USA > Nebraska > York County > York County, Nebraska and its people : together with a condensed history of the state, Vol. II > Part 26
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Mr. Sandall was an earnest and consistent member of the Swedish Lutheran church, as are also the members of his family, and in the work of the church they take a most active and helpful part. He gave his political allegiance to the repub- liean party and served as a director on the local school board for many years and also as road overseer. His interest in education was of a deep and practical char- acter, believing that in the school were laid the foundations for future usefulness. Mr. Sandall was a man whom to know was to esteem and honor, for his life was ever upright and he was a worthy representative of high standards of manhood and citizenship.
AUGUST SACKSCHEWSKY
August Sacksehewsky, one of the best known and most prominent farmers of York county, owns three hundred and twenty acres in Thayer township and enjoys an enviable reputation as a successful and representative agriculturist. His pros- perity is entirely attributable to his own efforts, for he came to this country almost empty-handed about five decades ago. His birth occurred in Germany,
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March 2, 1842. a son of German parents who were farming people and he was reared on a farm where he followed agricultural pursuite.
In 1872 Mr. Saekschewsky immigrated to the United States and following his arrival at the port of New York went straight through to Wisconsin and worked for one year at railroad construction in that state. In December, 1873, he removed to York county, Nebraska, and in January of the following year came to York county and took up an eighty-acre homestead on section 34, Thayer township. His first abode was a dugout in which he lived for five years and then erected a two- room frame house, which made the domestic life more comfortable. Ilis initial efforts at the raising of erops met with a serious setback owing to the grasshopper visitation and during that period everything growing on the land was destroyed. When the grasshoppers had come to be but a memory his affairs took a successful turn and his agricultural labors proved profitable. He made some fine improve- ments on his place including the planting of trees, and as he prospered he added more land to the original homestead, at the time of his retirement to Thayer in 1920 being the owner of three hundred and twenty acres on which he has four sets of buildings, the whole forming one of the choicest pieces of property in his part of the county. He is a progressive business man, wideawake, alert and energetic, and carries forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes.
On April 17, 1876, Mr. Sackschewsky was united in marriage to Albertina Reich, who accompanied her parents from Germany about 1870, her father some short time afterwards taking a homestead in York county. She recalls that antelopes were numerous at that date, and between her home and York-a distance of fifteen miles-there was but one other family. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Sackschewsky the following children have been born: Ludwig C .; Otto H. ; Albert. deceased ; Henrietta; Minnie; August ; AArthur; Leo; Matilda; Emma, deceased; William A .: Herbert and Elsie. The family are regular attendants on the services of the Lutheran church, in the faith of which the parents were reared. He gives his political allegiance to the republican party, but has never manifested a desire for public office. He has always found time to cooperate in plans and measures for the publie good and has proved himself a most loyal and devoted citizen from the date of his first landing on American soil.
WALTER W. SENG
Walter W. Seng, one of the prosperous men of York county who is prominent in financial circles, having been president of the Farmers and Merchants bank since 1911, was born in Carroll county, Ilinois, December 22, 1861, the son of Casper and Catherine ( Fuchs) Seng who came from Germany with a party of twelve other families in 1856. For four years his parents worked on a farm near Milledgeville, Carroll county, Illinois, receiving eighteen dollars a month for their combined services. Later they rented, then purchased eighty aeres of land where they made their home until 1881 when Casper Seng passed away at the age of fifty-seven years, and his wife's demise occurred August 26, 1920, at the age of ninety years. He became successful and owned two hundred and fifty acres at his death, which was held by the mother until her death. They were the parents of five children :
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Walter, of York county; George, of Milledgeville, Illinois; Mary, the wife of Jacob Johann of Shannon, Illinois; Agnes, the widow of Lewis Beek, of Polo, Illinois; and Henry, who resides in York county.
