My Genealogy Hound

FRANCIS G. HAMER was born in a log cabin, on a farm near Fostoria, Seneca county, Ohio, February 20, 1843. The cabin was built of unhewn logs and floored with puncheons, and one of the first important events which he remembers was the building of an addition to this cabin.

At the age of five years his father carried him to school and he began the pursuit of knowledge seated on a slab, supported by four legs made from a sapling and with no back. His little feet did not reach the floor, and he remembers his position yet as one of discomfort. Before he was ten years old, his mother died and his father moved to another farm near Delphi, Carroll county, Ind. The house occupied was a slight improvement on the first cabin. It was built of hewn logs, but the floor was still made of puncheons, and a chimney, built of mud and sticks, permitted the smoke to rise from the fire-place, where huge back-logs roasted in the winter. The school-house was still a cabin, and the seats were rough boards without backs, but it contained an innovation, being warmed by a wood stove. In these good old days nearly everybody wore homespun, and he well remembers his first store coat. In winter the mental instruction was procured at revival meetings, spelling schools and debating societies. In summer, the corn-field and harvest fields furnished occupation, and instruction was obtained at the quarterly and camp-meetings. It was a Methodist neighborhood, and the arrival of the presiding elder was looked forward to with great interest. He could preach a sermon, and from miles about the farmers came in wagons, driving along corduroy roads and were delighted to listen to the man who could instruct and entertain. The spelling school and debating society were everyday affairs, and in them young Hamer learned to spell, and at twelve years of age spelled down the whole school, and went home with more glory than he has ever had since, or hopes to obtain. In speaking he had more trouble; he began to declaim at nine and tried to debate at fifteen, and at eighteen years of age, he was participating as best he could with those who had more or less experience on the stump — men who had been members of the legislature, or practicing lawyers. Before he was sixteen, he attended school at the county seat, returning to the district school at home during the winter.

Before he was eighteen he began life as a Hoosier school master, and the succeeding summer, having borrowed a copy of Blackstone from a lawyer at the county seat, he began to prosecute his legal studies, regretting that he could not be admitted to practice for three long years, or until he became twenty-one. For three successive winters, including his eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth birthdays, he taught school, read law, and attended the debating societies, and during the corresponding summers he farmed and raised corn and wheat and pigs, and tried to accumulate money to pay the expenses of attending a law school. In the spring succeeding his twentieth birthday, he went to Indianapolis and became a student in the law office of Perrin & Manlove, and shortly after entered the law school, then under the management of the Hon. Samuel E. Perkins, who was for many years one the supreme judges of Indiana, and a lawyer with a national reputation. He was admitted to practice on his twenty-first birthday, or as soon as was honestly practicable. He then returned home and began farming and stock-raising, for the purpose of accumulating money to support himself during the first years of his practice as a lawyer. After watching the struggles of young lawyers in a city he doubted his own ability to make a living at the commencement of his proposed professional career. He still attended the debating society, read law and literature, and occasionally contributed to neighboring newspapers. At twenty-six, he formed a partnership with P. A. Brown, a lawyer of Indianapolis, and together they were, for a short time, engaged in the real estate business in Chicago. December 6, 1869, at Eddyville, Iowa, he was married to Miss R. A. McCord, of Delphi, Ind. Together the young partners came to Lincoln, Nebr., and began house-keeping in the humblest sort of way. One small room was rented for $10 a month, and in this for the time being they lived. Desk room was obtained in a real estate office for $8 per month, and here the subject of our sketch, at the age of twenty-seven, earned his first money as a lawyer. It was only $2.50, but it gave promise of the means of a living. In five months he began to earn enough to support himself and wife. He held his office in Lincoln a little more than two years, but during five months of this time he lived in the country, six miles from the town. During the first nine weeks of his residence in the country he walked to and from his office, making a daily walk of twelve miles. Half-past 7 o’clock usually found him in his office, fresh from the invigorating labor of his six-mile tramp. When his day’s labor was at an end, he returned. Some times the trial of a case ran into the night, and on such occasions he did not reach his home until midnight, or later. On one such occasion, the lawsuit ended about 11 o’clock; the ground was covered with slush and mud, which prevented the usual rapid walk, and it was 3 o’clock in the morning when the tired young lawyer arrived at his humble domicile. Shortly after this, he was able to buy a pony and pay cash for it, and the long walks were discontinued.

During his residence in Indianapolis he became acquainted with Gen. A. H. Connor, at that time, one of the leading citizens of the Hoosier state. He knew him to be a strong lawyer, and an eloquent advocate, and when General Connor found a home in Lincoln, he and the subject of this sketch formed a partnership which lasted through twelve long years, and until Mr. Hamer’s appointment as district judge. In May, 1872, Mr. Hamer removed from Lincoln to the present site of Kearney. At that time there was no town, only a prospect for one, and Mr. Hamer’s first efforts were made in the direction of discovering a claim for himself and partner. For himself he found a pre-emption between the present site of the State Industrial School and the city. For General Connor, he found another claim lying a short distance north of the city. The result of this day’s discovery was a removal of the firm and its effects from Lincoln to Kearney, Mr. Hamer coming a short time in advance of his partner. A small building containing two or three hundred dollars worth of goods and the post office, was at that time, the only business house in Kearney, the proprietor being Mr. F. W. Dart. Mr. Hamer needed an office, and Mr. Dart kindly informed him that there was plenty of room in his store. The building was only 14x20, but he thought there was plenty of room for a store, post office and law office. A little corner was fenced off by a rough plank, which could be used as a table, and behind this was placed an empty nail-keg, covered with a sheep-skin, and on this seat one of the future judges of Nebraska installed himself, and spreading the statutes out before him, was ready for business with the first law office in Kearney.

