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out with the government came home to be married. Their made their home in DeWitt county, and led a rural life for seventeen years. They finally made up their mind that a better field for farming was across the Missouri river, and they bought a farm in 1882 in Lockridge township, which presently grew to two hundred and forty acres. She lives on a forty-acre tract in section 21, Bradshaw township, retaining a life interest in the larger property. Mr. Haney died nearly ten years ago, and left his wife in good circumstances. She is living with her brother who, is blind, and her son, John Doyle. She is a woman seventy-four years of age, but does her own work, and with her brother and son seems to enjoy life and have a good time as the days slip by. 


Letter/label or barEORGE PETERSON, whose postoffice address is Bradshaw, York county, Nebraska, is a Swedish-American and worthily sustains the good reputation which his compatriots have won in this land of opportunity. He has worked hard, been honest and fair dealing, and is to-day one of the reliable and solid men of the community.

     George Peterson was born in the south part of Sweden, September 15, 1850, and is a son of Pear and Cecil Anderson, who lived in the district of Bloeking. When he was twenty years old he emigrated to America, paying his passage with the money his brother Nels sent him from this country. He had made the journey a year before, and wanted his brother to share the larger life with him. George landed in New York, but went immediately to Duluth, where he found employment as a stone and brick mason. He worked in that city for two seasons, and was on the Northern Pacific railroad for a third year at two dollars a day. In July, 1874, reported at Sweedburg, Iowa, where he spent the next five years working for the surrounding farmers at the usual wage of twenty dollars a month. With his brother Nels he came to this state and reached this county in March, 1878. He was married November 23, 1881, to Miss Christina Johnson, and made his home on the northeast quarter of section 3, township north 10, range 4 west. Here they have lived up to the present time. They put up a little cottage which, with all the other farm buildings, was swept away by a cyclone June 3, 1890. They fled to the cellar and escaped with their lives, but everything they had in furniture or wearing apparel was blown away and never recovered. It was a thrilling experience. They lived in the granary until they could build a new house in the fall. They have now a fine farm dwelling, barns, corn cribs, granaries and other improvements. They have a young and thrifty orchard that affords the fruits that are common to this climate. Last year they harvested forty-five acres of small grain, forty acres of corn and ten acres of meadow. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson are the parents of four children--Anna O., Elsie J., Esther A. and Ella W. Mrs. Peterson, the mother of this family of charming girls, is the daughter of Charley and Christina Johnson, who also came from Sweden in 1851, and settled on a farm in Jefferson county, Iowa, where they died in after years. Her father lived to be forty-three and the mother fifty-six. They are all of the Lutheran faith. Mr. Peterson is a Republican. 


Letter/label or barOSEPH M. MILLER is engaged in farming operations on section 20, precinct E, Seward county, and has been a resident of Nebraska for many years. He is a man of more than ordinary ability, has a ready mind and a positive character, and is regarded as one of the most reliable men in this part of the county.


