John August ROEMER

                   John August Roemer was born 20 April 1894 on the Roemer farmstead in Ridgeley township, Scribner, NE. He was baptized, attended Sunday School, was confirmed, and later married in the St. John's Ridgeley Lutheran CHurch. He attended grade school at District #12, from which he graduated  in 1908. He enrolled in Scribner High School, though after completing the  ninth grade he  decided to remain  home to assist with the farm work.

It was customary f or early settlers to encourage their children to help with farm chores, such as gathering eggs, at an early age. They followed the counsel of the Apostle  Paul: "Anyone unwilling to work should not eat," (1 Thess. 3:10) When  John  was eleven years old and Bertha a few years  younger, Hattie instructed them where the hens had nests. They were in the chicken barn, on the hay mow, under the corncrib, granary and machine shed. One day they decided to put some of the eggs into the twine box on the back side of the grain binder. They continued this for four or five days. Then they took part of the eggs to the house and asked for another container. Their mother was pleased that the hens had reached a high level of production.

John's mother owned a small flock of sheep among which was a ram. When the boys carried a bushel basket full of shelled corn to the hogs and bent over to pour it into the trough or on the ground, the ram came running to give them a butt and  sent them sprawling on the ground. However  John knew how to handle him. When he saw the ram coming, he took a handful of corn out of the basket and  let him eat it out of his hand or scattered it on the ground. This kept the ram busy so John could feed the pigs without being attacked. One mornikng the ram had Bill Melcher hiding behind  a  leg of the windmill.  Bill picked up a 2x4 with which to clobber the ram over the head. He raised the lumber and aimed it at the ram's head. When the two were about to make contact, the ram moved his head, the 2x4 struck the windmill  leg a violent blow, and broke into many pieces.

One day John brought home a medium s ized tricky saddle horse. He put on thesaddle,  mounted, and rode  out of the barn. The horse immediately moved to a low place in the yard, lowered its head, got down on its knees, unloded the rider, scrambled around and stripped the saddle off over its head. Then John took the horse and saddle back into the barn, reset  the saddle, and tightened the girth. One day when  Otto Schallenberg, mounted on a buckskin, and John, on the trickster hourse, planned to ride around the section. All went well until they came to the culvert sest of Ridgeley Lutheran Church. The trickster walked into the culvert, put  his  head down, got on his knees, unloaded John, and  again stripped the saddle off over its head. Then the horse returned to the road, stared at John for a few moments, then started for home. John picked up the 50 pound saddle and walked home across the field, a bit over a mile. He was completely exhausted when he got there.


Plot 34D