See "PHOTOS" for image of obituary
Lincoln, Nebraska, January 1st, 1952.
This evening while sitting in my apartment all by myself, my thoughts were just drifting back a few years; and then back many more years; and then I thought and wondered about the many things that have happened during these years. Well, then I wondered if anyone cared; or if it might be interesting to any body else. Well, maybe yes and maybe no – but the start was: I, William Jacob Opper was born October 3rd, 1870 near Granville, Putnam County, Illinois (my parents were Christopher Jacob Opper and Mary Elizabeth Giese, who were both born at Wora, Germany, in the west central part). Father came to the U.S.A. when he was seventeen years, and worked by the month among the farmers near Granville. Mother came to the U.S.A with an older sister, when she was about seventeen or eighteen; and also worked out among the farmers near Granville. They were school mates in Germany and were married in the spring of 1869 and settled on a farm near Granville. A few years after that my parents moved across the county line into LaSalle County, Illinois, south of Peru, where I started to go to the public school. At that time I could hardly understand a word of English (but I learned) then at the age of about twelve, my brother John (two years younger) and I were sent to an old German school teacher for about seven or eight weeks, during the summer vacation, for two summers; about four miles distant, to the same German school teacher that taught my father and mother in Germany. He would only take a few pupils – in his dining room in the house – children whose parents he had taught in Germany (and say was he strict with us). Then in September, 1884 we moved with my parents to Adams County, Nebraska to four and one-half miles south of Kenesaw, wide open country. It was a common thing to see a caravan of pioneers' covered wagons traveling toward the west and how those prairie wolfs would howl after dark, and then come and steal our pigs. We had a big shepard dog, he would sometimes chase the prairie wolfs away from the yard, until they got some distance, then they would stop, and chase shep back to the house and he seemed to be glad that he had reached the back door It so happened that the pioneer trail run acoss our section. It started in at the northeast corner of our section and came out at the southwest corner. Father had quite a time to stop that cross section road and make them keep the section line. He broke out a strip at each end of the road, put up a barb wire fence, and sign boards, but some would out the wire, knock down the sign board, and start across, then father would jump on a horse and meet them, and turn them over to the section line. That next summer (I was fourteen) I helped break out eighty acres of prairie land, and the following summer another eighty acres. Our country school was two and three-quarters miles, which we attended the first year; then the next year father bought two white ponies, they were about four and half feet tall, and John and I rode them to school at Kenesaw – about four and a half miles. That year the school districts were split up, and a new schoolhouse was built one and a quarter miles from our place. Father would buy up cattle (steers) in the surrounding neighborhoods in the fall about October and feed them out over winter, sometimes one, two or three carloads, and in the spring ship them to Omaha. One winter we did not have hay enough and had to haul it from the Platte river bottoms north of Kenesaw, about thirteen or more miles to haul hay. We would go with three teams and rack wagons and it would take all day (short winter days). One day I will always remember, the frost was going out of the ground fast that afternoon, and on the way home father's wagon went through the frost and got stuck, and had to double teams to pull out. Several miles farther on the hired man's load upset, so then we had to straighten the wagon up and pitch in and reload the wagon again, then within a half mile from home my load upset (laid on its side) then father called back to me, "unhitch the horses and let it stay there till morning". Well, we worked hard them days but it was lots of fun too; fun mixed in, makes the work much easier. On January 12, 1888, we had that big blizzard. John and I were in school. It was a nice warm forenoon, a little wind from the south; during the noon hour there wasn't a bit of air stirring. We looked toward the north and saw that something was coming. Shortly before one o'clock that gray snow bank, snow cloud, looked like it was almost straight up and down, reaching miles high into the skies, rolling toward us fast. The teacher came to the door and shouted, "everybody get inside here quick". Well, it turned awfully cold that quick too, and the wind blowing at a terrific speed, and snow so thick you couldn't see more than three or four feet away Father had gone to a neighbors to get a load of corn, a mile west of the school house, and had to come right by the school house, so he drove right up to the door, and asked the teacher to let us come out, and told the teacher "do not let any scholars go until their folks come after them". Then father told us to lay flat on our stomachs on that load of corn, and he just let the horses have their own way to pick the road. When we got to the yards, our stock cows and horses were waiting at the gate and barn doors to open. Father filled the feed bunks in the yard, for we had two carload of cattle on full feed. John and I let the horses and cows in the barn, filled their mangers and feed boxes; then took shovels and axe and found our way to the house (expecting that storm to keep up for two days) and stayed there till morning. By morning the storm had blowed itself out, but high, hard snow drifts every where. On March 1st, 1888 father had rented the farm for one year on account of mother's health, and we moved to Hastings, and went to school in Hastings. The next spring, March 1st, 1889 we moved back on the farm. When fall came father again bought steers in the neighborhood, and fed cattle through the winter: one fall he bought three carloads out at Cozad (but lost money on them). The winter of 1891-92, and also the next winter, I run a corn sheller with Fred Long, and shelled corn all over that country (Horse Power outfit). In 1893 we had a partial drouth, and in 1894 we had a real drouth – did not raise enough to feed our own stock; buyers from Hiawatha, Kansas, came out there and bought up cattle and hogs to feed out; - so that fall father traded the farm for a Blacksmith and Wagon Shop at Falls City, Nebraska and we moved there that fall. I stayed there two years and worked in the blacksmith shop; the second year there we took over the McCormick Machinery Agency, with good results; but father sold out that next winter and stayed at Falls City two more years – farmed near Falls City and then moved to Grand Junction, Iowa. On May 1st, 1897 I went to Seward, Nebraska to work for the Babson-Dickman Implement Company. That summer I met one of the best and nicest, mild-mannered disposition young ladies that I had ever