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      Mr. Millet was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, December 21, 1841, and is a son of Lewis and Mary (Wilyard) Miller. His father was an engineer on the Pittsburg and Fort Wayne railroad, and was killed in collision on that line in 1853, at Canton, Ohio. His mother is still living, and has had her home in Piper City, Illinois, since 1867. His maternal grandfather was a soldier in the war of 1812, and a brother of his father served in the Mexican war. He had his schooling in Johnstown and Pittsburg, and was thrown upon his own resources at the early age of twelve years by the untimely death of his father. His first work was for his board. He was a ready lad, and willing to do any honest work, and by the time he reached early manhood was able to command good wages. The inauguration of the Civil war found him quick to respond to the nation's call for troops, and he enlisted June 27, 1861, in Company H, Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was mustered in at Camp Wright, Pittsburg, and was sent to Washington, and on the way passed through the city of Baltimore, then a dangerous thoroughfare for Federal troops. It was the first regiment to pass through after the Sixth Massachusetts, and the way was a difficult one. It wrote a long and brilliant history, and participated in many of the most important engagements of the war. It was captured at Gaines' Mill, and the men were detained as prisoners of war forty-one days, when they were exchanged, and were almost immediately rushed on to the second battle of Bull Run. They fought at South Mountain, Antietam, Mine Run, Fredericksburg, and at Gettysburg. Mr. Miller re-enlisted in the same company, and in the battle of the Wilderness, May, 5, 1864, was taken prisoner. He was an inmate of Andersonville for four months, and passed through all the bitter experiences of that modern inferno. He was transferred to Florence, North Carolina, where he was kept for five months, and from there he passed to Wilmington, and spent three weeks in the hospital. He was parolled at Goldsboro, and on his return to the Union lines received a prisoner's furlough to make a visit home. He returned to the One Hundred and Ninetieth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and served throughout the war, receiving his discharge July 3, 1865. He was never seriously wounded, and though he was much prostrated by his experiences in the rebel prisons, yet he measureably recovered his health, and takes much satisfaction in recalling those stormy days.

      The war-worn veteran returned to his Pennsylvania home, but soon set his face westward, and secured employment on a farm near Farmington, Illinois. This was in 1866, and the next year he bought a farm, which he operated until 1872. He spent some little time in making his next location, and though he came to this state in 1873, it was not until the November of the following year that he made a homestead entry of the east half of the southeast quarter of section 20, in this township. Some slight improvements had been made upon this tract by a former claimant, such as the breaking up of twenty acres and the erection of a small frame house. He, however, held to the claim, improved it thoroughly and secured a final title. In 1880 he moved his family into Utica, and spent nine years in that thriving little burg. In 1889 he came back to the farm, and spent a year in its cultivation, when he returned to Utica, and in 1894 made his home on the farm for a third time, and there he is to be found to-day. He has eighty acres in a high state of cultivation, and though it is not so extensive an estate as some of his neighbors possess, yet it is very productive, and yields an ample support for those who depend upon it.


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      Mr. Miller was married in November, 1868, to Miss Margery Cramer, who was born in Illinois, and is an estimable lady. They are the parents of one child. Royal C. The subject of this sketch is a member of the Grand Army post at Utica, and as might be expected is one of its most zealous and active members. He has been commander of the post, and his voice is always listened to with deference in its deliberations. He has also united with the Loyal Legion of Pennsylvania, though distance prevents a very active work in that organization. He is a Democrat, and has been township constable for many years. He was deputy sheriff for four terms, and has served one term on the county board. He is a man of energy and push, and is regarded as one of the solid men of this part of the county. 


Letter/label or barLIFF FRANK is the editor and proprietor of The Teller. He has ably conducted the various departments of his newspaper enterprise and has built up for himself an excellent reputation as an editor and a large patronage for his newspaper. The Teller is the Free Silver Republican organ of York county, Nebraska, and was founded August 19, 1897, by its present editor.

      Mr. Frank was born in Harrison county, Indiana, February 15, 1855, and received his preliminary training in the public schools of his native county. He began the study of law at the age of eighteen years, and was admitted to the bar in Indiana. At the age of twenty years he went west, and in 1879 was admitted to the bar in York county, Nebraska. During that year, also, he assumed the editorship of the York Tribune, and for three years he devoted the greater part of his attention to this publication. During the following three years he practiced law, and then edited the York Republican for four years. Mr. Frank then spent some time in farming, but in 1897 he established The Teller. This paper is named in honor of Hon. Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, and is devoted to the interest of the Free Silver Republicans of York and adjoining counties. It is a seven-page sheet and is generally read throughout this section of Nebraska. It has a circulation of about nine hundred, which is steadily increasing.

      Mr. Frank was married, in 1880 to Miss Lizzie Keller, a native of Indiana, and their wedded life has been blessed by the presence of two children, Charles Scott and Lena May, both of whom are living. Our subject is a member of the Masonic fraternity; the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In local politics he has performed the duties of justice of the peace. Mr. Frank had the misfortune to lose his right arm in a railroad accident in 1889, and also to lose his left leg by a gun shot wound. 


