feyerherm

William Henry Feyerherm [1763]

Children Friederich William [1788] and Ernst Wilhelm [1795] in Baerwald Germany

Charlotte Schwartzlow [1792-1884] and Friederich William Feyerherm

Lived in Germany children Friederich William [1814] and Ludwig Karl [1819]

Eleonore Rindfleish [1814-1874] and Friederich William Feyerherm [1814-1876]

With four children sailed from Hamburg on the "Utonia",

Ernest [1843-1926],
Carl [married Albertine Horn],
Fred [1852] and
Maria [married Christian Stoltzman],

Immigrated to West Point NE from Germany in 1868. Homesteaded a farm four miles west of West Point, Elkhorn Township section 25, just south of the Emil Brockmann farm.

Louise Ernestine Conradine [Brockmann] and Ernest William Feyerherm

Ernest was born in Baerwalde, Neumark, Proving, Brandenburg [Prussia] Germany. After immigrating to Nebraska, he helped build the Brockman homestead in 1868 as carpenter.

Louise [1853-1939] was the second daughter of Louise [Arns or Ahrends] [1832-1910] and Henry Brockmann [1831-1897] born at Hameln on the Weser Braunschweig Germany. The family immigrated to America in 1854 living in Manitowoz Wisconsin until moving to West Point NE in 1867. Her older sister, Caroline married August Stark at West Point and six brothers, [five born in Wisconsin.]

Henry J. [1855]
Carl "Charles" [1857]
Fred "Fredrick" [1860]
August [1862]
William [1866]
Louis "Ludwig" Brockmann [1869] born NE

The homestead passed on to Robert Brockmann, son of Henry.

West Point became such a center of immigration and settlement that the U. S Land Office moved here from Omaha in June 1869, E. K. Valentine, Registrar. The railroad arrived in November 25, 1870. By 1874 the boom was over, followed by a decade of regional stability.

Louise and Ernest, 1898 in West Point NE

Ernest and Louise married in 1873 and had eleven children,

Henry Fred [1874-1958] married Wilhelmina K Schmidt, 9 children,(I met Victor and Paul when I was attending college in Colorado).
Ernst Louis[1875-1941] married Regina S. Walter
Fredrick Wilhelm [1877-1963] married Ida August Kuester,
August [1878-1942] married Bertha Schierloh,
Otto Paul Emil [1880-1943] married Lizzie Melcher
Adolph Wilhelm [1882-1964] married Wilhelmina Boerbohm,
Alvin [1883-1964] married Elnore Slep,
Martin [1885-1948] married Rosie Zipf
Louise [1887-1964] married Frank Kuester,
Eleonore "Alla" [1890-1972] married Edward Ott,
Wilhelmine "Minnie" [1894-1975] married John Holtz.

In the 1900 US census, Elkhorn township, Cuming County

Ernest 57 [1842] and [Loesa] 47 [1853]

August 20

Adolph 18

Alvin 16

Martin 15

[Loesa] 13

Alla 10

Minnie 6

Fred 23 [1877] boarder at the John and Bertha Ackerman residence

Henry 26 [1874] and Minnie 24 [1876] at own residence.

Walter 1 [1898]

Otto 20 [1880] was blacksmith on Breetzke farm in Beemer, Cuming, NE (see below)

Ernst could not be found in 1900 census.

FEYERHERM, OTTO: Implement Dealer; b Cuming Co, Neb Mar 24, 1880; s of Ernest Feyerherm-Louisa Brockman; ed Cuming Co; m Elisa Melcher Sept 2, 1908 West Point; s Weylent, Lloyd, Marvin; 1897- 1901 learned blacksmith trade from Robert Breetzke, Beemer; 1901-07 emp by Carl Swank in impl & blacksmith trade, West Point; 1907-17 owner & opr blacksmith shop; 1917-25 emp in garages & opr & owner of garage 2 years; 1925-33 ptr of A M Shairer in impl bus; 1933- ptr of Gail Washburn, in garage; mbr city coun 15 years; Midwest Farm Impl Dlrs Assn; Comm Club, dir; St Pauls Luth Ch, trustee; Rep; hobby, travel; off 317 S Main; res 117 S Farragut, West Point. - From Who's Who in Nebraska 1940

Louise and Ernest Feyerherm Family Portrait

Back row, August, Fred, Adolf and Otto

Middle row, Eleanore Ott, Martin, Minnie Holtz, Alvin and Louise Kuester

Front row, Henry, Louise and Ernest [parents of all eleven children], and Ernst Louis

Regina S. [Walter] [1888-1973] and Ernst Louis Feyerherm [1875-1941]

Married in December 1907 at Chambers, officiated by Rev Will Sprandel (future husband of Rena's sister Clara) and parents of Mabel Marie Dean [1919-] Agnes Alvina Pfeil. [1913-2004] and Louis Walter C [1908-1908]. They lived in Amelia where Ernst owned a general store and this is where Agnes was born. According to the 1910 census, Clara Walters [Rena's sister] also worked at the store as a "saleslady".

