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Edna Richardson, who had five sons and three daughters. The father was a native of Vermont, and the mother a native of New York; they were married in New York state in 1830, and migrated to Michigan, locating near Romeo. About 1842 they removed to Winnebago county, Illinois, locating in the Rock River valley, and were pioneer settlers in that section of the state of Illinois. In 1849 the family moved to Clayton county, Iowa, where the father bought government land, making a home farm. Mrs. Charles Richardson died in Clayton county in 1853, and Mr. Richardson died in Madison county, Nebraska, in December, 1887.
Mr. Richardson was a veteran of the civil war, being a member of Company D, Twenty-first Iowa Infantry. His sons, Henry, Edward, George E., and Frederick W., all served in the civil war. Henry and Edward were both in Company H, Twelfth Iowa Infantry, and both were taken prisoners at the battle of Shiloh and both died in the Macon, Georgia, prison from neglect and starvation. George F., saw three years' service, being in the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry, and after the war became a resident of Nebraska.
Frederick W. Richardson, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the district schools of Clayton county, Iowa, and is practically a self-made man. In July, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, Twenty-first Iowa Infantry, and was mustered into service at Dubuque, Iowa. In September he went to the front and spent the winter in Missouri; he was in the engagement at Fort Gibson, Mississippi; and was at the Siege and capture of Vicksburg, and was also at Jackson, Mississippi; later on going to the gulf where he spent the winter in Texas; then going to Mobile, taking part in the capture of Spanish Fort and Blakely. He was mustered out at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, July 15, 1865, returning to Clayton county, Iowa.
In 1867, Mr. Richardson was married to Miss Emily Bartlett, daughter of Lewis Bartlett, a native of Virginia. In 1869 they came to Madison county, Nebraska, taking up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, where they built a log house and began the pioneer work of making a home and cultivating his land; Columbus, Nebraska, fifty miles away, being their nearest market place.
Mr. Richardson is a man widely and favorably known and has held various offices of trust and responsibility. In politics he is a republican, casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. In 1881 he was elected to the office of county treasurer of Madison county, but was held out of office for one year pending a contest, the office being given him by decision of the supreme court of Nebraska. In 1883 he was re-elected to the same position and in 1889 elected to the office of county clerk and re-elected in 1891. At the expiration of his term of office in January, 1893, he returned to his home at Battle Creek to reside, and in the fall of 1904 was elected to the state legislature, serving one term. He was appointed. postmaster of Battle Creek in 1908, resigning in January, 1910. Mr. Richardson has sold his interests in Madison county and has gone to Cherry county to reside. He has taken a Kincaid homestead, where his sons, Fred, Ben., and Richard also reside.
CARL KRIEWALD.Carl Kriewald was born in the village of Farbezin, Pommerania, Germany, August 28,1865, and is the second of six children born to August and Augusta (Rate) Kriewald. The mother died when Carl was only a small boy, but the father lived until 1894. None of the family, except Carl, ever came to America.
Mr., Kriewald came to America in 1884, sailing from Antwerp for New York on a Red Star liner, landing after a voyage of twelve and one-half days, joining his uncle, John Kriewald, who was one of the early settlers of Valley county, at Scotia, Nebraska. He worked for him one year and for other farmers until 1888, when he took up a homestead in Valley county, near Burwell. He proved up this land and later on sold it. In 1893, Mr. Kriewald bought the old William Brown homestead near the east line of Valley county, a farm of about one hundred and fifty-seven acres. He resided on this farm until 1908, improving the farm in many ways. He also bought another farm of one hundred and sixty acres in section one, township thirteen, range eighteen.
In the spring of 1908, Mr. Kriewald and family moved to the old Benson homestead in Greeley county, on section nineteen, township twelve, range eighteen, which was one of the first farms to be worked in the whole North Loup River Valley. Many improvements in the shape of fine buildings have been placed upon this farm since Mr. Kriewald became its owner. There is a fine grove on this farm, part of the trees being the original timber which was there when the settlements were first made.
