JOHN AND ELLEN DWINELL
John Dwinell was born in Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1859. His parents
moved to Nebraska via Carrol County, Illinois. He married Ellen
Irons on January 30, 1879, and moved from Cass County, Nebraska, to
Kox County in 1881. They arrived in a covered wagon pulled by two
horses and followed by a milk cow. A prized possession was a cook
stove. With these few belonging and a great determination, he began
his homestead three miles southwest of Verdigre, a few rods from the
location of the present bridge. At that time there was no bridge and
he forded the Verdigre Creek. He hauled lumber from Niobrara for
building.
John and Ellen Dwinell had six children.
Their son Martin (1880) died in infancy.
Maude (1882) became a teacher and married Forrest Garrnsey. They had
four children: Lila and Sarah (now in California), Lloyd (“Bud,”
whereabouts unknown), and later Harold.
The second daughter, Alma A. (1884), married Gregory Caulfield in
1904 and had two children: Clarence G and Della E.. Clarence Gregory
(1905) married Nina Mae Harvey in 1936.
[pg 242 PHOTO John Dwinell]
They settled on the John Dwinell home place, having purchased 600
acres from his grandfather in 1945. Their only son died at birth. A
tornado nearly wiped out the farmstead in 1985, but they immediately
began rebuilding and at this writing Clarence cares for 150 head of
Charolais cattle and several horses. Della Ellen (1909) married Guy
O. Best in 1936 at Carter, South Dakota. Her teaching career spanned
44 years, ten in South Dakota schools, and 34 years in the Verdigre
high School. At this writing, she is enjoying retirement in Verdigre.
She has one daughter, Alma Ellen (living), who married Gene M. Anthony
in 1963, and three granddaughters: Jennifer, Anita, and Julie
Anthony.
John Dwinell’s third daughter, Addie (1889), married Ross Doll and
had six children: John (1908), Decatur, Nebraska; Ivan (1910),
Minden, Iowa; Nellie Jacobsen (1911), Intercession City, Florida;
Rudolph (1914), Salem, Oregon; Elmer (1917) and Lawrence (1920),
both deceased.
John Dwinell’s fourth daughter, Bertha (1895), married Peter
Engelgau, who was also a native son of a homesteading family in Knox
County. They later moved to Carter, South Dakota, where they
pioneered and raised four children: Arthur (1915), now deceased;
Edwin (1916), Hague, Virginia; john (1918), now deceased; and Margie
Ahlers (living), Hermosa, South Dakota.
One of John’s daughters, Della, died of diphtheria at the age of
five and is buried on the homestead. Burial rites (in about 1894)
were by two older sisters since the rest of the family was too ill
to assist.
His youngest daughter Pearl (1897) married William Burris in 1924.
They settled on one of the farms John had purchased three miles west
of Grainfield, Kansas. Children of Pearl and William Burris were
Theresa (living), Glenna (1928, deceased), Leslie Vernon (living),
Henry (living), and Victor (living). Two of their sons served in the U. S.
Army. Theresa, Henry, and Victor presently live in Kansas.
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