Passing Of Nebraska Pioneers After November 24, 1918

These obituaries are compiled largely from death notices printed in newspapers which are received and kept on file by the Historical Society. While the sketches have been carefully edited, it has been impossible to avoid and correct all inaccuracies. The lives of some subjects of the obituaries were of unusual public interest, and in such cases the sketches have been duly amplified. Statements of fact, particularly those which are of record, have been verified as far as practicable. Obviously, it is very desirable that these records, which will always be used for reference, should be correct, and surviving relatives and editors of local newspapers should carefully cooperate in preventing errors.

Mrs. John T. Van Buskirk died November 24, at her home in Beatrice; was born July 22, 1847, in Wells County, Indiana; came to Nebraska July 4, 1856, settling at Nebraska City.

Mrs. Sallie M. Camp, born in the state of New York June 9, 1832, died January 16 at Humboldt; came to Nebraska in the spring of 1861 and settled near Auburn.

Andrew Christenson, born at Trelleborg, Sweden, September 26, 1838, died January 12, at Malmo; came to the United States in July 1867, lived in Omaha until 1870, then settled on a homestead in Saunders County.

Daniel B. Colhapp, born in Covington, Kentucky January 24, 1846, died January 2, at Tecumseh; when he was nineteen years of age he became an apprentice in the printing office of the Nebraska Advertiser, which was started at Brownville, June 7, 1856, by Dr. John McPherson and Robert W. Furnas.

Lewis Friel Cornutt, born in Grayson County, Virginia, May 22, 1833, died January 11 at Nebraska City. He left Virginia with friends in September, 1854; traveled by wagon and arrived at Nebraska City November 6, of the same year; he soon went to Atchison County. Mo., but after a short stay returned to Nebraska City; in 1860 moved to Colorado: came back to Nebraska City in 1864. In the spring of 1868 moved to Cheyenne, but again returned to Nebraska City in 1871. He was mainly engaged in the mercantile business in all of these places, though he also gave attention to the development of gold mines at Central City, Colorado, and to freighting at Nebraska City in 1868.

Mrs. Peter Frederick, Sr., born July 22, 1838, at Delphos, Ohio, died January 11, at Fails City; came to Richardson County in 1863 and had resided there ever since.

Mrs. Nancy A. Gessell, born at Lancaster, Ohio, December 27, 1834, died January 7, at Beatrice. She was married in 1857 and lived at Odell, Neb., and later moved to Beatrice.

Mrs. Henry Jones, born in Prussia December 26, 1849 died January 18 at Wilber; came with her parents to this country in 1867, who settled on a homestead in Jefferson County, which Mrs. Jones owned to the time of her death.

Vaclav Kublicek died December 6 at his home near Crete; born January 16, 1847, in Bohemia; came to America in 1864, first to Chicago and after about six months to Arago, Nebr.; then settled on a homestead near Crete, in 1865.

Benjamin Nathan Leisure, born In Indiana on August 3. 1835. died in Pawnee City, December 28; came to Butler County in his boyhood. George W. Howe, born on a farm near North Bend May 25, 1866, died December 31, 1918, at Fremont.

Mrs. Susannah Lillie, a resident of Gage County since 1864, died November 25 at her home near Beatrice, aged eighty-seven years. She owned a farm on which she had resided for nearly sixty years.

Simpson McKibbin, born in County Down, Ireland, in May, 1834, died January 10, at Emporia, Kan.; emigrated to America in 1848; lived for a time in Grant County, Wisconsin, next in Clayton County, Iowa; came to Nebraska in 1864, settling in Hendricks precinct, Otoe County, where he became a wealthy farmer; was married in 1860 to Miss Harriet M. Douglas of Mitchell County, Iowa, who survives him. The town of Douglas was named for Mrs. McKibbin.

Thomas Long McNeil, born in New York City May 23. 1828, died about January 22, at Ogallala, where he had lived many years; came to Nebraska in 1865 and settled on a farm sixteen miles southwest of Lincoln; joined Lodge No. 19, A. F. & A. M. of Lincoln, on February 1, 1870, and remained a member until his death.

Mrs. Catherine Miller died at Seattle, November 26, aged eighty-one years; came to Lincoln County, Nebraska, with her husband in 1860 and they started a road house at a point east of Cottonwood Springs; moved to North Platte in 1867.

Mrs. Marie Montgomery died December 2 at her farm home near Firth, where she had resided forty-three years; born in Doylestown, Ohio, May 11, 1834; came to Nebraska City in 1862, where she lived for thirteen years, before moving to Firth.

Mrs. William Nutter, Nebraska Pioneer, 1859 Dinah Hingham was born in England in 1835; married to William Nutter in 1855; they emigrated to Philadelphia together in the same year, and thence to Salt Lake City, via the Nebraska route, in 1859; in 1862 came to Nebraska, squatting on a farm near Shelton, Buffalo County; left in the panic caused by the general attacks on white settlers by Indians in 1864 and returned to England, but soon came back to Philadelphia and, in 1869, to Nebraska, settling on a homestead near Gibbon, where Mrs. Nutter died on December 31, 1918. Mr. Nutter died in 1908. That through all this vicissitude this staunch couple had acquired and developed one of the finest farms in Buffalo County and had cared for their fifteen children, shows that the traditional English heart of oak is not a myth and that they inherited it. Furthermore, while, like many English folk at that time, they were seduced by Mormon emissaries, they had the moral courage to renounce and escape from this evil, un-English system.

Mrs. Sarah Parks died December 28 at Red Cloud; was born in Northamptonshire, England, July 14, 1832; came to America, landing May 22, 1855; reached Salt Lake City October 24 of the same year; four days after was married to William Parks, to whom she had been previously engaged; in 1859 they left Salt Lake City for Omaha with a government train, escaping from Mormon surveillance; had lived in Webster County about forty years.

John W. Pittman, born March 25, 1834, In Harrison County, Indiana, died January 21, at his home near Union; moved to Weston, Iowa, in 1855, where he was a storekeeper; came to Nebraska May 28, 1859, in debt from his business venture, and took a preemption claim near Rock Bluffs, but soon engaged in freighting across the plains from Nebraska City on his own account; in 1867 settled permanently on 160 acres of land in Liberty precinct, Cass County, which he increased to a farm of over 600 acres; married Miss Lydia A. Goodwin of Marion County, Iowa, and they had nine children.

William Powell, born in Massillon, Ohio, March 19, 1843, died January 28 at Syracuse; came to Nebraska in 1857 with his parents, who settled in Johnson County; August 12, 1864, enlisted as corporal in Company A, First Regiment Nebraska Veteran Volunteer Cavalry, from Fort Kearny; mustered out May 28, 1866.

Carl Gustaf Rosengren, born in Ephriam, Utah, June 16, 1866, died January 21, near Colon; came to Fremont with his parents in 1867.

Mrs. J. W. West, maiden name Malinda Spurleck, died at Howe, Neb., Dec. 5; born May 20, 1823, in the state of Alabama; came to Nemaha County, Nebraska, in 1852, and lived there until the time of her death.

Robert Alexander Wilson, born eighty-six years ago; died at Blue Springs on January 30. Mr. Wilson came to the territory in 1856 and for a time was government agent on the Otoe and Missouri Indian reservation near Barneston, Neb. In 1861 he surveyed and platted the original town site of Blue Springs.

Nebraska AHGP

Source: Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days, Volume I, Number 1, Published Monthly by the Nebraska Historical Society, February 1918.

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