Mr. Kriewald is regarded as one of the most prosperous and progressive farmers and stock men in this part of the community. He was married on the twenty-fourth of February, 1889, to Miss Mary Suhr, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, at her home in Hitchcock county, Nebraska, the marriage being performed by her father, Reverend Carl Suhr, a minister of the German Evangelical church. Her parents, who were natives of Mechlenberg-Sterlitz, came to America in 1870 and moved to Nebraska eleven years later. Her father died in 1905, and the mother, who was Johanna Bluedorn before marriage, is now in Kansas.
Mr. and Mrs. Kriewald have five children, all of whom are living: John, Silas, Samuel, Earl,
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and Mary Alvina. Mr. Kriewald lived in a sod house for a time and in it their first son was born. In politics he is independent of party lines. The family worship in the Evangelical church.
JEFFERSON D. VAN PELT.Jefferson D. Van Pelt is a man who since pioneer days has watched the development and growth of the locality in which he makes his home, and where he has resided for many years past. Mr. Van Pelt is a son of Jacob and Sophia (Chapin) Van Pelt, and was born in Meigs county, Ohio, January 19, 1845, and is the younger of two children, the sister residing in Ohio. Mr. Van Pelt's parents are deceased, the father died in 1851, in the state of Ohio, and the mother in 1899, the same state.
Mr. Van Pelt received his education in his native state, and later engaged in farming. On January 6, 1866, he married Miss Mary M. Burleigh, also of Ohio, and who was a teacher in Ohio schools. In September of 1879, Mr. Van Pelt came with his wife and five children to Merrick county, Nebraska, where he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land on section six, township fourteen, range seven, west, and has since purchased two hundred and forty acres adjoining, making a fine stock and grain farm, where he has lived all through the years since his arrival. He has served as director and treasurer of his school district number forty-four for many years.
Mr. and Mrs. Van Pelt have had six children born to them, whose names are as follows: Mayo, who is married and has five children, lives in Merrick county; Milo, is married, has two children, and also lives in Merrick county; Sophia, married to Mr. A. Nitzel, has three children and lives in Merrick county; John B., married, lives, in Merrick county, and has one child; Iona, is married to William Trebilcock, has three children and lives in Omaha, Nebraska; and Jesse D., who is married, has one child and lives in Nebraska.
Mr. Van Pelt is one of the earlier settlers of his county, and is a successful man of affairs. He owns two hundred and forty acres of fine farming lands well improved. He has passed through many of the discouragements and trying experiences incidental to pioneer life, and is widely and favorably known.
FRANK McCLINTOCK.The thrift and energy of the "canny Scot," are proverbial, and the proverb loses nothing in the telling while recounting the career of Mr. Frank McClintock, the prosperous hardware merchant of Verdel.
Mr. McClintock is a native of Clinton county, Iowa, and was born on his father's farm near Lyons, on December 28, 1855. He lived there until coming to Knox county, Nebraska, in 1885, with the exception of two years which he spent in the mountains, during 1882 and 1883, engaged in erecting telegraph lines along the Northern Pacific from Sprague, Washington, to Missoula, Montana. On March 24th of the latter year, he arrived in Creighton, and at once found work in the livery barn of Bill March, for whom he did all kinds of work for several months. He selected a quarter section of land in the open prairie near where Bloomfield now stands, for which he paid the sum of six dollars per acre, and immediately started in the stock business. At the same time he had an opportunity to buy any amount of land in that vicinity for four dollars per acre, but like everyone else, had not the prescience to see that it would, in less than a quarter of a century, be worth twenty-five times that amount, and increase one hundred per cent per year. He remained on this place for about ten years, passing through the years of drouth and other hardships. He then moved to Crofton and built a livery barn, in anticipation of the coming of the railroad through the locality, a hope that failed of fruition, causing a heavy loss to himself as well as others who had settled in the town on account of the railroad being brought, there. After a time Mr. McClintock sold out and moved to Hartington, following the oil business there for a year. He then moved to Bloomfield, where he secured a clerkship in a hotel, and continued in that work until he removed to Niobrara, in 1899. Here he bought stock for two years, and in 1903 located in Verdel and established a hardware store, and also handled machinery and agricultural implements to which he has since added each year, and now has a fine line of wares and is rapidly increasing his patronage throughout the surrounding country. His stock includes machinery of all kinds, also repairs for the same, and with Mr. McClintock's unfailing courtesy and genial manner to all with whom he comes in contact, he is meeting the success which he so richly deserves.
