NEMAHA COUNTY, Part 7

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES (AMOS - EMERY).

REV. J. A. AMOS, County Superintendent or Instruction, was born in 1830, in the city of Baltimore, Md., and grew to manhood In Urbana, Ohio; was educated in Mt. Pleasant Academy, the Otterbein University, and the Ohio Wesleyan University. In 1862 he was admitted to practice law before the Supreme Court of Ohio. Mr. Amos was ordained at Circleville, Ohio, having been a member or the Methodist Episcopal Church since 1857. Came to Nebraska in 1865; was in charge of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Valley Falls three years; one year at Monroeville and Hiawatha; two years in Seneca; three years in Troy, and in the fall of 1880 was elected to his present position. He married in Columbus, Ohio, Ruth M. Smith. They have three daughters - Alice A., L. Florence and Nellie M., all born in London, Ohio. During thirteen years of his life in Ohio, he taught school. Has always been Republican; and during the civil war, sent a substitute into the field for three years, afterwards sending another for one hundred days, he being physically incapacitated for military services.

CHARLES C. ANDREWS, jeweler, was born In Warner, Merrimac County. N. H., and left his state in 1865, locating for a couple of years In Des Moines, Iowa. July 8, 1857, found him in Atchison, Kansas, then containing seventy-five buildings by actual count; he opened a shop in the building formerly the law office of A. G. Otis, it being the first jewelry shop in Atchison, and the first one there for many years. Mr. Andrews remained thirteen years in the jewelry business and later engaged in the railroad business in Atchison; removing to Wetmore in 1870, buying and improving land, dealing in live stock, and running a jewelry store. His location in Seneca was made in October, 1876, besides his shop and attractive stock of watches and jewelry. Mr. Andrews owns 240 acres of land in this county. He is a devoted and enthusiastic sportsman, keeping for wolf hunting, etc., a pack of hounds.

TOBIAS AUGUSTINE, farmer P O. Seneca, was born in 1833 in Pennsylvania. Removed in 1835 with his parents to Keokuk, Iowa, and came thence to Nemaha Township in 1864; sold his farm in 1871, and settled where he now is; has 280 acres, a good frame house, surrounded by orchard and groves, all the result of his labors during the past twelve years. Mr. Augustine is looked upon as one of the solid prosperous farmers of Nemaha County, and has done good work in the Seneca Masonic Lodge. He was married in Mahaska County Iowa, to Mary A. Miers, by whom he has six children - Franklin L. born in Mahaska County, Iowa; Irwin and John, born In Keokuk County, Iowa; Nora, Edward and Ella, born in Nemaha County, Kansas.

REV. FATHER THOMAS BARTL, 0. S. B., of St. Peter and St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church, was born in 1830, in Bavaria, Germany. He began studying for the priesthood upon attaining his majority; came to America in December 1856, and resumed his studies in St. Vincent's College. Westmoreland County, Pa. Was ordained in May 1861, and in June, 1862, located at Atchison, Kansas. Through his connection with St. Benedict's College, he made pastoral visits through Northern Kansas as far west as Marysville. From 1873 to 1875 he was stationed at Seneca; then until November, 1881, at St. Benedict's, Nebraska City, and went thence to Seneca.

GEORGE R. BENEDICT, retired farmer, was born June 17, 1832, in Royalton, Niagara County, N. Y., where he lived on a farm until his twenty-second year. His education was in the traditional log schoolhouse and in the Wyoming Seminary. After teaching two terms in New York, and spending a year in the South, he located in Kane County, Ill., in 1857. Taught two terms in St. Charles, Kane County, Ill., and in the spring of 1858 moved to Aurora, Kane County, and engaged in clerking, where he remained until July, 1859. Was in Clay County, Mo., in 1859-'60, and in July 1861, located in Granada, Nemaha County, Kansas. After teaching three terms of school, he enlisted in the Thirteenth Kansas Volunteer Infantry. Fought at Cane Hill and Prairie Grove; was then assigned to the Second Kansas colored, and at the battle of Jenkin's Ferry, received a ball in the upper left arm, partially disabling it. His recovery and discharge was followed by the commission as Second Lieutenant. Again locating in Granada, he made various trips across the plains during the two seasons following. In 1869, while farming in that township, he was elected Town Trustee, and in 1870 took census for Granada Township; in the fall of 1872, was elected Clerk in the District Court, which office he held four consecutive terms, his family residing in Seneca. Mr. Benedict began in Kansas with about $300, but by care, labor, and judicious buying and selling, he has a farm of 790 acres, three or four village houses and lots, and is well known as a money loaner. He married in Granada, Miss S. Isabelle Hart, daughter of W. J. Hart, deceased, of Powhattan. They have three children - Mary L., George R., Emily I., all born in Nemaha County, Kan. Mr. Benedict and family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a member of the Masonic Lodge and Chapter.

