ROSEBERRY, JOHN L. AND OSCEE G.

by Lenore Roseberry Larsen

Entry F367 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

John L. and Oscee G. Roseberry.

Roseberry Store.

An early homesteader on the Dismal River
in Hooker County was John Lindsay Roseb-
erry. Mr. Roseberry was born in Waynesburg,
Green County, Pennsylvania, on January 18,
1866, to Thomas M. and Julia A. (Stewart)
Roseberry, descendants of early Americans
who came to this country from England
before the Revolutionary War. His father was
a Civil War veteran who was taken prisoner
by the Confederates then released before the
war was over. As a result of poor health, he
died a few months before John was born.

John Roseberry came to Nebraska as a
young man and farmed with an uncle in Clay
County. He moved to a 160 acre homestead
on the Dismall River with 24 head of cattle,
which were lost in a blizzard. He built a sod
house and built the first fence in that locality.
He used teams of oxen for his work.

In 1890 John homesteaded in Cherry
County south of the North Loup River. He
planted both shade trees and various fruit
trees on a Timber Claim and experimented
with various grain crops. In spite of losing
cattle and crops during the severe winters, he
gradually added land and stock, increasing
his original holdings to 20,000 acres at the
time of his death. His JR brand is still
registered in the family.

John developed a hay stacker, called the
Roseberry Stacker, on which he took out a
patent in 1905. The hay was held in a cradle
that slid up on rails and dumped into a cage
fastened to the stacker. Quite a number of
these were sold and used in the hay country
for many years. He also fashioned a gate
fastener with a lever, which was used widely
throughout the Sandhills.

John and his cousin Oscar Orndorf inven-
ted a helicopter and patented it. The engine,
however, was so heavy that it would barely
lift the craft off the ground. In spite of its
limitations, they took a smaller model of it to
an exhibition in Iowa. In a book written by
Igor I. Sikorsky, inventor of the first success-
ful helicopter, credit was given to the patent
of John L. Roseberry and Oscar Orndorf for
some of the ideas used in developing the
helicopter.

Besides his ranching interests, Mr. Roseb-
erry built a store in Mullen and operated a
small store at his ranch. The store in Mullen
was about 200 feet long and 50 feet wide. It
was a two-story cement building with a
basement. The gravel for this building was
hauled by horses from the MIddle Loup
River. The cement was all mixed by hand.
The store opened in 1910. Groceries, dry
goods, lumber, coal, salt, machinery, fencing
materials, kerosene, and gasoline were sold.
In early days the second floor of the store was
used for a variety of purposes: church
services, athletic events, programs, movies,
dances, and traveling vaudeville. This build-
ing was destroyed by fire in 1974.

On May 25, 1893, John Roseberry married
Oscee Gertrude Garrett, daughter of James
H. and Alice (Hamm) Garrett, early Hooker
County settlers. This was the 22nd marriage
in the county. Mrs. Roseberry was born April
27, 1875, in Springtown, Arkansas. She spent
her earliest childhood in Arkansas until her
family moved to Oklahoma. The family
moved from Oklahoma to Nebraska by
covered wagon about 1888. Her father was a
school teacher and served as first Hooker
County Superintendent of schools, a post he
held for 25 years.

John and Oscee Roseberry raised nine
children: Leslie, Ray, Paul Thomas, Alice,
Mabel, Oscar, Irene, Garrett, and John Jr.

Mr. Roseberry died in 1919. The store in
Mullen was sold soon after his death, and the
ranch was leased for about six years. The
Roseberry sons managed it until Mrs. Roseb-
erry's death, and they sold it in 1954.