My Genealogy Hound

FERDINAND L. SEICK. The subject of this sketch is one of the honored pioneers of Harlan county, a native of Logan county, Ill., and was born March 18, 1841.

His father, John D., was a native of Poland and came to the United States in 1835. He visited various localities in this country before determining upon a permanent location and finally settled in Logan county, Ill., where he first met and was married to Miss Margaret, a daughter of Peter G. Cowardice, one of the first settlers of the county. She died in 1851 and he followed in 1856. He was a journey-man carpenter and worked all his lifetime at his trade.

Ferdinand L. Seick had no special school advantages during his boyhood days, and, after the death of his parents, was thrown entirely upon his own resources. He worked on a farm during the year 1858, but he desired to learn some trade and in the spring of 1859 was apprenticed to a harness-maker, with whom he remained two years. In the spring of 1861, when the war of the rebellion broke out, young Seick was among the first to join the ranks of the boys in blue, and enlisted on the eighth day of June, 1861, in the Third regiment, Iowa volunteer infantry. His regiment was ordered down into Missouri and saw its first service at Bland Mills landing. The Third Iowa participated in the great battle of Shiloh, and also at the siege of Corinth, which lasted for forty days. This same regiment of Iowa boys again faced shot and shell at Vicksburg and Atlanta. Mr. Seick was taken prisoner at the latter place on the twenty-second day of July and sent to Andersonville. He was exchanged in two months, however, but not until he had suffered the horrors inflicted on the Union prisoners by the managers of that terrible institution. He saw his comrades die by the hundreds, saw them drink foul and slimy water and saw them starve for want of food. The day he left this horrible den he counted over five hundred corpses ready for burial. After spending a few days in a convalescent camp he was taken along with others to meet Sherman’s army at Goldsborough, when he joined his old company and regiment. He was mustered out at Louisville, Ky., July 12, 1865.

After the war Mr. Seick returned to Benton county, Iowa, and attended school at Vinton, Iowa, for nine months. He then resumed his old trade as a harness-maker, and in 1867 engaged with one Frank Evans in the business in Story county, Iowa. He disposed of his interests in six months, however, and moved to Lincoln, Ill., where he remained until 1872. In February of that year he came to Harlan county, Nebr., and homesteaded the southeast quarter of section 13, in Washington township. There were then only two other parties in that part of the county and the outlook was anything but encouraging. He made up his mind, however, to stay and proceeded immediately to erect a comfortable log house. The prairie was black with buffalo, and antelope and deer were quite plenty. The Indians were frequent visitors at the pioneer cabins and often camped in the neighborhood as they traveled to and from their happy hunting-grounds. In 1874, when everything seemed to indicate a prosperous year for the new settlers and crops gave every promise of abundant yield, the grasshoppers swooped down on the great fields of waving corn, then in roasting ears, and in a few hours destroyed every stalk. The next year they were not quite so bad, but in 1876 they were as numerous as ever and took everything green before them. Very few people who have settled in this region within the past few years fully appreciate what the pioneers had to pass through.

Mr. Seick had lived a bachelor for several years and found a life of single blessedness not as congenial as it might be. So on the twenty seventh day of January 1881, he was married to Miss Charlotte T. Phelps, a native of Lincoln, Ill., born January 15, 1862. Her father was a native of Vermont and her mother of Germany. The family of Mr. Seick consists of four children, namely — Olive May, born November 11, 1881; Mary, born February 27, 1882; Marian A., born January 27, 1885, and John, born July 9, 1887.

Mr. Seick has one hundred and sixty acres of improved land and is a successful and prosperous farmer, although he has had as many failures as he has had crops. He has been a victim of the grasshoppers, drought and hail, but he is not discouraged and is not of a disposition to give up. He is a member of the Alliance and believes the farmers ought to act in union in order to accomplish anything for themselves. He has always been a republican, but he has resolved to act independently hereafter. Mr. Seick has always been an abstainer from intoxicating liquors, and is a strong and ardent advocate of temperance. He believes in total prohibition and is doing everything in his power to bring it about.