My Genealogy Hound

ROBERT WIER is one of the early settlers of Logan township, Kearney county. He was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1831. The ancestry of this family came originally from Scotland during the persecution of that country. The father of our subject, Robert Wier, was a native of Ireland, born in the year 1796. He was by occupation a farmer and linen weaver. His mother, Nancy (Ferguson) Wier, was also a native of Ireland, born in 1799. There were seven children in the family.

Robert Wier resided in Ireland until twenty-one years of age, engaged as a linen-weaver. At that age he came to America and located on a farm near Philadelphia, where he resided for some time, finally moving into the city, where he engaged in carpet-weaving. He resided in Philadelphia twenty years, during which time he continued to follow weaving. Before the war, during Buchanan’s term as president and while free trade was practically in vogue, he could make but $1 per day, and after the war, when protection was in force, he made from $16 to $20 per week.

In January, 1889, Mr. Wier emigrated West and located in Kearney county, Nebr., entering as a homestead a quarter section of land in section 12, township 7, range 15. He erected a sod house in which he lived seven years. There were few settlers in the vicinity where he located at that time. There were some antelope remaining among the sand hills and an occasional deer on the islands of the Platte river. He lived on his homestead for four years and had one hundred acres broken out when he sold it. In 1883 he bought the farm on which he now resides, and now has one hundred and twenty acres broken out and the place otherwise well improved. He had a hard time to make ends meet in those early days, it being almost impossible to get a day’s work. He had nothing but a team of horses to start with, and three months after he came one of those sickened and died. He finally bought a cow and she also died. He afterwards purchased a horse from a herd in Kearney, paying therefor $24. He still has the horse and would not take $100 for him. Taxes were very high in the early days and he had to pay $9 tax on his team and what little lumber he had in the roof on his sod house.

Mr. Wier was married November 15, 1853, to Sarah Seaton, which union has been blessed with nine children, as follows —Matilda, Thomas (deceased), Anna, Thomas, Robert, John, Elizabeth (deceased), William, and Samuel (deceased). Mr. and Mrs. Wier are both members of the Presbyterian church in Minden, being charter members of that organization, Politically, he is a republican.