tile world as a clerk in a dry-goods store, remaining in the same establishment three years. He desired, however, to try life beyond the Mississippi, and went to St. Joseph, Mo., where he secured a lucrative position as clerk in a wholesale dry-goods house. He remained with that firm until 1875, when he went to Hamburg, Iowa, to establish himself in business as proprietor of a general store. He managed his interests there very well for some years, but in 1879 he closed out his business and returned to St. Joseph, where he again entered the employ of a wholesale house, and, as a drummer, traveled over Kansas and Nebraska. He won golden opinions from his employers, as he made large and profitable sales, his geniality, frankness, and ready conversational powers, making him popular with all with whom he had dealings. In 1884 he came to Plattsmouth and bought a home, wishing to settle down quietly in a pleasant locality with his family. As before mentioned, he became a member of the firm of J. W. Jennings & Co. He became associated with his present partner in 1886, and they are conducting a good business.
   Mr. Ritchie was married, July 17, 1879, to Miss Josephine M. Fegan. She was born in Fairfield, Iowa, a daughter of James and Mary Fegan, natives of Pennsylvania. Two children, Jennie M. and Mary L., complete the household circle.
   Although Mr. Ritchie has been a resident of this city but a few years, he shows the interest of an old settler in its development, and encourages the various schemes for its improvement. He and his estimable wife have attained social prominence in this community, where they are cordially liked by all who have had the pleasure of meeting them. Mr. Ritchie is an ardent Republican in his political views.

APT. J. M. CREMER, an old veteran of the Union Army during the Civil War, has for years been recognized as one of the most prominent and public-spirited citizens of Tipton Precinct. He was shot six times while in the service of his country, the first and second grazing his scalp, the third entering his neck, and the fourth, a ball, struck him in the left breast, and went clear through his body nine inches; the fifth struck his left forearm, mutilating it, and breaking the bone so that it was useless. The sixth shot struck him in the left breast bone, and three-fourth inches below the fourth wound, and lodged within his ribs, where it at present lies, although it keeps changing about, and at times gives the Captain much pain.
   Capt. Cremer is the offspring of a substantial old family, and the son of David Cremer, who was born in Somerset County, Pa., in 1798, The latter married Miss Elizabeth Stull, also a native of Somerset County, and born the same year as her husband. The paternal grand father, Adam Cremer, was born in Westmoreland County, Pa., and served through the Revolutionary War as a non-commissioned officer. Afterward he established a blacksmith shop in connection with a farm in his native county, and was quite prominent in public affairs, officiating as Justice of the. Peace, and occupying other local offices. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-six years. The great-grandfather, Adam Cremer, Sr., was a native of Germany, and upon emigrating to America settled in Virginia, where he carried on farming. Upon the outbreak of the Revolutionary War he shouldered his musket and rustled to the defense of the Colonists. He spent his last years in Virginia.
   On the mother's side John Stull, the grandfather of our subject, also a native of Pennsylvania, took part in the War of 1812. He had in the meantime, in 1800, emigrated to Ohio, and in the Buckeye State spent the closing years of his life. He was a son of one of the earliest settlers of Pennsylvania, who was of German descent. He married a lady of Swedish ancestry, who was the daughter of a Capt. Allbright, and she lived to be one hundred and thirteen years old.
   The father of our subject was reared in his native State, and in his young manhood was a member of the Pennsylvania Home Guards. He was there married, and in 1833 emigrated to Tuscarawas County, Ohio, where he purchased from the Government a tract of timber land. He cleared two farms in the Buckeye State, but in 1852, pushing farther westward, purchased eighty acres in Kankakee County, Ill., and from the wilderness built up a good homestead, where he spent the remainder of

