History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 131

Author: Shumway, Grant Lee, 1865-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., The Western publishing & engraving co.
Number of Pages: 1056

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The first president of the institution was Joseph Sparks and W. T. Stockdale became dean, the latter still occupying that office, but the present president is Robert I. Elliott. The majority of the students are from Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota, and the interest shown is very encouraging. The best of edu- cational talent is employed, and the standard is the same as is maintained in all other nor- mal schools in the state. Further state ap- propriations ensure the carrying out of plans for extensive expansion in the near future.

Mr. Wilson was married at Oakland, Ne- braska, in February, 1897, to Miss Cora E. Young, a daughter of Andrew and Edvinna (Brand) Young, who came to Nebraska from Ohio in 1856. They stopped first in Omaha which was then a small village. They settled

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in Burt county, which became their permanent home. They endured all the hardships of pio- neer life. They were in danger from hostile Indians. Their first home was engulfed in the Missouri river, when that treacherous stream cut away a large part of the bottom land in Burt county. Their few domestic animals per- ished in the awful winter of 1856-57. At times they were in dire need of the necessities of life. As the country developed living condi- tions improved and hardships were replaced by comforts. They reared a large family of children who became successful men and women in Nebraska and in other states.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are the parents of five children, Mary, Eleanor, Ruth, Winifred and Evelyn. The eldest, after completing a collegiate course in the State Normal and teaching for three years in the high schools of northwest Nebraska, is now a student of piano in the American Musical Conservatory in Chi- cago.

In politics Mr. Wilson is a Republican. He has served the community in which he lives in various way. For many years he has been chairman of the city park board and also a member of the city library board. For a num- ber of years he has been a member of the board of directors of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association. During the period of the World War he delivered numerous patriotic addresses. He has been prominently identified with the development of agriculture in north- west Nebraska. He was one of the pioneer promoters of the Dawes County Farm Bureau and has served as its secretary since its organ- ization. In the Constitutional Convention of 1919-20 he represented the 74th district com- posed of the counties of Dawes and Sioux. He served on the committees on arrangement and phraseology and on municipal government. In the campaign for the ratification of the amendments proposed by the convention he addressed a large number of audiences in western and northwestern Nebraska. For many years before the liquor traffic was pro- hibited he was an ardent opponent of saloons.

In addition to his work in the class room he has been active in other lines of educational work. He is the author of a text on State and Local Civil Government in Nebraska that has been widely used in the schools. He has served as president of the North Nebraska Teachers' Association and also of the North- west Nebraska Teachers' Association. He has been very active in Christian work, and has spoken many times in public on religious subjects.

As a man, an educator and a citizen he is held in high regard by his fellow citizens.

MICHAEL ELASS .- Here is presented a biographical sketch of a man who was one of the pioneers of western Nebraska, who has lived here to see the prairies of the past be- come fertile farm lands dotted with thriving communities. When he started out in life he had but few advantages to assist him along the road to success, but his diligence and judi- cious management have brought him ample reward in return for his labors.

Michael Elass is of German blood and like so many men of the fine German-Americans has the fine traits of his ancestors along with the progress and initiative of the native Am- erican. He is a native of the Buckeye state, born in Ohio in 1841, the son of George and Christiana Elass, both of whom were born in the German Empire. They were reared and educated in Europe but saw no chance there to get ahead in the world and decided to start life anew in the United States. The father had learned the trade of stone mason in the old country which he followed after coming to America. Like so many of his countrymen his great desire was to become a landholder and when his capital permitted he purchased a farm and in time acquired a holding of three hundred acres where he engaged in agri- cultural pursuits all his life as he and his wife died at the age of sixty-five years. There were eight children in the family, of whom four are living: Sophia, the wife of George Vivivel, of Nebraska, now eighty-six years of age; Christiana, who married Henry Beer- line; Caroline, who is the wife of Fred Cipp, lives in Omaha, and Michael.

