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- Page 734-35 COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY, REMINISCENCE AND BIOGRAPHY
Conrad Rosburg, for many years the leading carpenter and builder at Osmond, Pierce county, Nebraska, is a native of the province of Holstein, Germany. His birth occurred in the village of Harmsdorf, June 8, 1851, and he is a son of Wolf C. and Sophia (Ehrig) Rosburg. The former was born in 1804, and died in 1872, and the latter was born in 1809, and died in 1900, at the age of ninety-one years.
Men of this family have been tenants of the same place since 1639, the date on the frame and concrete house built and occupied by a Rosburg, and handed down to succeeding generations. At times the race has seemed to be about extinguished, but it has been preserved, and none but men of that name have ever lived in the dwelling.
Conrad Rosburg emigrated to America in 1870, sailing from Hamburg, Germany, on the eighth of June on the "Cymbria," which made the passage to New York in eleven days. He came direct to Benton County, Iowa, whither a brother and two uncles had preceded him. He was employed at farm labor until 1875, when, on March 5, of that year, he rented a farm in Crawford county, Iowa, and for five years followed the plow in that locality. Coming to Nebraska, he rented the Thompson farm, seven miles northwest of where Osmond now stands, and for nine years was a Nebraska farmer, and a successful one at that. It was during his occupancy of this farm that a sad incident occurred in the loss of two children in the memorable blizzard of January 12, 1888.
The season of 1889, Mr. Rosburg spent on the road, traveling through Nebraska for the McCormick Harvester Company, and many are the tales he can tell of jokes and pranks played upon landlords and each other by fellow traveling men at hotels where he has sojourned. The work is exacting during the busy season, but they manage to have some fun along with their labor.
In 1890, Mr. Rosburg erected the first building in Osmond, his present residence, the station having been established that year. For nineteen years he was a leading contractor and builder in Osmond, following that vocation until March, 1909, when he rented a farm near town, and again became one of America's producers. Mr. Rosburg is a good farmer, as the tract he took had been considered a rundown farm. His first crop, after thorough deep plowing, made a showing of fifty bushels of corn to the acre - this from land that had not produced a third of that amount for some years before.
Mr. Rosburg was married, December 22, 1875, at Denison, Iowa, to Miss Hanna Fliss, a native of Cedar county, Iowa, and born near Wilton Junction, a daughter of Tobias and Sophia (Fallburg) Fliss, who were married in Germany in May, 1849. They were natives of Hanover and Brunswick, respectively, the father's birth having occurred near Frankfort-On-The-Main, and the mother's, in the village of Seliz. On coming to America, they lived in Chicago for a time, and, in migrating to Iowa, drove through with an ox team to Bloomington, Iowa, now known as Muscatine, which at that time was but a landing for the river steamers. They settled some twelve miles north of Muscatine, in the edge of Cedar county, and lived here until death.
Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Rosburg, whose names and histories are given herewith: Emma, died in infancy; Otto and Hattie were lost in the memorable blizzard of January 12, 1888; John has been his father's able assistant, both in carpentry and building, and in his farming enterprises; Ella is the wife of Henry Martin, of Osmond; and Hanna Leneve, the youngest of the six children.
Mr. Rosburg is, in general elections, a democrat, but votes for the best man in local campaigns, regardless of party affiliations.
Many were the hardships endured by Mr. and Mrs. Rosburg in coming to Nebraska, and during their first years in the west. For five miles before reaching Onawa, where they crossed the Missouri river, they were compelled to drive through water in some places three to four feet deep. After crossing to Decatur, Nebraska, Mrs. Rosburg rode one of the horses, driving the cattle, and in the flooded road got into a ditch, in which she and the horse were submerged up to her shoulders. During the first few years, their only fuel at times was twisted hay, supplemented with corn stalks, corn or "buffalo chips." They came to Nebraska late enough to escape the last raid of grasshoppers, but were here during the winter of the deep snows, the winter of 1881 and 1882, when the last remnants of drifts lingered in the canyons and ravines until late in May. There were a few antelope to be seen in the country still, and occasionally a big grey wolf would appear, they having strayed out of the timber along the rivers out onto the plains.
These were hard days - days that tried men's souls and women's fortitude. But the persevering ones, like Mr. Rosburg and his family, who endured to the end, have reaped rich rewards for their privations and strenuous labors. The west has been good to those who persevered.
Internet: rootdigger Genealogy in Schleswig-Holstein, Noted that he had a brother in America, Ernst Christin Alwin.
Internet: rootdigger Genealogy in Schleswig-Holstein, Changed C. M. to Christian Marcus.
Government Records: Immigration Records, Arrived on the Cymbria to New York.
In the 1870 Benton County, Iowa Census he was living with a Dobel family while his brother Ernest (listed as Hans) was living with yet another Dobel family. Listed on the same census page is the uncle, Charles Henry Rosburg.
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1851 - 1931 (80 years)
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