Mr. McClintock is a son of Frank McClintock, a native of Pennsylvania, of Scotch descent, as was also his mother, they settling in Iowa about 1844 where they farmed for many years in Clinton county. Our subject was married at Sioux City, Iowa, on May 3, 1900, to Miss Hilda Fosberg, who was born in Sweden and came to the United States in 1891, with her parents. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. McClintock, as follows: Frank Jaynes, Paul Lewis, Mary Margaret, and Willard Nelson, all of whom are bright and interesting young folks, and the McClintock is one of the pleasant ones to be found in the town of Verdel.
Mr. McClintock is a democrat on national issues, although still holding to the reform doctrines of the populist party, which he supported during the reign of the same. He was baptized
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in the Presbyterian church - "The kirk of auld Scotland," and with his family is a regular attendant at divine worship.
LEO LOGERWELL.Scandinavia has given to the northern states a large percentage of its thrifty citizens, and among those that Sweden has given to the state of Nebraska, possessed of all the sterling qualities of the Norseman, is Leo Logerwell, druggist and merchant of Naper.
Mr. Logerwell was born in the village of Fiegeholm, June 19, 1861. He has, since coming to America, slightly changed the spelling of his surname, a fact it might be well to preserve in the family archives. He is a son of Carl Peter Lagervall, who died when the son Leo was but six months old. The mother, who before her marriage was Inga Peterson, came to America with her orphaned children in 1864. Crossing the North Sea from Copenhagen to Hull, they went by rail thence to Liverpool and embarked there in a sailing vessel for New York. The mother brought her little family of three children to Andover, Illinois, driving by wagon from Geneseo, which at that time was the terminus of the railroad. Of the three children, Hulda married Olaf Olsen, and lives at Weyerhauser, Wisconsin, while Carl E. is a resident of Danville, Illinois.
Leo made his home in Andover until the spring of 1879, when he migrated to the west, settling in Lindsburg, McPherson county, Kansas, the greatest center of Scandinavian musical talent in the United States. He had learned pharmacy in Andover in 1875, and was in the drug business in Lindsburg from 1879 to 1882, and in Clay Center from that date until the spring of 1884, when he settled in Saronville, Clay county, the first day of June. In the spring of 1887, he removed to Holt county and bought a farm eleven miles north of Atkinson. He lived here and in town until 1891. During 1889, he dealt in western lands, trading at one time for a drug store in Ohio, which he disposed of later in the year. From 1892 to 1902, he was engaged in the drug business in Aurora, Bertrand and Atkinson, following which he lived in Freemont where he was in the insurance business until the fall of 1903, when he moved to Oakland and remained until coming to Naper in 1905.
For a number of years fortune frowned upon him - work as he would, success did not attend his efforts until his removal to Boyd county. Since coming to Naper, he has prospered as he did in the early years of his business career, before malign misfortune overtook him. Besides a full stock of drugs, medicines, and chemicals, Mr. Logerwell carries a choice line of fancy groceries and fruits, keeping his stock fresh and new.