Michael Elass remained at home on his fath- er's farm in Ohio during his youth and attend- ed the schools of that section, at the same time he gave effective assistance on the home farm, early acquiring invaluable knowledge of agricultural methods that have proved of great use to him in later life. He remained in Ohio during his early manhood, as a farmer, but as he desired land of his own took advantage of the government land in Nebraska, and, in 1887. came to Cheyenne county with no other equipment than a wagon, team of horses and a cow. He drove overland to the new home and thus saw most of the country and when he located on his homestead knew just what he wanted and that he has been contented may be judged from the fact that he still resides on the original farm which he secured under government grant. Mr. Elass took up a home-

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stead and pre-empted three hundred and twen- ty-four acres in section fourteen, King town- ship, not far from the Platte river, as water was one of the important things in the early days for stock. His first home was a sod house but it was warm and more of a home than we of the present generation can conceive, for such houses were more comfortable during the terrible blizzards of the early days when frame houses were too cold for people to re- main in them. Mr. Elass at once began im- provements on his land, broke what he could the first year and put in a crop. He endured all the trials, hardships and privations incident to a new country with few railroads and towns far away, where provisions could be obtained and produce sold, but he weathered them all, and his faith and foresight in locating in the Panhandle have been justified, for by hold- ing out and keeping his land when so many of the other settlers sold out and went back east he has won a comfortable fortune. He early determined to have thoroughbred stock and as soon as his capital permitted began to special- ize in Belgian draft horses which have be- come the pride of this section of Nebraska. He has displayed his horses at the local fairs and won two prizes in Bridgeport, but Mr. Elass has not confined himself to one line of endeavor ; in addition to his horses he raises a high grade of cattle and hogs, while his agricultural activities are given to diversified farm crops and forage. As he looks back across the years he can visualize each improve- ment which has been made on the home place, all placed there by his own hands, and all looks exceedingly good even in this day of modern mehods and advanced practices. From his first settlement in this section Mr. Elass has taken an acive and interested part in all civic and communal affairs, doing his full share for the development of the district in which he made his home. For more than twenty . years he has been a member of the school board and when irrigation was introduced along the Platte became by unanimous choice a director of the irrigation company. He is progressive in his ideas, keeps abreast of all affairs whether local, state or national and is a worthy representative of his section. In politics he is bound by no party lines in either local or nation wide affairs, casting his in- fluence ever on the side of the man who will be the most worthy and capable servant of the people and the nation.

Over forty years ago Mr. Elass selected a worthy helpmate for the journey through life and, in 1876, married Miss Sarah Tunson, who

was born in Wisconsin and died in 1913, after a long, worthy life. There were eight chil- dren in the family: George, who is interested in a saw mill in Montana ; Charles, a farmer in that state; Hilda, the wife of Will McBride, on a farm near Sterling. Colorado; Philip, in the United States army as a member of the Fifty-sixth Regiment, saw service in France for six months ; Fannie, the wife of Fred Noie, lives in Montana ; Angie, who married Horace Weaver, lives in Morrill county ; and Anna, the wife of Harvey Williams who runs a lum- ber yard in Oregon. Mr. Elass appreciated what an advantage a good practical education was for life work and saw that his children had all the advantages to be obtained in the home schools and now looks with pride at the fam- ily he has reared to man and womanhood.

JOHN T. McCOMSEY .- Among the resi- dents of the Panhandle who came here in pio- neer days as a youth, and remained to assist in the development and progress that follow- ed. a place of honor must be accorded John McComsey, who has established a record for industry, and good citizenship in the Hull district.

Mr. McComsey was born in Stark county, Illinois, August 6, 1877, the son of Charles and Mary Elizabeth (Godfrey) McComsey, the former a native of Illinois, while the moth- er was born and reared in New Jersey. To them nine children were born, six of whom survive: Ida, a resident of Gering; Mattie, the wife of Cal Smith, lives in Torrington, Wyoming ; Thomas, a resident of Eugene, Ore- gon; Bertha, who married George Benton, of Colorado, and John. Charles McComsey, in his youth learned the trade of brick layer and plasterer, a vocation which he followed in his native state, but he desired a farm of his own, and as land in Illinois, a thickly popu- lated state, was high he came to Nebraska in 1886, one of the hardy pioneers of this sec- tion.

