Mr. & Mrs. John H Nabor celebrate

It's pretty neat that searching online casts such a wide net.  To find mentions of relatives from long-past years, it helps to use a "wildcard" like "Nab*r", which is probably exactly what Larry did here.  (One problem with searching newspapers for the word Naber is that it's used for 'neighbor' in stories written to sound like 'country' dialect--sheesh!)  But the index comes from a machine reader, so the interpretation is iffy anyway.

This couple almost has to be "ours" because  York, Nebraska is in the right part of the state (52 miles west of Lincoln) where other Nabers settled.  Also, they were born in Oldenburg, Germany in 1841 and 1852.  

York, Neb. April 13~Mr. and Mrs. John H. Nabor celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently.  They were married at Hammelswart, in Oldenburg, Germany on the 18th day of March, 1872, and on the third day thereafter sailed for United States.  They arrived in York county soon after and homesteaded south of Waco where they made their home for forty-five years.  Five years ago they moved to Utica to make their home.  Their family consists of ten children, twenty-four grand and great grand children.  Mr Nabor is eighty-one years of age, and Mrs. Nabor, seventy.

I'm of course under a "Women Are Every Bit as Important" obligation to find Mrs. Naber's first name.  According to the 1900 census from Waco township in York Co Nebraska, it was Gerhardine, even tho the enumerator spelled it funny.  How can I be so sure?  Look below the census excerpt:

Ahhh...I found John Henry Naber on Find a Grave.  His wife's name was Gerhardine Schmidt Naber.

Birth:	Jan. 3, 1841 Oldenburg, Germany
Death:	Mar. 30, 1930 Nebraska, USA
Family links:  Parents:   Anna Lucia Schroeder Naber (1799 - 1881)  Children:   Infant son Naber*   William Heinrich Naber (1877 - 1959)*   Metha Mathilda Naber Hoffschneider (1879 - 1967)*   Henrietta Anna Naber Hoffschneider (1881 - 1955)*   Karl F. Naber (1884 - 1887)*   Clara Gerhardina Naber Schlechte (1888 - 1990)*  Spouse:   Gerhardine Schmidt Naber (1852 - 1936)* *Point here for explanation
Burial: Saint Johns Cemetery Waco York County Nebraska, USA

Elizabeth Reichls Naber 1846-1926

Interesting that this obit from Find a Grave.com gives us another surname spelling for Gerhard Naber's second wife.  REICHLS would be the German spelling, while Richels is simply the name in English.  Also, look at her bio.  Five children, four step-children...her husband Gerhard had died in 1891, well before they moved to Buckman, so there was no mention of him.

Elizabeth Reichls Naber  was our maternal great grandmother.

Birth: April 2, 1846
Death: August 17, 1926
Buckman Lady is Called by Death The death of Mrs. Elizaeth Naber of Buckman, aged 80, occurred at St. Gabriel's hospital at Little Falls at 6 o'clock Tuesday morning Aug. 17th. Death was caused by metastitie carcinoma of the lungs and liver. She had been ailing the past three months. Mrs. Elizabeth Naber, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Reichls, was born April 2, 1846, in Germany. At the age of 24 years she came to this country and a year later was married at Vienna, Iowa. The Naber family lived at Vienna until about 15 years ago when they moved to Buckman and made their home there since. In 1918, they moved to the village of Buckman. Mrs. Naber was the mother of 5 children, 3 of whom are living to mourn her death, they are Mrs. Wm. Bahns of Pierz, Mrs. Anton Janson of Buckman and Gerherd Naber of St. Cloud. Four stepchildren also mourn her loss, they are Henry Naber of Bancroft, Iowa, Herman of Nebraska, Mrs. John Schlichting of Granville, Iowa and Sister Mary Raphel of Dubuque, Iowa. John Reichls, a brother and a sister whose home is in Sell, South Dakota, also survive. She was grandmother of 26 children. The burial service for the deceased Mrs. Naber was held in St. Michael's church in Buckman at 9 o'clock this Thursday morning and interment followed in the Buckman village cemetery. Pierz Journal, August 19, 1926 Family links:  Children:   Elizabeth Naber (1873 - 1910)*   John Naber (1874 - 1922)*   Catherine Naber Bahns (1881 - 1954)*   Margaret Naber Janson (1882 - 1945)*

Trapp Family Zingers

From a post here on November 8th, 2009:
"Yesterday, I heard from a relative named Bonnie who has Gerhard Naber in common with us:  if you recall, Gerhard was married twice to women named Elizabeth.  Bonnie's descended from the first Elizabeth's family, and we're descended from the second.
The first batch was Herman, Bernard, Henry, Mary, and Anna.  Henry was Ida & Walburga's dad, but Herman was Bonnie's connection.
Herman Naber was born Mar 6, 1861 New Vienna, Delaware Co, Iowa, and died Feb. 15, 1928 in Randolph, Cedar Co., Nebraska.  Herman Naber married Anna Trapp Feb 10, 1897 in St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Granville, Sioux Co, Iowa. They lived at or near Bancroft, Iowa, for about 7 years, then moved to Randolph, Nebraska.  Herman died from burns due to a house fire.  They lost their home and everything in the fire.  He's buried at St. Frances de Chantal Cemetery in Randolph.". 

Now, Randolph is about 100 miles northwest of Omaha, but evidently there were also Trapps living in Benson and Clifton Hill, suburbs of Omaha.

The following articles were all in the Omaha Daily Bee newspaper, starting with this one on  20 April, 1891► 

How horrible to have a house burn down, and then to be hit by lightning in your rental house two months later. Perhaps he figured things couldn't get worse, so why not try politics and public office?

This more cosmopolitan part of the family made the newspaper fairly often in the 1890s.

Larry and I were entertained by the snarky tone of this article from 1892--"Trapp is a man who has a grievance and a lacerated reputation which nothing but a money judgement in the sum of $5,000 will heal"...  

(The follow up article the next day said he was awarded $250.  We don't know if that did the trick or if his nose was permanently out of joint...)

Here's another sarcastic but fun article from June 14, 1893.  We don't know that this particular "Mr Trapp" was Edward Trapp, but it's pretty likely. Ed's reputation was restored now, and  he probably intended to run for public office in the future.  Being appointed park cop was a way to begin, but it sounds like he almost blew it.  
We hope they had some of that $250 left to apply toward Mrs Trapp's bail.

Evidently, Ed lost an election that fall, and didn't take it lightly.  He was either a very interesting character or.....kind  of a jerk.

BTW, checking out references made in the article, like "Captain Jenks"...(which turned out to be a satiric poem by one Earnest Crosby), I couldn't find the actual poem online. Also, since Mr Trapp "has the reputation of being a politician of the E. H. Cole stripe", I tried to find Mr Cole, but he, too, is lost to Janson history.  Oh well!