14. John Kuhn⁵ CRAMER (Adam⁴, Adam³, Adam², Hans Adam¹ KRAMER) was born in Sommerset Twp., Sommerset, PA 28 MAR 1823. John died 25 AUG 1894 in Fontenelle, Washington, NE, at 71 years of age. John K. Cramer Source:Fremont Herald 31 Aug. 1894 Sketch of the Life of One of the Oldest Residents of Dodge County. Nickerson, Neb., August 30 Editor Fremont Herald: The death of John K. Cramer, of Nickerson township, on Saturday, August 25, removes one of the very first settlers of this section. He came to this county in May, 1855, and resided here continuously until his death, making a residence of over thirty-nine years in this community.

Mr. Cramer was born and raised in the state of Pennsylvania, and was 71 years of age last March. His wife died five years ago. He leaves to mourn his loss nine children, all grown, seven of whom were present at his funeral. Three live in this county, one daughter in Chicago, one son in St. Joseph, Mo., one son and one daughter in Hill City, South Dakota. All of these were present at the funeral.

Mr. Cramer was buried on his old homestead by the side of his wife, the funeral services being conducted by the writer. The pall bearers were all old settlers, three of them coming here at the same time he did. A large procession followed the remains to their last resting place. The deceased was a member of the Old Settlers Association, and he left a good home which he worked hard to make. His death was very sudden, resulting from paralysis of the heart.

Mr. Cramer was a subscriber and reader of the Fremont Herald ever since its first issue.

J A Garner Submitted by: Karon R Mazie

He married twice. He married Orinda HULL in Adams Co., IL, 1 JAN 1846. Orinda was born ABT 1830. Orinda died 17 JAN 1847 in Adams Co., IL, at 16 years of age. Her body was interred JAN 1847 in Mendon, IL. He married Frances Bertha WEST in Quincy, Adams, IL, 8 MAY 1852. Frances was born in Zanesville, Muskingum, OH 14 NOV 1826. Frances was the daughter of Philip P. WEST and Pauline. Frances died 27 NOV 1889 in Fontenelle, Washington, NE, at 63 years of age. CRAMER, FRANCES NICKERSON NEWS: Died -- In Nickerson township, Mrs. Frances Cramer, wife of J K Cramer. She was born in Ohio and removed in early life to Adams Co. Ill., where she married Mr. Cramer, and they in 1854, made up a colony from Quincy Ill., for Fontanelle and in 1865 Mr Cramer took his present home under the homestead law. She was the mother of nine children, eight of whom are living. One daughter, Mrs. McBride of Chicago, who was present at the funeral. The funeral services were conducted by J A Garner. A large procession of old settlers and friends accompanied the remains to their resting place upon the farm. Mr. Cramer will deed an acre of land for a cemetery. FWH 5 Dec 1889 1:4

Her body was interred Ridge Cemetery. Eastern Nebraska Genealogical Society, PO Box 541, Fremont, NE 68026-0541 indicates she is buried at Ridge Cemetery, she died Nov. 27, 1889, at 63 yr 13 days. Biography Album of Northeastern Nebraska, pub. 1893:

JOHN K. CRAMER, a farmer of Nickerson township, residing on Section 14, came to Dodge County, May 14, 1855. He first located at Fontanelle, which was then the county seat of Dodge County land not yet being in the market, he took a " squatter's claim." He was a member of the colonization company that laid out the town of Fontanelle, and at the same time improved his claim, by building a story and a half house, 14x18 feet, with the necessary out-buildings. He remained on this place about twelve years, when he sold and removed to the place he now occupies, the same being a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres. Here he turned the wild prairie sod over, erected a house, 16x24 feet, with a the same size, built a barn, 32x38 feet; double cribs, 40x50 feet; a granary, 28x36 feet; cow house, 22x32 feet, and dug good wells, one of which was provided with a windmill. He also had a double tenement house 22x26 feet. He has since added to his land until he now has two hundred and eighty acres, all of which is under the plow but sixty acres, the rest in pasture and meadow land.