John received his elementary education in Illinois, as he was a boy of nine years when his parents came to Nebraska, and after the family were settled here he attended the public schools, laying the foundation of a good prac- tical education which has been of great value to him in his business life. When the school days were over he began general farming op- erations, but as this was the period when stock-raising was at its height, he naturally specialized in cattle and has continued in that line to the present day. At first he had only high bred short horns, a specially fine beef breed but, in 1919, crossed them with Here-

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fords and expects to obtain an exceptionally good strain, obtaining the best qualities of both. From time to time, as money came in from his varied lines of industry, Mr. McCom- sey branched out, purchased other tracts of land near the home place, until today he is the owner of a landed estate of two full sec- tions of land, where he has placed excellent and permanent improvements and has a mod- ern home. Being an advocate of progress he has the most improved and modern equipment on the farm to lighten labor and increase pro- duction, being rated as one of the substan- tial men of the Hull district.

In 1907, Mr. McComsey married Miss Sarah Schoemacher, a sketch of her family is to be found in this history. To Mr. and Mrs. Mc- Comsey one child has been born, Theresa Marie, at home.

Mr. McComsey is a Republican in politics, is a Mason of high standing, having taken a Thirty-second degree, while his wife belongs to the Order of the Eastern Star. They have a wide acquaintance among the pioneers of the Platte valley and can relate many interesting reminiscences of the days when conditions were still crude and primitive and can look with pride upon the country which they have seen change from wild, unbroken prairie to a rich farming district, to the development of which they have contributed liberally in work as true American citizens.

CHARLES E. ANDERSON .- In section thirty-six, township twenty-three, range fifty- five, five miles distant from the city of Scotts- bluff will be found the well improved farm that is the stage of the successful activities of Mr. Anderson, who came from his native Sweden to America when a young man and whose energy and good judgment have enabled him to win independence and prosperity through his connection with farm industry in the state of his adoption. He was born in Sweden in 1870, and is a son of John and Sarah Anderson, his father having been a farmer in Sweden and he himself having thus gained practical experience that has proved of great value to him in his operations as a farm- er in Nebraska.

Mr. Anderson was given the advantages of the schools of his native land and was an am- bitious youth of about eighteen years when, in 1888, he came to the United States and pre- pared to win success through his own efforts. He came to Burt county, Nebraska, where he found employment. For five years he as- sisted in government surveying work in west-

ern Nebraska and, in 1904, he established his home in Scotts Bluff county and prepared to initiate independent operations as a farmer. He here took up a homestead of eighty acres and this constitutes an integral part of his present model farm property of three hun- dred and twenty acres, all of which has been supplied with effective irrigation, in the mean- time he has made the best of improvements on the place. It should be stated that Mr. An- derson is a skilled civil engineer, as he con- tinued his education after coming to America by completing a course in civil engineering at the University of Nebraska, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1898. The ensuing five years he devoted to govern- ment surveying work, as previously intimated. He is a man of superabundant energy and pro- gressiveness and his ability has been the force that has moved him forward to the goal of successful achievement in an important indus- trial field. In politics he is not moved by strict partisan dictates but supports men and meas- ures meeting the approval of his judgment, ir- respective of party affiliations.

In 1914, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Anderson to Miss Esther Nyquist, of Burt county, Nebraska, she likewise being of staunch Swedish ancestry. They have two children : Melvin and Leonard.

CHRISTOPHER G. ABBOTT. - There are residents in every progressive town and city in western Nebraska, living retired from active pursuits perhaps, but by no means to be considered aged, who can, from personal ex- perience, depict an entirely different life from the quiet, orderly, law abiding commercial ac- tivities and social enterprises of today. Through such reminiscences come the realiza- tion of the marvelous changes that the passage of thirty years have brought about. A repre- sentative of the old-time period mentioned, now one of Crawford's substantial citizens, is found in Christopher G. Abbott.