The boyhood of Walter W. Seng was spent on a farm in Carroll county, Illinois, and he received his education in the schools there, being graduated from the Lanark high school in 1883. He came to York county in 1887 and became interested in farming and pure bred draft horses, in which business he engaged for several years. Later he turned his attention to the insurance business, handling farm loans and collections, and in 1904 when the Farmers and Merchants Bank was organized he became its cashier, and since 1911 has been the president of that institution. Mr. Seng is connected financially with other projects, owning much property including farm lands.
He was married in Carroll county, Illinois, to Catherine Kniess, a native of that county, and to them have been born four children: Henry C., a resident of York; Myrtle Naomi, the wife of R. L. Kaliff, of York county : William L., cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of McCool, who married Nina L. Ilowell, and is the father of one son, Walter M .; and Verna V., the wife of R. E. Hendrick.
Mr. Seng holds membership in the English Lutheran church and is connected with the Masons, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Order of the Eastern Star. In politics Mr. Seng maintains an independent course and has never been an office seeker, preferring to discharge his publie duties in other connections. Mr. Seng has risen by his own efforts and that his career has ever been upright and honorable is indicated in the fact that he enjoys the high regard and esteem of the people in the community where he has resided for many years.
JUDGE DAVID TRUAX MOORE
Judge David Truax Moore was a man who left the impress of his individuality and ability upon the history of Nebraska. Ile was recognized as a distinguished lawyer and an eminent representative of the judiciary of the state, nor was the worth of his work confined to his profession. He sought to advance all those forces which contribute to the intellectual, cultural and moral progress of the race. Hle became identified with the state during its pioneer era and was closely associated with its formative policy along many lines and through many years.
Mr. Moore came of Scotch ancestry, the family, however, being founded in America by his grandfather prior to the Revolutionary war, in which he bore his part as one of the heroes who valiantly fought for American independence. His father, John Moore, was a soldier of the War of 1812. The latter married Sarah Snowden and the eighth of their children was Judge Moore, who was born in Waynesburg, Wayne county, Ohio, September 23, 1831. He was only five years of age when his parents removed with their family to Putnam county, Ohio, and there the father's death occurred in less than a year later, subsequent to which time the widow with her eleven children returned to Wayne county. Left in some- what straitened financial circumstances, the children were of necessity separated, David T. Moore and one sister finding a home with a cousin, John Miller, of Holnes county, Ohio. Ilis youth was largely a period of struggle and hardship, of
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loneliness and sorrow. Ile worked on a farm and during two or three months each year attended school until he had reached the age of sixteen, when he began teaching, securing the three months' school in his home district. Always ambitious to secure an education he then entered the Vermillion Institute at Hayesville, Ash- land county, Ohio, and alternated his study and his teaching there for a period of several years. He afterward went to Athens, Harrison county, and matriculated in a college conducted by the Associate Presbyterians. He had to meet all of the expense of his college course and by the most earnest labor, close economy and unfaltering resolution managed to reach the point of graduation. lle then resumed teaching in St. Clairsville, Ohio, and for a number of years was the efficient superintendent of schools there.
While thus engaged Judge Moore entered upon the study of law, but ill health forced him to take a trip and he traveled through the south in 1856 and 1857, visiting Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. For a time he taught school at Franklin Springs, Alabama, and in 1857 returned to the north, securing a position as teacher of a school at Taylorville, Illinois. His leisure was devoted to the study of law and he secured admission to the bar upon examination before Judge David Davis in 1859. Again his health became impaired and he made a trip through the west as far as Colorado. In 1860 he again became a resident of Tay- lorville, where he cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, having previously been an alternate delegate to the convention in 1856 which nominated John C. Fremont for the presidency.
While in Taylorville, Judge Moore had been a law student in the office of Mr. Shumway, whose daughter had previously been one of the Judge's pupils. The acquaintance thus formed ripened into friendship and love and on the 19th of January, 1864, the marriage of David Truax Moore and Sarah N. Shumway was celebrated, this being the birthday anniversary of the bride. They traveled life's journey most happily together for many years, the husband passing away on the day preceding the thirty-eighth anniversary of their wedding.