Letter/label or bar. H. TROWBRIDGE.--Fortunate is he who has back of him an ancestry honorable and distinguished, and happy is he if his lines of life are cast in harmony therewith. Our subject, now a prominent farmer residing on section 8, Read township, Butler county, is blessed in this respect, for he springs from a prominent family, which was early founded in this country. On the paternal side he traces his ancestry back to Thomas Trowbridge, of Taunton, England, who came to the new world in 1636, and settled first in Dorchester, Massachusetts, removing two years later to New Haven, Connecticut. On the other hand, his mother is descended from William Packard, who was a participant in the famous "Boston tea party," and was with the Colonial army on their expedition to Quebec during the Revolutionary war.


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      Dr. John Foote Trowbridge, our subject's father, was born in Dutchess county, New York, July 21, 1791, and was a son of Seeley Trowbridge, a native of Connecticut. The doctor was married in, 1817, to Miss Rosamond Packard, daughter of John Packard, of New Hartford, New York, and they became the parents of five children: A. H., of this review; R. F., late of Syracuse, New York,; j. M., of Brooklyn, New York,; Frances, who died in Milwaukee; and Mrs. Louisa Blanchard, who died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The father of these children was widely known throughout central New York as a successful medical practitioner, having devoted over sixty years to his profession. He died in Syracuse, honored and respected by all who knew him.

      Mr. Trowbridge, whose name introduces this sketch, was born at New Hartford, Oneida county, New York, October 18, 1818, and his childhood was spent on a farm near Bridgewater, that state, his education being obtained in the common schools of the locality and in Bridgewater academy. At the age of twenty-three he removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was engaged in business for seventeen years. In Walworth county, that state, he was married August 16, 1849, to Miss Harriet Bentley, who was born at Goshen, Litchfield county, Connecticut, August 6, 1831, and is a daughter of Robert Bentley, a native of Rhode Island. Having no children of their own, Mr. and Mrs. Trowbridge have adopted two, namely: Nellie, now the wife of James Patterson, and Robert Henry Trowbridge, now twenty-seven years of age. He takes an active interest in church and Sunday-school work, being a member of the Baptist denomination, and has also efficiently served his fellow citizens as town clerk.

      In the spring of 1869 Mr. Trowbridge emigrated to Nebraska, making the journey in a wagon drawn by four horses, while two cows were attached behind. He has since made his home upon his present farm on section 8, Read township, Butler county, and for nine years after locating here he served as postmaster of Cottonwood, conducting the office in his own home. This was some time before the present town of Surprise was founded or even dreamed of. With the material prosperity and growth of the county Mr. Trowbridge has since been identified, and he is one of the most public-spirited and enterprising citizens of the community. In the Trowbridge home the traditions of the family are preserved and the cultured tastes of the inmates are clearly hereditary. 


Letter/label or barOUIS CRAIG REN, whose portrait is presented with this sketch, is the active and daring sheriff of Butler county, and has hesitated at no deed of daring and danger that the rules of justice and law might seem to require from him. The office which he so ably fills has never been a sinecure in the western country, and though the state of Nebraska has always had reason to be proud of the high character and law-abiding habits of its people, yet as in every other new country there have been occasions when a peculiarly vigilant and ready public officer was demanded to administer the police strength of the county. Sheriff Ren has met every such requirement with readiness and deciion (sic), and has received much praise for his quick mastery of every complicated and delicate situation.

      Sheriff Ren was born in Jackson county, Indiana, May 30, 1854, and is of Scottish Irish descent. His father's name was Shadarach Wren, and his mother was Nancy Aley. His grandfather was born in Ireland, and came to this country about the year 1760. The early history of the family is obscure, but, in a general way, it may be noted as an honorable and working branch of the name,


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LOUIS C. REN


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and during the early part of the century appeared in Indiana. Here Shadarach Wren was the owner of a woodland farm and a master mechanic in the Louisville foundry. Later on he was engaged on the river as a mate on an Ohio river boat. The family name was originally Wren, but Shadarach, at the instigation of some friends in scientific circles, and in deference to a movement that was quite popular at that time, dropped the "W", and wrote it simply Ren.