met. Well, after several weeks we found out that we were falling in love with each other. On Sunday evenings we went to church together, on Sunday morning I went to church alone, as she was working in a Hotel and could not go. On February 1st, 1898 the Babson-Dickman Implement Company transferred me to their branch house at Utica, Nebraska and on March 9th, 1898 was married to Lorinda Rogers (she was 25 and I 27) at Seward, Nebraska – in the Rogers home – by Rev. Kember, the M. E. minister. That afternoon we came to Lincoln, stayed at the Capital Hotel, and the next morning went to the Rudge & Morris Company, bought our house keeping equipment for a four room house, paid for it, and the Rudge & Morris Company shipped it to Utica the next day, and we started our home. That fall, in October, Mr. Babson wanted me to move back to Seward, and he paid all the expenses. On March 19, 1899 our family increased with a daughter – Ethel. On March 1st, 1900 I quit the Babson-Dickman Company and moved to Grand Junction, Iowa, and farmed north of Grand Junction five years. On June 26, 1900 the family increased again with a son – Edward; and July 9, 1902 with a daughter – Alma. In February, 1905 I made a sale, sold out, and on March 1st, 1905 went into the farm implement business again with the Paul Herpolsheimer Implement Company at Seward, Nebraska. The next winter Paul Herpolsheimer wanted me to move to Milford, Nebraska to find out why that branch house did not pay out better. On March 1st, 1906 at Milford our family increased again with a son – Howard. That summer, 1906, the Burlington R. R. Company changed their R. R. right-of-way through Milford, from the bottoms to the present R. R. location, and a number of residences had to be moved, some of them were for sale, so I bought one seven room house for $500.00 – bought a lot in the south part of Milford for $200.00 and paid the house mover $200.00 for moving the house; put a good foundation under it and dug a cellar under the kitchen part on evenings after my working hours. Well, the implement and harness business in Milford was not what it should have been because there were too many in the business – there were four firms in the business – so that fall I advised Mr. Herpolsheimer to buy out one or two of the other dealers, which we tried to do, but could not. Finally, Geo. Fosler Implement Company offered to buy out Herpolsheimer, he hesitated and said, "what about you now? Will you move back to Seward again?" I told him I'd let him know in about a week. Then Aunt Kate Nyhart wanted us to take over the Nome Hotel, which we decided to do, but stayed in Milford until the first of February in order to make collections, and close the business, then moved into the Nome Hotel at Seward, and rented our house in Milford, and later on sold it. I stayed with the Herpolsheimer Implement Company and Mom run the Hotel, with Gus Rucksdashol, and my help mornings and evenings, and we did real well there that way. The next winter the daughter, Emma Nyhart and Gus decided to get married, and they wanted the Hotel, so we had to move out into a house. In 1908 I left the Herpolsheimer Implement Company. Mr. Hatfield had been granted a patent on a grain cleaner and grader, and we organized the Noxall Manufacturing Company – Nick Wullenwaber, Dan Hartrum, and I (Wullenwaber had bought out Hatfield) and we started to make the grain cleaners and graders; made quite a number of them and put them out among dealers, but after a year of hard struggle found out that we didn't have the money and could not get the backing. We then sold our house in Milford, bought a lot in Seward and built a seven room house – I was then working with the carpenter gang. On January 6th, 1910 we had another family increase, a daughter – Blanche. In January, 1911 I went to work for the Maytag Company of Newton, Iowa – was given the south one-third of Kansas, with headquarters at Wichita, selling grain cleaners, washers, and the Ruth self feeder for threshing machines; but that summer, by June, Kansas and Oklahoma were hit hard by a bad drouth, and many wheat fields were only 7 or 8 inches tall, and many fields not out, and my orders were being cancelled, and I was let out. Then we sold the house at Seward and bought a Hardward stock at Central City, Nebraska and moved there, and two years later traded the Hardware stock for a quarter section land, six miles north of Julesburg, Colorado in Deuel County, Nebraska which we later sold. By this time Mr. and Mrs. Gus Rucksdashol wanted out of the Hotel again, and Aunt Kate begged us to take the Hotel again, so we did, but the Hotel building needed a lot of work done to it and she wouldn't do a thing, so we finally told her if she did not fix up a little we would move out, which we did. Then the next spring and summer I worked for the International Harvester Company, in the Hastings district, the Lincoln, then out of Sioux City district in northwestern Iowa. Then in the fall of 1913 I went to work with the Haller Company in Cass County, selling Family, Stock and Poultry remedies, and the next summer traded territories with the Seward County man, and then worked Seward County for ten years; then September 1st, 1923 moved to Lincoln, bought a home at 1546 South 21st; was offered the general agency with the Haller Company in Nebraska and part of Kansas, which I did for four years, but some disagreements came up, and I quit. January 1st, 1927 we bought out the Club Café at 1535 O St. and run it close to seven years, and sold out in the fall of 1933. In 1930 we tore down the old house at 1546 So. 21, and built a new six room house. Then 1935 and 1936 was assistant at the City Mission two years. In June, 1937 we took over the Antelope Café at 2332 O St. and run it for six years, and sold out in June, 1943, and moved into the apartments at 619-621 South 11th which we already had bought out March 1st. That summer bought another Apartment house at 13th and G St. and also bought the property, 910 H St. In the fall of 1944 Mother had a stroke and the sixth week after that stroke had another stroke, which was too much, and past away on October 26th, 1944; and things have been mighty lonesome for me since, for we always did enjoy each others company so much. In 1945 I sold the Apts., furniture at 13th and G at a nice profit, and in June, 1946 traded the house at 1546 So. 21 (at $8000.00) in on the Apartment house at 1131-1133 H St. (at $11,000.00)
Now here I sit, just all alone,
What should I do, to keep in tone
Collect the rents, and pay the bills
Before they get as high as hills!
I've struggled through for many years,
Seen ups and downs, and yet no fears;
Some times t'was dark, no light in sight,
But then the sun shone through all right,
So we'll look up, hold up our head
And then keep on and look ahead
And with God's blessings, and with Love
We'll keep on looking up above.
W. J. Opper
619 So. 11th St.
Lincoln, Nebraska.
Source:
https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/28566057?cid=mem_copy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Memorial maintained by:
2nd, HJ, # 46937296
Lincoln, Nebraska, January 1st, 1952.
