Seward County, Nebraska Genealogy

CAIN, James Martin, husband of Rebecca Jane (CAIN), son of Joseph and Barbara (HECKARD) CAIN. This biography is from the Compendium of History, Reminiscence and Biography of Nebraska, Alden Publishing Company, Chicago, 1912, page 450, submitted by great-granddaughter-in-law Joan Kennel.
[Surnames: CAIN, HARTLEY, HECKARD, MILLER, POWELL]

CAMPION, Michael M., husband of Ella (McCUNE). The following biography is from W. W. Cox, History of Seward County Nebraska and Reminiscences of Territorial History, Part Two: Biographical, second printing, 1905, pages 25-26:
[Surnames: CAMPBELL, CAMPION, GILLAN, LYON, McCUNE]

MICHAEL M. CAMPION

CASLER, Joseph H., husband of 1) Ella (TRACY) and 2) Lizzie May (LEAVENS). This biography is from W. W. Cox, History of Seward County, Nebraska and Reminiscences of Territorial History, Part Two: Biographical, 1905, pages 29-30 (scans of photos from pp.29-30 courtesy Pat Ryan White):
[Surnames: CASLER, LEAVENS, TRACY]

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JOSEPH H. CASLER

CATTLE, John Sr., husband of Alice Ellen (SORBY). This biography, apparently written by his daughter-in-law Mercedes (Brown) Cattle, is from pages 194-195 of the 1967 book, On A Bend of the River, posted here courtesy of the author, Jane Ramsay Graff.
[Surnames: BROWN. CATTLE, HARGREAVES, PEERY, ROBERTS, ROE, SORBY, SPOMER]