his life passing away In 1866. He was a Whig, politically, a man of decided views, and a good citizen. The mother survived her husband until 1874, and died at the old home in Illinois. Both were active members of the Church of the United Brethren a period of forty years or more, in which the father was a chief pillar, and officiated as Class Steward.
   To the parents of our subject there were born twelve children, namely: Margaret, Hannah, Sarah and Johanna, all deceased; J. M., our subject; Isesa, Jesse, Silas and Rachel (deceased); David, Joseph and Elizabeth, residents respectively of Nebraska and Indiana. Jesse during the Civil War enlisted as a Union soldier in 1861, in the 64th Illinois Infantry, which was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, and was with Sherman at the siege of Atlanta. On the 22d of July, 1864, he was shot dead while in the performance of his duty.
   Capt. Cremer was born in Turkeyfoot Township, Somerset Co., Pa.. April 27, 1825, and grew up on a farm. When a little lad eight years of age, his parents removed to Ohio, and he remained with them until a youth of seventeen. He then began an apprenticeship at the tanner's trade at Canal Dover, Ohio, remaining there two years, when on account of failing health he returned to the farm. He worked with his father two years thereafter, and then began learning the carpenter's trade. A year later he returned to his old home in Pennsylvania to visit friends and settle up his grandfather's estate. Upon going back to Ohio he employed himself as a carpenter, sod was married in Canal Dover, Oct. 12. 1848, to Miss Martha, daughter of John and Hannah (Riggle) Gamble.
   The parents of Mrs. Cremer were natives of Ohio. The paternal grandfather, William Gamble, was born in Ireland, and settled in Ohio upon emigrating to the United States, where he spent his last days. Grandfather Riggle was a native of Virginia, of German descent, a blacksmith by trade, and lived to be very old. John Gamble, in 1851, removed to Illinois. settling near Pontiac in Livingston County, where his death took place at the age of forty years, in 1852. The. mother also died that year, at the age of forty-three. Their children comprised seven sons and four daughters, the eldest of whom, Elizabeth, died when quite small; Martha J., Mrs. Cremer, was the second child; Adam and William W., are deceased; Harvey and John are residents of Wisconsin; Asbury died in 1852. The others are Robert, of Champaign. Ill.; Cook, of Wyoming Territory; Louisa is living in Wisconsin, and Ellen S., who died when three years old. Adam, Harvey, John, Robert and Cook all served as soldiers in the Union Army. Adam died at LaGrange, Tenn., in 1863.
    Mrs. Cremer was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Jan. 10. 1829, and remained a resident of her native state until the fall of 1851. The family then journeyed overland with teams to what was then Will, but is now Kankakee County, Ill., and settled near the present town of Momence, when there were only two houses between them and Chicago. Father Gamble purchased 240 acres of prairie land, but for two years thereafter occupied himself mostly at his trade of carpenter. Subsequently he paid his whole attention to farming. In 1860 he moved to Coles County, Mo., and was one of the earliest settlers of that region. He purchased 320 acres of land, but there being too many rebels about, went back to Illinois, and this time located near Fairfield, in Wayne County, where he purchased a farm of 120 acres.
   The year following, 1861, our subject entered the service of the Government, and assisted in recruiting the 18th, 40th and 63d Illinois Regiments. This effected, he raised a company for the 87th Illinois Infantry, and himself became a member of Company D, in that regiment, enlisting as a private in August, 1862, at Shawneetown. He thereafter participated in many of the important battles of the war, being at Uniontown and Caseyville Ky., Island No. 10, Ft. Pillow, Hernando, Tenn., Coldwater, Young's Point, Milliken's Bend, Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, Jackson, Miss., and Champion Hills. At Champion Hills 1,606 men of his division were killed outright. Later they met the enemy at Black River, and the Captain participated in the siege and capture of Vicksburg. He was with the corps which made the famous charge on the 22d of May, 1863. July 4 was another memorable day, and later our subject with his regiment was transferred to the Department of the Gulf, after which he was