This evening while sitting in my apartment all by myself, my thoughts were just drifting back a few years; and then back many more years; and then I thought and wondered about the many things that have happened during these years. Well, then I wondered if anyone cared; or if it might be interesting to any body else. Well, maybe yes and maybe no – but the start was: I, William Jacob Opper was born October 3rd, 1870 near Granville, Putnam County, Illinois (my parents were Christopher Jacob Opper and Mary Elizabeth Giese, who were both born at Wora, Germany, in the west central part). Father came to the U.S.A. when he was seventeen years, and worked by the month among the farmers near Granville. Mother came to the U.S.A with an older sister, when she was about seventeen or eighteen; and also worked out among the farmers near Granville. They were school mates in Germany and were married in the spring of 1869 and settled on a farm near Granville. A few years after that my parents moved across the county line into LaSalle County, Illinois, south of Peru, where I started to go to the public school. At that time I could hardly understand a word of English (but I learned) then at the age of about twelve, my brother John (two years younger) and I were sent to an old German school teacher for about seven or eight weeks, during the summer vacation, for two summers; about four miles distant, to the same German school teacher that taught my father and mother in Germany. He would only take a few pupils – in his dining room in the house – children whose parents he had taught in Germany (and say was he strict with us). Then in September, 1884 we moved with my parents to Adams County, Nebraska to four and one-half miles south of Kenesaw, wide open country. It was a common thing to see a caravan of pioneers' covered wagons traveling toward the west and how those prairie wolfs would howl after dark, and then come and steal our pigs. We had a big shepard dog, he would sometimes chase the prairie wolfs away from the yard, until they got some distance, then they would stop, and chase shep back to the house and he seemed to be glad that he had reached the back door It so happened that the pioneer trail run acoss our section. It started in at the northeast corner of our section and came out at the southwest corner. Father had quite a time to stop that cross section road and make them keep the section line. He broke out a strip at each end of the road, put up a barb wire fence, and sign boards, but some would out the wire, knock down the sign board, and start across, then father would jump on a horse and meet them, and turn them over to the section line. That next summer (I was fourteen) I helped break out eighty acres of prairie land, and the following summer another eighty acres. Our country school was two and three-quarters miles, which we attended the first year; then the next year father bought two white ponies, they were about four and half feet tall, and John and I rode them to school at Kenesaw – about four and a half miles. That year the school districts were split up, and a new schoolhouse was built one and a quarter miles from our place. Father would buy up cattle (steers) in the surrounding neighborhoods in the fall about October and feed them out over winter, sometimes one, two or three carloads, and in the spring ship them to Omaha. One winter we did not have hay enough and had to haul it from the Platte river bottoms north of Kenesaw, about thirteen or more miles to haul hay. We would go with three teams and rack wagons and it would take all day (short winter days). One day I will always remember, the frost was going out of the ground fast that afternoon, and on the way home father's wagon went through the frost and got stuck, and had to double teams to pull out. Several miles farther on the hired man's load upset, so then we had to straighten the wagon up and pitch in and reload the wagon again, then within a half mile from home my load upset (laid on its side) then father called back to me, "unhitch the horses and let it stay there till morning". Well, we worked hard them days but it was lots of fun too; fun mixed in, makes the work much easier. On January 12, 1888, we had that big blizzard. John and I were in school. It was a nice warm forenoon, a little wind from the south; during the noon hour there wasn't a bit of air stirring. We looked toward the north and saw that something was coming. Shortly before one o'clock that gray snow bank, snow cloud, looked like it was almost straight up and down, reaching miles high into the skies, rolling toward us fast. The teacher came to the door and shouted, "everybody get inside here quick". Well, it turned awfully cold that quick too, and the wind blowing at a terrific speed, and snow so thick you couldn't see more than three or four feet away Father had gone to a neighbors to get a load of corn, a mile west of the school house, and had to come right by the school house, so he drove right up to the door, and asked the teacher to let us come out, and told the teacher "do not let any scholars go until their folks come after them". Then father told us to lay flat on our stomachs on that load of corn, and he just let the horses have their own way to pick the road. When we got to the yards, our stock cows and horses were waiting at the gate and barn doors to open. Father filled the feed bunks in the yard, for we had two carload of cattle on full feed. John and I let the horses and cows in the barn, filled their mangers and feed boxes; then took shovels and axe and found our way to the house (expecting that storm to keep up for two days) and stayed there till morning. By morning the storm had blowed itself out, but high, hard snow drifts every where. On March 1st, 1888 father had rented the farm for one year on account of mother's health, and we moved to Hastings, and went to school in Hastings. The next spring, March 1st, 1889 we moved back on the farm. When fall came father again bought steers in the neighborhood, and fed cattle through the winter: one fall he bought three carloads out at Cozad (but lost money on them). The winter of 1891-92, and also the next winter, I run a corn sheller with Fred Long, and shelled corn all over that country (Horse Power outfit). In 1893 we had a partial drouth, and in 1894 we had a real drouth – did not raise enough to feed our own stock; buyers from Hiawatha, Kansas, came out there and bought up cattle and hogs to feed out; - so that fall father traded the farm for a Blacksmith and Wagon Shop at Falls City, Nebraska and we moved there that fall. I stayed there two years and worked in the blacksmith shop; the second year there we took over the McCormick Machinery Agency, with good results; but father sold out that next winter and stayed at Falls City two more years – farmed near Falls City and then moved to Grand Junction, Iowa. On May 1st, 1897 I went to Seward, Nebraska to work for the Babson-Dickman Implement Company. That summer I met one of the best and nicest, mild-mannered disposition young ladies that I had ever met. Well, after several weeks we found out that we were