children living are Mary, in Beatrice, John, and Lizzie, in Gage county, Nebraska. They were all Lutherans.
John Frederick was reared on a farm, and worked out by the month for several years after attaining his majority. He was only fifteen years old when he enlisted from Springfield, Illinois, as a drummer boy in Company F, eighty-second Illinois Infantry, under Captain Weaver and Colonel Hecker. He was at Chancellorsville, Jackson, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, in the Georgia campaign, at Resaca, New Hope Church, Burnt Hickory, at Atlanta, and many other engagements. He was captured and held prisoner in the ill-famed Libby prison for sixty days, but was then liberated, and after a short time went home. It was after a three days march out of Savannah, Mr. Frederick and a companion went off from the regiment foraging, and while sitting in a log cabin about a dozen "Johnnies" came upon them. The doors of the cabin were instantly closed and a volley fired from the window, killing one man and a horse. The Johnnies started to run but finally decided to return, and did so, firing many shots through the door in a room occupied by several parties, three children being in the room, but no one was killed. Mr. Frederick and his companion were captured and later landed in prison. On the way several times threats were made to kill the prisoners but one level-headed man prevailed upon the rest not to kill them. For the last two years of his service he carried a gun in the ranks. He was honorably discharged at Springfield, Illinois, in January, 1865, having gained an excellent record as a soldier. He had some narrow escapes, and once had a comrade shot down at his side. He was frugal and diligent from early youth, and with what he had saved he came to Nebraska in 1870 and bought one hundred and sixty acres in Gage county for seven dollars and a quarter per acre. He now owns three hundred and twenty acres in this county, and it is worth sixty dollars an acre, and is
finely improved with good house, barns and a grove of seven acres. It is a model farmstead, one of the many pretty places of which Gage county can boast.
Mr. Frederick was married November 12, 1878, to Elizabeth Gillette, who came here from Rock county, Wisconsin, at the age of seventeen, a daughter of Hamilton and Margaret (Day) Gillette, the former a resident of Adams, Nebraska, and the latter deceased. Nine children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Frederick: Margaret, Martha, William, Lydia, Andrew, Harrison, Jesse, Robert and Laura. Mr. Frederick is a Republican in politics, and a member of the Grand Army post at Adams, and attends the Methodist Episcopal church.
Charles R. Hacker, county clerk of Nemaha county, Nebraska, was born on his uncle's farm, now the Nemaha county poor farm, August 29, 1866, and all his life has been identified with this county.
Mr. Hacker's ancestors were residents of the Old Dominion. His grandfather, David Hacker, was a native of Virginia, born July 24, 1797. Moving to what was then called the west, he lived in Ohio and Indiana, and when the Civil war was inaugurated, although then well advanced in years, his patriotism was shown by his volunteer service. As a member of Company D, Thirty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, known as the “Graybeard Regiment,” he performed faithful duty in the ranks, and died at St. Louis, Missouri June 20, 1863. He and his wife, whose maiden name was Catherine Gile, were the parents of seven children, six of whom reached adult age, namely: James Malcomb; Agnes Jane, wife of Robert Stogdel, was born in 1827 and died April 22, 1892; Eliza-
beth Ann, born November 30, 1828, died September 12, 1850; Sarah, who died in infancy; William S., born April 13, 1834, died January 20, 1899; John Wesley, born February 26, 1838, died September 23, 1897; and Francis Asbury, the only survivor of the family, was born July 11, 1843, and is engaged in farming in Nemaha county, Nebraska.