Christopher G. Abbott was born January 15, 1860, in Wabasha county, Minnesota. His parents were George and Ellen (Woods) Ab- bott, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in England. They were mar- ried in the city of Chicago, Illinois, and in 1858, settled as farming people in Minnesota, journeying to that state by ox teams .. The father bought land but had not progressed far in its development, when the Civil War came on. In 1862, he enlisted in Company K, Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and in the same year, led by Captain Capound, the

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regiment took part in the battle at Mankato, where a number of white settlers were mas- sacred by the Sioux Indians, and later thirty- eight of these savages were executed by the government. After this battle the regiment was ordered south, George Abbott re-enlisting. When the troops were permitted to land from the steamer on the Minnesota river, stopping for a brief visit at Wabasha, a great recep- tion awaited them, and one incident lingers in Mr. Abbott's memory. He was only three years old at the time but he recalls being car- ried aloft on the shoulder of Duke Wellington, probably on the way to greet his father, but of the brave father he has no recollection, and never saw his again. The latter was wounded at the battle of Nashville, and although it seemed but a slight injury at first, blood poison- ing resulted and his death occurred in the spring of 1864. The mother of Mr. Abbott survived until 1917 and her burial was at Minnieska, Minnesota. She was a member of the Episcopal church. There were four chil- dren in the family, Christopher G., being the youngest of the three survivors. His brothers are: John H., who lives at Arlington, South Dakota ; and William J., who lives at Whitman, Grant county, Nebraska.

Christopher G. Abbott spent his boyhood on the farm which continued family property until the death of his mother. He had school advantages until he was sixteen years of age, when he accompanied his brother John on a proposed trip to California, with the idea of finding and joining an uncle who had gone to that state in 1861. In 1876, the boys pro- gressed no farther west than St. Joseph, Mis- souri, and they spent the winter working at Graham. Christopher had not abandoned the search, however, for this uncle was his father's favorite brother and he had been named for him. By this time he had discovered that the west was an immensity he had never realized, and that finding his relative would be in the nature of a miracle, and this miracle actually did occur. In the spring of 1877, he went to Colorado with a cow puncher named Wiley Adams, and near Hughes they worked as cattle herders, but Mr. Abbott was not satisfied with what he was earning, therefore went to work on what was then called the Kansas Pacific Railroad, now the great Union Pacific, and worked up on that line to be fireman He was a dutiful son and during this time wrote letters to his mother and received replies and one of the letters, instead of reaching him, through some mistake in the mails, was delivered to his uncle, who was a well known man in Kan-

sas. Thus a family re-union was brought about in a rather remarkable way.

After working two years on the Kansas Pa- cific, Mr. Abbott was transferred to the South Park & Narrow Guage Railroad, with which line he continued until 1881, when he visited his mother for several months and then went to South Dakota until the spring of 1885, when he visited his uncle in Kansas and, in 1886, first started in the cattle business. In that year he went to Phillips county, Kansas, and with a bunch of cattle settled on a ranch on Beaver creek. At that time the building of a railroad was considered something of an interference with their business by the cattle men as they wanted a free range. A cousin of Mr. Ab- bott's had worked on the trails in the sand hill region of Grant county, Nebraska, and on his assurance that Grant county was so sandy that a railroad could never be built there, Mr. Ab- bott, on May 1, 1886, joined with the Haneys, provisioned for the long trip, and drove their cattle on toward Grant county. They camped for two days on Broadwood creek, then moved to Proctor's ranch, camped, then located twen- ty-five miles north for two months and branded calves. On July 3, 1886, he filed on pre-emption and tree claim in North Platte. Mr. Abbott and his uncle resided on this ranch until the spring of 1889. About one week after settling on the ranch, Mr. Abbott hap- pened to notice, from the top of a hill, a party of men, which proved to be white men when seen through his field glasses. At first he could not make out their movements, but later recognized them to be railroad surveyors, not- withstanding the assurance he had received that no road could be laid through that sand. He was glad to see them, however, as life on the ranch was proving very lonesome. The nearest post office was North Platte, ninty-six miles distant. Among the pleasant occur- rences he recalls his first Christmas dinner, when he enjoyed the hospitality of his nearest neighbor, William Proctor, who lived twenty- five miles south of him. It is probable that his hosts never realized what a great kindness they had done to their lonely neighbor. In the spring of 1887, the Circle ranch boys came up to see how the cattle had stood the winter, and he welcomed them with great heartiness.

