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MRS. MAGDALENE AHRENS, a very highly esteemed resident of Grand Island,
living in her comfortable home at No. 108 West Tenth street, is the widow of Henry Ahrens, who homesteaded in Hall County in 1872. Left a widow with a family of small children, Mrs. Ahrens for many years had heavy responsibilities to bear. She is a woman of great strength of character and safely guided her little family to mature years so husbanding the resources
of the land Mr. Ahrens had left that she found ease and ample fortune awaiting them all.
Mrs. Ahrens was born in Holstein, Germany, November 1, 1847. Henry Ahrens was born in Hanover, Germany, December 5, 1839. Both started for America and they were united in marriage on November 19, 1868, in Liverpool, England, before sailing for the United States. Their first home was near Yorkville, Illinois, where they lived for three years, then started westward, traveling with horses, taking three weeks to reach Shelby County, Missouri, where they remained through the following winter. In the spring they came on to Hall County, Nebraska, Mr. Ahrens taking up a homestead in Lake township, in February, 1872. Mrs. Ahrens remembers well the hardships of those early days. A good housekeeper, she had to do without many conveniences to which she had always been accustomed and at first longed for one of the big clean cellars that she had had in Germany. As soon as possible Mr. Ahrens set out trees to please her, which have now grown into a beautiful grove. Before coming to America he had been a valet for wealthy employers, but after settling in Nebraska he accepted changed conditions and worked as hard and efficiently as if he had always been a farmer. During the winter time he earned a dollar a day digging cellars, working the entire week in Grand Island, while Mrs. Ahrens directed affairs on the homestead. She remembers how fearful she was of prairie fires, as they had few neighbors to help them out in time of need and were seven miles away from Grand Island. During the grasshopper invasion her garden was completely eaten up, the insects crawling under a blanket she had spread over her young onion bed and also devouring the tubers in the ground.
Mr. and Mrs. Ahrens continued to add to their first farm by hard work and frugality, until they had one hundred and eight-five acres. They were well on their way to a much more comfortable manner of living, when the accident occured (sic) which cost Mr. Ahren's life, on June 9, 1885. It was caused by a runaway team belonging to a neighbor. The children who survived him were as follows: Alida, the wife of Frank Niemoth, of Merrick County; Hellene, who died when 17 months of age; Alexander, who resides on the old homestead in Lake township, married Sofine Lorenzen; and Henry C., who bought his mother's second farm of one hundred and eighty-five acres and resides on it. Mr. Ahrens was a Republican in politics and a member of the Lutheran church.
After her husband's death, Mrs. Ahrens manged (sic) affairs until her health gave out. With her sons she later bought additional land and now each one has a fine farm. In 1907 she visited her old home in Germany and after her return she removed to Grand Island, where she has a valued church connection. She has made warm friends because of her kind and helpful nieghborliness (sic).
History of Hall County
by Buechler, Barr, & Stough (Published 1920)
Transcribed by Larry Coates