James Malcomb Hacker, the father of Charles R., was born at Dayton, Ohio, September 12, 1825, and died in Auburn, Nebraska, January 25, 1902. He was one of the pioneers of Nemaha county, having come to this county in 1858, from Iowa, to which place he had emigrated from Ohio. Not long after coming to Nebraska he moved to Kansas, but returned shortly afterward to this state and county, of which he was an honored citizen for forty years. By occupation he was a civil engineer and for many years filled the office of county surveyor, and he also filled other public offices of trust and responsibility in Nemaha county. For three terms he was county clerk, and he was deputy in that office under County Clerks Culbertson and Hubbard. Fraternally he was identified with the Masons and the Knights of Pythias and Odd fellows, having been a member of the first organization for more than thirty years and having received all the degrees up to and including the Scottish Rite, and was an I. O. O. F. for over fifty years. Politically he was affiliated with the Whigs in early life and when the Republican Party came into existence he harmonized with it and gave it his enthusiastic support. As a youth he took an active interest in the William Henry Harrison campaign. His last vote he cast in the fall of 1901, when he helped to elect his own son, Charles R., to the office of county clerk. Religiously he was a life long Methodist. March 8, 1851, he married Miss Mary Jane Fairbrother, who was born in Indiana, January 28, 1831, daughter of Arnold L. and Mary (Jane) Fairbrother, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Indiana. The children of James M. and Mary J. Hacker are:
James Olney; George Washington; William Thomas; Charles R.; Francis John; who died at the age of eleven years; Marietta, wife of Wesley H. Clark, died March 2, 1898, leaving five children, of whom four are living, two daughters with their grandmother and two sons with their father; and Harvey David. All are married except William Thomas, who is a gold miner in the Black Hills.
Charles R. Hacker, with the other children in the family, was reared on the farm, which his mother managed with their assistance while the father was in Brownville and Auburn, attending to his official business. The farm on which they lived was sold in 1888 and the family moved to Auburn, where Charles R. has since lived, and where he has, in a measure, succeeded to the position occupied by his honored father. As already stated in this article, he was elected to the county clerk's office in the fall of 1901 and re-elected in the fall of 1903, and is now filling that position.
Mr. Hacker was married, February 8, 1903, to Miss Elsie Hacker, a third cousin, and they reside with his mother in Auburn. Like his parents, Mr. Hacker is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as also is Mrs. Hacker. Politically he is a Republican, and he has fraternal relations with the Modern Woodmen and the Knights of Pythias.
James E. Doyle, of Liberty Township, Gage county, Nebraska, who is adjutant of W. S. Barry Post, G. A. R., of Liberty, Nebraska, is one of the honored residents of this locality and a veteran of the Civil war. He enlisted at Bloomfield, Greene county, Indiana, in November, 1861, for three years, in Company E, Fifty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry,
and after a long and honorable service returned to more peaceful pursuits.
He was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1829, being a son of George and Orpah (Webb) Doyle. He learned the trade of wagon and carriage maker at Newcomerstown, Ohio. After the war he again started his shop as wagon and carriage maker at Bloomfield, Indiana. In this state he pursued his trade until 1867, when he moved to a farm near Bloomfield, and in 1885 he came to Gage county and engaged in farming where he now owns a fine farm of one hundred and twenty acres. On this he built a comfortable house, good barn, and carries on general farming. His success is largely due to industry and good management, and he is justly regarded as one of the leading farmers of the township.
Mr. Doyle was married in Indiana to Mary Weiser, of Ohio. She died in 1856. She was a daughter of George Weiser. She left one son, Martin Doyle. Mr. Doyle was married a second time in 1861, his wife being Sarah Bender, of Indiana. She is a daughter of George Bender. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Doyle were as follows: Orpah Egbert; Laura Snyder; Matilda Akins; James S., Frances L., deceased; Thomas; Ida; William; Arvilla; Lillian Spence; Jesse; Mary B.; George, who died at the age of seventeen years; and Delphin L., deceased. The political faith of Mr. Doyle is Republican and he is an active worker for the party. He served for six years as justice of the peace. His first vote was cast for John C. Fremont and he has voted for every Republican nominee president since then. For many years he has been a Mason and is connected with lodge No. 65. He also served as commander of his post, and is now its adjutant, and has always been very active in G. A. R. matters.