Mr. Logerwell was married in Salina, Kansas, January 4, 1881, to Miss Jennie Peterson, a native of New Sweden, Iowa. Her father, Nels Peterson, was a minister of the Methodist church; the mother was a Miss Anna Christina Heden before her marriage. They moved to Kansas in the summer of 1871, from Chicago, where they had been living for some years prior to migrating to the trans-Missouri country. From Salina, they moved to Saronville in 1882, and made their home in Nebraska after that date. To Mr. and Mrs. Logerwell seven children were born, six of whom are living as follows: Wendell is married and lives in Green River, Wyoming; Reuben is a partner of his father; Raymond runs a barber shop in Naper, and Leonard is associated with his father in business, while Edna, who has become proficient in music is the wife of John Mannhalter of Tripp county, South Dakota; and Carl, who is still in school.
During the fearful blizzard of January 12, 1888, Mr. Logerwell lived at Atkinson and assisted in getting the children all safely home from school. During the Indian scare succeeding the battle of Wounded Knee, Mr. Logerwell happened to be at Rushville and witnessed the rush of soldiers into the region to prevent any further acts of hostility.
After years of vicissitudes, in which he with his family suffered many privations, fortune has at last showered on him the success for which all men strive, and with his business in the prosperous condition it is, he can look with equinamity [sic] on the future and feel that he and his children need never come to want.
Mr. Logerwell is a republican in political views, and is a member of the Odd Fellows.
HON. WILLIAM A. McCUTCHEN.William A. McCutchen, who for many years was classed among the progressive and leading agriculturists of Boone county, is now a resident of Albion, retired from active work. His younger years were devoted to farming, and he has been handsomely rewarded for his industry and perseverance in the possession of a valuable estate and the enjoyment of a comfortable home as a result of his earlier labors.
Mr. McCutchen was the eldest of eight children in the family of Samuel and Jane McCutchen, and was born on May 21, 1841, in Muskingum county, Ohio. The father died in 1888, and his widow followed him in 1903. About 1851 the McCutchens settled in Wisconsin, and remained for several years, then went into Iowa. Our subject was a student at the Lenox Collegiate Institute there, and after the war broke out was determined to give his services to the cause, so in August, 1862, he enlisted in Company K, Twenty-first Iowa Volunteer Infantry, serving until the close of the war, and participating with his regiment in the battle at Hartsville, Missouri; Port Gibson, Jackson, Raymond, Champion Hill,
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Mississippi; Black River Bridge, Siege of Vicksburg, Spanish Fort, Fort Blakely, Mobile, and many minor actions and skirmishes. He was a brave and faithful soldier, and received honorable discharge in August, 1865, and is proud of the fact that during his entire term of service was never obliged to be absent from duty a single day.
After returning home from the war Mr. McCutchen re-entered the Lenox Institute and completed a course of study, and for the following eleven years spent considerable time in travel, being for some time in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. In November, 1878, he came to Boone county, Nebraska, and purchased two hundred acres of railroad land lying one mile south of St. Edward, making that his home farm for about thirteen years, then moved to Albion which has since then been his permanent residence.
Mr. McCutchen was married on December 24, 1886, to Sarah Woodworth, of Ohio. Miss Woodworth was a graduate of Mount Vernon college, and was for a number of years a public school teacher. She was a charming and accomplished lady, and greatly beloved by all who knew her. Mrs. McCutchen was killed by a cyclone which swept their strip of country on April 26, 1899. This storm is well remembered by all the oldtimers, and was the cause of much suffering and destruction of property.
Mr. McCutchen has been an active member of the people's independent party for the past many years, and during the sessions of 1891 and 1893 represented his district in the state legislature. He was also director of school district number seventeen for a number of years.
EVAN JENKINS.The present prosperity of this region is without a doubt due largely to the efforts of those men of perseverance and grim determination who came to Nebraska when it was yet undeveloped as an agricultural and commercial center. They came with the expressed determination of wresting the country from the forces of the wilderness, and while the encounter was long, and in many cases, an arduous one, yet in the end they triumphed, and we, the later generation, can do no less than to honor the men who have won so much for us.