In the spring of 1887, occurred the prairie fire near Anselmo, in which several lives were lost, Mr. Abbott being safely at home at the time, assisting his uncle to preserve their be- longings. In the fall of that year the grading was finished and the steel laid for the railroad as far as Whitman, which was a tent city with

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stores, dance halls, saloons and other lines of frontier settlement. Fairchild & Bodine had the first store at Whitman. In the summer of 1888, the railroad was extended to Broncho lake, now Alliance, the rails being laid that fall. The Lincoln Land Company had platted a town and sold lots by auction. It was in June, 1887, that Mr. Abbott killed a buffalo on Gunshot lake, southwest of Whitman. It had come into the water with range cattle, and was the last buffalo ever shot in that part of the country. The flesh Mr. Abbott sold to the railroad boarding car at nine cents a pound ; the hide he presented to a doctor at Anselmo ; the head became the property of a conductor on the railroad work train, and the horns Mr. Abbott still owns.

In 1889, Mr. Abbott sold his ranch to Syl- vester Carothers, who is now a member of the Nebraska legislature. He then homesteaded in Cherry county and lived there until 1897, improving the property in the meanwhile, and then sold it to his brother. In the spring of 1893, he lost nine head of cattle in the worst prairie fire he ever experienced, some of his neighbors losing their lives in this fire. On July 13, 1906, Mr. Abbott came to Crawford and bought a part interest in a saloon business with Ed Henderson, in May, 1908, purchasing the Henderson interest. He continued alone in the business until 1910, when he sold to the firm of Cottom & Newcomb, since which time Mr. Abbott has lived retired.

In the spring of 1895, in Grant county, Mr. Abbott was married to Jessie Manning, who died six months later. In 1898, he was mar- ried to Bessie Chamberlain, whose widowed mother lives in North Platte. Mrs. Abbott left one daughter, Hazel M., who is the wife of Omar Slayter, of Kearney, Nebraska. In the fall of 1905, Mr. Abbott was married to Laura Shearer, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Mrs. Abbott is a member of the Lutheran church, while Mrs. Slayter is an Episcopalian. Mr. Abbott is not a member of any body, but he helped to organize and to build the Methodist Episcopal church at Whitman. A strong Re- publican, as was his father, he was quite ac- tive politically while living in Grant county, which he helped to organize and of which he might have been sheriff but declined the nomi- nation. He served on school boards and two terms as assessor of Grant county. For many years he has been identified with the Odd Fel- lows, has passed the chairs in the local body and belongs to the Encampment, and also is a member of the order of Elks.

HORATIO G. NEWCOMB .- While prob- ably no section of the United States can show more genuine culture at present, or more evi- dence of substantial development than western Nebraska, it must be acknowledged that at one time there was an element here that gave trouble to the authorities and menaced the peace of the quiet settler and industrious ranchman. There are men yet living who, in official capacities, had to deal with this unruly element, an example being found in Horatio G. Newcomb, a retired resident of Crawford, but formerly deputy sheriff of Dawes county and later town marshal of Crawford.

Horatio G. Newcomb was born in Franklin county, Vermont, in November, 1851, a son of Frank Newcomb and wife, the former a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and the latter of Canada. The mother of Mr. Newcomb died in 1855, before he was old enough to realize her maternal care. Of the three children in the family, Horatio G. was the only one to come to the west. The father of Mr. New- comb moved to Montpelier, Vermont, in the early fifties, where he opened a meat market and continued in the same business there throughout his active life. He died there in 1895.

Until he was seventeen years old, Mr. New- comb remained in his native state and attended school at Montpelier. With a boy's desire for adventure, he determined to see the great western country, finally taking passage on a coastwise vessel and in the course of time reached California, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, little dreaming of the great engineer- ing feat that would change that region in the future. It came about in California that he secured a job to drive cattle, with which work he was not unfamiliar as he had assisted his father in handling cattle back in Vermont. He made friendly acquaintances and one of these offered him work as range rider in Wyoming. He thought the terms fair and accepted with the reservation that he should be given the opportunity of returning to Vermont on a matter of great importance, this being his mar- riage, which was celebrated at Pigeon Hill, Canada, April 20, 1875, when he was united with Miss Martha Holsopple, whose people were Canadians.

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History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 131

Author: Shumway, Grant Lee, 1865- Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., The Western publishing & engraving co. Number of Pages: 1056

Author: Shumway, Grant Lee, 1865-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., The Western publishing & engraving co.
Number of Pages: 1056