JOHN Y. BENFER, sign and carriage painter, was born in 1844, in Union County, Penn. Reared in Seneca County, Ohio, and learned his trade in Norwalk, Ohio. He en- listed in the One Hundred and Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served two years in the Shenandoah Valley; participating in the Winchester and other historic battles, and one year with the army of the James; was three times captured and once escaped, the third time being released at the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. At Winchester he was wounded. After the war he worked at his trade in Michigan and Indiana until 1869, when he located in Seneca. Mr. Benfer is a thorough master of his trade and has a well ordered and occupied shop. For ten years be was an extensive dealer in paints, oils, varnishes. etc. He married Lizzie Aigler of his native county. They have one child - Claude D., born In Elkhart County, Ind. Mr. Benfer is a member of the A. O. U. W., and is now building a roomy and picturesque home of his own design.

THOMAS BENNETT, harnessmaker and saddler, is a native of Cobourg, Canada. Was born in 1833, and reared in Oswego County, N. Y., until 1854, when he returned to Mitchell, Canada and learned his trade. In March, 1870, he located in Seneca and began a business; that judging by his large, varied and complete stock of everything in his line has thriven, as has the town and county selected by him as a home. He married in Mitchell. Canada, Miss Isabella Hawkshaw. They have nine children - the five eldest in Canada, and the others, with one exception, in Seneca. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is also identified with the Masonic Lodge and Chapter of Seneca.

J. W. BERGEN, superintendent of the Seneca Mills, was born in 1829 in Menard County, Ill. He attained man's stature on a farm. He spent twelve years in Galesburg, Ill., and came from Mason City, Ill., to Seneca in 1879. He married in his and her native county, Miss Lucretia Curry. They have two sons - Abraham G., born in Knox County Ill, and now a theological student in Lincoln, Ill., and George I., now in mercantile business in Lincoln, Ill. The family faith is the Cumberland Presbyterian, though through lack of organization in Seneca, Mr. Bergen worships with the Congregationalists, of which church he is now a deacon and also church clerk.

JAMES L. BROCKMAN, City Clerk, was born in 1845, in Mount Sterling, Ill. His father, Lewis Brockman, removed with his family in 1857 to Pardee, Atchison County, Kan., where he died. J. L. Brockman enlisted August 22, 1862, in the Thirteenth Kansas Volunteer Infantry. Served with his regiment in its most dangerous and efficient warfare against Quantrell, Marmaduke, Price and Hindman. During six months, of 1864-65, he served as chief orderly and clerk in the Provost Marshal's headquarters at Van Buren, Ark. He was discharged with the regiment, June 26, 1885. Returned to his Pardee home, which he left in 1869, to take a homestead in Nemaha County, Kan.; losing this on account of sickness, he has, since 1877, resided in Seneca, the present being his third term as City Clerk. He married in Pardee, Kan., Miss Maggie M. Curry, who was born near Columbus Ohio. They have four children - Robert L., born in Pardee; Franklin J., Mary E. and Sarah M., all born in Nemaha County, Kan. Mr. Brockman is a Republican; has been a member of the Christian Church since he was seventeen years old; is a member of the G. A. R., the A. O. U. W., and the A. O. U. T. of Seneca, and a man universally respected for manly qualities.