Mr. Evan Jenkins, the subject of this sketch, was born in Ohio, January 27, 1850, and was the son of Jenkin D. and Elizabeth Jenkins, both natives of Wales. They came to America in 1842, and the sailing vessel on which they took passage occupied five weeks and three days for the trip. The subscriber spent his early years in Ohio, where he received his education.
In 1875, Mr. Jenkins came to Iowa, which was then considered to be among the frontier states. and lived there until 1892. In that year he came to Wayne county, Nebraska, where he bought a farm of three hundred and twenty acres, and settled down to the work of improving it. At present it is one of the finest estates in the county.
In 1879, Mr. Jenkins was married to Miss Jennie Jones, a native of Wales. They are the parents of six children: David, Samuel, Lizzie, Herbert, William and Lawrence. Both Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins are prominent figures in the social life of the community.
Mr. Jenkins is well known throughout, the county and is regarded as one of the most prosperous and influential farmers. He resides in section thirty-six, township twenty-seven, range one, and has accumulated his estate by his energy. His high station as a farmer and citizen is well deserved.
MARTIN HARTMANN.Martin Hartmann, one of the leading old settlers of Stanton county, Nebraska, is spending his declining years in comfort in his home on section twenty, township twenty-four, and enjoys the respect and esteem of his associates. He has engaged actively in agricultural pursuits during most of his life, and by industry and honesty has gathered about him a valuable estate and placed himself above want.
Mr. Hartmann was born in 1848, in Brandenburg, Germany, and is the son of Fred and Louise Hartmann. Our subscriber received his education in Germany, and remained at home with his parents until 1879. By this time, the little family had heard much of the great riches to be made in the new world, and they decided to try their fortunes there also. So they left their native land at that date, coming from Bremen to Baltimore by the steamship "Nuremburg." Arrived in Baltimore, they at once came to the west, to Stanton county, Nebraska. They bought land here, and then also purchased a timber claim in Holt county.
They met with a great many reverses during the first few years of their residence here, enough to have daunted even a stout heart. The first two years their crops were entirely destroyed by grasshoppers, which in itself was quite a severe loss for new settlers in an unknown country. Then, too, they were in constant peril from prairie fires, but luckily never met with actual loss from that reason. However, all discouragements and reverses seemed but to be an added incentive, spurring them on to greater efforts, and as a reward, they have succeeded in building up a good home.
In 1885, Mr. Hartmann was married in Stanton county, to Miss Minnie Sydow, of Germany, she having come from the same part as her husband. They are the parents of one child, Henry, still at home.
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JOHN WYLIE.John Wylie, who resides in section thirty-four, township twenty-four, range seven, Antelope county, Nebraska, is one of the leading old timers in this section who has always done his full share in the betterment of conditions throughout the community in which he lives. Mr. Wylie as resided in Antelope county for many years, and is well known as a progressive man and a highly esteemed citizen.
Mr. Wylie is a native of Belfast, Ireland, born May 2, 1854. In 1883 he left Ireland and sailed for America, coming to Antelope county, Nebraska, in 1888, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres of railroad land, on which he built a shanty. He lived on this property a few years when he sold this land and bought where he now lives, section thirty-four, township twenty-four, range seven, which was originally, and is known as the Grant homestead. Here Mr. Wylie has a beautiful home and one of the finest orchards and groves in this section of the county.
Mr. Wylie, as well as many of these brave pioneer sons who came to the western frontier in the early years, has experienced his full share of hardships and disappointments, suffering losses through blizzards, hot winds, hail storms, etc., which made it very hard for a young man to get a start, but Mr. Wylie being of sturdy stock could never say fail. On January 12, 1888, our subject lost cattle in the big blizzard of that year, in 1894 lost his entire crops by the hot winds, and in the year 1897 was hailed out. In the early days they burned hay, corn, and everything that could be found to burn, as other fuel was almost unknown.
Mr. Wylie was united in marriage in 1881 to Miss Agnes McCaught. Mr. and Mrs. Wylie are the parents of nine children, whose names are the following: John, who is married to Miss Nellie Nurip; Jennie, who is Mrs. Ernie Donner; Nellie, wife of Mr. Will Nurip; Ray, Max, Alva, Minnie, Grace and Bessie.