John Henry Dundas, editor, lecturer and Chautauqua manager, Auburn, Nebraska, was born near Aurora, in Kane county, Illinois, October 14, 1845. Mr. Dundas is of Irish descent, his father, James Dundas, having been born in county Fermanagh, in the north of Ireland, April 22, 1800. In 1822, with his parents and brothers and sisters, James Dundas left the Emerald Isle and sailed for America, landing in Montreal after a long and eventful voyage on which the vessel's crew mutinied against a brutal captain whom they put in chains. In the old country James Dundas was a farmer and steward for an English nobleman, but after coming to this country he worked at the carpenter's trade, later in life, however, returning to his former occupation, that of farming. In Canada, in 1828, he married Miss Mary Alice Matthews, who was born in Clinton county, New York, May 2, 1813, daughter of John and Alice (Cheatham) Matthews, who came from England shortly before her birth. Mr. Matthews was a watchmaker. In 1845, after the death of his parents in Canada, James Dundas moved with his family to Kane county, Illinois, where he settled on a three hundred-acre tract of prairie land, which he developed into a fine farm and where he lived for eighteen years. In 1863 he came to Nebraska and took up his abode where Auburn now is, that being before Auburn existed, and here he became the owner of one hundred and eighty acres of prairie land, on which he made his home. He and his wife were the parents of five sons and four daughters, namely: Wesley, who died in Auburn, in 1900, leaving a family of two sons and three daughters; Alice Lucinda, deceased wife of Amos Hall, died in Prairieville, Michigan, in 1874 and left two sons and one daughter; Mary Ann, wife of Fletcher Palmer, of Phillips county, Kansas, has six daughters and one son; Robert M., a Kansas mechanic has a family of six sons and three daughters; John Henry,
whose name introduces this sketch; Irene, widow of W. A. Good, of Nuckolls county, Nebraska, has seven sons and four daughters; Charles D., deceased, left a widow, four sons and three daughters; Oscar N., of Riverside, California, has six sons and five daughters; and Lucy A., widow of Silas N. Miller, of Cook, Nebraska, has one son. The father of this family died on his Nebraska farm in 1870, at the age of seventy years, and his wife passed away in 1884, she too having lived out three-score and ten years.
John Henry Dundas was reared on his father's farm. At the age of eighteen years he began learning the trade of stonemason in Auburn, and for several years worked at his trade in summer and taught school in winter.
He was married March 29, 1871, to Miss Wealthy J. Bishop, a native of Covington, Kentucky, born August 1, 1847, daughter of William and Mary (Lusher) Bishop. Their marriage has been blessed by the birth of five children, as follows: Alta, who died at the age of four months; Hollis M., wife of Samuel Curtis, of Auburn; Lucius B., who married Clara Brock of Eagleville, Missouri; Ada V. and Wendell, at home.
Mr. Dundas has filled many public positions of trust and responsibility. He served several years as accessor, three years as a justice of the peace, two years as police judge, twelve years as a member of the Auburn Board of Education, and two years in the Nebraska state senate.
It was in 1884 that Mr. Dundas entered upon his journalist work, when he purchased the Republican. After conducting this paper two years he bought the Granger, and consolidated the two, under the name of the Granger, a weekly publication devoted to every move in the interest of justice and right, and in no wise, fettered by party, sect or creed. It is a six-column, four-page paper, published by J. H. Dundas & son,
and now has a circulation of one thousand five hundred. In addition to his regular official and editorial work, Mr. Dundas has always found time for much other work, literary and otherwise. He is the author and publisher of a history of Nemaha County, termed by him “The Banner County of Nebraska,” a 12mo., 220 page volume, issued in 1902, a credit both to the author and the county. He is also the publisher of a book called “Every Man's Account Book,” which he has copyrighted, and which fills a long-felt want among the common business men.
Mr. Dundas attended the World's Congress of Religions in Omaha, and gave this sentiment as the true basis of unity: “Man’s duty to his fellow being is his only duty to his God; and whatsoever more is taught is born of priestcraft, murdered in superstition, and surrounded with pernicious results.
Mr. Dundas is the father of the Auburn Chautauqua, which was organized in 1899, and of which he has since been manager, and for the past two years he has also been manager of the Tecumseh Chautauqua. Both were organized and are being managed on the nonsectarian plan. Mr. Dundas takes a bold stand with the advanced thinkers of the day, is a sound reasoner and a fluent speaker, and never fails to bring conviction to the minds and hearts of his hearers. He places deeds above creeds and sees sound religion in the doctries [sic] of Confucius. Some of his popular lectures are as follows: “The Songs We Sing,” The Better Way to Serve the Lord,” “A Zetetic Sermon,” “Everybody Has His Hobby,” “The Religion of the Twenieth Century,” “Men are Parrots; They Do Not Talk, They Only Repeat Sentences,” and “Quit Your Meanness.”