promoted to the rank of Captain of Company I. Soon afterward he went to New Orleans to recruit, remaining there until September 9, when they were transferred to the command of Gen. Banks. Subsequently occurred the battles of Franklin, New Iberia, Vermilion, and other hand-to-hand engagements with the Confederates.
   In February, 1864, the company of Capt. Cremer was made a part of the Red River expedition, and fought in a number of battles. Among these was that at Wilson's Hill, where our subject was under fire four hours, and where he received his most serious wounds above spoken of. He was left on the field three days and three nights, supposed to have been mortally wounded. Upon being discovered he was loaded into an ambulance, hauled forty miles to the Red River, then taken on a boat 640 miles to New Orleans, and placed in the St. James' Hospital. The sufferings which he thereafter endured can better be imagined than described, in fact he was in a condition which it would hardly be proper to mention here. Nothing but his splendid constitution enabled him to survive. When wounded he weighed 214 pounds, and fourteen days later had been reduced to 151 pounds.
   Capt. Cremer remained in the hospital until June 10, 1864, and then received a passport to return home. He was given transportation across the Gulf to New York, was provided with an artificial arm, and arrived at his home in Wayne County, Ill., July 14, 1864. In August following Gov. Yates forwarded to him his honorable discharge. During his absence the wife of Capt. Cremer, in addition to her natural anxiety concerning her husband, had had her own conflicts with the rebels of Southern Illinois, who came very near making away with everything they could destroy, so that the Captain and his wife were in effect quite destitute, with the exception of twenty acres of land. In December of that year they removed to Kankakee County, on a farm, and with the help of his boys the Captain soon recovered his losses, remaining there until 1870.
   During the above mentioned year Capt. Cremer operated as a contractor with the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific Railroad Company, and for two years thereafter was fortunate in making considerable money. He finally rented a large ranch in Lake County, Ind., and embarked in the cattle business, which he continued until 1878, operating largely with full-blooded Hereford stock. In the fall of 1878 he ventured west of the Mississippi into Cass County, this State, and purchased 400 acres of land, intending to establish a Hereford stock farm, but afterward changed his mind and went to general farming.
   The journey to Nebraska was made overland with teams, the Captain bringing with him sixteen head of horses, and taking up his abode on a tract of raw prairie purchased from the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company. As soon as possible he put up a house with lumber shipped from Chicago, and set out some trees. In 1882 he began planting the grove which is now the object of admiration by the traveler through this section of the county. Later he established an orchard of 450 apple trees and 300 peach trees, and in all set out probably 45,000 trees, his grove alone covering an area of ten acres.
   In 1882 the Captain sold off a quarter-section of his land, and to the balance has given his close attention, effecting first-class improvements, putting up a neat and substantial residence with a barn and out-buildings, corn-cribs, hog houses, etc. His fences are largely of hedge, and the land has been brought to a good state of cultivation. The household circle was completed by the birth of ten children, namely: Elizabeth E., Isesa L., John W., Sarah M., Clarissa A., Franklin W., Ulysses S. Grant; Lilly M., who died in 1888, when twenty-two years old; Emma H. and Lettie J. The eldest daughter is the wife of Claus Ohm, and they live on a farm in Stove Creek Precinct; I. L. is married and farming in Tipton Precinct; John W. is engaged in the agricultural implement trade in Kankakee, Ill.; Sarah M., Mrs. Wallace Hess, is the wife of a well-to-do farmer of Kankakee, Ill.; Clarissa, Mrs. Joseph D. Skiles, lives on a farm in Butler County, this State; Franklin W. continues on the home farm; he was united to Miss Mary J. McCarter, Dec. 25, 1887. She died Oct. 21, 1888, leaving one child, named Thomas J., who is living with his grandparents McCarter, of Frontier County, Neb. U. S. Grant is married and

farming in Tipton Precinct; Lilly M. became the wire of R. D. Shay, and died in Tipton Precinct, Oct. 26, 1888, leaving one child, Cora L., who makes her home with her grandparents. The other children of our subject remain under the parental roof.
   It is hardly necessary to say that Capt. Cremer is a Republican, "dyed in the wool." Few men have attained to more prominence in county affairs than he. He served twenty-two terms as a juryman, has been sent times without number as a delegate to the various conventions of his party, officiated as Sheriff two years, and Justice of the Peace two terms, and has otherwise been connected with the important interests of Cass County. Socially, he belongs to Kenesaw Post No. 123, in which he is Senior Commander. Both he and his estimable wife have been active members of the United Brethren Church a period of forty-five years, in which the Captain has made himself useful as elsewhere, officiating not only as Class-Leader, Steward and Secretary, but also as a minister in the pulpit. He is at present the local preacher of this church in Stove Creek Circuit. He realizes the importance of religious instruction to the young, and has given no little time to Sunday-school work, officiated as Superintendent, and otherwise furthered the cause as he has had opportunity. It will thus be seen that he has built up a good record as a useful and self-sacrificing citizen, and he is amply worthy of representation in a work designed to commemorate the life of the pioneers of Cass County.

