Growing Memories
This evening we went on the Polar Express tour in Kearney with Aunt Terra and the Pfeiffer’s. We rode the trolley, drank hot chocolate, and even saw Santa! The kids all got a bell from Santa and seemed to enjoy the evening.
F.E. Payne, farmer and stock-raiser, Catherton Township, was born in Frederick County, Va., in September, 1850, and is the oldest child born to R.T. and Sarah (Scribner) Payne. They were the parents of six children, viz.: F.E. (the subject of this sketch), Mrs. Mary Cooper (of this township), Mrs. Ida Brown (of Winchester, Va.), Mrs. Pinkney Hale and Mrs. Carrie Harvey (of Inavale Township), and Robert Bruce (residing with his brother, our subject). The father was a cooper by trade, and lived in his native State till 1884, when he came to Nebraska, locating in this township where he is now living. Both he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The subject of this sketch received a common school education in his native State, and at the age of twenty-two years began life for himself as a farmer, following that occupation with success in his native State until 1877, when he came to this State. Here he entered a homestead and timber claim, comprising 320 acres in Section 34-3-12 on Farmers’ Creek, all of which he has under an excellent state of cultivation, well improved with good buildings, fruit and forest trees, etc. He is active in politics and votes with the Prohibition party, and for a time has held the office of justice of the peace in this township. He was married in July, 1881, to Mrs. Vernie (Cather) Clutter, widow of Webster Clutter, and daughter of William and Caroline (Smith) Cather, of Virginia; she died in December, 1885, leaving him one child, Wilella. Mr. Payne is a member of the Baptist Church.
Source:
Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Adams, Clay, Webster, and Nuckolls Counties, Nebraska
Published 1890
Page 646
Nebraska Farm Life WWI to WWII is a book written by Richard C. McCall based on a true story of a family growing up on a Nebraska farm. In Chapter 10 “Veterinary Medicine on the Farm” there are several mentions of Con Wilson related to his veterinary work.
“This chapter concerns some of the veterinary problems that we experienced on our farm. We administered most of the veterinary care to our animals ourselves. There was a veterinary in Red Cloud named Doc Hurst, but for some reason or other we never used his services. There was a Dr. Moranville in Guide Rock, who was said to be pretty good, but most of our work was done by a self-taught man named Con Wilson.”
“Cholera was an ever-present problem with hogs…Most of the time, Con Wilson came and administered the vaccine but later during World War II when labor was scarce, we were able to get the vaccine and do it ourselves.”
“There were several instances of cases of lumpy jaw in cattle…A veterinarian would arrive, probably Con Wilson, and treat them with an intravenous injection of calcium into a neck vein.”
“Con Wilson had been called once to clean a cow that had failed to deliver the calf bed. By the time he arrived, this was a very foul smelling, messy job. Dick and Dad were observing and providing some help. Neither of them had the strongest of stomachs and both were wishing they were somewhere else. In the middle of the job, Con withdrew the arm he had had inside the cow, reached into his shirt pocket with that hand, and pulled out a plug of chewing tobacco that he offered to Dad. Dad turned slightly green and left the barn. Dick was amused enough at Dad’s discomfort that he managed to stay to the end.”
Source:
Nebraska Farm Life WWI to WWII
Published 2002
Chapter 10
Pages 79-84
By. Dr. W.A. Thomas
The Wilsons
There is one fact about John Wilson that we must not forget. Before he left Virginia he had married a Miss Wisecarver. To this circumstance, in some measure, the county is indebted for the presence of Johnson B. Wisecarver, usually called “Jack” Wisecarver, and his brother, Wade Hampton, more generally known as “Hamp” Wisecarver. We do not know that Jack was named for the president, Andy Johnson, but Hamp was undoubtedly named after the famous confederate general and senator of South Carolina. The elder of the two brothers, Johnson, came to this county in the fall of 1878. Perhaps the most notable fact in his career in this county was his victimization by the Nebraska Farm Loan & Trust company, whereby he found himself compelled to pay a mortgage on his farm twice. It is bad enough to pay a mortgage debt once in hard times. When it comes to paying twice with accumulated interest of ten years and costs, it becomes a pretty sore burden. Fortunately Mr. Wisecarver held his farm with a close grip until he was able to sell it two years ago for some eight or nine thousand dollars. Even then he sold it too cheap, as events demonstrated. But he was sagacious enough to invest a good part of the money received in other lands, so that he has been benefited by the general increase in the values of farm property. Mr. Wisecarver married Miss Olive Bean, daughter of the Rev. John Bean, who was so highly esteemed during his residence in the northwest portion of the county. There are two children from this marriage, Bertha, who is now Mrs. Bruce Payne, and the bright Rittlo Ethel, whom we permit almost anybody to endeavor to trip in spelling hard words. Since the sale of the farm Mr. Wisecarver has made his home in this city.
“Hamp” Wisecarver came to the county some years later. He married a Miss Holmes, a niece of Mrs. Arthur Wilson. (article missing) During the tabernacle meetings, it is related that one of the evangelists, seeing the abruption with which “Hamp” listened to the exercises, approached him and asked him if he did not think it was time for him to “give his heart to the Lord.” Without any intention of being offensive, “Hamp” replied, after considerable effort and delay, that he needed it for his own use at present. “Hamp” is now running a lunch counter in the city.