      Louis Craig Ren grew up in the possession of the privileges of a woodland farm, and all that means to a boy. He studied and worked and pushed along, and in 1876 felt himself sufficiently master of the situation to take a wife. He was accordingly married that year to Miss Sarah E. Utterback, who died October 12, 1877, soon after the birth of a daughter, Maude Alma Ren, who is still living in Indiana. Mr. Ren removed to Butler county, Nebraska, and engaged in farming without any other capital than a strong arm and a resolute spirit. He has a genial and warm-hearted disposition, makes friends readily and holds them steadily by virtue of a sound and manly character. So it is not to be wondered that he pushed rapidly to the front, and soon became a leading spirit in the county. He has done well in business, and commands a wide influence in politics. He was formerly a Republican, but in the various reform movements in this county which have made recent years memorable he has taken an active part. He was president of the North Butler Farmers' Alliance, and a delegate to the first Populist convention in the state, which was held in 1890. He was a member of the county board in 1890 when the court house was built. He was a nominee for sheriff four years ago, but the ticket was snowed under. In 1897 he was again brought forward and elected by a handsome majority.

      Sheriff Ren is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Home Forum, and is much esteemed in these various fraternal relations. He was married a second time in life in 1884, Mrs. Rosa J. Lawrenze becoming his wife. Her father, Frederick Marti, was a native of Switzerland, and a man of fine character and much ability. He graduated from the college at Berne, and was married to Miss Rosa Bruner, a lady of much intellectual power and wide attainments. She was an artist in the musical world, and a graduate of a musical college in her native country. To Mr. and Mrs. Ren have been born four children--Hattie Bell, Mary E., Walter H., and Helen R. They are a delightful family, and promise well for the future. His mother's people were of Scottish descent and came to America prior to the Revolutionary war and some of them were soldiers in the early wars of the country. Mr. Ren has always taken an active interest in educational matters and for several years was president of the board of education at Bellwood, Nebraska, of the high school. 


Letter/label or barUSTAV FAUSTMAN.--No better illustration of the characteristic energy and enterprise of the typical German-American citizen can be found than that afforded by the career of this gentleman, a well-known farmer of York county, whose home is on section 24, Brown township. Coming to this country with no capital except his abilities, he has made his way to success through well-directed effort, and can now look back with satisfaction upon past struggles.

      A native of Germany, Mr. Faustman was born in Landsberg, May 25, 1848, a son of Ludwig and Henrietta (Walter) Faustman, and grandson of Martin Faustman.

      All were natives of the Fatherland, and fol-


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lowed either gardening or farming. The grandfather was a soldier in the army against Napoleon in 1812 and 1815, the father was in the war of 1848, and our subject was in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-71, taking part in fifteen important battles, including those at Metz, Sedan, Paris, and Orleans. He was only twenty years old when he entered the service, and fortunately was never wounded nor confined to the hospital, though he had three horses shot from under him and his lance broken by a bullet.

