History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 88

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

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On August 16, 1896, in Ohio, Charles F. Schneider was united in mar- riage to Sarah Dumermuth, who also was born in Tuscarawas county, that state, February 23, 1874, a daughter of Jacob and Magdaline (Zimmerman) Dumermuth, natives of Switzerland and of Ohio, respectively, the former of whom died in Ohio on January 6, 1912, and the latter of whom, born on June 25, 1838, is still living in that state. Jacob Dumermuth and wife were the parents of eight children, of whom Mrs. Schneider was the seventh in order of birth, the others being as follow: Mrs. Ladrach, of Ohio; Miss Salome Dumermuth, of New Philadelphia, Ohio; Albert S., of that same place : Louis G., deceased: William J., of Strausburg, Ohio, and Mrs. E. G. Livengood. of Tuscarawas county, that state.

To Charles F. and Sarah (Dumermuth) Schneider four children have been born, namely: Raymond J., born on September 6, 1898; Bertha S., June 22, 1900: Ruby M., September 8, 1909, and Grace M., August 8, 1913.

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The Schneiders are members of the Reformed church and take a proper part in church work, as well as in the general social activities of their home neighborhood. Mr. Schneider is a member of the Masonic lodge at Sabetha, Kansas, and takes a warm interest in the affairs of the same.

RILEY D. WAGGONER.

- Riley D. Waggoner, one of Richardson county's most substantial farm- ers and stockman and proprietor, in jointure with his wife, of a fine place in section ro of the precinct of Arago, besides the owner of a large tract of land in Cherry county, this state; was born in a hewed-log cabin on a pioneer farm over the river in the neighboring county of Holt, in Missouri, and has lived in this region practically all his life, a resident on his present place since 1883, he and his wife having settled there shortly after their marriage. He was born on January 8, 1852, son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Yount ) Waggoner, natives of Tennessee, who were the parents of eleven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth in order of birth and four of whom are still living. Jacob Waggoner was married three times and his last wife bore him four children, of whom two are still living.

Jacob Waggoner was born on a plantation in the neighborhood of Nash- ville, Tennessee, March 22, 1823, a son of John Waggoner and wife, the lat- ter of whom was a Brown, natives, respectively, of North Carolina and Tennessee and whose last days were spent in the latter state. When about eight years of age Jacob Waggoner came West with his three uncles, Solomon, Daniel and David Waggoner, and grew to manhood in Missouri, where he married Elizabeth Yount, who was born in Tennessee in 1822 and who had moved to Missouri with her parents, the family settling in Holt county. After his marriage Jacob Waggoner established his home in a hewed-log cabin in Holt county and there resided until 1856, when he came across the river and became one of the pioneers of this county, buying a farm in the vicinity of the old settlement of Archer. A year later he sold his place and returned to Missouri, but in 1858 he came back to Richardson county. Two years later, however, in 1860, he returned to Missouri and there spent the remainder of his life. His first wife, the mother of the subject of this sketch, died on April 21, 1868, and he survived for more than twenty years, his death occurring on February 21, 1889.

Riley D. Waggoner received his schooling in the schools of Holt county

MR. AND MRS. RILEY D. WAGGONER.

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and of. the old precinct of St. Stephen in this county. When twenty-one years of age he began farming on his own account and after farming for a few years in Holt county, Missouri ; he then went to Leadville, Colorado, and prospected for three years in the mining region, becoming one of the dis- coverers of the Aspen mining section at the head of Roaring Forks. Return- ing home he married in 1882 and located on the farm on which he is now liv- ing, he and his wife having bought that place on January 17, 1883. This is a fine farm of one hundred and seventy-seven acres in sections 10 and 2 of the precinct of Arago, and the place is well improved and profitably culti- vated. In addition to this place, Mr. Waggoner is the owner of eight hun- dred and forty acres in Cherry county, this state, and is quite well circum- stanced. Mr. Waggoner has vivid recollections of pioneer conditions here- about and recalls the days when as a boy of seven he followed three yoke of oxen, dropping corn from a sack slung over his shoulder, working early and late helping in the improvement and development of his father's farm. The habit of early rising acquired in those days has stuck to him all his life and five o'clock in the morning, winter and summer, sees him "on the job" even to this day. In those days, Mr. Waggoner recalls, corn bread was the staple article of diet, very little wheat bread being used hereabout at that time, and the children of the family being treated to white bread on Sundays only. He recalls the time when he sold his hogs for two dollars and fifty cents a hun- dredweight, corn for seventeen cents and wheat for forty-five cents, hauling to the markets at Preston and Falls City. Mr. Waggoner is a Democrat and has served the public in the capacity of school director of his local district.

