My Genealogy Hound

MATTHEW D. BOGERT, a prosperous farmer and highly esteemed citizen of Kearney county, is a native of New York, and through his veins courses the blood of the sturdy old Dutch stock, which for many generations has formed the best citizenship of New York, and won for it the distinctive appellation of the “Empire State.” He is the only surviving child of David and Sarah (Tinkey) Bogert, the former of whom was a son of Matthew T. and Polly (Demorest) Bogert, and the latter a daughter of Andrew and Jane (Vanderbilt) Tinkey. His grandfather Bogert was a native of New Jersey and a soldier in the War of the Revolution, a faithful adherent to the cause of the colonies, and one who attested his faith by his services in the long and arduous struggle by which the liberties of the colonies were achieved. Mr. Bogert’s paternal grandmother was also a native of New Jersey. His great grandfather, Jacob Tinkey, was a native of New York, and was reared an orphan, being brought up in a family in which he afterwards married; his wife, Sarah Onderdonk, being born and raised in York State.

Mr. Bogert’s father, David Bogert, was born in New Jersey in 1791. He was reared in his native state and in New York, whither he moved when he went in business. He was a brickmason by trade and followed contracting and building. He married in 1812, and the same year enlisted in the United States army to fight the British during the War of 1812-14, dying in 1815 from fever contracted in the army. He was a man of active life and robust physical constitution, a great lover of sports, and noted as the most graceful dancer in social society in the city of New York. He was a democrat in politics in the days when the two great parties were whigs and democrats, and he was an ardent patriot. Mr. Bogert’s mother, Sarah Tinkey, was born in New York in 1794, dying in 1861. She was a pious, good woman, a life-long member of the Dutch Reformed church. There were only two children in the family to which the subject of this sketch belonged, himself and a sister, Ann Maria, afterwards wife of James Eckerson. She died in 1882, leaving a family of five children — Matthew, John Esler, Sarah Catherine, Maria Elizabeth and Harriet Anna.

Mrs. Sarah (Tinkey) Bogert was married the second time to John A. Sewin, by whom she had two children — Andrew T. Sewin, who now is postmaster at Lenox, Mass., and John L. Sewin (now deceased).

The subject of this sketch was born in 1813 in the city of New York. He was reared mainly on a farm, receiving a good common-school education and being brought up to the habits of industry and usefulness common to farm life. In 1831 he married Miss Catherine Blawvelt, a lady of his own age, being a native of New York, and a daughter of Dowah and Elizabeth (Van Houten) Blawvelt. Mr. Bogert continued to reside in New York State, engaged in farming and kindred pursuits until 1879, when he moved to Nebraska and settled in Kearney county, taking a homestead in section 26, township 7, range 16 west, where he now resides. He has led an active, industrious and useful life, and, although somewhat advanced in years, he continues to look after his affairs with undiminished interest and prosecutes them with unabated vigor. He has held a number of public positions in life, the duties of which he has discharged with zeal and fidelity. He was elected to the state legislature in New York, in 1849, and represented his people acceptably in the state assembly for one term. The legislature of New York State is composed of one hundred and twenty-eight members. Mr. Bogert was one of fifteen members that came out boldly as free soilers, opposed to the extension of slavery. He was then appointed treasurer of Rockland county, and after filling that office for one term he was elected county treasurer, which office he held for eighteen years by successive re-elections, and during said time held the office of deputy county clerk for sixteen years. Since locating in Kearney county he has filled the office of county supervisor from his township for five years, and was elected in November, 1889, for two years more, and has served as postmaster at Blaineville from March, 1880, to the present time; and was chairman of a committee appointed to examine the county treasurer’s accounts four years in succession. In politics he is a democrat, and he has been for a number of years a member of the Masonic order. He is a man of sound intelligence and possesses a wide range of knowledge. He was left a widower in 1884, his most excellent wife now sleeping in Oak Hill cemetery, at Nyack, on the Hudson river, in her native place.