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proved valueless under the then existing method of mining. In 1861 he sailed for the United States and landed in California. The Civil War had just broken out and Abraham Lincoln was calling for fifty thousand volunteers, and he enlisted for service and served for three years. He served in Company C 2nd California Infantry Volunteers. At the close of the Civil War, he received an honorable discharge from service. After he left the service, he decided to get back to the states, and especially to a state in which a young maiden was an inhabitant. He went to New York via the Panama Canal and thence to Mendota, Illinois. Shortly thereafter, he secured employment upon the Union Pacific R.R. which was then being projected from Omaha to Ogden City, Utah. He was appointed chief construction superintendent for the building of water tanks from Omaha to Ogden City. In view that it was necessary to board the men and also to provide tent shelter, he succeeded in persuading a young girl at Mendota, whom he had visited and courted, to come to Omaha and to become his wife and to assist him in the caring for the men employed in the tank building proiect. This young girl, Elizabeth Enenbach, was ten years his junior, but with a strong heart she went to Omaha, married, joined this young man in the adventure, and together they worked until their task was completed, and the Union Pacific (going westward) and the Central Pacific (coming eastward from California) were joined at Ogden City. The occasion of the joining of these two roads was celebrated by the driving of the Golden Spike at Ogden City. It is probable that brother William, then a babe in arms, born on the plains of Nebraska, May 16, 1868, was present at the driving of the Golden Spike and, if so, possibly constituted the last surviving person present on that occasion. He passed away February 15, 1936. At this point it may also be observed, that in all probability mother was the only white woman at that time in a considerable portion of what are now the states of Nebraska and Colorado. During the period that father was working upon the Union Pacific, a cousin living at Mendota by the name of Peter Schutz, inveigled him into buying a quarter section of land in Livingston County, and which later, as will hereinafter be indicated, became the Mies homestead. After the completion of his work on the Union Pacific, father and mother moved to Mendota. In the course of events, on September 21, 1869, brother Henry was born. In the year 1870 or 1871, father and family moved upon the homestead in Livingston County. The house, stable and other buildings were erected. Many trees were planted. The beautiful orchard, which many years thereafter came into fruition, can be attributed to the care which was given to it next page |
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