On January 10, 1882, in this county, Riley D. Waggoner was united in marriage to Martha J. Anderson, who was born in Holt county, Missouri, September 1, 1857, daughter of John R. and Jane (Bowman) Anderson, natives of Tennessee, the former born on November II, 1819, and the latter, July 18, 1818, who were married in Montgomery county, Indiana, to which county their respective parents had moved in pioneer days. About 1844 John R. Anderson and his wife came West and settled in Holt county, Missouri, where they remained until 1863, in which year they moved over into Richard- son county and here spent the remainder of their lives. John R. Anderson became one of the most substantial landowners in Richardson county, the owner of six hundred acres of fine land in the precinct of Arago, besides land in the vicinity of Falls City and over in Missouri. He also at one time owned the old Union House at Falls City, the hotel at that time being known

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as the Minnick House, which he bought from Minnick. Mr. Anderson died on May 17, 1879, and his widow survived him for many years, her death occurring on September 29, 1900. During the last thirty years of her life she was blind. John R. Anderson and his wife were the parents of nine children.

To Riley D. and Martha J. (Anderson) Waggoner four children have been born, namely: Jessie L., wife of Edward Durfee, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume; Pearl, who married George L. Vaughn, of Arago precinct, and has two children, Elmo and Imo; Daniel B., who is living on his father's ranch in Cherry county and who married Mary Elam, daughter of Mansford Elam and wife, of this county, and Ruby D., who married Albert Burke, of Falls City, and has one child, a daughter. Ruby. Mr. and Mrs. Waggoner have ever taken an interested part in the general good works and social activities of the community, which they have seen develop from pioneer days.

WARD K. KNIGHT.

Ward K. Knight, well-known and up-to-date photographer at Falls City, was. born and reared in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, but has been a resi- dent of the West since he was eighteen years of age and of Falls City for the past seventeen or eighteen years. He was born on October 6, 1874, son of George H. and Frances A. (Kimball) Knight, natives of New York state and of New Hampshire, respectively, and both representatives of old Colonial families and of Revolutionary stock. George H. Knight located at Cleveland in 1868, after a trip West, engaged in the confectionery busi- ness there and was thus engaged at the time of his death in March, 1892. In August of that year his widow and her son, the subject of this sketch, came to Nebraska and located at Beatrice, later moving to Falls City, where they now reside, Mrs. Knight making her home with her son in the latter's beautiful home on "The Boulevard" in the north end of the city.

Upon locating at Beatrice in 1892 Ward K. Knight became employed in a photograph gallery in that city and there learned the details of modern photography, becoming a very skilled artisan in that line. On January 8, 1900, he moved to Falls City and there bought a photograph gallery that had been in operation in an upstairs establishment at the corner of Stone and Seventeenth streets. Upon taking possession of that establishment he

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immediately made numerous improvements in the way of modern and strictly up-to-date equipment and it was not long until the admirable quality of his work began to attract wide attention hereabout. As the demands of a dis- criminating public grew he gradually added to his equipment until he now has one of the best-appointed photograph galleries in this part of the state and is doing a fine business. In June, 1913, Mr. Knight established a branch gallery at Stella and has since devoted one day in each week (Monday) to the photographic needs of the people of that enterprising village. Mr. Knight has given considerable attention to the general business affairs of the city and is a stockholder in the Falls City State Bank. He is a Repub- lican and gives a good citizen's attention to local political affairs, though not a seeker after public office.

On September 4, 1901, Ward K. Knight was united in marriage to Lydia May Peck, who was born on a farm in the precinct of Ohio, this county, June 18, 1880, daughter of Urias and Mary A. (Miller) Peck, natives of Pennsylvania and the latter of whom is still living in this county. Urias Peck was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, in 1852, son of Elias Peck, who came to Nebraska with his family in the spring of 1873 and settled in this county, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring here in April, 1909, he then being ninety-three years of age. Urias Peck was twenty-one years of age when he came to this county and some years later he returned to his old home in Pennsylvania and on Sep- tember II, 1878, was there married to Mary A. Miller, who was born on October 17, 1855. He had already acquired an excellent farm in the pre- cinct of Ohio in this county and after his marriage established his home on that farm and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on January II, 1897. He was the father of six children, two of whom, Robert Milton and Ruth. are deceased, Mrs. Knight having three brothers living, Henry Clay Peck, a farmer in Ohio precinct; Frank Peck, who is engaged in the draying business at Verdon, this county, and William K. Peck, who is farming the old home place in Ohio precinct. The mother of these chil- dren later married Ephraim Peck, of Ohio precinct, and is still living there. The Pecks are members of the Church of the Brethren and have ever taken an active part in the good works of their home community.