Feyerherm General Store and Post Office at Amelia NE

After that they moved to Plainview where Mabel was born and Henry and Minnie lived. In 1918 Ernst worked at McHenry Bros elevator, then in 1920 to Royal where he operated the farmers union cooperative association grain elevator.

Fred Feyerherm holding son Harvey

Seated is Grandpa Ernest Feyerherm

Ernst Feyerherm holding daughter Mabel, c 1921

People shared phone lines that went to the central exchange. You had to listen for a distinctive ring pattern to know who the call was for, but this had advantages. For example if Ernst was at home for lunch and there was a call for the elevator, he could take it there. People on the same line did not need to call central, they could just crank out the distinctive ring pattern. Here are the phone "numbers" used in Royal-

Rundquist Store: 1201
Rundquist res.: 1202
Farmers' Union Co-op Ass'n elevator
Ernst Feyerherm, Mgr.: 1203
Feyerherm Res.: 1204

"My grandmother Walter shared a line with Dr. Gill. Since she had a heart condition, when my father died they called the Dr. to give her the message. She had "rubbered" (listened in to his call) so got the news as soon as he did!" - Mabel (Feyerherm) Dean

Farmers' Union Co-op Association elevator

Here is a list of operating rules from 1936 for a rural phone system in Wayne County, NE. The system used two numbers to indicate the line that went to central, and the last 2 designated a particular subscriber on that line. This method is still the system in use today except that electronic switchgear allows assigning any subscriber the full 4 digit sequence. When direct dial came into affect, 3 digits were added to the front of the sequence and that was the designator for the central exchange. I can remember having only to dial 4 digit numbers in Buffalo WY, and every business took "counter checks" because the banks did not need an account number, they knew customers by name, this was in the late 1970's. The Royal telephone manual exchange was closed in 1938 and replaced by automated service out of Orchard from Continental Telephone Company.

In spring 1939 Ernst was elected to the Royal school board but died not long after in 1941.

Ernst and Rena Feyerherm

The Rundquist General Store was the heart of Royal. It was still in operation when I visited as a 10 year old and was noted as one of the last places a girl could get a pair of decent highbutton shoes.

Larry Dean

Rena remarried to Henry Alfred Dierking [1892-1955] after the death of Ernst.

Al was born in Union Missouri parents were Sophie C [1863] and William H. Dierking [1863] and brothers Fred A. [1891] and Robert E. Dierking [1896]. At age 18 was hired hand at the farm of Theodore Feth. Later moved to Dodge County NE for the 1917 WWI draft and 1930 census. He was married in 1918 to Laura Ethelmae Kleemann [1894-1945], they had a son, Harlan A. [1924], with a farm near Chambers NE and a daughter Burnita Wilson [1921] living at Sparks NV. Al and Rena lived in Chambers NE where I visited on vacation with mom and they would also make the trip to Ontario California to visit.

Thanksgiving in California, starting from the far right and working left (counter clockwise)

Ozro Dean, Al Dierking, Rena, me (Larry Dean), Mabel Dean, Medy Mayo, Coralee Mayo, Mary Mayo, and back to camera is brother Don. The empty chair would be Marvin Mayo, a professional photographer doing the duties, c 1954.

Agnes Alvina [Feyerherm] and William Carl Henry Pfeil

Agnes married "Bill" Pfeil [1897 - 1977] and had 3 children, Reno William Pfeil [1933-2004](married Marybelle Sutton), Rhea Romain Pfeil [1935-1935] and Gloria Dawn Koplin [1937- ](married Paul Dean Koplin) .

Married December 24, 1932

In 1918 Bill worked for his father in Wayne. His parents, Lena [1864] and Charles [1855] both came from Germany in 1881, were in Wayne for the 1885 Nebraska census and they became naturlized in 1896. Bill went on to become an operating engineer, later working in the mountains of Colorado running a Shay locomotive. The Shay was suited to the narrow tight turns of the mine railroad. Instead of a piston rod connected to large driving wheels, it uses a side mounted rotating drive shaft that is geared to its smaller wheels. In the 1930 census for Wayne NE, his occupation was bridge builder and he was living with his mother. Later Bill and his contracting associate Carl Lage [1901-1974] dug basements for homes and drove foundation pilings for county bridges. They owned the equipment and it was common to see the Bantam dragline shovel parked behind his house in town.

Ozro Dean, Mabel Dean, Agnes Pfeil, and Bill Pfeil - 1966

Agnes was the nurse for Dr. Benthack in Wayne. Once about 40 years ago when we visited on the Navaho indian reservation to deliver soap and donated supplies to the Lutheran run clinic, we found out the nurse there had previously been with Dr. Benthack. Reno Pfeil was the oldest of my generation of cousins. He lettered in football at Wayne State 1951-1956, after Army service in Korea. Gloria so favored my mom's appearance that many in Wayne thought they should be sisters. No sissy Teddy bear for me, Gloria made my security toy a stuffed spotted "tiger" that was called Clyde, [which in retrospect probably came from Clyde Beatty, famous trainer of big cats].

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