CATTLE
                                by Mecedes[sic?] Cattle

E. L. CLARK
                        by Victor F. Clark, D.D.

    My father Elipha L. Clark, was born in New York State [sic: Vermont?]. He married Nancy Munger, [p.196] and they were the parents of nine [sic: eleven] children. Father had little formal education. He served as an apprentice to a shoe-maker long enough to be able to make shoes for us children, which proved useful in those days. But he had higher ideas of a life work and in addition to his shoe-making he took up the study of law under an attorney. About the time that he completed his law studies he came under the influence of the preaching of a devout minister. He studied and was ordained as a minister in the Baptist church. For several years he served small churches in Northern Vermont. Here father rented a small farm, and we lived in these royally humble circumstances for the next few years.
    In 1865 the Civil War was over. He and mother had sent three sons and two son-in-laws (Augustus, Cornelius, Elipha, Jr., Darwin Forbes and George Dickey) to the war for freedom and a united nation. Slavery was over; the west was "free soil". Father determined upon one more move. He would go where land was free.
    In the fall of that year, leaving the family in the East, he went to the far West, Nebraska; which was indeed 'far' at that time. Arriving at Nebraska City by steamboat, he walked seventy-five miles to Seward county, stopping with a settler, Mr. Louis Moffitt, who had a log house on the hill where the town of Seward is now located.
    About a mile and a half south, father chose the spot for our future home. Surely the only reason for selecting that barren, rocky hillside for a homestead was that it faintly resembled the hills of Vermont. Here he built a shanty on his claim and spent the winter. That winter of 1865-6 passed and April fool's day found our family united again at Nebraska City, whither father had come with two men and covered wagons to take us and our few belongings across the seventy-five miles of prairie to "Home Sweet Home".
    Not a town and but few houses--log or sod--were seen the entire distance. Leaving Nebraska City about noon on Monday, we reached Mr. Moffitt's residence late Wednesday afternoon. We were cordially welcomed at the Moffitt home which consisted of two rooms, one of which was assigned to the six arrivals from the East; the Rev. E. L. Clark and his wife, the Misses Lucy, Annie, and Elsie and myself, Victor.
    We remained in these ample quarters until father had completed the erection of our home. He built a log frame, and inside that a room of split cottonwood boards, which was of course, dry in dry weather and wet when the weather was wet. The vital question was now, how shall we live? Around us was unbroken prairie. Very little garden could be raised on sod soil the first year. The economic problem was serious, as it always is with most folks. In this case it was either more food or less persons to feed; and, strange to say, it really seemed better to get places for the people than to get the food.
    The two older Clark girls, Lucy and Annie, went to Nebraska City where they secured employment in homes as hired girls. Sister Elsie, thirteen, had finished eighth grade in Vermont and she was given a small school to teach in another neighborhood, where she "boarded around". I ate or fasted with father and mother. Of course we did not actually fast, although it is true that one day all mother had to set for dinner was summer squash, and that only enough for two, which she got for father and me, while she walked outside and meditated on the ways of life.
    That summer passed. Father was "employed" by the Baptist Home Missionary Society and conducted church services for pioneer families when occasions made it possible. Lucy and Annie remained through the winter in Nebraska City. Meanwhile father dug the "Dugout" where we were to hibernate for the winter. Elsie's school was closed before real winter weather set in. Father had secured from some source, a partial supply of food for the winter; flour, cornmeal and potatoes and we had some beans and turnips from our meager summer garden. But these did not last the season. For several weeks we had only the cornmeal supplemented with rabbits, of which nature furnished an abundant supply, and the heavy snow made it easy for us to catch them. Johnny-cake and rabbits then constituted the menu of three meals a day; no milk, no butter, (our cow was dry), no store within miles, no roads through the deep snow and no money with which to buy.
    For our entertainment and culture that "shut in" winter, my most distinct memory is father reading to us; the Bible, for our daily devotions, and the "New York Sun" for our entertainment. Sitting around the cook stove we listened to every word of that political paper, as if it were "Alice in Wonderland." No doubt the great Whittier never will know the shameless way I tried to imitate him in these lines I scratched so long ago;
              Shut in from all the world without
              We sat, the cook stove hearth about:
  [p.197] Content to let the blizzard roar
              In baffled rage, at dugout door.
              Behind the stove a goodly pile
              Of oak and cottonwood, the while
              Supplied the hungry stove with wood.
but you may wager your all, there were no "sputtering apples", nor "mugs of cider" simmering there.
    Spring came at last, and with it the greatest flood the Big Blue Valley ever knew in the days of the white man. The entire valley from one foot hill to the other was a river. All the settlers near the river were driven to the hills, and we were thankful father had not chosen some of that rich bottom land for our homestead. The great flood was caused by the very heavy snow fall of the winter and spring and the sudden melting and rain in March.
    Father was elected to the Territorial legislature which met in Omaha. In April Lucy and Annie returned home from Nebraska City. Lucy was ill with a cold, that rapidly developed into pneumonia. The aid of a physician was entirely by mail, the nearest doctor being in Nebraska City. Lucy died. I do not know how word reached father in Omaha, there was no telegraphic communication, but he came. He arrived at Milford, where he met the carpenter who was making the casket, and rode with him the rest of the way home. The funeral service was certainly the "Simple Annals of the poor", though I doubt that it was short. A Baptist minister recently arrived in the neighborhood preached the sermon. She was laid to rest in a grave on the hillside on the treeless prairie.
    Life now turned again to the serious business of getting a living which was not as easy as it had been represented. There was drought, hail storms, and the plague of Egypt. Using the line of Emerson on the snow storm; "Announced by all the Trumpets of the sky arrives the snow"; so came the storm of locusts, one summer day. Their wings glistening in the sun like snow flakes, shutting out the sun, as the great cloud came nearer. Lighting on every edible thing in field and garden, they feasted for a day and then left the country as barren as a desert. Somewhere there were good and righteous people who shared their good with us, and we survived again.
    Those were years of experience with the native Americans--Indians; Omahas, Pawnees, Otoes. Annually they filed past our house, begging food, stealing garden truck and watermelons. I watched the squaws at work about their teepees; listened to their weird music; got my first lesson in Boy Scouting as I watched how they broke limbs from bushes and tied twigs together to mark the way for the others.
    They were always friendly to us and I rather liked to see them and hear their good natured "How" and "Swap", as they saw some bright article of clothing and wanted to trade arrow-heads or beads. Fine folks, some were; more sinned against than sinning.
    Such was life on the farm. In the spring of 1873 father sickened and died, entering into his rest on April first just six [sic: seven] years to the day since we had arrived in Nebraska. Only mother and I were left on the farm. The fall before, sister Elsie had been married to Carl Boyes, and one year before that sister, Annie, had been married to Oscar Stubbs, so they were both settled in their own homes. Mother was not in good health and passed to her well earned rest the fall of 1874. It was decided to rent the farm, and that I should go with my older brother, Moulton, to Tabor, Iowa, where there were better advantages for my education.

