My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH SEWARD FRANK was born in Will county, Illinois, September 7, 1838, and is the son of Nathaniel and Lydia (Curtis) Frank. His father was born at Granville, N. Y., September 22, 1805, and his mother was born August 28, 1807, in Berkshire county, Mass., and died December 15, 1870, in Omro, Wis. His paternal grandfather, Nathaniel Frank, was born in Connecticut, November 26, 1776, and died January 31, 1824. He was a colonel in the War of 1812, and one of the prominent and influential men of his day. Nathaniel Frank, Jr., engaged in mercantile business at Gawanda, N. Y., in an early day, and continued in that line for several years; subsequently he moved to Omro, Winnebago county, Wis., where he continued his former business together with buying and shipping stock. He served as justice of the peace for over forty years in the States of New York and Wisconsin. During his official career he performed the ceremony which united, for better or for worse, over ninety couple. He is still living, and has been a devoted member of the Presbyterian church for many years. Joseph Seward Frank was next to the youngest of four children, and remained at home assisting his father in business until he enlisted. He attended the common schools of his day as well as the high school at Omro, Wis.

When the war broke out he was a young man, but not too young to offer his services in defense of his country’s flag. Enlisting for three years, December 7, 1861, in Company F, Eighteenth regiment Wisconsin volunteer infantry, he served under the gallant Gen. Prentice, and was an active participant in the terrible battle of Shiloh, where he was taken prisoner on April 6, 1862, and held as such for six long months. He was a sufferer in Libby, Montgomery and Macon prisons, when he was finally exchanged. The prisons were examined, and all those unfit for further service were discharged and sent home. He had suffered the tortures of prison life until he was a mere skeleton.

After partial health was restored, Mr. Frank spent seven years in the mining regions of northern Michigan, and a few years in the mercantile business at Omro, Wis. He came to Kearney county, Nebr., July, 1876, in a prairie schooner, and took a homestead in Eaton township, where he has since resided. There was scarcely any settlement in the vicinity at that time, and the country presented a wild and somewhat dreary appearance.

On October 15, 1868, Mr. Frank was married to Miss Anna H. Amerman, who was born at Tompkins, Delaware county, N. Y., December 24, 1842, but reared in New York City. She was a daughter of Rev. Thomas Amerman, a prominent Presbyterian divine. Her parents emigrated to Wisconsin in 1850. Her father was compelled to quit the ministry on account of ill-health, and died in 1884. He was a graduate of Amherst College and of the Theological Seminary of New Brunswick, N. J., and was ordained in 1830. Mrs. Frank was a frequent contributor to the religious press and was a devoted christian woman and a very successful teacher in the public schools. She died November 6, 1889. To this union were born eight children, viz. — Charles E., born July 20,1869; Irving A., born April 21, 1871 (deceased); George S., born August 18, 1873; Percy L., born March 17, 1875; Cornelia E., born January 19, 1877; Eleanor Anna, born December 16, 1880; Sarah H., born August 3, 1883; Jennie L., born January 3, 1886.

Mr. Frank was justice of the peace for a number of years, and was the first supervisor of Eaton township. He has been a zealous christian for many years, and enjoys the respect of all who know him. He is an enthusiastic temperance man, and hopes to live to see the total prohibition of the liquor traffic. Mr. and Mrs. Frank were charter members of the First Presbyterian church of Kenesaw, Nebr., and, when the country got more thickly settled, helped to form the Eaton, now the Hartwell, Presbyterian church. Mr. Frank has been for years a ruling elder, and Mrs. Frank one of the main supporters of the Sabbath-school.