He has always been a farmer, and took his
first homestead in Clay County, Iowa,
in 1871.
He moved to Nance County, this
state in 1880, where he lived for eight years, going at the end of that time to
Sherman County, where he has resided ever since.
Mr. Zink is still farming, and is also
largely engaged in stock raising.
He
formerly belonged to the democratic party, but was interested in the greenback
movement, and later allied himself with the independents in 1890, being one of
the strong promoters of the party.
He
took an active part in the convention at Ravenna
in 1890, being always an aggressive worker for his party.
He belongs to the committees on penitentiary,
and fish culture and game.
Judge Walter Moon 
Judge Walter Moon, one of the early settlers of Nebraska, and now a resident of Sherman County, in earlier days experienced the usual hardships and
privations of the pioneer. He is honored as a veteran of the civil war and is
highly esteemed as an upright, public-spirited citizen, who has served in
various offices of public honor and trust.
He was born in St. Lawrence County. New York, January 25, 1835, son of Orange B.
and Margaret (Wing) Moon, being the third of their ten children in order of
birth. The father who was of French-English extraction, was born in Vermont, and his death occurred at LaPorte, Iowa,
in the spring of 1890. The mother, also a native of Vermont, was of English and Welsh descent,
and her death occurred in LaPorte in 1897. When about ten years old, Walter
Moon accompanied his parents to Illinois,
where he received a liberal education and reached manhood, after which he
engaged in farming.
He was married December 20, 1855, in Kane County, Illinois, to Mary C. Harris, of Canadian birth, who died
at Forestville, Iowa, in October, 1856, less than one year
after marriage. In the spring of 1856 Mr. Moon removed to Iowa and engaged in farming there. October
29, 1859, he married Sarah A. Gilbert, of New York
birth, then living in Iowa,
and they continued to live there until the spring of 1873. They then came to
Sherman County and secured a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of land,
three miles west of Loup City, where they lived until 1885, when Mr. Moon was
elected county judge and moved to Loup City. Prior to that time he had been
appointed to fill the unexpired term of his predecessor. Later he served
several years as county surveyor, and in each capacity acquitted himself with
credit to himself and his office.
In early days he was instrumental in organizing school
district number fourteen, and served on the school board many years. He has
always been actively interested in and closely identified with the upbuilding
and development of Sherman
County, and stands for progress along all lines of endeavor. He is one of the
best known men in his part of the state and has the confidence and regard of a
wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
His wife died January 18, 1893, at Loup City,
survived by her husband and four daughters. She and her husband had lost a son
prior to her death. The four daughters of Judge Moon are as follows: Mary C,
wife of G. P. Callaham, lives in Sioux County, Nebraska,
and they have two children; Kate B., wife of Dr. A. S. Main, lives at Loup City;
Lydia A., wife of Edwin Angier, of Loup
City, has two children;
and Effie M., of Sioux County, Nebraska.
In 1908 Judge Moon removed to Sioux County, where he
homesteaded four hundred and eighty acres of land, under the Kincaid Act, on
which he now lives. He has a vivid recollection of the trying experiences of
early frontier life, but does not regret identifying himself with the region in
which he has witnessed so remarkable a chance and period of development during
the past forty years.
His service in the Civil War began July 28, 1862, when he
enlisted as a member of Company H, of the Twenty-first Iowa Infantry. He served
until the close of the war and was discharged at Clinton, Iowa,
reaching home July 28, 1865. The important engagements in which he participated
were: Port Gibson, Champion Hill, Big Black River, Siege of Vicksburg, campaign
of Spanish Fort and Mobile,
and numerous skirmishes. He acquitted himself worthily and is entitled to look
back with pride on his record.
Mr. Moon lived but a short time in the pioneer soddy, but
occupied a log house two winters in Sherman County, as well as living in that
kind of a dwelling in Iowa and Illinois.
He is a republican in politics and a member of the Methodist
church and of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Compendium of History,
Reminiscence and Biography of Nebraska, 1912,
Submitted by: CD=FOFG
Henry Jenner 
It is probable that among the early settlers of Nebraska there is not a one who is more widely known than
the above, who is now a resident of Loup
City. He came to this
county in 1883, and since that time has made it his home. For more than a
quarter of a century he has lived in Loup
City, and during this
long period of time he has accomplished many things for the city. It is indebted to him
for Jenner's Park, one of the well-known resorts of the locality, and much of its progress
in other ways can be traced to his enterprise and public spirit.
Henry Jenner was born in London, England,
on the 14th of March, 1861, and was the second of eight children born to Henry
and Jemima Garches (Bond) Jenner. But of this large family, five of the
children are still living—three sisters in England
and one brother, Robert, in Loup
City. Both parents died
in the old country.
Mr. Jenner received his elementary education under private
instructors, and after spending seven years in the famous school at Eaton, entered
King's College in London,
where he remained four years. After leaving this college, he engaged in the
business of brewing for three years.
In 1882, he came to America,
sailing from Liverpool to New York in the
"City of Chester," and located in Sherman County, Nebraska.
The next year, in company with his brother, Robert Bond Jenner, he bought three
hundred and twenty acres of land, about seven miles south of Loup City, where
they lived for five years, then sold and moved to town, where Mr. Jenner engaged
in the creamery business in partnership with H. M. Mathew.
In September, 1892, Mr. Jenner married Miss Laura Lee Smith,
a native of Tennessee.
Her father, Andrew Jackson Smith, came to Sherman
County, Nebraska,
in 1879. His wife, who was Loania V. V. Norton before marriage, followed with
the children the next spring. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs.
