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Thomas. The two youngest were born in America.

     Mr. Toulson has always evinced a lively interest in all local and state affairs, and has held the office of assessor of his township, as well as taking an active part in all educational and religious work in his community. He is one of those who organized and established the schools in his vicinity, and at different times has held school offices for many years.

     He was instrumental in 1904 in establishing Island Grove Methodist church, of which he is a member, and contributes liberally to its support. He enjoys the confidence and esteem of his fellowmen. Politically he is independent in politics, supporting the candidate whose moral character seems to him to be the highest.

     The gentleman above named is so widely know that the people of Cheyenne county need no introduction to him. He is a pioneer of that region, and by his labors there has aided materially in the development of the farming, commercial and social interests of his locality. He is now one of the extensive land owners, farmers, market gardeners and stock raiser of Cheyenne county, and has gained a fortune through business foresight, honesty and good management. He makes his home in Sidney precinct.

     Paul R. Borgquist was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 27, 1864. His father, who was a hospital steward, removed with his family to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1867, where they lived for about one year, and in 1868 removed to Fort Preble, Maine, remaining only six or seven months. He was next stationed at the fort at Sidney, Nebraska, remaining one year, then went to army posts in Wyoming. In April, 1871, he returned to Sidney and resided in that vicinity the rest of his life. He acquired a tract of land east of Sidney on section 34, township 14, range 49, and accumulated over one thousand acres of ranch land. Of this Paul cultivates eighty acres and runs about one hundred and fifty cattle and thirty head of horses. His ranch is well supplied with good buildings and improvements, they being located on Lodgepole creek. About two hundred acres is irrigated and part of the tract is devoted to market gardening, a very remunerative branch of farming.

     Mr. Borgquist's father, Carl E., was born in the province of Smoland, Sweden, May 18, 1826, and came to the United States in 1849. He enlisted in the Mounted Riflemen, United Stated Army, for frontier service, and continued in the army until the Civil war, and served as hospital steward in the medical department until 1871. On his retirement from the hospital service in the 1871 he entered the business world, opening a drug store and handling a stock of general merchandise and carried on the same successfully for twenty years. During this time he became largely interested in a big herd of stock and many acres of land, and retired from the drug business in 1891, taking up his residence on his ranch, where he lived to the time of his death, August 6, 1896. He was one of the stanchest gold Republicans throughout the silver campaign of those times, and was prominent in all the political matters. He married Mary Kennedy, a native of Ireland, born about 1838, their marriage occurring August 19, 1862. She still resides on the home ranch with her son. They were among the earliest settlers in western Nebraska, and passed through all the hardships of early Nebraska times. Our subject has one sister married, now living in Jackson's Hole county in Wyoming. Mr. Borgquist is a prominent Republican and chairman of the county committee since 1904. He is a member of the Knight of Pythias and the Ancient Order United Workmen at Sidney. A view of the ranch home with its picturesque surroundings is shown on another page of this work.

     The above named gentleman is numbered among the leading business men of Cody, Nebraska, near where he has resided for the past fifteen years, and has become one of the successful and prosperous citizens of the town.

     Mr. Young was born at Arkadelphia, in Clark county, Arkansas, July 3, 1862. His father, John D. Young, was by trade a carpenter and millwright, and of Scotch-Irish descent, while the mother, Miss Martha Humphrey, was a member of an old Georgia family. Our subject's parents died when he was thirteen years of age, and he went to Jersey county, Illinois, where he lived with an uncle for some years, in which locality he was educated, remaining until he was twenty-one years of age. He was the second in a family of five children, and began to make his own living when about fourteen. About 1882 he left Illinois and went to St. Louis, and later to Texas, working in machine shops for seven years at different places. He learned tel-

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egraphing and worked at this profession in stations along the main line of the Chicago & Northwestern in Iowa and South Dakota, and branches in Nebraska for a period of eight years. He first came to Cherry county in 1893, and has been here almost constantly ever since that time, engaged in telegraphy the succeeding five years. In 1897 he resigned and went on a ranch located twenty-five miles southwest of the town of Cody, and still holds a part of this place. He engaged in the lumber business in Cody during 1904, associating himself with his father-in-law, John Bishop, and they have built up a large trade in this and the adjoining counties. He has erected on of the finest dwellings in the village, convenient to his place of business.

