Submitted by Laura Mattingly
In Clatonia township John Henry Wayman resides upon and gives his able supervision to a farm of one hundred and twenty-five acres which he rents from the Steinmeyer estate, and he is the owner of a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Lincoln county, Nebraska, as well as of property in the village of Clatonia.
Mr. Wayman was born at Longrun, Licking county, Ohio, on the 9th of May, 1872, a son of Henry and Sophia (Heisner) Wayman, the former of whom died in Holt county, Nebraska in 1907, at the age of eighty-two years and eleven months, and the latter of whom still resides in that county, she being sixty-eight years of age in 1918.
Henry Wayman was born and reared in Germany and was a young man when he came to America and settled in Ohio. In that state he continued his residence until 1884, when he came with his family to Nebraska and established his home at Centerville, Lincoln county. Later he came to Gage county and engaged in farming in Grant township, where he remained until his removal to Holt county. His first wife died when comparatively a young woman and of their children six are now living, namely; William, a resident of Arizona; Mrs. Mary Emerich, of Sedalia, Missouri; Frederick, a resident of Colorado; Eliza, wife of John Spellman, of Adams county, Nebraska; Mrs. Lizzie Pelzer, of Holt county, this state; and Henry J., who is a prosperous farmer of Holt county. Of the children of Henry and Sophia (Heisner) Wayman the eldest is Agusta, who is the wife of George Bohl, of Antelope county, Nebraska; John R., subject of this review, was the next in order of birth; Louis is a resident of Holt county; Flora died in childhood; and Charles is a resident of Antelope county. The twin sister of Augusta died in infancy.
John H. Wayman was about twelve years of age at the time of the family removal to Nebraska and he was reared principally on his father's farm in Clatonia township, Gage county, where in the meanwhile he profited by the advantages of the district schools. He has exceptional mechanical ability and in earlier years he gave much of his attention to work at the carpenter's trade, though as early as 1894 he began independent farm operations, on rented land. In 1911 he rented his present farm and here he has continued his successful activities as an agriculturist and stock-grower, the while he gives also a general supervision to the improving and directing of the farm which he owns in Lincoln county. He has had no desire for political activity of any kind but gives his allegiance to the Republican party.
November 2, 1893, recorded the marriage of Mr. Wayman to Miss Katherine Menke, who was born in Ohio, and who came as a child to Nebraska, she being a daughter of Henry and Eliza (Knapp) Menke, the former of whom is deceased and the latter of whom remains on the old home farm, near Clatonia, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Wayman became the parents of five children, of whom the first-born, August, died at the age of twenty months; Albert, who became associated in the work of the home farm, is in the cantonment of the national army at San Antonio, Texas, in the spring of 1918, making ready to go to the battlefields of Europe; Harvey died at the age of three years; and Ellen and Henry are members of the gracious home circle."
[from "History of Gage county, Nebraska", by Hugh J. Dobbs, 1918, pg 658]