      After his return from the war, Mr. Faustman married Miss Augusta Senff, daughter of Karl and Wilhelmina Senff. All of her ancestors were natives of Germany, and many of them were farmers, but her father was a school-teacher, being appointed by the government. With the hope of benefitting their financial condition, Mr. and Mrs. Faustman came to the United States, landing in New York city July 25, 1872, from a steamer, and by railway train they proceeded to York county, Nebraska, where he filed a claim to the east half of the southeast quarter of section 24, Brown township. Upon his place he built a house entirely of sod-walls, roof aad (sic) floor-he having no money to buy even a nail. The floor of this primitive dwelling the wife swept with a broom of willows for a long time. Leaving her alone after the completion of their home, Mr. Faustman walked sixteen miles to the home of a farmer who passed for a rich man because he owned a team, and our subject employed him to break his prairie for him, paying him three dollars per acre by work at seventy-five cents per day. While her husband was thus employed, Mrs. Faustman spaded a little garden and planted the seed which she had brought from Germany, but was not very successful in her gardening. She was very lonesome at this time; wild animals were all around, and now and then a rattlesnake was found, which kept her on the lookout day and night. Saturday she would watch for her husband, who might be seen coming across the prairie bearing on his shoulder the provisions he had earned by his labor during the week, and which she was to live on the following week.

      Thus they lived until 1874, when he was able to buy a team of horses. He also purchased a wagon for fifty dollars, which he paid for by plowing with his new team at two dollars per day. That year he broke forty acres of his own land besides what he broke for other people, and also bought a cow. Instead of eating the butter, Mrs. Faustman traded it for corn at seventy-five cents per bushel. In spite of all their privations they were healthy, and the years passed swiftly and happily by, for were they not working for a home which they never could have secured in the Fatherland? At length a company of farmers purchased a header and afterward a threshing machine, and from that time life began to grow easier. Mr. Faustman planted shade and fruit trees, and as everything grew rapidly their farm of sunflower, golden rod and blue grass was soon transformed into cultivated fields of wheat, rye, oats, barley and corn. In 1878 he purchased from the railroad company another quarter section of land on ten years' time, but had it all paid for at the end of six years, and two years later had saved one thousand dollars, with which he erected a comfortable frame residence, the family being glad to get rid of the old crumbling sod dwelling. In 1894 he paid three thousand dollars cash for another one hundred and sixty acre tract, and in 1896 paid twenty-five hundred dollars for eighty acres, counting out the money when the deed was signed. He now owns four hundred and eighty acres of as fine farming land as can be found in York county, without a cent of indebtedness upon it; has two fine orchards and excellent buildings upon the place. He keeps twelve milch cows,


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selling the milk, or rather cream, for seventy dollars per month the year round. Thus we see that, by hard work, perseverance and good management, he has become one of the most substantial as well as one of the highly respected farmers of the county.

      Six children came to brighten the little home, three sons and three daughters, namely: Ida, now the wife of Charles Hahn, a son of Charles and Ida Hahn; and Otto, Reinhold, Emil, Alvina and Mary, who are all at home. The children are receiving good public school educations, and with their parents attend the Lutheran church. Mr. and Mrs. Faustman were educated in the common schools of Germany, and he is also able to read and write the English language. Since becoming an American citizen, he has been an ardent supporter of the Republican party, casting his first vote for General Grant, and his last for William McKinley. 


Letter/label or bar. P WALSH, who has lived and farmed for more than a quarter of a century on section 1, precinct D, Seward county, stands well among Nebraska farmers, and by his industry, thrift and economy has made himself independently well off. He has a farm consisting of three hundred and twenty acres of choice land, and the buildings upon it are above the average in their substantial construction and the convenience of their arrangements.

      Mr. Walsh was born near Waukegan, Illinois, in 1845, and was reared and educated in that community. He was bred a farmer, and assumed the responsibility of his own maintenance when only sixteen years of age He crossed the lake and entered the lumber woods near Muskegon, Michigan, and spent a year or more, when he came back to Chicago, and was employed as a teamster for the next three years. By this time he had grown sufficiently fore-handed to buy a team for himself, and engaged in teaming in Waukegan. He came to this state in 1871, and filed a homestead claim on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 10, precinct D, but presently exchanged it for eighty acres, where he is now living. He and Lon Ritchie built a sod house and lived in it together for some time. He earned some needed money about this time by working on the construction of the Burlington & Missouri River railroad. He built a sod house on his own homestead, which was used for a time as a school-house, and where the first term was held in the district.