     Mr. Young was married in 1894 to Miss Laura E. Bishop, born in Monroe county, Iowa, daughter of John Bishop, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. One son has been born to this family, John Dickey Young, namesake of his grandfather.

     In political sentiment our subject is a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, and takes an active interest in all party affairs, local and state, and has served as assessor of his precinct. His lodge affiliations are varied, holding membership in the Masonic fraternity, the Knight of Pythias, the Workmen, the Woodmen and the lumbermen's association known as the Concatinated Order of Hoo Hoos.

     Prior to the demise of the gentleman named above he was one of the prominent agriculturists of Deuel county, widely known as a successful and prosperous farmer and worthy citizen, and his family had the sympathy of the entire community in their loss.

     Mr. Black was born in Marion county, Iowa, in 1855, and raised in a small town there. His father, Absolam Black, was of Irish-American stock, and a lawyer by profession, having a large and lucrative practice in Knoxville and the surrounding country, and served two terms as state's attorney in Marion county, Iowa. Our subject lived with his parents up to the time when he was twenty-one years of age, excepting for about four years after he was fifteen, which was spent in Texas following the ranching business in that state.

     In 1874 he returned to Iowa and was married there two years later and located on a farm, where they lived for a number of years, then went to Texas and lived on the state line for about three years. In 1888 Mr. Black moved with his family to Sheridan county, Nebraska, locating near Lakeside, and remained in that vicinity up to 1900, when they moved to Ellsworth. In 1902 he purchased the Ellsworth Hotel, and was also interested in land in this county, his sons having large ranches near his homestead. Mr. Black's death occurred in October 1906. He left a family of two children - Fred, born in Decatur City, Iowa, in 1877, and Ora, born there in 1878. The former was married in 1899 to Miss Alice C. Davis, a native of Williamsburg, Iowa, born in 1877.

     Mr. Black's widow, whose maiden name was Amelia J., Cox, lives on the old homestead located near Ellsworth. The sons are extensively engaged in the stock business, and run about six hundred head of cattle and fifty head of horses. Both own homesteads near their mother's farm. Fred having worked for the Spade ranch for several years prior to establishing his ranch, and at the same time his brother Ora was connected in the ranching business in Ellsworth. Together they own a fine ranch, with plenty of hay land and good range, and like this region, as it is not so thickly settled here and best suited to their purpose in the stock raising business.

     Mrs. Black, Sr., is a daughter of Gabriel Cox, born in England, who came to this country with his family when Mrs. Black was a very young girl, locating in Dubuque, Iowa. Her parents are now living in Kansas, and she paid a visit to them in 1906, finding them both hale and hearty at the advanced age of seventy-eight years.

     The Black family is among the prominent residents of Deuel county, and are highly esteemed by all who know them for their industry and thrift and their true worth as good citizens and neighbors. Ellsworth is their post office and nearest trading point.

     Andrew Johnson, an old settler and enterprising ranchman of Sioux county, Nebraska, owns a valuable estate in section 19, township 35, range 54. He has always identified himself with the public affairs of the community in which he made his home, and became widely known for his thorough appreciation of the wants of the community and is universally esteemed and respected for his many sterling qualities.

     Mr. Johnson was born in Calmer, Sweden, June 27, 1858. He was raised on a farm. His parents were wealthy and he had a beautiful home and every advantage of the better class

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in that country, receiving a good education, and spent a happy and care free boyhood in his native land. He remained in Sweden until he was thirty-one years of age, then started out for the new world, landing in New York city of 1889. He came directly west, stopping at Leadville, Colorado, where he had a brother living, and made that his home for two years, engaged in railroading.