ENRY RAUSCH. There are few sections in Cass County, as elsewhere, in which we do not find the persevering and thrifty German farmer. The subject of this sketch is one of the most worthy representatives of this class of citizens who have been closely identified with the development of the Great West. He owns a good farm of 160 acres, comprising the northeast quarter of section 8 in Tipton Precinct. and in addition to general agriculture makes a specialty of the raising of swine, producing each year of these animals of unusual fine quality. His operations are carried on in a thorough and skillful manner, and his promptness in meeting his obligations has placed him in a good position in his community.
   Before proceeding further in noting the career of Mr. Rausch we will revert to those from whom he drew his origin. His father, Conrad Rausch, was born in Eisenach, Saxony, in the town of Farnroda. In early manhood he was married, the lady being a native of his own Province, and settled down to his trade of blacksmith in the village of Farnroda, near the well-known village of Eisenach. He also carried on farming in connection with black-smithing, and there spent the remainder of his days, dying in February, 1866, at the age of sixty-eight years. He had served for a time in the German Army against the great Napoleon. The mother also died in her native land, about 1864. Their children, four in number, were named respectively: Henry, our subject; Ansophine, Lizzie and Christine, the three latter all deceased.
   The subject of this sketch, like his parents before him, is a native of Saxony, born under the little roof-tree in Farnroda, June 24, 1820. He was placed in school at the tender age of five years and continued his studies until a lad of fourteen. He then began an apprenticeship at the stonemason's trade, serving three years, then worked as a journeyman until 1843. He had in the meantime traveled all over, not only the German Empire but many of the other outlying countries of Europe. He finally decided to seek his fortunes in the Western Hemisphere, and on the 20th of December, 1843, embarked from Bremerhaven on the sailing vessel "Emma," and after a voyage of sixty days landed in New York City on the 14th of February, He at once went to work for a farmer for his board where he worked three months. He then went in the city of New York, where he worked at his trade until August, and then went to Waterbury, Conn., where he sojourned until October. We next find him in Virginia on the James River Canal at stone cutting, where he staid one year. We next find him in Campbell County, Va., in company with John Robinson, burning lime, where he staid eighteen months.
    While a resident of the Old Dominion Mr. Rausch met his fate in Appomattox County, in the

person of Mrs. Mary J. (Lee) Wilson, to whom he was married in November, 1850. This lady is a second cousin of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and was born in November, 1819, in Appomattox County, where she was reared to womanhood. The young people settied down together on a farm, where Mr. Rausch in connection with his trade also prosecuted agriculture in a small way, and was thus occupied until after the outbreak of the Rebellion. In March, 1862, he enlisted in the Confederate service, 44th Virginia Infantry, under the command of Gen. Lee, but not long afterward was transferred to the artillery and assisted in the defense of Richmond. Another six months found him a member of the engineer corps, laying out roads and building bridges. After the surrender at Appomattox Court House Mr. Rausch received his honorable discharge, and returned to his farm, resuming the labors of a civilian in the Old Dominion until the fall of 1865. He then changed his residence to Culpeper County, in Old Virginia, where he and his family lived three years, and Mr. R. occupied himself mostly at his trade.
   Mr. Rausch had for some time previous to this had his eye on the country west of the Mississippi, and in February, 1868, perfected his arrangements for the removal hither. Making his way to the southwestern corner of this county he homesteaded eighty acres of land in Tipton Precinct, of which he still retains possession. It was then an unbroken prairie, upon which no improvement had been attempted. After putting up a shelter for his family, they in the meantime living in their wagon, he commenced breaking the sod with the oxen which had conveyed them hither. After the first season's crops were put in he began making such improvements as he could with the material at hand, having to haul his lumber from Nebraska City. He also began setting out trees, both fruit and forest, and has now a fine grove and a small apple orchard.
   The land of Mr. Rausch is amply watered by Camp Creek, and the whole has now been brought to a good state of cultivation. He afterward added eighty acres to his first purchase, and in 1871 constructed a dam across Rock Creek for the purpose of a mill dam. He has a neat and substantial residence, with a barn 24x64 feet in area, hay-scales, and all the other farm machinery necessary for the successful prosecution of his calling. His swine are of the full-blooded Poland-China and Jersey; he also has graded cattle, with about eleven or twelve head of handsome and powerful Percheron horses.
   To Mr. and Mrs. Rausch there were born six children, three of whom, the two eldest and the youngest, Herman, Emma and Kendall R., are deceased, the first-named dying in infancy. Conrad is at home with his father; Cornelia is the wife of Mr. J. W. Butts, a plumber by trade; Norah completed her studies at the High School at Lynchburg, and is prosecuting her trade of milliner in Lynchburg, Va. Mrs. Mary J. Rausch died at the homestead in Tipton Precinct, in March, 1883. Mr. Rausch, politically, is a solid Democrat, and in religious matters belongs to the Lutheran Protestant Church. Socially, he is a member of the E. A. U., at Lincoln.