For about four years after their marriage Judge Moore and his wife resided in Washington, Iowa, where he was engaged in business, and in the spring of 1869, with their young son, they traveled by team and wagon to York county, Nebraska, where in the month of June Judge Moore homesteaded and preempted a elaim on Lincoln creek, three miles north of York. The family bravely met all of the hardships and privations incident to pioneer life. They recognized the opportu- nity before them to establish a home and aid in founding a community here, into which they might bear their part in infusing those principles which make for progressive and honorable citizenship and for upright manhood and womanhood. Their nearest postoffice was at Seward, the nearest mill at Milford and their home lacked many of the advantages and conveniences to which they had been accustomed, but courage and faith in the future led them courageously to meet these conditions. After seven years' residence on the farm they took up their abode in York, Judge Moore being the first attorney to settle in York county. He assisted in organizing the county at a time when its population numbered only six hundred and forty, but it had doubled in size since the previous year and the future outlook was bright.' At the time of his arrival there was but one frame house in the county and but one schoolhouse, which was of sod. The year following the organization of the county only eighty-six votes were cast. Judge Moore became the first probate judge, at
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which period there was no courthouse and the officers carried the records in their hats or wherever most convenient. In the spring of 1871 he was made a delegate to the constitutional convention which met in Lincoln and in 1872, at the republican state convention, he received a complimentary vote for the nomination for governor. Throughout the years of his residence in this state Judge Moore exerted a widely felt influence over public thought and action, yet could never be said to be a politi- cal leader in the commonly accepted sense of the term. His influence was moral rather than political and it was ever known that his aid could be counted on the side of progress, improvement and right. He continued in law practice successfully for many years but in his later life turned his attention and his strength in a great measure to other business. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. His elder son, Dr. Dwight Moore, is a practicing physician of Los Angeles, Califor- nia, who is specializing in nervous diseases. The daughter, Miss Grace Moore, is the owner and editor of The New Teller, published at York. The younger son, Arthur L., is engaged in the insurance and real estate business at Ventura, California.
Perhaps no better testimonial of the professional qualities and of the high char- acter of Judge Moore can be given than to quote from the tribute paid to him by Orien W. Fifer, who in the funeral service said in part : "Judge Moore was a lawyer of ability. Some traits of character led him to prevent rather than encourage litigation. He shunned and had little taste or adaptability for the technical requirements of the law. Preliminaries were avoided. He was eager to grapple with the great fact or principle in the case. Before a jury he had an appearance of sincerity, a way of putting facts highly to his advantage and credit. In political life he was much interested. He gave much attention to such affairs yet was inde- pendent in thinking and action. Judge Moore was a man of pronounced convictions and example of plain, rugged, strong, independent thinking. He had traits of character peculiarly his own. His love of innocent fun, his dry, droll humor, his frankness and tenderness in remonstrance or urging were marked traits. His life ran in deep, broad channels. In some things he thought far ahead of his day. He was a reader of good things. His mind was a great library of knowledge. Ile could converse intelligently upon many topics which required careful study and investi- gation. Sometimes he probed to the bottom of certain great questions. I doubt if many people in this community knew the depth of his reading and thinking. It was unusual. He was an unusual character-not always best understood, not always revealing himself to men. Not that he concealed himself, but his life in some portion was a deep current. His childhood had been hard, crowded with toil, sorrow, loneliness. His youth was marked by ill health which forced changes of occupation and the turning aside from plans cherished. Life to him for a quarter of a century was 'bearing the yoke in his youth.' That this had some effect upon him as he grew to maturity I cannot doubt. Other trials later in life were not without effect, and probably some, noticing a few hours or incidents of his life, did not see the whole man. But many friends were impressed that in him certain unusual and strong elements had flourished. Alone he had fought the early battles of life and practically an orphan he had won character and place unaided. No man does this successfully without being profoundly moved or influenced for all remain- ing years. I firmly believe he had tried always to make his way without working injury or unkindness to his fellow-man. ITis nature was modest, somewhat sensi-