falling in love with each other. On Sunday evenings we went to church together, on Sunday morning I went to church alone, as she was working in a Hotel and could not go. On February 1st, 1898 the Babson-Dickman Implement Company transferred me to their branch house at Utica, Nebraska and on March 9th, 1898 was married to Lorinda Rogers (she was 25 and I 27) at Seward, Nebraska – in the Rogers home – by Rev. Kember, the M. E. minister. That afternoon we came to Lincoln, stayed at the Capital Hotel, and the next morning went to the Rudge & Morris Company, bought our house keeping equipment for a four room house, paid for it, and the Rudge & Morris Company shipped it to Utica the next day, and we started our home. That fall, in October, Mr. Babson wanted me to move back to Seward, and he paid all the expenses. On March 19, 1899 our family increased with a daughter – Ethel. On March 1st, 1900 I quit the Babson-Dickman Company and moved to Grand Junction, Iowa, and farmed north of Grand Junction five years. On June 26, 1900 the family increased again with a son – Edward; and July 9, 1902 with a daughter – Alma. In February, 1905 I made a sale, sold out, and on March 1st, 1905 went into the farm implement business again with the Paul Herpolsheimer Implement Company at Seward, Nebraska. The next winter Paul Herpolsheimer wanted me to move to Milford, Nebraska to find out why that branch house did not pay out better. On March 1st, 1906 at Milford our family increased again with a son – Howard. That summer, 1906, the Burlington R. R. Company changed their R. R. right-of-way through Milford, from the bottoms to the present R. R. location, and a number of residences had to be moved, some of them were for sale, so I bought one seven room house for $500.00 – bought a lot in the south part of Milford for $200.00 and paid the house mover $200.00 for moving the house; put a good foundation under it and dug a cellar under the kitchen part on evenings after my working hours. Well, the implement and harness business in Milford was not what it should have been because there were too many in the business – there were four firms in the business – so that fall I advised Mr. Herpolsheimer to buy out one or two of the other dealers, which we tried to do, but could not. Finally, Geo. Fosler Implement Company offered to buy out Herpolsheimer, he hesitated and said, "what about you now? Will you move back to Seward again?" I told him I'd let him know in about a week. Then Aunt Kate Nyhart wanted us to take over the Nome Hotel, which we decided to do, but stayed in Milford until the first of February in order to make collections, and close the business, then moved into the Nome Hotel at Seward, and rented our house in Milford, and later on sold it. I stayed with the Herpolsheimer Implement Company and Mom run the Hotel, with Gus Rucksdashol, and my help mornings and evenings, and we did real well there that way. The next winter the daughter, Emma Nyhart and Gus decided to get married, and they wanted the Hotel, so we had to move out into a house. In 1908 I left the Herpolsheimer Implement Company. Mr. Hatfield had been granted a patent on a grain cleaner and grader, and we organized the Noxall Manufacturing Company – Nick Wullenwaber, Dan Hartrum, and I (Wullenwaber had bought out Hatfield) and we started to make the grain cleaners and graders; made quite a number of them and put them out among dealers, but after a year of hard struggle found out that we didn't have the money and could not get the backing. We then sold our house in Milford, bought a lot in Seward and built a seven room house – I was then working with the carpenter gang. On January 6th, 1910 we had another family increase, a daughter – Blanche. In January, 1911 I went to work for the Maytag Company of Newton, Iowa – was given the south one-third of Kansas, with headquarters at Wichita, selling grain cleaners, washers, and the Ruth self feeder for threshing machines; but that summer, by June, Kansas and Oklahoma were hit hard by a bad drouth, and many wheat fields were only 7 or 8 inches tall, and many fields not out, and my orders were being cancelled, and I was let out. Then we sold the house at Seward and bought a Hardward stock at Central City, Nebraska and moved there, and two years later traded the Hardware stock for a quarter section land, six miles north of Julesburg, Colorado in Deuel County, Nebraska which we later sold. By this time Mr. and Mrs. Gus Rucksdashol wanted out of the Hotel again, and Aunt Kate begged us to take the Hotel again, so we did, but the Hotel building needed a lot of work done to it and she wouldn't do a thing, so we finally told her if she did not fix up a little we would move out, which we did. Then the next spring and summer I worked for the International Harvester Company, in the Hastings district, the Lincoln, then out of Sioux City district in northwestern Iowa. Then in the fall of 1913 I went to work with the Haller Company in Cass County, selling Family, Stock and Poultry remedies, and the next summer traded territories with the Seward County man, and then worked Seward County for ten years; then September 1st, 1923 moved to Lincoln, bought a home at 1546 South 21st; was offered the general agency with the Haller Company in Nebraska and part of Kansas, which I did for four years, but some disagreements came up, and I quit. January 1st, 1927 we bought out the Club Café at 1535 O St. and run it close to seven years, and sold out in the fall of 1933. In 1930 we tore down the old house at 1546 So. 21, and built a new six room house. Then 1935 and 1936 was assistant at the City Mission two years. In June, 1937 we took over the Antelope Café at 2332 O St. and run it for six years, and sold out in June, 1943, and moved into the apartments at 619-621 South 11th which we already had bought out March 1st. That summer bought another Apartment house at 13th and G St. and also bought the property, 910 H St. In the fall of 1944 Mother had a stroke and the sixth week after that stroke had another stroke, which was too much, and past away on October 26th, 1944; and things have been mighty lonesome for me since, for we always did enjoy each others company so much. In 1945 I sold the Apts., furniture at 13th and G at a nice profit, and in June, 1946 traded the house at 1546 So. 21 (at $8000.00) in on the Apartment house at 1131-1133 H St. (at $11,000.00)
Now here I sit, just all alone,
What should I do, to keep in tone
Collect the rents, and pay the bills
Before they get as high as hills!
I've struggled through for many years,
Seen ups and downs, and yet no fears;
Some times t'was dark, no light in sight,
But then the sun shone through all right,
So we'll look up, hold up our head
And then keep on and look ahead
And with God's blessings, and with Love
We'll keep on looking up above.
W. J. Opper
619 So. 11th St.
Lincoln, Nebraska.
Source:
https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/28566057?cid=mem_copy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Memorial maintained by:
2nd, HJ, # 46937296
See "PHOTOS" for image of obituary
Lincoln, Nebraska, January 1st, 1952.
