Lemuel Doane
b. 6 November 1827, Spice Valley Township, Lawrence County, Indiana, to Jehu and Jane (Marley) Doane
d. 5 July 1905, North Bend, Dodge County, Nebraska

m. 13 January 1850, Lawrence County, Indiana
Lydia West
b. 22 December 1833, Indian Creek Township, Lawrence County, Indiana, to Miles and Susan (Swan) West
d. 22 May 1924, Los Angeles, California

Children with Lydia West:

• Sarah Jane (1851–1858)
• Catherine Mary (1852–1922) married Andrew Jackson Kern
• Josiah (1854–1930) married Katherine O’Conner
• Elizabeth (1857–1857)
• Ziba Howard (1859–1920) married Anna Louis Browning
• Ellis E. (1862–1943) married Elizabeth Burton
• Charles West (1863–1946) married Josephine Olive Browning
• Clara (1866–1957) married Wiley Miller
• Susan (1868–1900) married John Sherman Flater
• Homer Harvey (1870–1933) married Emma Dorthea Schleuter
• Eva (1875–1941) married George White Bartlett

Lemuel resided in Lawrence and Greene counties in Indiana. Of the eleven children, ten were born in Indiana; only Eva was born in Nebraska.

Lydia West was orphaned at age 8 when both of her parents died on the same day of what was called “milk sick” caused by cows eating poisonous snakeroot plant. She was then raised by Robert and Elizabeth Brindle.

Lemuel served in Company A, 140th Indiana Infantry, during the Civil War. In 1874, he and his family emigrated from Greene County, Indiana, to Dodge County, Nebraska, and settled in the area that became known as Hoosierville.

According to the North Bend, Nebraska, Eagle of 16 August 1956, six other Indiana families left Huron, Indiana, for Nebraska in covered wagons on 3 October 1874. These were the families of Samuel Etchison, James Bowden,

George Ray, John West, Eli Burton, and Jim Gerkins. Samuel Etchison’s team included a mare that had a colt that followed its mother all the way. It forded streams, boarded ferries, and was the children’s pet.

When the travelers made camp at night, the wagons formed a circle, and the horses were hobbled. The men took turns guarding the camp against Indians and horse thieves. The wagon train forded the White River and crossed the Mississippi at Hannibal, Missouri, where the baby daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Ray died and was buried.

As trails became steep, men put log chains through the spokes of all four wheels of each wagon and fastened the chains to the wagon box so that the wheels couldn’t turn. Then ropes were fastened to the front and sides of the wagon, and all men went down the incline with it, pulling on the ropes to hold the wagon back and to keep it from upsetting.

The group ferried the Missouri River at Blair, where they spent the first winter. They arrived in North Bend, Nebraska, in the fall of 1875.

Submitted by:
Verna Doane Moll
Sonoma CA