     In 1893 he came to Nebraska and settled on a ranch two miles southwest of Ardmore, and there he was married to Miss Helen Johnson, who came to this country from Sweden, where she was reared on a farm. They built a log house on a homestead on which he had previously filed, and for about seven years worked at railroading. This was during the hard times prevailing throughout that part of the state, and while they went through many hardships and suffered losses from crop failures and other causes, Mr. Johnson always had plenty of money and managed to find work enough to keep them in the necessaries of life and did not suffer the privations that fell to the lot of so many of the pioneers of the region. He remained on that farm up to 1901, then settled on his present ranch, which now consists of six hundred acres, all of which is fenced and supplied with good improvements. The ranch is located on Indian creek and has a fine water supply, plenty of timber, and is one of the best improved places in the locality.

     Mr. And Mrs. Johnson are the parents of six children, who are named as follows: Oscar, Mary, Alice, Sarah, Albin and a baby not named. They are bright, intelligent group, and the family have a pleasant and comfortable home, well liked by all in the community.

     Emile Schoenenberger is the owner of a fine farm in Rock county, Nebraska, not far from the town of Newport, which invariably attracts the attention of the passing traveler, who quickly notes that it is in the care of a competent farmer and good business man. The place is under good cultivation, and is improved with handsome and substantial buildings, including a very comfortable residence. He is advancing in years, but still retains strength and vigor of body and mine, and is one of the most highly respected old settlers in all this part of Nebraska.

     Mr. Schoenenberger was born in the village of Waldresbach, Canton Schirich, province of Loraine, France, April 28, 1842, and during his boyhood and early youth found employment in a silk factory. In 1865 he crossed the ocean, embarking at Havre on the sailing vessel Willer, and after a voyage of forty-two days landed in New York, from whence he went to Chicago. In making his way to La Salle, Illinois, it took him a month to reach his destination, as he was carried on by mistake to Rock Island, and he was three or four days returning to the point he desired to reach. At Ottawa he found work for a whole year and his next move was to New Orleans, where he worked till the outbreak of the cholera in 1868. From thence he went to St. Louis and thence to Highland, Illinois, where he found work for nine months.

     Returning to Ottawa for a year's work, he next went to Amboy and for seven years was in the employ of the Illinois Central Railway Company, two years in the round house and five years on an engine as fireman. Leaving the railroad service he came west, living one year in Wright county, Nebraska, and then, in May, 1884, he took up his residence in Rock county, settling on section 24, township 31, range 17, where he still resides. He has passed through many and varied experiences and knows what pioneering means. But he has worked and endured and waited, and now a very large success has crowned his industry and persistence. He is the owner of a good farm, which he devotes largely to stock raising and shipping of hay, of which he sells about ninety tons a year. He has secured a thriving grove of about five acres, which he planted and cultivated himself, as well as an orchard of thrifty growing trees.

     Mr. Schoenenberger was married in 1892 to Mrs. Elizabeth Shilling. Her people were German and never came to this country. She is the mother of Henry, Mary, Henry (2), Minnie and Lester Schoenenberger.

     To the subject of this writing, as to others on the frontier, came various trials and troubles. In 1903 fire destroyed his barns and granaries, and his horses and cattle were burned in their stalls. During the prolonged dry seasons of 1893 and 1894 he lost his crops, and it required all his energy to save his stock. All that, however, seem like a dream today in the midst of comfort and plenty. A Democrat in political affairs, he is a good citizen and seeks the welfare of all in his talk and vote.

     Jacob Schoenenberger, the father of Emile, was a foreman in a silk factory and a man of considerable prominence in his day. On his death the widow, with uncommon executive ability, filled his place for fourteen years, having charge of over a hundred operatives. They

     

     
© 2001 NEGenWeb Project Resource Center, Chris Geis, T&C Miller