Mr. Wylie is a progressive citizen and farmer, and now owns seven hundred and sixty acres of land, twenty acres of which is given to orchard and grove trees.
CHARLES W. MOSS.One of the most active men among the early settlers of Holt county, Nebraska, is Charles W. Moss, of Atkinson, who is extensively interested in the production of fine cattle, although he has nearly reached the age of three score and ten years, when most men have long since retired from active life. His father, Isaac Moss, was a native of Illinois, and his grandfather, John Moss, moved to the prairie state from Virginia in the early part of the nineteenth century. Migrations at that time were made with teams and wagons, the former often oxen, and John Moss drove to the present site of Jacksonville, Morgan county, where nothing was then to be seen but prairie grass, and helped erect the first log house in the town. Neighbors from miles around came to the help of anyone then intending to erect a dwelling, and held a "raising bee." Logs for the new building were notched and laid in place in one day and the occasion was turned into a frolic. They settled on Indian creek, twelve miles west of Jacksonville, where Charles W. Moss was born September 27, 1842. Six years later the father, Isaac Moss, died. In 1854 the widow married Reverend James Solomon, who was a Baptist minister then laboring in Macoupin: county, where the family resided until Charles W. Moss reached maturity, with the exception of two years spent near Litchfield, Montgomery county. At Mr. Solomon's death, in 1882, he had spent upwards of fifty-one years in the ministry.
The wife of Isaac Moss was Sarah Ausman, who was born near Jacksonville, Illinois, November 28, 1822, her parents having settled on Indian creek the year previous. The Ausmans came from Pennsylvania, of which state they were natives, and when they located on the open Illinois prairie, there were but five families on Indian creek and government land was sold for twelve and one-half cents per acre. Mrs. Sarah (Ausman-Moss) Solomon came to Nebraska in 1887 and filed on a homestead twenty miles south of Atkinson, in time proving up her claim and acquired a title to a good tract of grazing land. During the past few years she has made her home with her son Philip, of Iola, Kansas. A third son, Isaac, now lives in Washington, and the only daughter, Margaret, died at the age of five.
Charles W. Moss, in his twentieth year, married and started in life on his own account. As a boy he had been hired out for two years to a neighboring farmer, and early learned the spirit of independence and initiative which has been of such value to him in shaping his career. He first purchased forty acres of land in Macoupin county, after marriage, paying on it five hundred dollars he had received from the estate of his grandfather, and on this farm he prospered to such an extent that he was able to purchase eighty-five acres of land upon selling the first tract, and on the second farm lived until he came to Nebraska, in March, 1887, during which time he had much to do toward developing the social and political institutions of his community in the prairie state. For twenty-three years he was a commissioner from district one, in Macoupin county. That year he made a trip to Rapid City, South Dakota, where a son had a ranch, but decided finally to locate in Holt county. He filed on a timber claim twenty miles south of Atkinson, and upon reaching majority his sons acquired claims nearby. He added to his holdings from time to time, and at the time of a sale held De-
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cember 3, 1907, he owned nine hundred and his sons seven hundred acres. This sixteen hundred acres of the finest kind of ranch land was sold all in one body.
After disposing of his interests in the manner just related, Mr. Moss did not long remain a landless cattleman, but invested in a ranch of three hundred acres of land two miles closer to town, on which he keeps about six hundred head of cattle, and of these annually selects some one hundred and fifty or more to fatten for the market, which is done on a tract of leased land near Atkinson, and he also sells large number of the remainder of his herd as feeders to be prepared for market further east. He does not raise very much grain himself, and buys in very large quantities for feeding purposes, turning out as fine a finished product in the line of cattle for market as any cattle man in the state.
