Andrew Jepson

 

      Andreas Leonard (Andrew) was the second child born to Peter and Lovisa Jepson.  He was born in North Bend, Oregon on January 28, 1872.  North Bend is located on the Pacific coast in Coos Bay.  He was four when the family moved back to Sweden.

 

    Shortly after his mother died in 1880 his father brought him, his sister and two brothers back to the United States.  His father bought a farm near Mead in Saunders County, Nebraska.  Andrew lived here until about 1900 when he and his brother, Frank, went to North Dakota.  They did some horse ranching in the Badlands in the western end of the state south of Dickinson.

 

 

Dickinson is on I-94 between Bismarck and Beach

 

        On July 28, 1906 Andrew, who was then 34 years old, married Ella Harris, 33, in Dickenson.

 

      The following year he went to Adams County, North Dakota, south and a little east of Dickinson.  Andrew was in Hettinger Township, Adams County, in 1915 living with a father and son, W. D. and Fred Stevenson.  We do not know where Ella was. 

 

        In the 1917 Adams county atlas the Reeder Township map shows 158 acres of land owned by Ella Jepson.   Andrew’s residence was directly across the road west of the property on land owned by Lee McKesson.  A stream ran through the Jepson property, east-west from the central west boundary to the northern east boundary.  The Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul RR crossed the southern part of the property, also east-west.

 

According to the 1920 census Andrew was living on a rented farm in Reeder Township, Adams County, North Dakota.  Again, Ella was not there, but a family of four were living there with Andrew.  The husband was Andrew’s hired hand, the wife cooked, and they had two small sons.  Andrew was listed in the census as being a widower age 47.

 

Andrew died on November 14, 1922.  The Adams County Record printed the following obituary on Thursday, November 23, 1922. It was on page 1 of the newspaper.

 

 

PIONEER OF REEDER COUNTRY
IS VICTIM OF PNEUMONIA

 

         Andrew Jepson, after about a week's illness passed away November 14th, the cause of his death being pneumonia.  After waiting for nearly a week for the arrival of his wife from Ohio, the funeral was held Monday at 11 a.m., Rev. Dickey of Dickinson preaching the sermon.

 

         Andrew Jepson came to this country in the fall of 1900, and in company with his brother, Frank, who has since died, engaged in horse ranching, they having a ranch in the badlands near Beach and another here, although Andrew moved several times before locating on the place where he has lived for the past fifteen or more years, having first located on what is known as the Lemmon ranch north of town and afterward on the L. F. ranch which he sold to Albert Leff.

 

         A few years ago he opened a coal mine on his farm and since then has supplied many residents with coal and also furnished the village with ice, besides shipping the latter in car lots to nearby points.

 

         He was fifty-two years old, of a modest and retiring disposition, making many friends, but few confidants.

 

         Mr. Jepson was a great friend of the boys and it was regarded as the greatest possible treat to be permitted to go out to the Jepson ranch to ride the ponies.  In order to allow them to pay their last respects to their old friend school was dismissed for the funeral hours.  Mr. Jepson at different times kept sheep, cattle and horses on the ranch, but his greatest love was for a good horse and it was very fitting that a handsome span should draw the sleigh that bore the remains of their master to his last resting place.  Mr. Jepson was in love with the prairie country and never lost faith in its eventually making good. He was just such a type of citizen that is an asset to any country, honest, industrious, and friendly in all his relations with his fellow man.

 

         His known relatives are his wife, who of late years has made her home in Ohio; a brother, John L., located in Oregon; a brother, Albert, now living at Beach; a sister, Margaret, and an aged father both of whom live in Nebraska.

 

Photos

 

   

Andrew Jepson

[photo from Nancy Hanson]

 

Andrew (left) and John (right) Jepson

[photo from Nancy Hanson]

 

Andrew and Albert Jepson

[photo from Nancy Hanson]

These two snapshots were possibly taken the same day at the Jepson farm near Mead.  Andrew and Albert appear to be wearing the same clothing in both pictures.

 

Andrew is on the left.  His father, Peter, and stepmother, Charlotta, are on the right.  The three youngest Jepson children, Albert, Alice & Edith are in the middle

[Photo from Pat Scott]

 

 

 

Jepson

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