Another Wilson that we should have mentioned in connection with her brothers is Elizabeth, who became the wife of John Marker while in Virginia. The Markers followed the Wilsons to this county, where they lived in unassuming, industrious quietude until the election five years ago, when Miss Lizzie surprised a great many of the people by securing an election to the office of county superintendent, and demonstrated that the Virginia settlers possessed a culture that fitted them for any position. John Marker died three or four years ago, his widow and nine children surviving him. Lizzie is well known to our readers by reason of her four years occupancy of our highest educational position; Annie, nicknamed “Tishie,” is an accomplished stenographer in Minneapolis; John, the oldest boy, is managing the homestead; Dora and Carrie are each married and live just out of the county on the Blue; Albert is in California, and Ford and Lena are on the farm with their mother and John.
No account of the Virginians would be complete which omitted mention of the Paynes. The first to come was F.E., or “Ed” Payne. He arrived in 1877. His father, “Uncle Dick” Payne, came the next year, with his young son, Bruce, and his two daughters. “Uncle Dick” passed away many years ago. “Ed” has been something of a political storm center in Catherton township since his arrival. Before coming of G.P. Cather in 1873, the Norwegians, under the lead of one German, O. Lee, made a settlement on Thompson creek in Franklin county. They were located on lands by an old gentleman named Budlong. By him their corners were pointed out. As their Norwegian friends spread out to the east, they eventually met the Virginians spreading from the north and east. By this time the few (article missing) government corners that had been in the township, if any, had been obliterated, and a dispute arose concerning the lines which divided the people of the township, culminating in a new survey under the direction of a town meeting. There being no authority for such a survey, lawsuits arose which kept the two elements of the township, the Virginians and the Norwegians, in disquietude for some years. It fell to Mr. Payne’s lot to be the center of this controversy, his land being near the center of the township. Mr. Payne has also, from the organization of the populist party, been a warm and leading adherent to that party. He is consequently better known to the people of the county than most of the Virginians. While a strenuous fighter, he has never been accused of anything worse than obstinacy by his opponents, which is not the worst fault that could be laid to a man. Mr. Payne has one daughter, Miss Willella. Bruce Payne is a comparatively young man. He is a graduate of the Red Cloud public schools, and was a soldier in the Philippine war. He married Miss Bertha Wisecarver, and is at present in Herman, Nebraska.
The two daughters who came with “Uncle Dick” are now Mrs. Noah Harvey and Mrs. Finley Hale. Another daughter, Mary, is Mrs. Cooper. We have not the pleasure of an acquaintance with the Coopers and cannot relate any particulars concerning them in this issue.
One more Virginian deserves mention who is no longer a resident of the county, Mr. Will Matheney. Mr. Matheney married a Miss Andrews, a niece of Charles Cather. He sold his farm in this county a few months ago for over $9,000, and he is trying to live a life of comparative ease on his farm near Campbell.
We believe that we have enumerated all the Virginians who have ever settled in the neighborhood of Catherton. It must be admitted that there is a goodly number of them. It is not at all surprising that they thought themselves of consequence to build a church and christen it the New Virginia church.
There is one lot of Virginians which ought, perhaps, to be mentioned. The Rinkers also came from the Shenandoah valley, and were neighbors of the Cather and Lockharts. But they settled on Walnut creek. There were two brothers, Josiah and Galloway. Of Josiah, the elder, there were two sons, Clinton and Avilon. Clinton married the daughter of R.B. Fulton. She died within a few years after the marriage. Avilon is back on his father’s farm in Virginia. Galloway Rinker, who remained in this county longer than his brother or nephews, is now in Franklin, but Charles Rinker, his son, is still a resident of Walnut creek.
We have almost forgotten another Virginian who is one of the best known to the people of this city, especially the ladies. The present Mrs. Jones, formerly Mrs. G.W. Francis, came to this county an unmarried girl, and showed that she was capable of making her own way in the world by her work in the harvest field, where she did the work of a man prior to her first marriage. Mrs. Jones is at present in Colorado. Mrs. Bortfeldt is an adopted daughter, whom she reared to womanhood with a mother’s affection and care.
One of the most tragic accidents that has occurred in this county for many years took place in Catherton precinct, 16 miles northwest of Red Cloud Sunday afternoon, shortly after four o’clock. Albert N. Wilson and a young man by the name of Ole Iverson went bathing in a pond that had been constructed by the damming of a draw. The water was 15 feet deep and about 40 across. They had not been in the water long before Mr. Wilson was heard to give a cry for help and at the same time was seen to throw his arms widely into the air and then sink from view. Young Iverson, at once surmising that the swimmer had been stricken with cramps, immediately went to the rescue, but the struggling man proved too heavy for the younger one and he was forced to abandon him, after he himself was nearly drowned in his efforts to lend assistance. Other help was then secured, and a rope was tied around young Iverson and he made for the place where the body had disappeared. He made a heroic effort to dive and reach the man whose life was, or had already passed away, but without avail. When he came to the surface blood was running from his nostrils and but for the rope about him he would have never reached the shore. Work was then begun to break the dam and drain the pond, but this consumed time and it was an hour before a sufficient amount of water had escaped to permit of recovering the body. Of course life was then entirely extinct but doctors had been summoned both from Bladen and Red Cloud and they worked with the man in a vain attempt to start a spark of respiration. It was a sad ending of a prosperous life. The funeral was held from the home Monday afternoon, conducted by Rev. Priestly of Bladen. It was the largest funeral ever witnessed in the history of Webster County, the first of the procession reaching the cemetery one mile distant before the last had left the residence.
Albert N. Wilson was born in Frederick county, Virginia November 9, 1856. In 1877 he came to Webster county and settled in the southern part of Catherton precinct but a few years later purchased a farm 6 1/2 miles from Bladen. On October 29, 1855, he was married to Mary Robinson, who now survived him, and with three children, Vera, Maud and Kenneth, mourns the untimely departure of a true husband and kind father. He also leaves an aged father, two sister and three brothers.
Source:
The Webster County Argus
1902