This evening while sitting in my apartment all by myself, my thoughts were just drifting back a few years; and then back many more years; and then I thought and wondered about the many things that have happened during these years. Well, then I wondered if anyone cared; or if it might be interesting to any body else. Well, maybe yes and maybe no – but the start was: I, William Jacob Opper was born October 3rd, 1870 near Granville, Putnam County, Illinois (my parents were Christopher Jacob Opper and Mary Elizabeth Giese, who were both born at Wora, Germany, in the west central part). Father came to the U.S.A. when he was seventeen years, and worked by the month among the farmers near Granville. Mother came to the U.S.A with an older sister, when she was about seventeen or eighteen; and also worked out among the farmers near Granville. They were school mates in Germany and were married in the spring of 1869 and settled on a farm near Granville. A few years after that my parents moved across the county line into LaSalle County, Illinois, south of Peru, where I started to go to the public school. At that time I could hardly understand a word of English (but I learned) then at the age of about twelve, my brother John (two years younger) and I were sent to an old German school teacher for about seven or eight weeks, during the summer vacation, for two summers; about four miles distant, to the same German school teacher that taught my father and mother in Germany. He would only take a few pupils – in his dining room in the house – children whose parents he had taught in Germany (and say was he strict with us). Then in September, 1884 we moved with my parents to Adams County, Nebraska to four and one-half miles south of Kenesaw, wide open country. It was a common thing to see a caravan of pioneers' covered wagons traveling toward the west and how those prairie wolfs would howl after dark, and then come and steal our pigs. We had a big shepard dog, he would sometimes chase the prairie wolfs away from the yard, until they got some distance, then they would stop, and chase shep back to the house and he seemed to be glad that he had reached the back door It so happened that the pioneer trail run acoss our section. It started in at the northeast corner of our section and came out at the southwest corner. Father had quite a time to stop that cross section road and make them keep the section line. He broke out a strip at each end of the road, put up a barb wire fence, and sign boards, but some would out the wire, knock down the sign board, and start across, then father would jump on a horse and meet them, and turn them over to the section line. That next summer (I was fourteen) I helped break out eighty acres of prairie land, and the following summer another eighty acres. Our country school was two and three-quarters miles, which we attended the first year; then the next year father bought two white ponies, they were about four and half feet tall, and John and I rode them to school at Kenesaw – about four and a half miles. That year the school districts were split up, and a new schoolhouse was built one and a quarter miles from our place. Father would buy up cattle (steers) in the surrounding neighborhoods in the fall about October and feed them out over winter, sometimes one, two or three carloads, and in the spring ship them to Omaha. One winter we did not have hay enough and had to haul it from the Platte river bottoms north of Kenesaw, about thirteen or more miles to haul hay. We would go with three teams and rack wagons and it would take all day (short winter days). One day I will always remember, the frost was going out of the ground fast that afternoon, and on the way home father's wagon went through the frost and got stuck, and had to double teams to pull out. Several miles farther on the hired man's load upset, so then we had to straighten the wagon up and pitch in and reload the wagon again, then within a half mile from home my load upset (laid on its side) then father called back to me, "unhitch the horses and let it stay there till morning". Well, we worked hard them days but it was lots of fun too; fun mixed in, makes the work much easier. On January 12, 1888, we had that big blizzard. John and I were in school. It was a nice warm forenoon, a little wind from the south; during the noon hour there wasn't a bit of air stirring. We looked toward the north and saw that something was coming. Shortly before one o'clock that gray snow bank, snow cloud, looked like it was almost straight up and down, reaching miles high into the skies, rolling toward us fast. The teacher came to the door and shouted, "everybody get inside here quick". Well, it turned awfully cold that quick too, and the wind blowing at a terrific speed, and snow so thick you couldn't see more than three or four feet away Father had gone to a neighbors to get a load of corn, a mile west of the school house, and had to come right by the school house, so he drove right up to the door, and asked the teacher to let us come out, and told the teacher "do not let any scholars go until their folks come after them". Then father told us to lay flat on our stomachs on that load of corn, and he just let the horses have their own way to pick the road. When we got to the yards, our stock cows and horses were waiting at the gate and barn doors to open. Father filled the feed bunks in the yard, for we had two carload of cattle on full feed. John and I let the horses and cows in the barn, filled their mangers and feed boxes; then took shovels and axe and found our way to the house (expecting that storm to keep up for two days) and stayed there till morning. By morning the storm had blowed itself out, but high, hard snow drifts every where. On March 1st, 1888 father had rented the farm for one year on account of mother's health, and we moved to Hastings, and went to school in Hastings. The next spring, March 1st, 1889 we moved back on the farm. When fall came father again bought steers in the neighborhood, and fed cattle through the winter: one fall he bought three carloads out at Cozad (but lost money on them). The winter of 1891-92, and also the next winter, I run a corn sheller with Fred Long, and shelled corn all over that country (Horse Power outfit). In 1893 we had a partial drouth, and in 1894 we had a real drouth – did not raise enough to feed our own stock; buyers from Hiawatha, Kansas, came out there and bought up cattle and hogs to feed out; - so that fall father traded the farm for a Blacksmith and Wagon Shop at Falls City, Nebraska and we moved there that fall. I stayed there two years and worked in the blacksmith shop; the second year there we took over the McCormick Machinery Agency, with good results; but father sold out that next winter and stayed at Falls City two more years – farmed near Falls City and then moved to Grand Junction, Iowa. On May 1st, 1897 I went to Seward, Nebraska to work for the Babson-Dickman Implement Company. That summer I met one of the best and nicest, mild-mannered disposition young ladies that I had ever met. Well, after several weeks we found