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tive, transparent, religious in temperament, somewhat retiring as he met trials. He had more than ordinary trust in his fellow-man. and he had intimated to me that this had caused his betrayal at times, but he told the experiences without bitterness or rancor. He was a man of high ambitions. If he failed to reach them all, per- haps it was because he was unwilling to pay what he thought an unjust price in point of forgetfulness of his own honor or the welfare of others. He was by long habit a self-controlled, somewhat reserved man but under great or unusual strain he let out flashes which showed the strong fire within, the blaze of an intense nature. Yet he was a man of kindness habitually, compassionate and gentle as years increased. His intimate friends knew å larger man than some others. Judge Moore had a peculiar bent towards instruction. He could teach in clear terms. fle loved knowledge for its own sake, not for profit. It must have been something of a sacrifice for him to turn from this calling to the strenuous, intense, keen activity of the law. In the teaching of the Christian faith he was exceptional in his prime. One of his former pastors told me that he was one of the best Bible teachers he ever knew. For some years he led the instruction to the Sunday school teachers. This was his favorite duty. Into this he put his time and out of it drew rare joy. He was a master of the English Bible. Its solemnity, the varied character in style and composition were an attraction to him, while the religious quality of the Hebrew had for him a peculiar charm. Hte taught a Sunday school class for years. In the days of old York College he gave much time and interest to the young men. He possessed a religious temperament. He had been a Christian from early childhood. Hardships of youth had not embittered him towards God. He was an example that wide read- ing. careful study strengthened the faith accepted in early life. Ile told me he did not know when he became a Christian. It was very early. His faith had grown with the years. He was long a member of one branch of the Presbyterian faith, the more progressive and liberal element of the Covenanter organization. After coming to Nebraska he united with the Methodist church, of which his wife was a first member, and in various positions had been faithful to his trust and to his faith. He died facing death without fear, not deceived but not afraid. Ile was somewhat weary with the toil of life and he greeted the dawn of the new life with the comfort and strength of the Christian faith."
JAY G. BITTINGER
Jay G. Bittinger is spoken of by friends and neighbors as a man of high purpose which has found expression in his daily conduct. He is engaged in farming and stock raising on section 8. Morton township, York county. He was born on the farm where he lives. January 21. 1824, a son of Frederick and Flora (Tongue) Bittinger, the father a native of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and the mother a native of Ohio.
Frederick Bittinger accompanied his parents when he was four years old from the Keystone state to Ohio and from there to Clinton county. Iowa, where he grew to manhood. helping his father in the work of the farm which the family acquired shortly after settling there. Ile remained in lowa until 1821 when he decided to come farther west, selecting Nebraska as his objective and York county
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FREDERICK BITTINGER
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND. TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R
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as his final destination. He and two of his brothers set out on the cross country journey and driving through with three teams of horses finally reached their goal and Frederick came direct to York county. He homesteaded one hundred and sixty aeres, located on section 8, Morton township, and erected a small one-room frame house, which he occupied for about seven years. He put considerable energy into the work of reclaiming and cultivating his homestead and with the lapse of years improved and developed the entire place, ultimately bringing the farm to be recognized as one of the best in the township. He added another forty to the original holding and at the time of his death in July, 1918, was the owner of two. hundred acres of excellent land, in the operation of which he was successful from the very beginning. He was a member of the Woodmen and Elks and in his political attitude was disposed to be independent and at the same time liberal in his views. He took a practical part in the public life of his township which he served as assessor and supervisor, filling the latter office for six years. Ilis long residence in the county coupled with his high character made him popular with all classes.
Jay G. Bittinger, who is proving himself a worthy successor to his father, was reared on the home farm and secured his education in the district schools. He early applied himself to: the duties, of agricultural life and under his father's guidance acquired a sound knowledge of farm work. In 1914 he was entrusted with the management of the entire, place and in the intervening years has main- tained a high standard in his agricultural operations, employing modern methods and the latest machinery, the results in, every direction being eminently satisfac- tory. Well defined plans and purposes have carried him forward and each step in his career has brought him a broader outlook and wider opportunities.