Myron G. Randall, a retired farmer, residing on his one hundred and sixty acres in Bedford precinct, with postoffice at Howe, has lived in Nemaha county over forty years, ever since he was a boy of ten years. He has been an enterprising and successful agriculturist, owning at present one of the best farms in the vicinity, and in affairs of citizenship has gained the reputation of being a reliable and substantial man, who may be depended upon for public-spirited co-operation in what pertains to advancement and progress.
When Mr. Randall was three years old and was on a visit with his parents to New York state, he remembers seeing his grandfather Isaac Randall, who was then an old man. Isaac Randall and his wife were natives of either Connecticut or Rhode Island, and the former was a scythe-maker, and they had seven sons and two daughters, as follows: William, Hiram, Nathan G., Anson, Philo, Walter, a son that died aged about fifteen, and the two daughters were married and died at Akron, Ohio.
Nathan Gorham Randall, the father of Myron G. Randall, was born in New York state, August 22, 1816, and died in the home of the letter, July 30, 1901, when nearly eighty-five years old. He was first married to Asenath Lyons, in Ohio, and their children were: Hiram Lyons Randall, who is surgeon in the soldiers’ home, at Grand Island, Nebraska, and has lost his wife and two small children and has one son and one daughter living, George W., was a soldier, and was killed in action in Missouri, at the age of twenty-three and single; Elias Isaac, a farmer and Methodist preacher for twenty years, died February 2, 1903, at Havelock, Nebraska, leaving a wife and children; Allen Duane, a farmer at Chapman, Nebraska, lost one daughter and has four daughters and one
son living. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Nathan G. Randall was married to Mrs. Polly Mary (Ellis) Brown, who was born in Pompey, Onondaga county, New York, February 24, 1823, a daughter of Clark Ellis. On July 4, 1842, she was married to Judson Brown, who was born in New York, February 10, 1819, and by this marriage there was one son, William Ellis Brown, born September 6, 1843, who was a soldier in the First Wisconsin Cavalry, a prisoner in Andersonville and Libby, and died in Nebraska, September 28, 1890, leaving his widow. Nathan G. Randall had by his second marriage three children. Myron G. is the eldest. Horace Lafayette was born September 18, 1838, and died March 6, 1871. Thyrza E., the wife of W. I. Fryer, in Denver, Colorado, has two daughters living and lost twins. The mother of these children died in Nemaha county, December 19, 1901. Nathan G. Randall had come to this part of Nebraska in 1859 from Dodge county, Wisconsin, having stopped here on his way to Pike's Peak, wither he was driving an ox team. He pre-empted eighty acres across the road from the present farm of his son, and his wife and children came here three years later. He was in debt, but gradually acquired prosperity, and at his death own one hundred and sixty acres in two farms. At her death his wife gave this land to Myron G. Randall, and it is the nucleus of his present estate.
Myron G. Randall was born in Dodge county, Wisconsin, September 21, 1852, and in his youth had few advantages, being in the district school but little. He was married June 14, 1876, to Miss Mary Eliza Quinn, who has become the mother of six children. Sidney M. is farming the home farm, Mrs. Milly F. Swope is the wife of a farmer in Aspinwall precinct; Merrill H. is farming; Elsie, aged 14, is at home, as are also Esther , age 8, and Alfred, aged 5. Mr. Randall is a Republican, and has served on the Board of elections, and on the school board
for nine consecutive years. He has enjoyed a high degree of success in his life work, and he and his family are among the most esteemed of the precinct.
William R. Chaney is a well known citizen of Adams, Gage county, Nebraska, where he has resided for a number of years and become identified with the best progress and material, intellectual and religious development of the town and vicinity. He is a man of recognized integrity and uprightness, capable in the performance of every duty devolving upon him, and in every way worthy of being classed with the foremost men of southeastern Nebraska. He has been satisfactorily successful in his life work, and, having come to his present circumstances through industry and perseverance, knows the value of toil and diligence in this workaday world. He is also honored as a veteran of the Civil war.
