Daniel WEBNER

WEBNER, RIGGINS, HASKIN, NELSON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 7/12/2010 at 12:33:43

August 23, 1949 -- March 31, 1922

The Klemme Times - Iowa
ca. April 1922

Daniel Webner, Pioneer, Died on Old Homestead
Was Pioneer of Hancock County

With the passing of Dan Webner, this community loses an old time resident and pioneer who resided in this vicinity when Indians were as numerous as were the early white settlers. Mr. Webner bought the land on which he resided for five dollars an acre for the first eighty acres. Later he bought another forty acres adjoining and for this he paid seven dollars. A few years later he purchased another forty acres to complete his farm and for this he paid what was considered a big price, fourteen dollars. In telling of their early days, Mrs. Myron Haskin, his eldest daughter said that she used to be afraid of the Indians when she was a little girl and when she would see Indians coming through she would get her little brother and sister and hide in the cornfield until they went away again; but of course the Indians were harmless but nevertheless Mrs. Haskin did not like their looks and so took no chances.

When the railroad was first built through Klemme there was no regular station and it was hard for the farmers to get cars in which to ship their grain. It so happened that Dan Webner and Morris Day both wanted a car to ship out some grain. The agent could only get one car and both Dan and Morris wanted that car. The agent was diplomatic so he told them that when the car arrived the first to put a load of grain in it could have the car. Both men were on the look out when a train came in for that car. Dan sent his daughter (Mrs. Haskin) in on horseback one day when they heard the train come in and sure enough the car had been set out on a siding so she went home as fast as she could to tell her father; he had the grain all sacked and ready so he started to town and got there first and put in the first load of grain. On the way home he met Morris Day coming in with his load of grain but there was nothing for him to do but turn around and go back home. He had sent one of the boys in to see if the car had come, but Mrs. Haskin had gotten there first and Dan had beat neighbor Day by an hour. So Dan Webner had the honor of being the first man to ship a whole car load of grain from this station on the new railroad.

Daniel Webner was born at Elizabethville, Pa. on Aug. 23, 1849 and departed this life on Friday, March 31st, 1922. He lived with his parents on a farm until he was 14 years of age, his mother having died he went to live with relatives in Chicago, moving then to Forreston, Illinois, and later to Hampton, Iowa. It was at Hampton where he was united in marriage to Beulah Riggins on the 3rd day of July, 1872. From Hampton the family moved to the state of Ohio where Mr. Webner was engaged in coal mining and other pursuits for three years, then moving to Floyd County, Iowa, engaging in farming for several years and finally moving in 1883 onto a farm of their own in Hancock County, Iowa, near Klemme. This was the day of the early settlers and Mr. Webner saw the rise and growth of the town of Klemme. At that early date trading was carried on at Garner and Clear Lake from this community.

Those of his immediate family who mourn his loss are his wife and three children; Mrs. Myron Haskin, of Garner; Mrs. Thomas Nelson, Jr., of Goodell; and Daniel Webner, Jr., of Klemme; four children having died in infancy; 12 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.