INCIDENTS I REMEMBER MY FATHER TELLING ME
by Alice Naomi (Hageman) Imig (1896-1979)
Welcome to Seward County!
Seward is not just the name of a county in Nebraska and a city in that county. It is our unforgettable family home and a magical place in our hearts. We hope you will enjoy this website, offered as a tribute to all the brave and hard-working pioneers of Seward County.
If your family has roots in Seward, perhaps these photos of early residents and their graves, as well as biographies, obituaries, and memoirs, will aid you in your search for your ancestors and relatives. See also our maps, historical information, and links to useful pages for Seward County research.
May we meet one day treading the brick streets or golden prairie grass of Seward County!
Best wishes always,
Alice Imig Stipak
and other grateful grandchildren of Seward Co., Nebraska
NOTE: This website is brand new; started 8/20/2004.
For updates on our website progress and projects, please read SewardBlog, our new web log.
To post a message/inquiry for Seward County researchers, visit our new Seward Forum.
We are posting new content every day, so please return soon to see more!--Alice, webmaster
"One cold winter night, at a time when my grandparents and family knew a group of Indians had made camp a short way east of their log cabin [in J Precinct], a young Indian who was the Chief's son, came to the door of the cabin and wanted in. They let him in, as a blizzard was raging outside and he had lost his way and was very cold. My grandfather [William Brown Hageman] allowed him to stay and he lay in front of the big fireplace for the night. When morning came, the storm had abated and the young Indian had gone.
"True to Indian tradition, the tribe was very grateful for them having saved his life, and as long as they camped there, showed their appreciation by bringing the Hagemans rabbits to eat, and things they had made of beads, etc.
"In another incident, when my grandfather and family were in a field out of sight of the cabin digging up potatoes for the year's supply, they saw a group of Indians coming down the road toward the cabin, and being busy, sent my father who was a young boy to the cabin to give them what they wanted if they came in -- like bread and other things to eat. Potatoes were badly needed in those days, and they didn't want them to find them, so my father [Simon Peter Hageman] gave them bread, etc. Then the Chief saw the axe grinder back of the cabin and motioned for my father to turn the wheel while he ground his tomahawk. So my father turned the grinder wheel -- all the time thinking he was going to use it on him. But fortunately they then moved on.
"That was one of the few times they saw the Indians again, for soon they were marched down the road to the reservations."
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Alice's "Return to Seward Diary 2001" "As Brian drove us toward Seward County, the land of our beloved mother's family, my heart floated above the car like a happy white cloud, carried gently on the breath of my ancestors' spirits. 'Our people likely followed a very similar path into Seward when they moved here from Fulton County, Illinois in covered wagons some one hundred and thirty-five years ago,' I mused aloud. Absorbing this awesome thought deeply, we silently followed the straight asphalt road as it neatly parted the limitless cornfields stretched over land that was drier and not as flat as I had expected." More... ********************************************** |
We are striving to post as many photos of Seward County cemeteries and their gravestones as possible. When you take your camera on visits to these resting places, please send us copies of your photos so we can add them to our growing collection for all to see! We will include tombstone transcriptions and cemetery records when possible, as well as photos of the deceased. Cemetery index...  |
IMIG Family Reunion Held 61 Years Ago... Friederich Imig Family Reunion ––––– The sixth annual Friederich Imig family reunion was held Sunday, September 5, [1943] at the 4-H building at the Seward park. Approximately one hundred were present to enjoy the basket dinner which was served at noon. A short business meeting was held which was presided over by Fredetta Bick of York, as acting chairman. A gift was presented to Mrs. Hannah Kaltenborn of York, the oldest lady present, and to Nick Gembler, the oldest man. Letters were read from absent members of the family, and births and deaths were recorded. There were eleven births and one death during the past year. It was found that twenty boys from the group are members of the armed forces, serving in all branches of the service. Officers for the next year were elected, and the date set for the next reunion. The officers chosen are: President, Elmer Imig of Seward; vice-president, Jack Schoepf of Seward, secretary, Mrs. Ben Lundholm of Seward, and treasurer, Mrs. Alta Behrens of Lincoln. The remainder of the afternoon was spent with games, contests and visiting. —The Imig family just celebrated their traditional reunion in August 2004 in Goehner! |
...and Imig Reunion 2004!  "The day before our Imig family was scheduled to gather at the Frieden's United Church of Christ in Goehner on August 8th, several of us genealogy-minded eager beavers met at the Seward Civic Center at 10:00 Saturday morning to begin an 'Imig cemetery crawl.' Considering that this is my idea of fun but not necessarily everybody else's, Brian and I were delighted to find a hardy group of six Imigs waiting on the steps (two more would soon catch up with us in Greenwood). "I let out an excited 'Yaaaay!' when I saw Della, our 84-year-old Imig cousin extraordinaire, whom Brian and I first met on this very spot by sheer luck exactly 3 years ago." (see "Return to Seward Diary, August 2001" for that story). To be continued...  |
In Memorium
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