Mr. Chaney was born in Greene county, Illinois, October 24, 1840, of a family which settled in that county in pioneer times. The ancestry is Irish, and Mr. Chaney's father, James Chaney, was a native of Kentucky, whence he came to Greene County. His wife, Sarah Smith, was a native of Tennessee, and came of an old southern family, resident in that state for several generations. Both James end Sarah Chaney are now deceased, having spent most of their lives in Greene county, where they had a home noted for its generous hospitality and wholesale companionship.
William R. Chaney was reared and educated in Mason county, Illinois, and perhaps the most valuable lessons of his youth were the result not of precept line on line, but by actual experience in practical labor in
the field and the hundred and one details of farm life. In April, 1864, he enlisted from his native county in Company C, One Hundred and Thirty-third Illinois Infantry, under Captain Collins. The regiment was rendezvoused at Camden Butler, Springfield, Illinois, and was later put on duty at Rock Island and along the Mississippi, and later at Camp Butler, where Mr. Chaney received his honorable discharge in October, 1864. He then lived in Mason county three years and Morgan county, Illinois, for some years, and in 1880 came to Gage county, Nebraska, where he has been one of the prosperous residents ever since. He awns [sic] 13 acres in the town of Adams and this land is so finely improved and so productive that it makes an ideal and valuable suburban estate. He has a nice house, good barn, fruit and shade trees in abundance, and all the complements and accessories of a model Nebraska home.
Mr. Chaney was married in Greene county, Illinois, in 1864, to Miss Pamelia Finley, who has traveled life’s way with him for forty years, and they are co-partners in all its successes and joys. She is a native of Greene county, and was reared and educated there. She was a daughter of Zuriah and Matilda (Mace) Finley, the former of whom was born in Greene county and was a son of an early Kentucky settler; the latter was a native of Kentucky, and was eighty-two years old when she died. Mr. Chaney is a Democrat in politics, but does not desire or aspire to office. He affiliates with the Sergeant Cox Post, G. A. R., at Adams, and both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church. He has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for over twenty-five years and passed through all the chairs, also the grand lodge degree, and was representative to same on several occasions.
J. Louis Engel, one of the leading agriculturists of Bedford precinct, Howe postoffice, Nemaha County, settled here over thirty years ago. He has developed a raw and treeless tract of land into a beautiful farmstead, with a grove of fruit and shade trees, comfortable residence and all necessary abilities, and has been actively engaged in the cultivation of his productive land until the last few years, since which time he has in a measure ceased from hard industry, and is spending those years beyond the seventieth milestone in comfort. When he first located in this country he had lost all the capital with which he came, and has thus worked his way up from the bottom, for which reason he is all the more deserving of honor for what he has accomplished in life.
His father, Louis Engel, Sr., was born in Germany, January 7, 1800 common and died there in 1874, aged 74 years and eighteen days. He was a freehold farmer on three parcels of land, containing forty-five acres. His wife was Catherine Fisher, who died at the age of sixty-five, in 1851 or 1852. They had one son and a daughter, Dora, who was the mother of six children and died in Germany in 1899.
J. Louis Engel, the only son, was born in Germany, August 24, 1829. He was reared on the farm, and had a liberal schooling of eight years, with one year in a normal school. At the age of twenty he entered the German army, and spent six weeks in military service. He remained in his native land until 1859, and then took passage from Havre for New York, being forty-two days en route. Two weeks later he arrived in Sangamon county, Illinois, which he reached in the first week of June. He took three hundred dollars from the bank in New York, but had only twenty-five cents when he reached Springfield, having been swindled out of the rest in some unintelligible manner. He came from Springfield, Illinois, to Nebraska in 1872, arriving in Brownville on the 6th of
October. He bought forty acres of naked prairie for ten dollars an acre, and he and his noble wife have planted every tree which now adorns his farm boundaries. A year later they built their present residence. He afterwards added eighty acres more to his place, and he has been prosperous in his work during the subsequent years.
