My Genealogy Hound

LEWIS RIFENBURGH was born in Schoharie county, N. Y., July 1, 1828, and is the son of George and Anna (Talardy) Rifenburgh, both of whom were born in New York State; the former, a farmer, lived to be eighty-four years of age and died in 1887; the latter is still living in apparently good health. Lewis lived in New York State until twenty-five years of age and resided at home, attending school and helping about his father’s farm until fifteen years of age, after which he lived out on a farm and began life on his own account. In 1856 he moved to Oconto county, Wis., and for four years was engaged in clearing, farming and lumbering. He then moved back to New York State, and October 21, 1861, responded to his country’s call and enlisted as a private in the war of the rebellion in the Seventy-sixth New York volunteers. He was mustered into the United States service at Albany, and was soon afterwards on duty up the Potomac river and participated in the first battle of Petersburgh. His regiment was afterwards detailed on duty to lay pontoon bridges, at which they were engaged until July, 1862, when he was taken sick and sent to the hospital at Philadelphia and then transferred to the convalescent camp at Fairfax, Va., and later back to Philadelphia, where he was discharged in 1864. He returned home for a few weeks, and in August, 1864, re-enlisted for another year’s service. He was in the second battle of Petersburgh and was captured and sent to prison at Salisbury, N. C., where he was confined for five months and ten days, and witnessed the starving to death of hundreds of Union soldiers, and is thankful for the fact that he escaped with life. Food was so scarce that he frequently paid as high as $1 for a single potato in order to keep from starving. The happiest day of his life was the day he was put aboard the cars and taken to Richmond and exchanged back to the Union army. He was weak and emaciated from want of food and was at once sent to the hospital at Baltimore, Md., where, after two weeks of careful nursing, he was given a furlough and sent home to the Albany hospital, where he remained until September 4, 1865, when he was discharged.

He moved back to Wisconsin and was engaged in farming and lumbering there until he came to Nebraska, Harlan county, in November, 1873, and homesteaded a claim in section 15, township 1, range 19 west. The country was new, settlers were few, and wild game, buffalo, elk, deer and antelope were plentiful. He killed several buffalo the following season and for several years had plenty of their meat for table use. The first few years the grasshoppers and drought was so disasterous to the crops that he raised but little small grain and comparatively no corn at all, but after 1876 crops flourished and an era of prosperity dawned upon the hitherto despondent settlers. In 1880 he erected a large saw and grist-mill, now standing, at a cost of $8,000. For several years he was engaged in the mercantile business across the state line at Woodruff, Kans., but he has recently disposed of that and now devotes his time to milling and looking after his land, of which he owns three hundred acres in the creek bottom. Politically, he is a republican and was treasurer of Harlan county in 1875 and 1876.