C. H. BUCKMAN, merchant, of fine old Kentucky family, representing the third generation identified with that State. His grandfather, James Buckman, a Marylander, with Ignatius Buckman and Ignatius Yates, a brother and brother-in-law, settled on the "dark and bloody ground " of Kentucky in 1808. Both Yates and Ignatius Buckman were butchered by the Indians within four years. Jas. W. Buckman, father of C. H. and son of Jas. Buckman, was born in Marion County, Ky.; reared a farmer; married Susan Yates, and died at the age of sixty-five. C. H. Buckman, born in 1831, near Springfield, Washington County, Ky., left the paternal farm at eighteen, entering as clerk the store of a New Haven, Ky., merchant. In April, 1857, he removed to St. Joseph, Mo., where he was for twenty-one years actively engaged in mercantile business; twelve years (1865-'77) as one of the firm of R. McDonald & Co. In April, 1878, he began business with D. J. Firstenberger, in Seneca. This firm dissolved in August, 1881, since which time Mr. Buckman has carried on business where he now is. He married in October, 1856, Miss Martha Quiggins, a native of Elizabethtown, Ky. Their family of eight children were all born in St. Joseph, Mo. The family are Catholics in religion.

HIRAM BURGAR, retired farmer, and one of the first settlers in Nemaha County, Kan., was born near Niagara Falls, Can., and reared in Canada, working in saw and woolen mills. In May, 1855, he brought his family to this county and located a claim in Richmond Township. living for several years in a clapboard roofed log shanty, 14x16 feet, the little sawed lumber used in its construction coming from St. Joseph, Mo., eighty miles distant. For three or four years he had no mail whatever. In order to secure a warrant with which to locate his quarter section, he was compelled to mortgage the land, and began, $40 in debt besides, yet afterward he became the owner of a farm that sold for $4,000, and he still owns twenty acres near Seneca, and eighty acres three miles out. He married in Canada, Jane Metcalf, by whom he has seven children - Mary, Ellen, Mattie, Henrietta, Cornelia and Cordelia (twins), and James H. The two eldest were born in Canada, the third in Jackson County, Iowa, and the others in Nemaha County, Kan. Mr. Burger is a Republican, and with his wife a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

M. M. BURGER, farmer, P. O. Seneca, was born in 1816 in Niagara County, N. Y. Reared in Genesee County, N. Y., and Crawford County, Pa., which county he left In 1850 for the West; settling in Allamakee County, Iowa, locating on Indian land, he improved a farm. Twelve years later moved to Illinois, where he started a fruit farm; this Egyptian venture proved failure. He came to Kansas in 1870, locating on his present farm. Has 180 acres, 25 of timber, and a fine 3-acre grove of black walnut. A tasteful farm home and an ample barn were built by himself. Mr. Burger married in Crawford County, Pa., Miss Emily Scoville, by whom he has seven children - Emma, now Mrs. H. Allison; Cora, Mrs. M. Taylor; Ida, Mrs. C. Sheperd; Melissia, Mrs. Dr. Snyder; Ella, Mrs. P. Johnson; Harry D. and Minnie. Both or the youngest are with the parents. Mr. Burger is a Republican political in political faith.

W. M. BUTLER, of Butler and Co., Seneca Foundry, was born 1835 in Staffordshire, Eng., and has worked in machine shops and foundries since he was eight years old. He came to America in 1853, and for ten years worked in the shops of the Illinois Central Railroad at Chicago; he then went to Denver, Col., and started what is now the "Vulcan Foundry;" two years later he returned to Chicago, where he was employed as machinist and engineer on the Goodrich line of lake steamers. In 1867 be opened up a new foundry In Waukegan, Ill., which he managed fourteen years, selling it and coming to Kansas in 1879. Here he started the Marysville Foundry, and in January, 1881, the Seneca Foundry. The firm[s] make a specialty of building fronts, crossing and breaking plows, land rollers, etc. Mr. Butler married Mary Rone; they have three children - Jos. N.,-Wm. R. and Chas. F.

