CEDAR COUNTY, NEBRASKA - MORTEN Joseph Sr. ==================================================================== NEGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the NEGenWeb Archives by Gary N. Morten Permission granted by: Rob Dump, Editor, Cedar County News ====================================================================== Hartington Herald Tuesday, April 19, 1928 AN OLD PIONEER OF CEDAR COUNTY DIES THIS WEEK Jos. Morten, Sr. passes away in Hospital at Rochester Funeral Is Held Today Deceased Came To This County In The Early Days--Was 76 Years Of Age. In the death of Joseph Morten, sr., who died last Monday morning at Rochester after a critical illness of two weeks, the oldest pioneer of Cedar county has passed away. Mr. Morten, who was 76 years old, had lived in this county for 66 years, and during that time endeared himself to the people of this section. He came here in the days when Nebraska was a territory, and was one of the last two surviving territorial pioneers in the county. Mr. Morten had been in poor health for the last year, and became ill two months ago. S.H. Morten took him to Rochester a week ago, and he died there from arterial sclerosis Monday morning. Joseph Anthony Morten was born in Dane county, Wisconsin, July 15, 1851, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Morten. He came to Nebraska with his parents to seek a home on what was then America's western frontier on July 12, 1858, four years after Nebraska had been made a territory. In three covered wagons and one open one drawn by oxen, the Morten family journeyed for 10 weeks over a long, tedious and hazardous route, with the rain pouring down on them every day as they traveled through Iowa. Reaching Cedar county the family homesteaded on land 10 miles northeast of Hartington which property has remained a family possession ever since. After living there for 15 years, the Morten family moved to Green Island, where in November 1873, Joseph Morten was married to Miss Mary Wohlman, a Wisconsin girl of an adjoining county who also came to Nebraska with her parents. The young married couple lived in Green Island for one year and then moved back to the Morten homestead where they continued to live until March 10, 1913. The first dwelling on this homestead was a one room shack typical of the homes of the pioneers being built of cotton-wood siding and having a thatched roof plastered with mud. Here they lived until 1861 when they moved into a new farm house on the day that Lincoln was inaugurated. They lived out in an open, wind swept country, these pioneers of a new civilization where blizzards roared over the treeless expanse in the winter, and drouth and grasshoppers took their crops in the summertime. Food was scarce and hard to get. Wheat bread was reserved for the mother of the family, the remainder of them living chiefly on corn bread which was made from meal ground in a feed mill. It was a lonely life during those years before 1867, the date that Nebraska was admitted to the Union as a state. There were no doctors, no roads, no timber. Wolves howled at night and Indians roamed the prairies. For nearly a dozen years there was no religious service of any kind. The sole occupation of an evening was playing checkers by the light of homemade tallow candles. One year the only crop harvested was 25 bushels of wehat on three or four acres of land; and actual want stared the pioneers in the face. There never was a time, however, when there was not a pot of coffee on the stove ready for any Indian who might chance to call at the Morten home. But little by little the pioneer fought his way through the hardships of the early days. Better homes were built, timber grew up, roads were laid out, churches and schools were established, railroads came through, and a new civilization began to dawn. Joseph Morten endured these hardships, and he lived to see days of prosperity and leisure. Deprived in boyhood of educational opportunities, he was able to give his own children the best of schooling. Typical of the highest type of pioneer, Joseph Morten was a deeply relgious man, whose upright life has been an example of righteousness and honor to all who knew him. His integrity, his simplicity and his kindliness of heart were his most outstanding characteristics, and his own experience of struggle engendered in him a tender sympathy for the misfortunes of others. Mr. Morten was a Methodist, being affiliated with the local Methodist church until it was merged into the Hartington Cognregational church. At that time, he became a member of the new organization and was elected one of the deacons, having served in that capacity until the time of his death. Nine children, all of whom are living, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Morten. They are: Mrs. F.W. Barnhart of St. Louis, Missouri; Stephen, George, Ralph, May, Edward, Bird, Joseph and Harry Morten of this community. Mrs. Morten died August 23, 1918. Funeral services were held today, Rev. Louis Hieb of the Hartington Congregational church officiating and interment was made in the Hartington cemetery. HARTINGTON HERALD APRIL 26, 1928 JOE MORTEN, SR., IS LAID TO REST As A Pioneer Settler He Had Lived In Cedar County For Sixty-six Years Funeral services for Joseph Anthony Morten, who died MOnday, April 16th at Rochester, were held at 2:30 o'clock last Thursday afternoon, Rev. Louis Hieb officiating. Interment was made at the Hartington cemetery. Six sons of the deceased were the pallbearers. They were: Steve, George, Edward, Ralph, Joseph, jr. and Harry. Persons attending the funeral from out of town were Mrs. Hannah MacLeod, a sister of the deceased, and her two sons, Louis and Stanley, and her daugher and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Russel Swift, all of Vermillion; F.W. Barnhart of St. Louis, Missouri; Mr. and Mrs. T.J. Graham, cousins of the deceased, and son Ralph, of Dakota City, John Balley, a cousin, of Jefferson City, Iowa, and Mrs. O.C. Olson, niece of Mr. Morten of Sioux City, Iowa.