Mr. Cramer was born in Sommerset County, Pennsylvania, March 28, 1823. His parents, Adam and Eliza Cramer, were natives of the Keystone State and reared a family of nine children: John, Adam, Philip, Agnes, Jacob, Sarah, Isaac (deceased), Eliza J., Walter (deceased).

Our subject lived in Pennsylvania until 1843 and then went to Adams County, Illinois, where he followed shoemaking (which trade he had learned) for two years, after which he went to farming in the same county, and was a tiller of the soil in that location, until he came to Nebraska.

He was united in marriage New Year's day, 1846, to Orinda Hull, the daughter of James and Louisa Hull, natives of Ohio. This lady only lived about one year and died without issue, and May 3, 1852, he married Frances B. West, daughter of Parker West of Ohio, who had five children: Frances, Esther, Alexander, Lydia and Isaac. By Mr. Cramer's second marriage there were nine children born: Lu-cretia, Fulton, Metellah, Orestes, Pearly, John, Emmett, Emma and Robert L.

When our subject first came to Dodge County, he had but fifty cents, after paying for his ferrying across the Missouri River. Two men in Mr. Cramer's employ were killed by the Indians July 29, 1855, therefore in the summer of 1855, by order of the Governor, a home company was organized to protect the whites against the Indian invasions. They were enlisted for eighty-one days. At that time the settlers in this part of Nebraska were compelled to go to Glenwood, Iowa, to mill, which trip took them fifteen days. Upon one occasion our subject, John Evans, now of Omaha, and Hiram Ladd, of Washington County, made such a trip, which they will never forget. Evans drove a horse team while our subject and Ladd drove oxen. Snow was very deep and in some places they shoveled snow for a quarter of a mile.

Mr. Cramer in his political belief is a Democrat. He belongs to the Odd Fellows fraternity.

The man whose name heads this sketch, now nearly seventy years of age, was one of the few frontiersmen who wended their way from the Allegheny mountains, over the great prairie states of Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, to be ferried across the turbulent waters of the Missouri River for the purpose of forming a new empire. They sought not distinction among men, neither did they leave the land of their nativity because they were not wanted there; they were the best blood of the Eastern States, and they came for the purpose of building for themselves homes, and let it be remembered that “the genius of American industry is our home building; take away that, and you destroy everything.”

The pioneer comes to dig and delve, to plant and sow, to hew and build, the crooked paths to make straight, and the rough to make smooth. Neither the river, the lake nor the sea, nor the mountain nor wilderness has obstacles for him. He looks upon them as all God-given, out of which he may form and mould an empire. The environments of the pioneer have produced a new type of manhood. He built his cabin on the outer verge of civilization; the waves of savage warfare beat and break upon it, but it falls not, and while our subject passed through may hardships at an early day, including the blinding storms of winter, the scarcity of food, raiment and money, he finally came off conqueror and doubtless now, while seated by his own fireside, he looks back over the tract of years, and recounts many a pleasure between the camp-fires of an early day in Nebraska, which State was then a Territory extending far to the West.

Mr. Cramer has given some interesting items concerning the early Indian troubles, including the killing of Jackson Porter and George Demoree, and account of which will be referred to elsewhere in this book.

John Kuhn CRAMER and Orinda HULL had the following child:

15 i. Orinda Metellah⁶ CRAMER was born 31 DEC 1846.

John Kuhn CRAMER and Frances Bertha WEST had the following children:

16 ii. Lucretia CRAMER was born in Schuler, IL 9 NOV 1853.

17 iii. Alfretta CRAMER was born 13 APR 1855.

18 iv. Fulton CRAMER was born in Fontenelle, Washington, NE 17 FEB 1856.

19 v. Metellah CRAMER was born in Fontenelle, Washington, NE 27 MAR 1858. Metellah died in IA. She married John Harvey HAVEN in Fremont, Dodge, NE, 24 SEP 1877. Married by Wm C Ghost-Co 3, witnessed by her father and Mrs. WM C Ghost

John was born in IL ABT 1861. John was the son of Romanzo HAVEN and Cordelia SEYMOUR. (See John Harvey HAVEN for the continuation of this line.)