THOMAS CAVE, deceased, was born September 29, 1826, in England, and with only his kit of carpenter tools came to America when he was twenty-one, location in Grant County, Canada He married Hattie M. Adams, of St. Catherine's, Canada, of which city her ancestors were the founders. Mr. and Mrs. Cave came to Seneca in 1860, and the same year purchased "Forest Home," the present family farm, and began planting trees, many of which are now large enough for saw logs. Mr. Cave died July 18, 1869, and the property is still in possession of the family. There are now six living children - John, James and Thomas by a former marriage, with Mary McDermott, deceased, and three - William, Hattie and Fred by a second marriage. The four eldest were born in Canada, and the others in Kansas. Mr., Cave was a Republican, politically, and a Universalist in religion.

T. B. COLLINS, liveryman and farmer, Seneca, was born in 1836, in Trumball County, Ohio, and reared on a farm in Cass County, Ill., where his people settled in 1842. He located in Albany, Nemaha Co., Kan., in 1865, and with his family lived there fifteen years. He married in Cass County, Ill., Miss Mary Pothecary, by whom be has four children, two born in Cass County, Ill., and the other two in Nemaha County, Kan. J. T. Brady and T. B. Collins claim the honor of having been the first men in Kansas to begin stock fattening on a large scale. They began in l867, and in 1868 fed 125 head of cattle. In 1869 a drove or bunch of 800 head was fattened and sold to Illinois drovers. Thereafter for ten years they annually handled from 2,000 to 3,000 head. In l880 Mr. Collins bought a farm south of Seneca, and in June of that year built the largest livery barn in the county. It is 82[32?]x80 feet, with sheds for twenty horses. He owns about forty-five horses, including " Nugget," bred by Gen. Harden, of Tennessee, from imported "Bonnie Scotland."

REV. D. H. COTTRELL, pastor of the Seneca Baptist Church, was born in 1841, in Portage County, Ohio; was reared in Cleveland, graduating from the city high school. Later he studied at Baldwin University, and at Oberlin College, entering upon the ministry in 1870. As an evangelist he labored in east and middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky several years, having settled charge of three churches in East Tennessee. In October, 1881, he came to Seneca. His wife was Libbie Reynolds, a native of England.

BATSON DENNIS, deceased, was born in 1796, in Henry County, Ky.; settled thirty-four years after in McLean County Ill., and came from there to Nemaha County. Kan., in 1856. With him were his wife and children, Samuel, Joseph W, John H., Jesse S. and Batson J.; also Nancy, wife of J. Keenan. Batson Dennis, Sr., pre-empted government land south of Seneca, and lived there until his death in 1877, his wife having died previously. Jesse S. Dennis was murdered in 1866, by one Bohn, who was hung two years later in Seneca. There are now only three representatives of this pioneer family left in Nemaha County, Kan.; these are Joseph W., Batson, Jr., and John H., all substantial farmers. Batson Dennis, Sr., met his death in consequence of injuries sustained while trying to mount a horse.

JOSEPH W. DENNIS, farmer, P. O. Seneca, is a son of Batson Dennis, and settled with his father and four brothers, in Nemaha County, In June, 1856. He was born in 1825, in Henry County, Ky., and married In 1847, in DeWitt County, Ill., Mary A. Young. Mr. Dennis bought 160 acres of his present farm of William Berry for $75, and has added 480 acres, owning 240 acres besides In Harrison Township. Mr. and Mrs. Dennis lived four years in a log cabin, seeing their full share of the shadows that ever beset the pioneer's pathway. They are members of the Harmony Baptist church, and have four children living - Amanda, Campbell W., Ellen and J. Phillip; having lost six children.

HUGH DRANEY, deceased, was a native of Ireland, who emigrated to Canada, and there married Margaret Connelly. In 1856 they brought six healthy sons and a daughter to eastern Iowa, where the father died in the spring of 1857. The widow and children came out to Kansas that summer and located on a farm in Wild Cat Creek, where the widow and the youngest son Michael still live, in Nemaha County.