In 1907 Mr. Moss located in Atkinson and for one year rented a dwelling, but in 1908 erected a neat and comfortable cottage residence in the southwestern part of the town, near his leased land, where he has feed yards for his cattle that are being fattened for market.
Mr. Moss was married (first) in Macoupin county, Illinois, September 3, 1862, to Miss Nancy Moore, a native of that county, daughter of Mellen and Elizabeth Moore. Their oldest son, Thomas, who graduated from Blackburn university, became a minister of the Baptist church and worked in the west for years as an organizer of the American Sunday School Union, his missionary work extending over sixteen counties in western Nebraska. He organized forty-three churches and two hundred and twenty-five mission Sunday schools during his mission work there, traveled over seventy-six thousand miles (mostly in a buggy) visiting his charges throughout the Loup valley, his headquarters being at Broken Bow. Failing health necessitated his seeking a warmer climate, and in March, 1903, he removed to Auburn, California, where his death occurred June twenty-sixth following. He left a vacant place in God's vineyard on earth that can never be tilled and his untiring activity in the good cause is well remembered by all who came under his influence. The second child of Mr. Moss, Mary Etta, married William Roberts, and after his death married (second) George Booth, of St. Louis; another son, William Roberts, junior, is married and father of a son Charles, who completes a chain of five living generations that have been preserved in a photograph, a treasure held by few families. The second marriage of Charles W. Moss occurred September 25, 1873, when he was united with Miss Matilda E. Womac, a native of Macoupin county, Illinois, daughter of John Watson and Nancy (Yowell) Womac, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky, where they met and were married. By his second marriage Mr. Moss had nine children, an account of whom is as follows: John Watson, has an excellent position with an electrical company at Spokane, Washington; Theodore, is interested in cattle feeding in company with his father, at Atkinson; Audrey Edith, is the wife of Harry White, and they live on a ranch twenty-seven miles south of Atkinson; Clarence, is a clerk in the railway mail service; Nellie Myrtle, married Charles Smith and they live on a ranch twenty-five miles south of Atkinson; Harry, is a pharmacist at Atkinson; Cheever, is a teacher in Holt county; Ira and Earl, are still in school; John, Clarence, Harry and Cheever graduated from the college at Fremont, where the younger ones will he given a course after completing the common school course.
In politics Mr. Moss is a republican and cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Although reared in the Baptist faith, he and his family have become members of the Presbyterian church at Atkinson, as there is no organization of their own denomination there. He belongs to the Odd Fellows and to the Workmen. He has witnessed remarkable changes since coming to the county and has always been willing to do his share to promote the general advancement and welfare of his community. He well remembers the blizzard of January 12, 1888, and was at a blacksmith shop at Amelia when the storm struck, being compelled to wait there until morning. His four children had a similar experience at school. Their cousin was teaching then, and although the school house was but four hundred yards from his own dwelling, the storm was so severe he was afraid to venture out with his charges. On each of the first two tracts of land he owned, he occupied a sod house for a time, but soon in each instance erected a comfortable and commodious frame dwelling. In early days hay was much used for fuel, and the family burned it six years, until coal was more available than at first. The school house, also, was heated with a hay stove, which Mr. Moss himself purchased, and he had to wait several years before the school district was rich enough to pay him for it. In early days much of the land was unsettled and taxes were comparatively small. At one time there were but seven quarter-sections in the district subject to taxation. At the time of the last Indian uprising, Mr. Moss saw the soldiers passing through, and they took possession of the road for two whole days.
In the first few years of his residence in the state Mr. Moss often had to fight prairie fires, and he had to keep them from destroying the school house and his own barn. As a result of the hail storms which are so severe in the west, Mr. Moss lost his crop one year through the ice balls. When he came to the state the deer and antelope were almost gone, but he saw a few before all had been driven westward. He is a man of strong
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mentality and force of character, mentally and physically fitted for success in any field he chose for his work. He is a man of indomitable energy and sterling worth and honest, his word being unimpeachable. None stand higher in the estimation of the community than he and his, and they are as the salt of the earth, who have not lost their savor, ready to help the cause of education and any other public movements calculated to benefit a large number of persons. A group picture of the family is presented on another page of this volume."A Family Group"-Charles W. Moss, Retired Ranchman.