out that we were falling in love with each other. On Sunday evenings we went to church together, on Sunday morning I went to church alone, as she was working in a Hotel and could not go. On February 1st, 1898 the Babson-Dickman Implement Company transferred me to their branch house at Utica, Nebraska and on March 9th, 1898 was married to Lorinda Rogers (she was 25 and I 27) at Seward, Nebraska – in the Rogers home – by Rev. Kember, the M. E. minister. That afternoon we came to Lincoln, stayed at the Capital Hotel, and the next morning went to the Rudge & Morris Company, bought our house keeping equipment for a four room house, paid for it, and the Rudge & Morris Company shipped it to Utica the next day, and we started our home. That fall, in October, Mr. Babson wanted me to move back to Seward, and he paid all the expenses. On March 19, 1899 our family increased with a daughter – Ethel. On March 1st, 1900 I quit the Babson-Dickman Company and moved to Grand Junction, Iowa, and farmed north of Grand Junction five years. On June 26, 1900 the family increased again with a son – Edward; and July 9, 1902 with a daughter – Alma. In February, 1905 I made a sale, sold out, and on March 1st, 1905 went into the farm implement business again with the Paul Herpolsheimer Implement Company at Seward, Nebraska. The next winter Paul Herpolsheimer wanted me to move to Milford, Nebraska to find out why that branch house did not pay out better. On March 1st, 1906 at Milford our family increased again with a son – Howard. That summer, 1906, the Burlington R. R. Company changed their R. R. right-of-way through Milford, from the bottoms to the present R. R. location, and a number of residences had to be moved, some of them were for sale, so I bought one seven room house for $500.00 – bought a lot in the south part of Milford for $200.00 and paid the house mover $200.00 for moving the house; put a good foundation under it and dug a cellar under the kitchen part on evenings after my working hours. Well, the implement and harness business in Milford was not what it should have been because there were too many in the business – there were four firms in the business – so that fall I advised Mr. Herpolsheimer to buy out one or two of the other dealers, which we tried to do, but could not. Finally, Geo. Fosler Implement Company offered to buy out Herpolsheimer, he hesitated and said, "what about you now? Will you move back to Seward again?" I told him I'd let him know in about a week. Then Aunt Kate Nyhart wanted us to take over the Nome Hotel, which we decided to do, but stayed in Milford until the first of February in order to make collections, and close the business, then moved into the Nome Hotel at Seward, and rented our house in Milford, and later on sold it. I stayed with the Herpolsheimer Implement Company and Mom run the Hotel, with Gus Rucksdashol, and my help mornings and evenings, and we did real well there that way. The next winter the daughter, Emma Nyhart and Gus decided to get married, and they wanted the Hotel, so we had to move out into a house. In 1908 I left the Herpolsheimer Implement Company. Mr. Hatfield had been granted a patent on a grain cleaner and grader, and we organized the Noxall Manufacturing Company – Nick Wullenwaber, Dan Hartrum, and I (Wullenwaber had bought out Hatfield) and we started to make the grain cleaners and graders; made quite a number of them and put them out among dealers, but after a year of hard struggle found out that we didn't have the money and could not get the backing. We then sold our house in Milford, bought a lot in Seward and built a seven room house – I was then working with the carpenter gang. On January 6th, 1910 we had another family increase, a daughter – Blanche. In January, 1911 I went to work for the Maytag Company of Newton, Iowa – was given the south one-third of Kansas, with headquarters at Wichita, selling grain cleaners, washers, and the Ruth self feeder for threshing machines; but that summer, by June, Kansas and Oklahoma were hit hard by a bad drouth, and many wheat fields were only 7 or 8 inches tall, and many fields not out, and my orders were being cancelled, and I was let out. Then we sold the house at Seward and bought a Hardward stock at Central City, Nebraska and moved there, and two years later traded the Hardware stock for a quarter section land, six miles north of Julesburg, Colorado in Deuel County, Nebraska which we later sold. By this time Mr. and Mrs. Gus Rucksdashol wanted out of the Hotel again, and Aunt Kate begged us to take the Hotel again, so we did, but the Hotel building needed a lot of work done to it and she wouldn't do a thing, so we finally told her if she did not fix up a little we would move out, which we did. Then the next spring and summer I worked for the International Harvester Company, in the Hastings district, the Lincoln, then out of Sioux City district in northwestern Iowa. Then in the fall of 1913 I went to work with the Haller Company in Cass County, selling Family, Stock and Poultry remedies, and the next summer traded territories with the Seward County man, and then worked Seward County for ten years; then September 1st, 1923 moved to Lincoln, bought a home at 1546 South 21st; was offered the general agency with the Haller Company in Nebraska and part of Kansas, which I did for four years, but some disagreements came up, and I quit. January 1st, 1927 we bought out the Club Café at 1535 O St. and run it close to seven years, and sold out in the fall of 1933. In 1930 we tore down the old house at 1546 So. 21, and built a new six room house. Then 1935 and 1936 was assistant at the City Mission two years. In June, 1937 we took over the Antelope Café at 2332 O St. and run it for six years, and sold out in June, 1943, and moved into the apartments at 619-621 South 11th which we already had bought out March 1st. That summer bought another Apartment house at 13th and G St. and also bought the property, 910 H St. In the fall of 1944 Mother had a stroke and the sixth week after that stroke had another stroke, which was too much, and past away on October 26th, 1944; and things have been mighty lonesome for me since, for we always did enjoy each others company so much. In 1945 I sold the Apts., furniture at 13th and G at a nice profit, and in June, 1946 traded the house at 1546 So. 21 (at $8000.00) in on the Apartment house at 1131-1133 H St. (at $11,000.00)
Now here I sit, just all alone,
What should I do, to keep in tone
Collect the rents, and pay the bills
Before they get as high as hills!
I've struggled through for many years,
Seen ups and downs, and yet no fears;
Some times t'was dark, no light in sight,
But then the sun shone through all right,
So we'll look up, hold up our head
And then keep on and look ahead
And with God's blessings, and with Love
We'll keep on looking up above.
W. J. Opper
619 So. 11th St.
Lincoln, Nebraska.
Source:
https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/28566057?cid=mem_copy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Memorial maintained by:
2nd, HJ, # 46937296
Lincoln, Nebraska, January 1st, 1952.
