FAMILY STORIES

in Farmers Mutual Ins., Savings and Loan, Soil Conservation, and other community affairs.

   We have seen many changes to our County throughout the years, but after all, it is the people who make it a good place to live. By Henry Rood

   John Babtist Root and his wife, Victoria, were both born in St. Damaus, Canada in 1828, married, and went to Brandon, Vermont. There they had two sons, Frank, and Theodore John (who was my grandfather, born in 1853). They then went to Battle Creek, Michigan where they had two children who died while young. John and Victoria died in 1912-1914.

   As a young man, Grandpa commuted by train to Illinois for two years, working as a carpenter. He lived with his parents paying $1.00 a week for board and working for .20¢ an hour. He married Alta Riggs of Cannon Valley, Wisconsin about 1889. They moved to Omaha where Leo, Leslie (my father, born in 1891), and Eva were born.

   Moving to Ashland about 1894, they bought ten acres of land and one cow. Grasshoppers ruined the crops and they had to butcher the cow for food. Grandpa did carpentry (using horse and wagon for transportation) and Grandma baked pies to make a living. Then David and Herbert were born. In 1902, they lost nine-year old Herbert and one-month old Chester.

   In 1905, they bought a grocery store called "East Side Grocery" from Grandma's mother, Lydia Riggs. It was on Birch Street which was main street of Ashland.

   In 1920, they bought a bigger place where they had a restaurant with sleeping rooms upstairs. It is pictured here, with Grandma, Eva, Leo, and Grandpa.

   Grandpa bought a new Whippet Car for $735 in 1928. He couldn't drive but Eva and son, Dwight Beetison, drove him everywhere. Leo died and his family moved to Wisconsin. David raised his family in Ashland.

   In 1933, Grandpa went fishing and got a fishhook in his hand. Being confined to bed with blood poisoning, he got up for a glass of water, fell over and died. Grandma died in 1944.

   My father married Laura Sohl and had a daughter, Daisy Haney. They were divorced.

   He then married Ida Owen of Memphis in 1917. They had ten children: Evelyn Cunningham, Melvin, Vernon, Opal Schnake, Theodore (died at 5 years), Floyd, Dorothy Holz, Donald, Phyllis Anderson, and Janice DeLancey.

   Dad worked on the Railroad, then WPA, a laborer, and finally in the Ashland Post Office. Both parents died in 1975.

   I married Karl Holz of Memphis in 1946. We have four children. Kathleen Williams, William, Thomas and James. In 1961, we bought the cafe pictured here. It is now our living room. In remodeling, we found a large menu and a lady's high top shoe. Grandpa Theodore died in our kitchen.

   We have five grandsons, Tyler, Jason, Brandon, and Krayten Williams and Joshua Holz.

   Grandpa started a ledger in 1879 and kept it up very well until his death. I enjoy reading about singing around the organ with harmonicas and his travels in his twenties. Also going to see Hugo Brothers shows, Ringling Brothers, and theatres. And when the price of coffee was $4.15 for 25 lbs. Submitted by Dorothy L. Holz

Cafe owned by Theodore John Root. Root's in picture. Home of Mrs. Holz, today.

   Ida Owen Root (Mrs. Leslie) was born July 8, 1897 to Edward C. and Mary Josephine (Wagner) Owen. Ida was one of ten children and a lifetime resident of Saunders County. Ida married Leslie Root on January 1, 1917. Ten children blessed this union: Evelyn (Mrs. Walton Cunningham), Melvin, Vernon, Opal (Mrs. Clarence Schnake), Theodore, died at age five, Floyd, Dorothy (Mrs. Karl Holz), Donald, Phyllis (Mrs. Anderson), and Janice (Mrs. Richard Delancey).

   Mama was a devoted homemaker and mother, always busy keeping her house clean with ten children underfoot. She didn't always have modern conveniences, such as electricity, hot running water, or natural gas for cooking and heating. There was a wood-burning kitchen range for many uses.

   No washing machine, she would heat water in a boiler, often boiling "white things," then scrubbing them on a washboard. At the same time she would bake bread and rolls and a pot of ham and beans. All with the same heat.

   There was no bathroom. She brought the wash tub into living room by our round oak heater for bathing. Once, Floyd lost his balance, fell against heater and had a bad burn.

   Mama always had a way of making our hurts feel better. Mostly home remedies and lots of tender, loving care.

   Even with her busy schedule, she always took time to rock her babies, singing a little made-up lullaby.

   Dad made her a porch swing that hung on a frame in the yard. Evenings would find her rocking there with her children around her.