Immediately upon his arrival at Kearney, he and Mrs. Hamer began to reside upon, the pre-emption, where sod was broken and Mr. Hamer personally planted his first crop of sod corn. The residence was an unpainted shanty, 12x16, ceiled with tar paper tacked upon the studding, and in this they lived two winters and two summers. The winters, however, are remembered more vividly than the summers.

In the fall of 1880, Mr. Hamer was nominated as the republican candidate for representative in the state legislature. Mr. Hamer was supposed to favor Judge Elmer S. Dundy, who, it was known, would be a candidate before the legislature for United States senator, but other republicans favored the election of Senator Paddock to that position. Mr. Hamer was defeated by the joint vote of democrats and Paddock republicans. Mr. Simon C. Ayer, independent republican, became the successful candidate. After the senatorial contest which followed, Paddock and Dundy were both defeated by C. H. VanWyck. As is well known, Senator Paddock since defeated Van Wyck and is one of the United States senators from Nebraska. Two years later, Mr. Hamer actively supported his law partner Gen. Connor, who was brought out as a candidate against Mr. Luman R. Moore. Mr. Moore was an excellent and public-spirited man, but he had been nominated as a candidate for state senator by the same faction of republicans that had defeated Mr. Hamer. Gen. Connor made a vigorous canvass on his own account, thoroughly discussing the arbitrary exercise of corporate power before the people and the dangers which menaced their welfare, and he was elected over his competitor by a large majority. A year later, Mr. Hamer was the favorite candidate in the republican state convention of the people of the central and western part of the state for the office of justice of the supreme court. He was beaten by a majority of thirty-five, by M. B. Reese, of Wahoo. On the death of Judge Sam’l L. Savage, Mr. Hamer was appointed in December, 1883, judge of the Tenth judicial district, by Gov. Dawes, and he immediately entered upon the discharge of his duties. He was also elected, in the fall of 1884, running on the republican ticket against Judge Barnd, the democratic nominee. His majority was 1,700, and in the fall of 1887, he was re-elected. This time his competitor was the Hon. Wm. L. Greene, democratic and labor candidate, and one of the best stump orators in the state. Mr. Hamer’s majority at this election was a little short of 5,000 votes. The task of building up a new town is one of great labor. Upon those who have public spirit and a patriotic love of home, this task always falls. No enterprise for the benefit of his town, county and state has yet been presented that has not received Mr. Hamer’s cordial and energetic support. He has given months of his time to enterprises in which he had no personal interest beyond that of the common good of his section, and has repeatedly pledged his future earnings to subscription lists for the benefit of his city. His first efforts of a public nature in Buffalo county were directed toward the defeat of a bill introduced into the state legislature for the purpose of dividing the county. This bill, if it had become a law, would have placed Kearney on the western boundary of Buffalo county, and would have prevented it from becoming a county seat. His next efforts were directed towards the establishment of a bridge across the Platte river at Kearney. He also participated in the matter of locating the State Industrial School, he was a subscriber to the fund which procured the building of the Midway hotel, and was an earnest advocate of the canal and water power. He has helped to erect every church in the city and on all occasions has given time and money for the public good of his city and section. As a lawyer, Mr. Hamer is careful, painstaking, laborious and much in earnest. He aspires to a thorough knowledge of the law and facts pertaining to his case rather than to a display of rhetoric. As a judge, he is a persistent and unremitting worker. The Tenth judicial district is the largest in the state, and contains fifteen counties, in thirteen of which courts are held. Until the appointment of Judge Church, of North Platte, about one year ago, Judge Hamer heard all the cases in all this immense territory — a territory about three hundred miles long and about one hundred miles wide. He annually disposes of about twenty-five hundred cases.

Judge Hamer is of English stock on his father’s side. His great-grandfather, John Hamer, was born in the state of New York a century and a quarter ago, and his grandfather, William Hamer, was born in the same state and moved to Pennsylvania, where his eldest daughter, Mary, was born, and shortly thereafter he moved to Stark county, Ohio, where his other children were born, including Francis Hamer, the father of the subject of this sketch. Francis Hamer married Mary Mahan, and removed from Stark county to Seneca county, Ohio, about the year 1840, and three years later his son, Francis G. was born. Francis G. has no brothers or sisters living. A brother and sister died in infancy, and Thomas L., another brother, died in the Union army, at the age of sixteen, in 1864. Francis Hamer, the Judge’s father, David Hamer, his uncle, Oliver Hamer, his half brother, and Mrs. Martha Shallenbarger and Mrs. Amanda Allen, half sisters, reside near Delphi, Carroll county, Indiana. The Judge’s father is a farmer, as were his grandfather and great-grandfather, and the Judge himself is also quite a farmer. He owns several valuable farms well stocked with fine cattle, horses and hogs, and has had crops growing every year but one since he was eighteen. While he has worked hard as a lawyer and as judge, he has not forgotten the farm nor left it.