ENRY BEHRNS. The intelligent traveler is always gratified in noticing the evidences of thrift and enterprise in a new country, and involuntarily regards with admiration the labors of a man who has by his industry and perseverance placed himself in a good position financially, and who as a natural result is looked upon by his neighbors as a leader in the community. These thoughts involuntarily occur in noting the career of the subject of this sketch. He represents a fine property in Avoca Precinct, a property including 395 acres of valuable land, which, with the high culture to which it has been subjected, and the fine farm buildings with which it is embellished, forms one of the most desirable estates along the southern limits of Cass County. The Behrns farm is pleasantly located on section 22, and stock-raising forms the leading enterprise now engrossing the attention of the proprietor.
   This farm has for its owner a more than ordinary value and interest, having been land purchased by his father as early as 1862, five years before the transformation of Nebraska from a Territory into a State. Six years later Henry assumed its management, and has considerably increased its acreage.

He possesses all the thrift and prudence of his substantial German ancestry, a nationality which has figured largely in the development of the Great West. He has been willing to labor and to wait for results, and a looker-on cannot see any reason why he should not be satisfied with his possessions or his surroundings.
   Our subject, who is a native of the Empire of Germany, was born Oct. 10, 1845, and is the eldest son and child of James and Sophia (Gotjohn) Behrns, who were born and reared not far from their own home. Their household includes two sons and two daughters, and the father on his native soil followed the occupation of a brickmaker. Being a man ambitious for the welfare of his family, he determined to seek his fortune on the other side of the Atlantic. In the year 1862 the parents and all the children came to America, and from New York City proceeded directly westward beyond the Mississippi, taking up their home at once in Avoca Precinct, this county. The father secured by pre-emption eighty-five acres on section 22, and proceeded to build up a homestead, laboring early and late a number of years, and until his sons were enabled to relieve him of further care. He and his estimable wife still continue at the homestead, now retired from active labor, the father seventy-two years old and the mother seventy-seven. They were trained in the doctrines of the Lutheran Church, to which they still loyally adhere.
   Mr. Behrns received his early education in the excellent schools of his native land, and was about seventeen years of age when emigrating to the United States with his father's family. He attained his majority in Avoca Precinct, but found his bride over the line eastward, being married in Liberty Precinct, Oct. 29, 1868, to Miss Mary Sturm. This lady, also a native of Germany, was born in the Province of Alsace, June 8, 1850, and came to the United States with her father, Andrew Sturm, in her girlhood. The mother had died in her native Germany when her daughter Mary was but a child. Mr. Sturm secured a tract of good land in Liberty Precinct, this county, and surrounded himself with all the comforts of life, building up a good farm, where he spent his last days and where his death took place in April, 1874, when he was seventy-four years old. He also was in religion a Lutheran.
   Mrs. Behrns was the youngest of the five children born to her parents, and remained with her father until her marriage. Of her union with our subject there have been born five children, namely: Henry J., Mary, Minnie, Joseph and Sophia. They are all at home with their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Behrns, like their ancestors, are Lutherans in religion, while our subject, politically, gives his support to the Republican party.

OHN MAGNEY, one of the earliest pioneers of this State, resides on it well-improved farm of 160 acres on section 36, in Mt. Pleasant Precinct. He was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, Jan. 25, 1835, where he lived until he was eleven years of age, then removed with the family to Scioto County, same State. His education was received in the subscription and later in the public schools of his native county, attending the latter in the primitive log school-house, of which so much has been said and written, which, although often rough on the exterior and plainly furnished inside, has produced many of the brightest scholars the world has ever known. To the rudimentary knowledge thus obtained he has added the education acquired by years of experience and observation, and now, by a careful perusal of the prints of the day, he is a well-informed man.
   The attention of the gentleman has been given especially to farming all his life, but in his early years of pioneership he would work as carpenter and joiner when occasion offered, which enabled him to inaugurate the present system of improvement exhibited on his home farm. He was married in Ohio to Mary E. Searl, on the 8th of January, 1857. This lady is a native of Ohio and was born in Scioto County, July 22, 1837. She is a daughter of Wyatt and Mercy (White) Searl. Her paternal ancestors are supposed to have been of Swedish origin; her grandfather White was reputed to have been a soldier in the War of 1812. Her parents had the following-named family: Jane, now the wife