   She loved to dance, but didn't leave the family to go out.

   They often had family and friends in for a house party. Moving furniture out of one room, they'd waltz and square dance all night. Then, they'd have a pancake breakfast.

   After the family was grown, she went out dancing until past seventy years old.

   We waited for Dad to come home from work. When we saw him walking up the road, we would race to meet him and carry his lunch pail. As the children grew up, Mom enjoyed car rides, especially in fall. With Dot in the country, she gathered leaves and wildflowers for bouquets.

   Once Melvin drove some of us to Fremont to visit Mom's sister. We started home late, got stalled in a blizzard and walked to a nearby farmhouse. We couldn't awaken anyone, so we broke the lock and went inside. Later, the people came downstairs. Surprised! But they welcomed us. They made breakfast and helped fix our car.

   When Phyllis's multiple sclerosis was diagnosed, Mom did anything she could to help her, especially babysitting, as her children were very young. Phyllis is still in a nursing home at Ashland.

   Mom liked going to bingo games and horse races with Vernon. She didn't bet much, but could pick winners.

   We all remember Happy Home Life, but had to pick only a few memories. We lost Mom and Dad both, in 1975, but we will always remember Mama and Dad. Submitted by Opal Schnake

   Jacob Elward Rosencrantz, a member of the Nebraska Society of Mayflower Descendants, and a descendant of William White, was born January 21, 1923, on a farm near Litchfield, Ne. He is the son of the late Charles Orlando Rosencrantz, who was born at Liscomb, Iowa, and came to St. Edward, Ne. in 1881 at the age of 4 months. Jacob's mother is Mildred Waters Rosencrantz, who was born near Papillion, Ne. and now resides in California.

   Jacob spent his childhood in Litchfield, Papillion, and Omaha, Ne. After high school, he served in the U.S. Air Force during World War 2, spending some time in China. After service, he took training as a wood cabinet maker, doing that work for 14 years in Omaha and Papillion. In 1957, he went to work for Western Electric in Omaha, where he still works.

   Marilyn Jean Lawrence was born April 30, 1926 in Omaha, Ne. She is the daughter of the late James Madison Lawrence, born at Portsmouth, Ia. His parents were some of the first settlers in that area. Marilyn's mother is Mollie Legan Lawrence, born near Missouri Valley, Iowa, and now living in Wisconsin. Marilyn spent her childhood in Blair, Ne., Shelby, Ia., and Omaha, Ne.

   Jacob and Marilyn were married on May 17, 1946 in Omaha. They lived there a year, then moved to Papillion, Ne. and bought the home of Jacob's grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. E.T. Waters. After living there 12 years, they moved in 1959 to a farm southeast of Yutan, Ne. where they still reside.

   The children of Jay and Marilyn include Sherry Jean, born December 15, 1947, and married to Theodore William Frye of Ashland, Ne. They have three children; Heather Michelle, born May 27, 1971, Andrew Jacob, born February 16, 1976, and Nathan William, born January 20, 1980. They live on an acreage near Yutan.

   Vickie Lynn, born May 31, 1952, lives in Yutan.

   Karen Kay, born May 27, 1954, married Douglas Mark Zink of McCook, Ne. They live in Wood River, Ne.

   Robert Charles, born May 8, 1957, married Sharon Louise Feist of Leshara, Ne. They have two children: Mark Matthew, born August 26, 1978 and

page 393

Tanya Lea, born December 28, 1981. They reside in Yutan.

   Jay and Marilyn have enjoyed their years on the farm, getting together with their children and grandchildren, and are looking forward to the time when Jay retires from Western Electric. Submitted by Marilyn Jean Rosencrantz

   In 1954, my grandparents, Jens and Elna Rosengren, left Sanby, a village in Sweden, after a fire destroyed their home and all their belongings. They had already been planning to go to America and decided this was the time to go. (Teenaged sons, John and Nels, went to America also, but not at the same time as their parents.) The first leg of the journey took them to Copenhagen, Denmark, where Grandmother discovered there was to be a new member in the family. They stayed in Denmark until the baby was a few years old before venturing on the long, hazardous trip to America. That baby was Simon Peter Rosengren, my father.

   In 1861, when Peter was past five years old, they sailed for America. Because of severe storms and then calm seas, the voyage to New York took six weeks. From there, they went by rail to St. Louis and then took a riverboat up the Missouri River to Omaha. At Florence, they met a group of Mormons ready to start for Utah. Grandfather bought a pair of oxen, a wagon and provisions and joined the wagon train to begin the long trek across the prairie to the "promised land."