February 2, 1856, Mr. Engel was married in Germany to Catherine (Handle) Seachrist, a widow with the following children: Catherine the wife of William Mayer, who came to Nebraska at the same time with Mr. Engel and his wife, and they have three children; Christ Seachrist lives in Humboldt, Nebraska, and has five children; Annie Fredericka, is the wife of Louis Mayer, in Richardson county, Nebraska, with two sons and three daughters; and Fred Seachrist is owner of stock in a mine in South Dakota, and has four daughters and one son. Mrs. Engel has twenty-three great-grandchildren. Mrs. Engel was born in Marbach, Germany, December 2, 1822, and throughout her long life has been active and strong mentally and physically until the last year or so, when she has been in feeble health and for the past few months still more so. Mr. Engle is a Republican in politics, and served as constable for ten years during the first years of his residence here. He and his wife are Lutherans, and are valued and esteemed citizens of the county in which they have resided so long and been such important factors in the growth and development of this portion of southeastern Nebraska.
William H. Stowell, editor and proprietor of the Auburn Post, is a prominent factor in the business and social circles of Auburn, Nebraska. Mr. Stowell is a native of the Empire state and dates his birth in Leroy, May 3, 1855. His father, Luther K. Stowell, was born in Cazenovia, New York, October 18, 1823, son of Calvin B. Stowell. The Stowell family originally came to this country from England, the time of their settlement here being in colonial days. Early history shows them to have been mechanics and farmers, honest and industrious, occupying representative places among the people of the various localities in which they lived. Calvin B. Stowell was a blacksmith. He was born in 1794, and it is supposed he was a native of New Hampshire. He died in Darien, New York, in 1878. Thrice married, he reared a large family of children, namely: seven sons and one daughter by his first wife, one son by the second, and one daughter by the third. Luther K. was one of the sons by the first marriage, his mother being Olive Sabine, and he is now a resident of Leroy, New York; has been married twice and has outlived both of his companions. He first married, March 19, 1854, Miss Janette McGregor, who was born near Leroy, New York, in 1830, daughter of John McGregor, a Scotchman; and the only child of this marriage was William H., the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Janette Stowell died at the age of twenty-eight years. Subsequently Mr. Stowell married Miss Sarah Thomas, who bore him one son, Ernest C. Since her death the father has resided with his son.
William H. Stowell was reared to farm life, and improved the opportunities he had for obtaining an education in the public schools. At the age of 20 he began a career as school teacher, a career which covered a period of ten years, and it was while he was thus occupied that he entered upon journalistic work as a newspaper correspondent. July 1,
1836, he began the publication of the Vedette, in Verdon, Nebraska, which he edited and published weekly for nine and a half years. Then, in October, 1895, he came to Auburn and purchased the Auburn Post, which he has since successfully conducted, owning both the building and the plant, and in connection with the publication of the paper also doing a job printing business, employing from three to six compositors. While in Verdon Mr. Stowell and four others organized a pioneer association known as the Richardson County Pioneer Society, and in connection with that he published "The Pioneer Record," a quarterly pamphlet, some three years, and after he came to Auburn he continued it three months as a monthly publication, at the end of which time he sold out. From 1896 to 1899 he published the Nebraska State Poultry Journal, which was issued each month. The Auburn Post is a weekly paper, published on Friday; is Republican in politics, up-to-date in every aspect, and its columns show that it has plenty of the right kind of enterprise and push that are necessary to success in the newspaper line. As the Republican organ, the Post exerts a potent influence that is felt for the good of the party.
Mr. Stowell married, January 30, 1883, Carrie D. Robertson, a native of Cambridge, New York, born December 25, 1860, daughter of John and Adeline (Parke) Robertson, now residents of Verdon, Nebraska. Previous to her marriage Mrs. Stowell was for several years a teacher in the public schools. They have two children, Frank L. and Helen M., both attending school.
Mr. and Mrs. Stowell are regular attendants upon worship at the Presbyterian church, of which they are worthy members. Fraternally, he belongs to the Woodmen of the World.
© 1999, Lori L. Laird, NEGenWeb Project