JAMES DRANEY, farmer, P. O. Seneca, was born in 1844, in Cobourg, Canada. He came in 1857 with his widowed mother, Margaret Draney, to Nemaha County. Kan., where he has since lived. During the civil war he served a year in Col. Taylor's State Militia, and about two years as a teamster. In 1873 he located an a farm on Deer Creek, sold it five years later and then located where he now is, three miles north of Seneca. Mr. Draney has a good farm location, and a new home erected by himself. He married in Seneca, Miss Lu Stinson; both are members of the Wild Cat Roman Catholic church.

THOMAS DRANEY, of Selby & Draney, bakers and confectioners, is the son of Hugh and Margaret Draney; was born In Cobourg, Northumberland County, Canada, Province of Ontario; came with the family to Nemaha County. The firm of the above name was formed in September, 1879, and thrives in a satisfactory way, running a delivery wagon, and stock of fancy groceries and confectionery in connection with the popular bakery.

WILLIAM F DREES, of the firm of Drees & Assenmacher, was born December 24, 1854, in Winneshiek County, Iowa, and reared a farmer. He came in 1868 to Seneca, and clerked for L. Cohen, until the forming of his present partnership. He married in Seneca Maggie Strauss, by whom he has one child. Mr. Assenmacher was born In Prussia, July 6, 1853, and came to the United States when three years of age with his parents, who located first near Milwaukee, Wis., and in 1859 came to Nemaha County, Kan., where he has spent his life. The firm was founded and business begun March, 1882. The firm is regarded as a strong one, both in point of resources and business ability, and has a very large and complete stock of general merchandise; is receiving constant accessions to meet the increasing trade with which the house is favored.

ELBERT DUMONT. architect and builder, was born in 1847, in Seneca County, N. Y. During the Rebellion he served in the One Hundred and Eleventh New York Volunteer Infantry. and in the Ninth Michigan Volunteer Infantry; was discharged from the army in October, 1865; attended school at the seminaries at Ovid and Fulton, N. Y., till the spring of 1878, when he went to DeKalb County Mo., where he learned the carpenter trade. After living in Missouri three years, he came to Seneca, Nemaha County, Kan. For the last four years he has devoted his time to draughting and superintending. Among the jobs that he has had charge of are the Nemaha county jail, the Firstenberger, Settle and Williams residences, the bank of Nemaha County. Burnett Block, the Centralia schoolhouse, and the Morris Opera House of Wetmore. His wife was Mary E., daughter of O. C. Bruner an early settler of Nemaha County, of which county he served as Treasurer and Surveyor. Mr. and Mrs. Dumont have four children, all horn in Seneca.

E. J. EMERY, President of the Nemaha County bank, Seneca, was born in Hunterdon County N. J., September 1, 1814; is a son of John Emery, of the same county, who removed his family to Clermont County, Ohio, in 1815. His farm was situated twenty miles from Cincinnati; and here E. J. Emery grew to manhood, finally settling on a small farm at his own, which he conducted very successfully for many years, and sold just before coming to Kansas In 1873, having acquired a competency in Ohio. Mr. Emery, by judicious loans and investments in Kansas, has come to be looked upon as one of the solid men of Nemaha County. At the organization of the Nemaha County bank in 1882, he was one of its largest stockholders, was made its President. Mr. Emery married in Clermont County Ohio, Eliza V. Johnson, of Hunterdon County, N. J. Her parents settled in Ohio in 1828, her father removing thence to a farm in Cook County Ill., where he died. Mr. and Mrs. Emery have seven living children, all now in Kansas, except the Rev. J. N. Emery, of Beverly, Mass. The others are - William A. Emery, of Paola; Samuel A., of Ottawa County; Eliza C. (Mrs. W. H. Fitzwater); Charles F., of Paola; Rufus M. and Mary M., both in Seneca; two sons, George and Edwin, both entered the Union service during the war, and both met a melancholy and remarkably like fate, as George was drowned in the Ohio River, and Edwin supposed to be shipwrecked and drowned off the North Carolina coast. The eldest of the ten children, Almira, an interesting girl of eighteen, died in the old Ohio home.