This evening while sitting in my apartment all by myself, my thoughts were just drifting back a few years; and then back many more years; and then I thought and wondered about the many things that have happened during these years. Well, then I wondered if anyone cared; or if it might be interesting to any body else. Well, maybe yes and maybe no – but the start was: I, William Jacob Opper was born October 3rd, 1870 near Granville, Putnam County, Illinois (my parents were Christopher Jacob Opper and Mary Elizabeth Giese, who were both born at Wora, Germany, in the west central part). Father came to the U.S.A. when he was seventeen years, and worked by the month among the farmers near Granville. Mother came to the U.S.A with an older sister, when she was about seventeen or eighteen; and also worked out among the farmers near Granville. They were school mates in Germany and were married in the spring of 1869 and settled on a farm near Granville. A few years after that my parents moved across the county line into LaSalle County, Illinois, south of Peru, where I started to go to the public school. At that time I could hardly understand a word of English (but I learned) then at the age of about twelve, my brother John (two years younger) and I were sent to an old German school teacher for about seven or eight weeks, during the summer vacation, for two summers; about four miles distant, to the same German school teacher that taught my father and mother in Germany. He would only take a few pupils – in his dining room in the house – children whose parents he had taught in Germany (and say was he strict with us). Then in September, 1884 we moved with my parents to Adams County, Nebraska to four and one-half miles south of Kenesaw, wide open country. It was a common thing to see a caravan of pioneers' covered wagons traveling toward the west and how those prairie wolfs would howl after dark, and then come and steal our pigs. We had a big shepard dog, he would sometimes chase the prairie wolfs away from the yard, until they got some distance, then they would stop, and chase shep back to the house and he seemed to be glad that he had reached the back door It so happened that the pioneer trail run acoss our section. It started in at the northeast corner of our section and came out at the southwest corner. Father had quite a time to stop that cross section road and make them keep the section line. He broke out a strip at each end of the road, put up a barb wire fence, and sign boards, but some would out the wire, knock down the sign board, and start across, then father would jump on a horse and meet them, and turn them over to the section line. That next summer (I was fourteen) I helped break out eighty acres of prairie land, and the following summer another eighty acres. Our country school was two and three-quarters miles, which we attended the first year; then the next year father bought two white ponies, they were about four and half feet tall, and John and I rode them to school at Kenesaw – about four and a half miles. That year the school districts were split up, and a new schoolhouse was built one and a quarter miles from our place. Father would buy up cattle (steers) in the surrounding neighborhoods in the fall about October and feed them out over winter, sometimes one, two or three carloads, and in the spring ship them to Omaha. One winter we did not have hay enough and had to haul it from the Platte river bottoms north of Kenesaw, about thirteen or more miles to haul hay. We would go with three teams and rack wagons and it would take all day (short winter days). One day I will always remember, the frost was going out of the ground fast that afternoon, and on the way home father's wagon went through the frost and got stuck, and had to double teams to pull out. Several miles farther on the hired man's load upset, so then we had to straighten the wagon up and pitch in and reload the wagon again, then within a half mile from home my load upset (laid on its side) then father called back to me, "unhitch the horses and let it stay there till morning". Well, we worked hard them days but it was lots of fun too; fun mixed in, makes the work much easier. On January 12, 1888, we had that big blizzard. John and I were in school. It was a nice warm forenoon, a little wind from the south; during the noon hour there wasn't a bit of air stirring. We looked toward the north and saw that something was coming. Shortly before one o'clock that gray snow bank, snow cloud, looked like it was almost straight up and down, reaching miles high into the skies, rolling toward us fast. The teacher came to the door and shouted, "everybody get inside here quick". Well, it turned awfully cold that quick too, and the wind blowing at a terrific speed, and snow so thick you couldn't see more than three or four feet away Father had gone to a neighbors to get a load of corn, a mile west of the school house, and had to come right by the school house, so he drove right up to the door, and asked the teacher to let us come out, and told the teacher "do not let any scholars go until their folks come after them". Then father told us to lay flat on our stomachs on that load of corn, and he just let the horses have their own way to pick the road. When we got to the yards, our stock cows and horses were waiting at the gate and barn doors to open. Father filled the feed bunks in the yard, for we had two carload of cattle on full feed. John and I let the horses and cows in the barn, filled their mangers and feed boxes; then took shovels and axe and found our way to the house (expecting that storm to keep up for two days) and stayed there till morning. By morning the storm had blowed itself out, but high, hard snow drifts every where. On March 1st, 1888 father had rented the farm for one year on account of mother's health, and we moved to Hastings, and went to school in Hastings. The next spring, March 1st, 1889 we moved back on the farm. When fall came father again bought steers in the neighborhood, and fed cattle through the winter: one fall he bought three carloads out at Cozad (but lost money on them). The winter of 1891-92, and also the next winter, I run a corn sheller with Fred Long, and shelled corn all over that country (Horse Power outfit). In 1893 we had a partial drouth, and in 1894 we had a real drouth – did not raise enough to feed our own stock; buyers from Hiawatha, Kansas, came out there and bought up cattle and hogs to feed out; - so that fall father traded the farm for a Blacksmith and Wagon Shop at Falls City, Nebraska and we moved there that fall. I stayed there two years and worked in the blacksmith shop; the second year there we took over the McCormick Machinery Agency, with good results; but father sold out that next winter and stayed at Falls City two more years – farmed near Falls City and then moved to Grand Junction, Iowa. On May 1st, 1897 I went to Seward, Nebraska to work for the Babson-Dickman Implement Company. That summer I met one of the best and nicest, mild-mannered disposition young ladies that I had ever met. Well, after several weeks we found out that