To Ward K. and Lydia May (Peck) Knight three children have been born, two sons and a daughter. Frances Mary, born on July 21, 1902, one son died in infancy. April 7, 1907, and Herbert Ward, July 6, 1909. The Knights have one of the finest homes in the city, located on "The Boule- vard," and' take a proper part in the social and cultural activities of their

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home town. Mrs. Knight also is a skilled photographer and is of much assistance to her husband in his artistic work. She is a member of the local lodge of the Rebekahs and takes much interest in the affairs of the same. Mr. Knight is a prominent Odd Fellow and a member of the encampment of that order, as well as of the Rebekahs and is also a member of the Royal Highlanders.

CHARLES LUKE HUSTEAD, M. D.

Dr. Charles Luke Hustead, of Falls City, one of the best-known young physicians in that city and who is now serving as county and city physician, was born at Linn, in Washington county, Kansas, July 12, 1884, son of Silas D. and Caroline (Shepley) Hustead, natives of Iowa, the former of whom was the son of Silas D. Hustead, a native of Virginia, and the latter a daughter of Massachusetts parents, Doctor Hustead thus being of sterling old Virginia and New England stock. The Husteads moved from Iowa to Kansas in 1881 and settled at Linn. Silas D. Hustead was first a farmer and then engaged in the restaurant business, later becoming engaged in the grain business and was thus engaged until his retirement in 1912 and re- moval to Falls City, where he is now living.

Doctor Hustead received excellent scholastic preparation for his pro- fession. Upon completing the course in the high school at Belleville, Kan- sas, he taught school a couple of terms and then took a course in a commer- cial college at Omaha, meanwhile pursuing his medical studies, and then entered the medical department of Creighton University, from which he was graduated in 1912, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Upon receiving his diploma Doctor Hustead opened an office for the practice of his profes- sion at Rapid City, South Dakota, but three months later, not finding things to his liking there, moved to Falls City, opening an office there in August, 1912, and has since been engaged in practice in that city. The Doctor has well-appointed offices and has built up an extensive practice. He is a mem- ber of the Richardson County Medical Society, a member of the Nebraska State Medical Society and of the American Medical Association, in the de- liberations of all of which organizations he takes a warm interest, and keeps fully abreast of the wonderful advances that are being made in his profession these days. In May, 1914, Doctor Hustead was appointed city physician for Falls City and in June, 1915, was appointed county physician and in 1916 was reappointed city physician. He is the district examiner for the

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Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York and the local examiner for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of St. Paul, the National Life Insurance Association of Des Moines and the Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany of Kansas City. He is an active member of the Falls City Rifle Club, a patriotic organization whose practice is under the direction of officers of the United States army. Doctor Hustead is a member of the board of reg- istration having in charge the registration of all Richardson county young men subject to military service in the Great War.

In 1913 Dr. Charles L. Hustead was united in marriage to Rosa L. Kretzschmar, of Omaha, daughter of F. H. Kretzschmar and wife, and to this union has been born one child, a son, Charles Luke, Jr. Doctor and Mrs. Hustead have a pleasant home at Falls City and take a proper interest in the general social and cultural affairs of their home town. The Doctor is an independent Republican and, fraternally, is affiliated with the Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Woodmen of the World and the Central Protective Association, in the affairs of all of which organ- izations he takes a warm interest.

THOMAS C. CUNNINGHAM.

Thomas C. Cunningham, an honored veteran of the Civil War, former sheriff of Richardson county, former clerk of the district court and a substan- tial retired farmer of the precinct of Liberty, now living at Shubert, is a native of the neighboring state of Missouri, was reared in eastern Iowa and has been a resident of this county since the spring of 1857, when he and his elder brother came out here and located a pre-emption claim northwest of Falls City, where their parents later located. He was born on April 28, 1843, a son of William F. and Sarah A. (Wilson) Cunningham, who in the fall of that same year moved from Missouri to eastern Iowa, where they remained until they came to Nebraska in 1858 and became pioneers of this county.

