My Genealogy Hound

SYLVESTER WEIBEL is a native of the city of Hohenems, Austria, and is a son of Charles and Marie Weibel, natives also of Austria, who lived and died in that country.

He was born December 31, 1832, and, being left an orphan at the age of seven, grew up in the place of his birth, among family friends and acquaintances. Although reard in a country noted for its educational advantages, his early training was none too thorough, even under the compulsory system. He had to work for his living, earning it as best he could, and there was but little time at his disposal for going to school. As he grew up he heard frequently of America, and he determined on reaching his majority to come to this country. He immigrated in 1854, landing at New York June 21, that year. The first few years he spent in this country he drifted about a good deal, trying his fortunes in various localities, east, west and south, and at various pursuits. He lived awhile in Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee, Indiana and Illinois, and followed successively logging, steam-boating, hostlering, butchering and merchandising. During this time also he served for a while in the Confederate army, enlisting in the service in 1861, at Memphis, Tenn. He was in the battles at Belmont, Shiloh and Perryville, Ky., being captured in the latter engagement and after a short term of imprisonment released, and sent across the lines into Indiana, not entering the service again.

Mr. Weibel came to Nebraska in the spring of 1872, stopping first at Lincoln and afterwards going to Butler county and then to Kearney county, settling at Lowell, then the county seat. A year later he started a brick-yard at Kearney, and then a saloon at Lowell. He continued at Lowell till 1875, when he took up his permanent residence at Kearney and has lived there since. For a number of years he was engaged in the liquor business in Kearney, giving it up, in fact, only recently. He has made a great deal of money, and by making a wise investment of this means he has become quite wealthy. He is recognized as one of the heaviest capitalists of the city of Kearney, and has been and is now connected with a number of the leading business enterprises of the place. He is one of the largest stock holders in the Kearney National Bank and is a member of its board of directors. He is a public-spirited, liberal-hearted man, and assists all enterprises of a public nature, and is willing at all times to give encouragement to any deserving person. Having come up from the common walks of life himself, and spent the most of his years at hard toil as a common laborer, he is thoroughly in sympathy with the common people and gives generously of his means to any industry that will give them employment and support, and he contributes liberally also to charity. He is a plain, unassuming, modest man who, having made all he has, fortunately has the wisdom to know how to use it. Having retired from active pursuits he is now devoting his time to his investments and doing what good he can as an humble citizen, with the means which have come into his possession.