On January 8, 1914, Mr. Bittinger was united in marriage to Hester Gatchel and to their union two children have been born: Earl and Ruth, at home with their parents. Mr. Bittinger is not active in polities but takes a good citizen's interest in all movements intended to promote the welfare of the community and in these efforts he is assisted by his wife. They have a wide cirele of friends by whom they are held in the highest esteem.
ARTHUR G. BITTINGER
Arthur G. Bittinger, a native son of York county who is devoting his time and energies to the operation of a good farm on section 14, Morton township, was born January 14, 1881, a son of Frederick and Flora (Tongue) Bittinger, the former born in Pennsylvania and died in 1919 at the age of seventy-one years. His widow resides in York and is now in her seventieth year, still active and in the enjoyment of good health.
Fred Bittinger started his farming career in Pennsylvania and some years later in company with his father, John Bittinger, went to Iowa and they were engaged in agrienltural operations, but not finding conditions to their liking they started for York county and settled in Morton township in 1871, where each homesteaded and began to develop the land, using energy and steady application in the further- ance of their farmi work. However, it was not all plain sailing and hardships beset
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their way for a considerable time after they settled in the township. The grass- hoppers descended on their fields and destroyed the crops and dry seasons produced the same undesirable results. They persevered in their efforts and ultimately were rewarded by good seasons and bountiful crops. They had to hant householdl necessities from Fairmont and Columbus. these trips occupying several days at a time. They put up a frame house, the lumber for which had to be hanled from Seward, and a sod barn was erected which did temporary duty until a better and more modern structure was built, At the time of his death Fred Bittinger was the owner of two hundred acres of well improved land and part of this holding is now being operated by Arthur G. Bittinger. Fred Bittinger and his wife were the parents of five children : Nellie. who died some years ago; Jay, a farmer, of Morton township; Ada, wife of Monier Grieves, of Omaha: Fannie. wife of Frank Layton, of Beatrice, Nebraska: and Arthur G. The father was affiliated with the Elks and with the Modern Woodmen of America. He was a democrat in politics and served the public as county commissioner for two terms and filled the office of township assessor for six years, the confidence reposed in him being amply rewarded by faithful and efficient service.
Arthur G. Bittinger was reared on his father's farm and secured his education in the public schools of York county and in his early youth helped in the work of the farm. He started farming on his own account and took over the manage- ment of one of his father's holdings on which he carried on general agriculture. Later he opened up a blacksmith shop and garage known as the Benedict Anto Company and continued in this line for three years, making a good living. Ilis next move was to secure employment in a lumber-yard in Benedict, spending three years in that connection. Finally Mr. Bittinger returned to farm life and resumed agricultural operations. He uses up-to-date methods and implements in carrying on his work and also gives careful thought to the problem of profitable marketing.
In December. 1919, Mr. Bittinger was united in marriage to Lulla Johnson, born in York county and a daughter of C. J. Johnson, of Benedict. Her religious affiliation is with the Methodist church, to the teachings of which she has always been loyal. Mr. Bittinger votes an independent ticket and is a member of the Elks lodge at York, in the affairs of which fraternal order he takes a keen interest. llis farming activities do not leave him much time for outside affairs but it is generally known that he supports all movements seeking the material, moral or civic advancement of his community.
JOHN ABRAHAMS
Prominent among the self-made men of York county is John Abrahams whose life has been largely identified with agricultural pursuits and business activities and success has attended his well directed efforts. He was born in southern Russia, June 18, 1860, a son of John and Kathrine (Voth) Abrahams, also natives of Russia where the father spent his entire life, his death occurring there in 1822. Some two years after the death of her husband, in 1844, Mrs. Abrahams and her family immigrated to America and after their arrival they went to Nebraska, coming to York county and settling on section 29, Brown township. Their first house was
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