Jenner — Constance, Henry and Robert.
Mr. Jenner is one of the younger men among the early
settlers, but his liberal education and natural progressiveness have tended to
make him remarkable among the sturdy pioneers. He has always been interested in
all measures tending to the betterment of the conditions in his adopted home,
and has not hesitated to give freely of both time and means in order to
accomplish the end sought. For fourteen years he served as water commissioner,
superintending the municipal water works.
About 1898, he purchased some land adjoining the city
limits, seven acres of which he has devoted to a private amusement and zoological
park, known as Jenner's Park. He now has about two hundred animals of various
kinds here, and many interesting curios from many parts of the world. Besides
these, there are all kinds of devices for amusing both young and old, a
splendid dancing and refreshment pavilion, etc. The grounds are beautified by
the many and rare flowers, which are kept in the finest possible order, as well
as the many tiny ponds filled with hundreds of darting, flashing gold fish. It
is a park which would do credit to a much larger city than Loup City.
Mr. Jenner's long residence in this city, together with his
remarkable personality, have made it possible for him to come in contact with many
hundreds of people, and he is respected by every one with whom he has an
acquaintance.
Mr. Jenner was reared in the Episcopal church. He is a
member of the Knights of Pythias order and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In
politics he is a republican.
Compendium of History,
Reminiscence and Biography of Nebraska, 1912,
Submitted by: CD=FOFG
James W. Johnson 
James W. Johnson, a successful stock and grain farmer of
section twenty-nine, township fourteen, range fifteen, Sherman
county, Nebraska,
is widely and favorably known as a man of affairs and influence in his
community. He has spent most of his life in Nebraska, and is one of the younger men
among the state's early settlers.
Mr. Johnson was born at Newton, Iowa,
July 24, 1866, and is a son of Robert and Mary (Watson) Johnson, third in a
family of ten children. The father is mentioned at length else where in this
work. Five sons—George E., Walter, Frank, Charles and Ernest—live in Valley
County, Nebraska.
Three daughters—Mrs. Maggie Van Scoy, Mrs. Fanny Sample and Mrs. Kate Paulser
—live in Valley county.
At the age of twelve years, James W. Johnson came with his
parents to Hall County, Nebraska,
where the family remained three years, then moved to Valley County, where the
father secured a homestead, on which he still resides. The son received his
early education in Iowa,
and grew to manhood on his father's farm, learning all kinds of farm work.
In 1889, he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in
Sherman County,
which he operated for sixteen years, and in 1905 secured the one hundred and
forty-acre farm where he now lives. He erected a very comfortable home, and
otherwise improved the place, bringing it to a high state of cultivation.
He has always taken an active interest in public affairs in
his community, and has served many years as a member of the school board, being now director
of district number thirteen, and he has also served as township clerk.
March 2, 1902, Mr. Johnson married Miss Frances Huckelberry,
a native of Marion County, Illinois,
daughter of Philip and Matilda (Hewett) Huckelberry, both also born in Illinois. Her father
died in Sherman County in 1904, and her mother
now resides in Burt County, Nebraska.
Mr. Huckelberry and wife had eight children, those besides Mrs. Johnson being:
a daughter in Indiana, a daughter in Illinois,
two sons and two daughters in Nebraska, and
one son in Illinois.
To Mr. Johnson and wife three children have been born,
namely: Alta M., a student in the St. Paul
Business College;
Mata, a student in the same institution; and Ellen Marie at home.
Mr. Johnson is a populist in political faith, and,
fraternally, a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.
On his first Sherman
County farm, Mr. Johnson lived for eight years in true pioneer style before building a modern frame dwelling.
Compendium of History,
Reminiscence and Biography of Nebraska, 1912,
Submitted by: CD=FOFG
Barney McDowell 
(Deceased.)
The McDowell’s were pioneers in Sherman County and are of the few families
who still own the original homestead secured upon their coming to the region.
They have done much toward the development and advancement of the community and
have always stood for its best interests. The late Barney McDowell was well
known throughout the county as an industrious farmer and a public-spirited
citizen, who was always ready to do his duty in every relation of life. He was
a true friend and kind neighbor much esteemed for his sterling qualities.
He was born in England
and his wife in New Orleans, Louisiana,
whence her father returned to England
after a sojourn in the southern states. They were married at Whitehaven,
England, in 1860, and came
to the United States
about 1866, moving from Pennsylvania to
Harrison County, Iowa,
in 1877.
In the fall of 1882 Mr. McDowell went to Sherman County and secured a homestead
comprising the southeast quarter of section six, township sixteen, range
sixteen. The following spring Mr. McDowell and his family located in their Nebraska home.
Mr. McDowell improved and developed a fine farm, and the
home place now contains three hundred and twenty acres of valuable land. He
lived there the remainder of his life and passed away May 5, 1910, survived by
his wife and six children. He was in his eightieth year, and his widow, though
in advanced years, is well and active, and lives on the farm with her sons,
Barney and James, who manage the place. One daughter, Bessie, is teaching in
the district schools. The oldest daughter, Mary, is the wife of Edward
McDowell, a sketch of whom appears in this work, and their farm adjoins the
McDowell farm on the south. The other two daughters are Kate, wife of Phil
Lynch, of Custer County, and Nellie, Mrs. John Sweeney, also of Custer
County. The family are well known and popular in social circles and have many
friends.
Compendium of History,
Reminiscence and Biography of Nebraska, 1912,
Submitted by: CD=FOFG