JARVIS DEAN.
(Deceased.)Should the reader of this volume ask for the name of a representative man and old citizen of Pierce county, Nebraska, a man who came in middle life to breast the storms of the wilderness, and beyond the dreams of youth to carve a name and fortune out of adversity, let him have the name of the gentleman that introduces this review.
Jarvis Dean was born in Schuyler county, New York, on August 9, 1836, and was a son of Jarvis and Mary Miller Dean. He remained at home until his eighteenth year, then went to McHenry county, Illinois, farmed for a year, and moved to Buffalo county, Wisconsin. About this time he was married to the sweetheart of his school days, whose people had settled in Wisconsin some time previously.
In 1862, Mr. Dean enlisted in the fifth Elgin Battery and served for three years with his regiment. He was corporal and bugler of the company part of the time, and also saw some severe fighting during his term of service, receiving honorable discharge in July, 1865, and returning to his home in Wisconsin.
In the spring of 1872, Mr. Dean first came to Nebraska, and was one of the earliest settlers in Pierce county, locating half a mile south of Plainview. He drove through the country from Buffalo county, accompanied by several families who were bound for the same destination, and experiencing considerable hardship and discomfort by reason of camping out along the way. On reaching Plainview, they staked out their claim, built a sod house and begun to break up land for the following year's crops. They went through every form of pioneer life - having narrow escapes from danger on account of wild beasts and Indians, and suffering failure of crops and all discouragements so familiar to the oldtimers - but gradually became successful and prosperous. After a few years Mr. Dean added to his original homestead, and later bought two hundred and forty acres situated two and a half miles southwest of Pierce, which was the home farm until 1899, when they moved to Pierce for permanent residence, and his death occurred there May 3, 1906. He was survived by one son, William N. Dean, now occupying the home farm.
Mr. Dean was for many years a loyal supporter of the republican party, and was active in the affairs of his county and state. He was a member of the Grand Army of Republic at Pierce, and both himself and wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
JOHN WALL.It reviewing the history of Howard county, Nebraska, the citizens who have contributed to her welfare must be given special mention, and a prominent place among their number must be accorded the gentleman above named. Mr. Wall is a pioneer settler, coming here in 1877, and is one of the best known and most highly respected men in his region. He is a prosperous agriculturist and has built up a comfortable home and fine farm.
John Wall, son of George and Ann (Manning) Wall, was born in Canada, March 1, 1863, and was fourth in a family of twelve children. He came to Howard county, Nebraska, with his father in the fall of 1877, and during the first year of his residence here he worked for J. F. Frederick. After that Mr. Wall attended school several winters, working on the home farm during the summer months. On May 16, 1881, he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in the west half of the southeast quarter and the east half of the southwest quarter of section thirty-six, township fifteen, range eleven, which is now the home place, a well improved and choice farm. He came out to this farm to live in October, 1889.
On October 9, 1889, Mr. Wall was joined in holy wedlock to Miss Margaret Vincent, who was a native of Canada, being born in Huron county, Ontario. Mrs. Wall came to Howard county, Nebraska, in March, 1886, with her father, mother, six brothers and one sister. Her parents, William and Margaret Vincent, are still living in Howard county on section four, township fourteen, range eleven.
Mr. and Mrs. Wall have had five children born to them, whose names are as follows: John W., Margaret Ann, William Henry, Agnes Jane, and George Arthur.
Mr. Wall owns two hundred and forty acres joining the home place on the west, which makes a very fine farm of four hundred acres, as all farms lying on Canada Hill are choice tracts. Canada Hill is so called on account of this vicinity being settled by people from Canada.
Mr. Wall has passed through the pioneer Howard county times, and is well and favorably known as a prosperous and successful man.
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