William F. Cunningham was born in Pennsylvania in 1808, a repre- sentative of the third generation of his family in this country, and there received a university education, preparing himself for teaching. He later went to New Orleans, where he opened a private school, but the contact with the institution of slavery in that city became so unbearable to him that he

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presently left there and came on up the river and located in Missouri, where he established a school and where he married, but his ardent Abolition views soon convinced him that Missouri was no place for him and in the fall of 1843 he moved with his family to Lee county, Iowa, where he was made principal of the town schools and where he established his home, remaining there until in 1858, when, as noted above, he came over into Nebraska and settled on a farm seven miles northwest of Falls City, which his sons had entered there one year before. On that farm his wife died in 1863 and he afterward returned to Iowa and years later went to live with a son in Cali- fornia, where he died in 1892, he then being eighty-four years of age. It was during the early period of his residence in Missouri that William F. Cunningham met and married Sarah A. Wilson, who was born in Kentucky in 1820, a representative of the third generation of her family in this coun- try, and whose parents had moved from Kentucky into Missouri. To that union were born six children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being as follow: Ebenezer E., a pioneer of Richardson county, who later went to California, where he has since resided, living in South San Francisco; Mrs. Sarah A. Cook, of Topeka, Kansas; Cyrus, who died in 1877; Lorenzo Dow, who is now living at Scottsville, Kansas, and Alonzo, of Chase county, this state.

Reared in a college town in eastern Iowa, to which place his parents had moved from Missouri when he was but an infant in arms, Thomas C. Cunningham's boyhood was spent amid refining influences and he still re- calls that he never saw a drunken man until he came to Nebraska, his first sight of a man under the influence of liquor having been gained at a shooting- match held at Salem back in pioneer days, one of his neighbors having won the day's prize, a quarter of beef. The "refreshments" for the occasion consisted of whisky set out in gallon buckets into which the settlers freely dipped with tin cups, with the result that there was much drunkenness. Mr. Cunningham's abhorrence of liquor was further strengthened on that occa- sion and he has always remained a temperate man. It was in the month of May, 1857, that Thomas C. Cunningham, then just past fourteen years of age, came over into the then Territory of Nebraska with his elder brother. Ebenezer E. Cunningham, and helped the latter make the initial improve- ments on a tract of land he had pre-empted in the precinct of Ohio, this county, about seven miles northwest of Falls City, the place on which their parents settled the next year, and he helped to build up that pioneer farm. In 1860 he "hired out" with a freighting outfit at Nebraska City and was

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for a year thereafter engaged in freighting along the old overland trails across the plains to the Rockies, the other end of the freight line being at Central City, and was thus engaged when the Civil War broke out. In March, 1862, he then being but eighteen years of age, Mr. Cunningham enlisted for service in the Union army and went to the front as a member of Company C, Fifth Missouri Cavalry, with which command he served until mustered out on June 22, 1863. He straightway re-enlisted, as a member of Company D, Twelfth Missouri Cavalry, and with that command served until finally discharged on March 9, 1866, nearly a year after the close of the war. In the early part of his service Mr. Cunningham was mainly engaged in scout duty, one of his early engagements having been at the battle of Tupelo, Mississippi .. During a later engagement about one hundred miles south of Nashville he was taken prisoner by the enemy, but twenty days later made his escape by night and was able to rejoin his con- mand at Nashville. In the summer of 1865 the Twelfth Missouri Cavalry was sent West to take part in the campaign against the Indians and on that service Mr. Cunningham took part in the battle of Powder River. In the fall he was stationed at Ft. Laramie, and from there went to Julesburg on the Platte river trail and from there to Ft. McPherson, thence to the Solo- mon river county in Kansas, returning to Ft. McPherson, and was finally mustered out in April of 1866.

Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Cunningham returned to the home farm in the precinct of Ohio, this county, and for some little time thereafter was engaged in farming, but he presently went to Falls City, where for four years he was engaged in the livery business. In the fall of 1873 he was elected sheriff of Richardson county and served in that office for four years, that being at a time when the duties of sheriff here were of a somewhat more strenuous character than at the present day, and to his record as plainsman, soldier and Indian fighter he added the further record of a most efficient officer of the law and a terror to evil-doers hereabout. On January 1, 1878, Mr. Cunningham was appointed clerk of the district court for this county and served for two years under that appointment. He then was elected to the same office and served as an elective officer for four years, serving as district clerk for six years, during which time he added further to his record as a painstaking and capable public officer. In the meantime, in 1875, Mr. Cunningham had married and upon the completion of his term of public office he went to his quarter-section farm northwest of Verdon, in Liberty precinct, established his home there and there re- mained until his retirement in 1912 and removal to Shubert, where he since

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has made his home, one of the best-known pioneers of Richardson county. Mr. Cunningham still owns his farm of one hundred and sixty acres north of Verdon and the same is in a fine state of cultivation and improvement, some of his neighbors being good enough to say that it is the best farm in the neighborhood. Mr. Cunningham was reared in the Presbyterian church and, politically, was for years an ardent Republican, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864, while fighting in Alabama, but in the mem- orable campaign of 1912 joined the Progressives and voted for Theodore Roosevelt, while in 1916 he voted for Woodrow Wilson, thus attesting his indorsement of the administration in that difficult period. For governors of Nebraska he has voted for every Republican nominee from David Butler to A. L. Sutton.

On May 5, 1875, Thomas C. Cunningham was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary Jane (Boston) McElroy, a widow, who was born in Platte county, Missouri, December 25, 1850, daughter of Granville Boston and wife, natives of Kentucky, and who died on October 13, 1899, leaving four chil- dren, one son by her first marriage, Oscar L. McElroy, now a resident of California, and three daughters by her second marriage, Pearl, now living at St. Joseph, Missouri; Mrs. Nellie M. Stump, widow of Quentin Stump. who has a son, Robert, and Caroline, who married Leroy E. Edwards, of Shubert, and has one child, a daughter, Lucile.

ALLEN FRANKLIN.

Allen Franklin, retired farmer and orchardist of Barada precinct and one of the best-known pioneers of Richardson county, is a native of the state of Illinois and has been a landowner in this county since 1868. He was born in Woodford county, Illinois, September 9, 1843, a son of Jared D. and Cynthia (Hinshaw) Franklin, natives of Connecticut and of Ten- nessee, respectively, whose last days were spent in Illinois. Reared in his native state, Allen Franklin remained in Illinois until he was past twenty- two years of age and then, in 1866, came West and settled in Kansas with a view to becoming a permanent resident of the Sunflower state, but two years later, in 1868, he came up into Nebraska, being induced to come by his father, who had located in Nebraska, and bought a tract of land in the precinct of Barada, in this county, and in 1870 left his Kansas prospects and located on his Richardson county land, proceeding to improve and de-

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velop the sanie, and after his marriage in 1872 established his home there and has ever since made that place his home, one of the most substantial pioneer residents of that part of the county.

About twenty years ago Mr. Franklin began to recognize the possi- bilities connected with the culture of apples in this region and in 1900 and 1901 he planted his present extensive orchard, the same long having been regarded as one of the best and most carefully tended orchards in this part of the state. Mr. Franklin is the owner of a fine place of one hundred and twenty acres and ninety acres of this is covered with an apple orchard, the output of which, in 1916, when there was only a forty-per cent crop, ex- ceeded fifteen carloads of apples, two hundred barrels to the car; these shipments being only the select fruit, the culls and less desirable fruit being turned into the cider-mills which are operated on the place. The products of the Franklin orchard are marketed through the Fruit Growers' Asso- ciation, of which Mr. Franklin and his sons are members, and the apples are all sold before leaving the orchard, the high grade of the products ever bringing the top of the market. The choice varieties of apples raised on the Franklin trees include "Black Lucks," "Virginia Beauties," "Ganos" and the "Ben Davis." In recent years Mr. Franklin's sons, Rolla and Lee Franklin, have been managing the orchards, operating under the firm name of Franklin Brothers, and the admirable appearance of the orchard plant is ample evidence of the close care they give to the same. A motor truck is used to convey the barreled fruit to the shipping point and during the season a small army of pickers are employed on the place. Though now practically retired from the active labors of the place, the elder Franklin continues, during the springs and summers, to give his earnest attention to the trees whose growth he has watched with prideful interest and is widely recognized hereabout as an authority on scientific apple culture. He also owns a farm in Louisiana and he and his wife spend their winters in that state or some other point in the Southland, returning to the old home place with the coming of the spring and the return of the apple blossoms.

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 88

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