we were falling in love with each other. On Sunday evenings we went to church together, on Sunday morning I went to church alone, as she was working in a Hotel and could not go. On February 1st, 1898 the Babson-Dickman Implement Company transferred me to their branch house at Utica, Nebraska and on March 9th, 1898 was married to Lorinda Rogers (she was 25 and I 27) at Seward, Nebraska – in the Rogers home – by Rev. Kember, the M. E. minister. That afternoon we came to Lincoln, stayed at the Capital Hotel, and the next morning went to the Rudge & Morris Company, bought our house keeping equipment for a four room house, paid for it, and the Rudge & Morris Company shipped it to Utica the next day, and we started our home. That fall, in October, Mr. Babson wanted me to move back to Seward, and he paid all the expenses. On March 19, 1899 our family increased with a daughter – Ethel. On March 1st, 1900 I quit the Babson-Dickman Company and moved to Grand Junction, Iowa, and farmed north of Grand Junction five years. On June 26, 1900 the family increased again with a son – Edward; and July 9, 1902 with a daughter – Alma. In February, 1905 I made a sale, sold out, and on March 1st, 1905 went into the farm implement business again with the Paul Herpolsheimer Implement Company at Seward, Nebraska. The next winter Paul Herpolsheimer wanted me to move to Milford, Nebraska to find out why that branch house did not pay out better. On March 1st, 1906 at Milford our family increased again with a son – Howard. That summer, 1906, the Burlington R. R. Company changed their R. R. right-of-way through Milford, from the bottoms to the present R. R. location, and a number of residences had to be moved, some of them were for sale, so I bought one seven room house for $500.00 – bought a lot in the south part of Milford for $200.00 and paid the house mover $200.00 for moving the house; put a good foundation under it and dug a cellar under the kitchen part on evenings after my working hours. Well, the implement and harness business in Milford was not what it should have been because there were too many in the business – there were four firms in the business – so that fall I advised Mr. Herpolsheimer to buy out one or two of the other dealers, which we tried to do, but could not. Finally, Geo. Fosler Implement Company offered to buy out Herpolsheimer, he hesitated and said, "what about you now? Will you move back to Seward again?" I told him I'd let him know in about a week. Then Aunt Kate Nyhart wanted us to take over the Nome Hotel, which we decided to do, but stayed in Milford until the first of February in order to make collections, and close the business, then moved into the Nome Hotel at Seward, and rented our house in Milford, and later on sold it. I stayed with the Herpolsheimer Implement Company and Mom run the Hotel, with Gus Rucksdashol, and my help mornings and evenings, and we did real well there that way. The next winter the daughter, Emma Nyhart and Gus decided to get married, and they wanted the Hotel, so we had to move out into a house. In 1908 I left the Herpolsheimer Implement Company. Mr. Hatfield had been granted a patent on a grain cleaner and grader, and we organized the Noxall Manufacturing Company – Nick Wullenwaber, Dan Hartrum, and I (Wullenwaber had bought out Hatfield) and we started to make the grain cleaners and graders; made quite a number of them and put them out among dealers, but after a year of hard struggle found out that we didn't have the money and could not get the backing. We then sold our house in Milford, bought a lot in Seward and built a seven room house – I was then working with the carpenter gang. On January 6th, 1910 we had another family increase, a daughter – Blanche. In January, 1911 I went to work for the Maytag Company of Newton, Iowa – was given the south one-third of Kansas, with headquarters at Wichita, selling grain cleaners, washers, and the Ruth self feeder for threshing machines; but that summer, by June, Kansas and Oklahoma were hit hard by a bad drouth, and many wheat fields were only 7 or 8 inches tall, and many fields not out, and my orders were being cancelled, and I was let out. Then we sold the house at Seward and bought a Hardward stock at Central City, Nebraska and moved there, and two years later traded the Hardware stock for a quarter section land, six miles north of Julesburg, Colorado in Deuel County, Nebraska which we later sold. By this time Mr. and Mrs. Gus Rucksdashol wanted out of the Hotel again, and Aunt Kate begged us to take the Hotel again, so we did, but the Hotel building needed a lot of work done to it and she wouldn't do a thing, so we finally told her if she did not fix up a little we would move out, which we did. Then the next spring and summer I worked for the International Harvester Company, in the Hastings district, the Lincoln, then out of Sioux City district in northwestern Iowa. Then in the fall of 1913 I went to work with the Haller Company in Cass County, selling Family, Stock and Poultry remedies, and the next summer traded territories with the Seward County man, and then worked Seward County for ten years; then September 1st, 1923 moved to Lincoln, bought a home at 1546 South 21st; was offered the general agency with the Haller Company in Nebraska and part of Kansas, which I did for four years, but some disagreements came up, and I quit. January 1st, 1927 we bought out the Club Café at 1535 O St. and run it close to seven years, and sold out in the fall of 1933. In 1930 we tore down the old house at 1546 So. 21, and built a new six room house. Then 1935 and 1936 was assistant at the City Mission two years. In June, 1937 we took over the Antelope Café at 2332 O St. and run it for six years, and sold out in June, 1943, and moved into the apartments at 619-621 South 11th which we already had bought out March 1st. That summer bought another Apartment house at 13th and G St. and also bought the property, 910 H St. In the fall of 1944 Mother had a stroke and the sixth week after that stroke had another stroke, which was too much, and past away on October 26th, 1944; and things have been mighty lonesome for me since, for we always did enjoy each others company so much. In 1945 I sold the Apts., furniture at 13th and G at a nice profit, and in June, 1946 traded the house at 1546 So. 21 (at $8000.00) in on the Apartment house at 1131-1133 H St. (at $11,000.00)
Now here I sit, just all alone,
What should I do, to keep in tone
Collect the rents, and pay the bills
Before they get as high as hills!
I've struggled through for many years,
Seen ups and downs, and yet no fears;
Some times t'was dark, no light in sight,
But then the sun shone through all right,
So we'll look up, hold up our head
And then keep on and look ahead
And with God's blessings, and with Love
We'll keep on looking up above.
W. J. Opper
619 So. 11th St.
Lincoln, Nebraska.
Source:
https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/28566057?cid=mem_copy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Memorial maintained by:
2nd, HJ, # 46937296
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