REV. E. L. CLARK

COLLAMORE, George W., husband of 1) Cornelia (BLOOD) and 2) Nellie J. (ROGERS). This biography is from W. W. Cox, History of Seward County, Nebraska and Reminiscences of Territorial History, Part Two: Biographical, 1905, page 35:
[Surnames: BLOOD, COLLAMORE, HIVELY, MARQUIS, ROGERS, ZBINDER]

GEORGE W. COLLAMORE

COURTRIGHT, Jacob B., husband of Catherine (FLACK). This biography is from W. W. Cox, History of Seward County, Nebraska and Reminiscences of Territorial History, Part Two: Biographical, 1905, page 42 (scanned p.41 photo courtesy Pat Ryan White):
[Surnames: COURTRIGHT, FLACK, WERTMAN]

—————
JACOB B. COURTRIGHT

COX, Jefferson, husband of sisters, 1) Eliza B. and 2) Elizabeth E. (REAVES) and 3) Emma (HILL). This biography is from W. W. Cox, History of Seward County, Nebraska and Reminiscences of Territorial History, Part Two: Biographical, 1905, page 31:
[Surnames: AHLSCHWEDE, BADGER, BROKAW, COX, HILL, REAVES]

JEFFERSON COX

CRAIGE, Thomas, husband of Pearl (IMLAY WAIT). This biography, written by his daughter Naomi (Craige) Bingham, is from page 198 of the 1967 book, On A Bend of the River, posted here courtesy of the author, Jane Ramsay Graff.
[Surnames: BINGHAM/BRIGHAM, CRAIGE, IMLAY, MOFFITT, WAIT]

CRAIGE
The Story of a Seward Cop
                                by Naomi Brigham [sic?Bingham?]

CUMMINS, Elmer E., husband of Ida M. (WEATHERBY). This biography is from W. W. Cox, History of Seward County, Nebraska and Reminiscences of Territorial History, Part Two: Biographical, 1905, pages 37-38:
[Surnames: CUMMINS, WEATHERBY]

ELMER E. CUMMINS

CURLEY, Dr. Alfred E. This biography, written by his wife Varena (Crabtree) Curley, is from page 198 of the 1967 book, On A Bend of the River, posted here courtesy of the author, Jane Ramsay Graff.
[Surnames: CRABTREE, CURLEY, HARTENFELD, McLAFFERTY, NUSS, PEARSON]

CURLEY
                        by Varena Curley

    Dr. Alfred E. Curley and Varena Crabtree were married and established their home in Seward in 1920. Their four children are all graduates of Seward high school and the University of Nebraska. Janet married Louis J. Hartenfeld and lives in Fremont, California, and has 4 children.
    Catherine married Robert Pearson (deceased) has 2 daughters, lives at Lyons, Nebr.
    Elizabeth (Libby) married Dr. Fred McLafferty has 5 children and live in West Lafayette, Indiana.
    Philip is a dentist, married Janet Nuss have 3 boys and live in Wheatridge, Colo.
    Dr. Curley died very suddenly in 1956 and Mrs. Curley lives in their home in Seward.
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