20 vi. Oristus Charles CRAMER was born in Fontenelle, Washington, NE 11 OCT 1859. Oristus died 16 SEP 1934 in Warm Springs. MT, at 74 years of age. Orestes Charles CRAMER Source: The Powder River County Examiner The Broadus Publishing Company Montana CRAMER Funeral Held in Broadus, Montana The funeral services for the late O. C. CRAMER of Twist, Mont., were held in the Broadus community church, Wednesday, September 19, with the Rev. M Webster in charge.

Orestes Charles Cramer was born in Fontenelle, October 11, 1859, and raised in Fremont, Nebraska. He died at Warm Springs, Montana on September 16, 1934, nearly 75 years in age. The deceased came to Montana in 1910, from Hill City, S. D. where he had resided for the previous 18 years. He had been in increasing ill health since 1932.

He was married nearly 50 years ago, in 1884, and is survived by his wife, Mrs. Emma CRAMER, by one son, Norton CRAMER, of this county, and by one daughter, Mrs. Laura PIERCE, of Stockton, California. There are also 5 grandchildren.

* Note, O. C. CRAMER was the son of John K. and Frances B. CRAMER, of Fremont, Nebraska. Karon Mazie Submitted by: Karon R Mazie

21 vii. Perley CRAMER was born in Fontenelle, Washington, NE 17 JAN 1861. Perley died 4 DEC 1921 at 60 years of age. She married John Harvey HAVEN. John was born in IL ABT 1861. John was the son of Romanzo HAVEN and Cordelia SEYMOUR.

22 viii. John Parker CRAMER was born in Fontenelle, Washington, NE 23 MAY 1862.

23 ix. Emma F. CRAMER was born in Fontenelle, Washington, NE 23 OCT 1863.

24 x. Emmett CRAMER was born in Fremont, Dodge, NE 29 MAR 1864. Emmett died 4 DEC 1937 in Yakama, WA, at 73 years of age.

25 xi. Robert Lee CRAMER was born in Fremont, Dodge, NE 7 JUL 1866. Robert died FEB 1925 at 58 years of age. Robert L. CRAMER Source: Fremont Evening Tribune, Fremont, Nebraska, Thursday, February, 12, 1925, received from Claire Mares, Eastern Nebraska Genealogical Society.

Robert L. CRAMER, 58, prominent Dodge county farmer and stock raiser living north of Fremont, died while sitting in a chair reading a letter from his sick wife, who is at Excelsior Springs, MO, for her health, this morning. Death was believed due to a stroke of apoplexy. He had just received his morning mail and sat down to read it. Wayne, 5, his little son, was the only other person in the house. Suddenly he collapsed in his chair and told the little boy to summon help. Wayne rushed to the Sheldon school acrossed the street and summoned his sister and school teacher. They hurried to the home and called medical attention, but Mr. Cramer was dead before help reached him.

WIFE NOTIFIED

The little son and daughter were not told of the death and resumed their studies at the schoolhouse. Mrs. Cramer and daughter, Love, who are at Excelsior Springs, were notified by telegram this morning and are expected home tomorrow if Mrs. Cramer is able to make the trip. Robert L. Cramer was born on the bluffs north of Fremont, July 7, 1876 (sic 1867), the son of Mr. and Mrs. John K. Cramer. His father was a pioneer resident of this vicinity, settling where Nickerson now stands on May 14, 1865. The father was a member of the colonization colony which formed the town of Fontanelle, at one time county seat of Dodge county. He was in a number of battles with the Indians and two men employed by him were killed in Indian uprisings.

WAS IN OMAHA YESTERDAY

Living in this vicinity all his life, Robert L. Cramer was a prominent farmer and stock raiser. Only yesterday he returned from selling a car of stock on the South Omaha market. He has been prominent in the neighborhood in which he lived just north of Fremont. He was very well known, and had many friends. He was married about twenty years ago. Although complaing now and then of ill health, Mr. Cramer had not been seriously ill and had gone about his duties during the last few days as usual. This morning he arose early and saw to it that the children were prepared for school. Until he was seated in his chair reading the letter from his wife he had no warning of the fatal illness. He is survived by his wife, three daughters, Love, Sybil, Grace, and one son, Wayne. Funeral arrangements have not yet been made pending word from Mrs. Cramer.

Submitted by: Karon Mazie

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