      Mr. Walsh was married January 1, 1879, to Miss Mary Ann Reynolds, a native of New York, and a daughter of Christopher Reynolds, who came to this county as early as 1865. He was a man of energy, daring and integrity, and has been long dead. Mr. and Mrs. Walsh immediately settled on their homestead farm, and applied themselves earnestly to its improvement. They put up a frame residence, sixteen by twenty-four feet, and have from time to time made very substantial additions to it until it has assumed its present comfortable and commodious appearance. They began with wild land, and by persistent pluck and push are now the owners of a half section of land, one hundred and sixty acres of it on section 1, and the remainder on section 12. The farm is supplied with two sets of buildings, and has all the conveniences required by a modern and up-todate agriculture. He rents and operates an additional quarter section, making four hundred and eighty acres under his immediate and personal management.

      Mr. and Mrs. Walsh are the parents of six living children--Matthew, Thomas, Edward, George, Leo and Ralph. They are members of the Catholic church at Ulysses, and are prominent people in the parish. He is a Populist, and an active worker for


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the cause he cherishes. He is township treasurer and also treasurer of school district 43, and is generally regarded as an upright and capable man. 


Letter/label or barDWARD LANCASTER is a public-spirited and enterprising farmer, who has a well improved homestead on section 16, Waco township, York county. He has devoted himself to the improvement of his farm, and is industrious, progressive in his methods, and quick to take advantage of every turn of the tide in his favor. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and has brought to the making of his home in the newer west the strength and solidity of character that forms so prominent a part in the character of the people of that land of morals and education. He stands very high in the estimation of his neighbors, and is regarded as a man to be trusted in any place of responsibility.

      Mr. Lancaster was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, December 19, 1836, and is a son of Edward and Elizabeth (Smith) Lancaster. He was a native of Virginia, but found his wife in Pennsylvania, where she was born and raised. For fifteen years after his marriage the senior Lancaster continued his residence in the state of his wife's nativity. They fancied a greater opportunity west of the Ohio river, and moved to Medina county, Ohio, where they spent the next ten years on a farm. In 1849 they penetrated still farther into the western wilderness, and made a home in Houston township, Adams county, Illinois, where they passed the remainder of their lives. She died in 1871, and he outlived her three years. They reared a numerous family of eleven children to maturity. One child died in infancy, and four are still alive. Three of their sons, Nicholas, James and David, served in the Union army during the Civil war. David fell in battle; James was severely wounded, but lived through it, and, like all wounded veterans, is proud of his wounds and sufferings for the great cause.

     Edward Lancaster grew to manhood in Adams county, Illinois, attended its public schools, and when he became a man assumed the occupation of farming. He began, as so many other successful American farmers have done, by working by the month, and carefully saving his money. He wedded Miss Miranda America Barlow, September 8, 1858, an event which influenced his life by bringing into it the wisdom and character of a noble womanly soul. She was born in Adams county, Illinois, November 29, 1841, and is a daughter of Wesley and Mary (Lewis) Barlow, both of whom were children of old Virgiania. They settled in Adams county, Illinois, in 1838, and there they lived and died. Her father died in 1846, her mother in 1874. Mrs. Lancaster had nine brothers and sisters, and four of that family are now living. She is herself the mother of seven children. The oldest of these is Edna A., who became the wife of William M. Strickler, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. Emma Amelia is Mrs. Benjamin Robertson, and her husband is a farmer in this township. William J. wedded Bertha K. Strickler, and lives in Gresham. They have two children, Jennie Irene and Zara Linn. John W. was married to Miss Anna Wellington, and lives in this township. He is the father of two children, Frankie Horace and Clyde Evans. Zara Edward wedded Gertrude Moore, and lives in this township. Lewis and Edith Bell are still at home, and add much to the life and enjoyment of their parents in the house that once echoed the music of so many childish voices. Mrs. Lancaster is associated with what is known as the Oldschool Baptist church, and is very highly spoken of by her associates in the church. Mr. Lancaster is a Populist, and a man of

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