death in April, 1908. From the days of. the very beginning of Dawson M. Riley was one of the most active and influen- tial factors in the affairs of that flourishing village and in addition to his extensive commercial and banking interests took an earnest interest in civic affairs, having served as a member of the town board, as a member of the school board and as village treasurer. He was an earnest member of the Catholic church and helped in the erection of four churches of that com- munion in Dawson, the first church erected by the Catholics there having been destroyed by fire, the second destroyed by a cyclone and the third destroyed by fire. To M. Riley and wife five children were born, namely : Dr. Bryan M. Riley, now located at Omaha; Dan J. Riley, the subject of this biographical sketch; Mary E., Nelle T. and Tom R., of Omaha, the latter of whom is president of the Bank of Florence.

Dan J. Riley grew up at Dawson and upon completing the course in the high school there entered St. Mary's College, from which he was graduated, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in 1896. Thus admirably equipped by preparatory study, he entered the law department of Nebraska State University and was graduated from that institution in 1900. In that same year he opened an office for the practice of his profession at Omaha and remained there until after his father's death in 1908, when he was elected cashier of the Dawson Bank and returned to his home village to take his father's place in the bank and has ever since been thus engaged, one of the best-known bankers in Richardson county. As noted above, the Bank of Dawson was established in 1887, the organizers being M. Riley, B. S. Chittenden, Daniel Riley, M. B. Ryan, Thomas Fenton, Morgan McSweeney and L. A. Ryan, with a paid-in capital of ten thousand dollars. The first officers of the bank were as follows: President, M. B. Ryan ; vice-president, B. S. Chittenden; cashier, M. Riley, the directors being these officers and the others named in the above list. The present officers of the bank are as follow: President, Daniel Riley; vice-president, L. M. Ryan; cashier, Dan J. Riley; assistant cashier, Tom R. Riley, the board of directors includ- ing these officers and Bryan Riley and Thomas M. Ryan. The bank state- ment in March, 1917, revealed the bank's condition at that time as follows : Capital, $25,000 ; surplus, $26,000, and deposits, $280,000.

In 1911 Dan J. Riley was united in marriage to .Anna Rush, of Omaha, and to this union two children have been born, Nan and Michael Rush. Mr. and Mrs. Riley are members of the Catholic church and take an inter- ested part in parish affairs, as well as in the general good works of the community and in the social and cultural activities of their home town.

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Mr. Riley is a Republican and served as postmaster of Dawson from 1896 to 1900 and for three years was secretary of the State League of Republican Clubs. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and in the affairs of both of these organiza- tions takes a warm interest.

ALBERT MAUST.

Albert Maust, dealer in grain and live stock at Falls City, proprietor of a string of prosperous elevators hereabout and an extensive landowner in Richardson county, was born at Falls City and has lived there all his life. He was born in a house which still stands two doors south of the Union Hotel on July 27, 1876, son of Elias A. and Savilla ( Miller) Maust, pioneers of this county, both of whom were born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania. and who are still living at Falls City, which has been their place of residence since 1870.

Elias A. Maust, an honored veteran of the Civil War and for many years one of the leading citizens of Falls City, was born on a farm in Son- erset county, Pennsylvania, March 23, 1839, son of Abraham and Magdaline (Longenecker) Maust, the former of whom was born in that same county in 1793 and the latter in 1795. Abraham Maust was a grandson of Jacob Mast, a native of Switzerland, who came to this country in Colonial days and settled in western Pennsylvania, where he reared a family of four sons and two daughters. The name in the next generation gradually came to be written Maust and has so continued. The immigrant, Jacob Mast, was a member of the Mennonite church and the family, which is now strongly represented in western Pennsylvania, has ever maintained the tenets of that simple faith. Abraham Maust became a farmer in Somerset county and there spent his last days, living to the great age of ninety-one years, eleven months and five days, the last sixteen years of his life being spent in suffer- ing and in total blindness. He was married in 1817 to Magdaline Longe- necker, who was one of the nine children born to Peter Longenecker and wife, also Mennonites and natives of Somerset county, and to that union were born fourteen children, nine sons and five daughters. The mother of these children died in 1854 and AAbraham Maust later remarried, but that second union was without issue.

Reared on the home farm in his native county in western Pennsyl-

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vania, Elias A. Maust received his schooling in the schools of that neigh- borhood and from the days of his boyhood was a valued assistant to his father and his brothers in the labors of improving and developing the home place, and was living there when the Civil War broke out. On October 24, 1862, he enlisted for service in Company K, One Hundred and Seventy- first Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and with that command served until it was mustered out ten months later. Upon the completion of his military service he returned to his home in Somerset county and after his marriage there in the fall of 1865 continued to make his home in that county, engaged in farming there for two years, at the end of which time he came West and located at Waterloo, Iowa, where he remained until 1870, when he came down into this part of Nebraska and became engaged in farming in the vicinity of Falls City. A year later he left the farm and moved to the then promising village of Falls City, where he erected a grain elevator, the first to be erected in this section of the state, and engaged in . the grain business. He presently extended that business by adding coal and live stock to his line and it was not long until his business operations were extending over a broad field, and he continued actively engaged in that line of business until his, eventual retirement. In 1891 he erected a handsome modern brick house one block east of Stone street and he and his wife are now living there. It was on November 27, 1865, that Elias A. Maust was united in marriage to Savilla Miller, who also was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, July 27, 1849, daughter of Moses W. and Catherine (Liven- good) Miller, and to this union three sons have been born, the subject of this sketch, the youngest, having had two brothers, one of whom, Irvine C. Maust, dealer in coal and ice at Falls City, is still living, and the other of whom, Norman, died in his first year.

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 81

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