   Grandfather walked all the way from Florence to Ephrain, a little town in the San Pete Valley of Utah, where they bought thirty acres of irrigated land and farmed for eleven years. Then, they decided to move to Nebraska, where some of their relatives lived. They boarded a train in Ogden, Utah, on January 14, 1873, and arrived in Fremont the next day.

   My father, Peter, was seventeen years old when he came to settle here in Nebraska. He and his parents joined his older brother, John, who had been living in Saunders County a few years and had bought a quarter section of railroad land in Section 7, Township 15, Range 7. John transferred eighty acres of that land to his father, Jens, and eighty acres to his, brother, Peter.

   Jens died in 1885, and Peter took over the land and bought twenty acres more from a Mr. White, who had homesteaded on the S½ of SW¼ of Section 8. In 1885, my father married Margaret Elizabeth Ericsson, who had arrived from Sweden two years before. She was a niece of John Samuelson, who lived just south of where the District 70 School now stands. My parents raised four children: Anna, who married Walter Wiese of Westside, Iowa; Agnes; and Adele, who never married and who after 1928 moved to Denver and lived there; and myself, the only son. Another sister, Elvera, died in 1900 at the age of seven. My father died in 1918, and this left the farming to me.

   I was twenty years old at the time. In 1926, I married Ruby Schneider of Cedar Bluffs. We had two children, Orlene, who married Joe M. James and lives in Mt. Solon, Virginia, and Glen Willis, better known as Bill. He married Rose Marie Cink in 1963; they took up housekeeping on the home place and the operation of the farm. They have three children, Margaret, Susan and Erik. Glen's family are the fourth generation of Rosengrens to have lived on the farmstead since it was established in 1873. No family with any other name has ever lived there. What more can be said in 500 words. Orion Rosengren

Glen W. Rosengren Farm

   Darrell and Phyllis Rosenquist moved to Saunders County in 1959 upon the purchase of a farm located 2½ miles north of Ceresco, on the west side of Highway 77 in Richland Precinct. In the following years they purchased 125 acres from Clifford Hughes west of Highway 77, and an adjoining 80 to the east from the Martinson estate.

   Phyllis Edith Davenport's heritage goes back through five generations of Nebraskans ... and further to John Majors who was born in Halifax, Va. in 1730. Her great, great-grandfather, Sterling Perry Majors, pioneered in and around Brownville and Peru in the 1840's. His sons: Alexander founded the Pony Express and Russell, Majors & Waddell Wagon Train supply route; Thomas Jefferson Majors established the Peru Normal School (now Peru State College) in 1867; and Wilson Easily Majors (Phyllis' great-grandfather) served on the first State Normal Board. Her grandparents, Barbara Majors and William Lewis Davenport, graduated from the college in 1892 and ran a dairy on the Majors Homestead until the 1940's; and Barbara taught at the college. Her father, William Fulton Davenport, graduated from PSC in 1927 and has been in the field of education since that time. Phyllis was born in the Philippine Islands where he was teaching in the 1930's. They returned to Peru where she was raised on the homestead.

   Darrell Lee Rosenquist was raised in Page County, Iowa (rural Essex). His father, Ture Gunnard Rosenquist, emigrated from Smolen, Sweden at the age of 18. He married Amanda Christina Nelson whose parents, Victor and Emma Christina Nelson, emigrated from Sweden and settled in the Bethesda, Iowa area.

   Phyllis and Darrell met and married while students at Peru State College. They graduated in 1955 and lived in Peru, Humboldt, and Lincoln before coming to Saunders County. Barbara Christine, Eric William, and Dorothy Elizabeth (Betsy) were born at Auburn, Ne. Michael Lee, killed in an auto accident at age 2½ (1961-1963), and Thomas Darrell were born at Wahoo. All of the children attended school in Ceresco and graduated from Raymond Central High school. Darrell taught in Ceresco, 1959 and 1960; 2 years at West Ward in

Darrell Rosenquist Family -- 1982. Thomas, Lynn R. Minch, Eric Rosenquist, Darrell Rosenquist, Michael G. Reed, Darrell, Barbara R. Minch, Wade William Rosenquist, Dorothy E. (Betsy) Reed, Lindsay Rose Minch, Cindy Walin Rosenquist, Phyllis Rosenquist, Drew Michael Reed, Ross Louis Rosenquist. Picture on wall is Rosenquist Farmstead north of Ceresco.

page 394