1936 Albert Riser Modisett

Tall, almost too slender, always moving rapidly on some matter of business or pleasure, soft gray hair above a face deeply etched by more than seventy years of intense living, lined by steadfastness of purpose, optimism, kindness and friendliness; always carefully groomed and a courteous gentleman - this was the Albert R. Modisett that we knew in the later years. The product of battling for fifty years with the vagaries of western Nebraska. Coming to Nebraska in his early twenties, he filed on a government homestead and held and improved it. During the years when there was a steady stream of settlers returning east, he and his brother stayed on, stayed through drouth, hail, rainstorm and blizzard. No detail was too small for his consideration, no job too unimportant to be done well and slowly and surely, he pushed on to success.

Albert Riser Modisett was born on a farm in Barbour county, West Virginia, about five miles from Phillippi, the county seat.

His early life was quite uneventful. He worked on the farm through the summer and attended the country school in the winters. He had no college education. However, he did attend the Eastman Business College in the summer of 1882. He taught one term of school in the winter of 1880 and before the close of that term his father was killed in an accident. After his father’s affairs were settled, there was little left for the family so Albert started out to carve his own place in the battle of life. First, he went to the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. He completed the course in bookkeeping and secured a position in New York as assistant bookkeeper at a salary of $8 a week. In February 1883, he left this job and went to Texas where he eventually secured work on a small ranch, at twenty dollars a month, and where he worked for about a year. In the spring of 1884, he and his brother helped drive a herd of cattle from Taylor, Texas, to the dry Cheyenne river in Wyoming - a trip that took about four months. During the winter of 1884 he worked on a ranch near Belle Fouche, South Dakota, and in 1885 worked on Montana. In the fall he rode horseback to Rushville, Nebraska, looking for a location. He decided to locate on Deer Creek, Sheridan county, Nebraska and in the spring of 1886, he brought his mother, and with his brother started their future ranch about twenty-two miles southeast of Rushville, each filing on a 160-acre homestead. At the time of locating the two boys had less than $500 between them but started right to work building a sod house and doing all their freighting from Rushville, sleeping in the livery stable when the weather was cold - giving all their energies to the building up of the Deer Creek ranch. About thirty years ago Albert purchased the interest of his brother in the ranch and since that time has been the sole owner. All over the United States he was known as a successful rancher and his methods and ideas were recognized nationally. He was honored by being designated as a Master Farmer. He was vice-president of the American National Livestock Association for many years before his death. On June 3, 1935, at a railroad crossing near Eaton, Ohio, his automobile was struck by a train and at eight o’clock that night he died at the Reid Memorial Hospital in Richmond, Indiana.

At the time of his death his ranch consisted of approximately thirty-one thousand acres on which he was keeping close to two thousand head of cattle. This ranch was well improved, modern conveniences and completely equipped. In fact, it was one ranch where there was a place for everything, and everything was kept in its place.

He was a fair and just employer, personally overseeing the details of his business.

His friends were legion.

During the latter years of his life, he took a wonderful interest in aviation. In his practical way he bought 240 acres of land north of Rushville and through his efforts it was officially recognized by the United States Government as the Rushville Municipal Airport, Modisett Field. He personally attended to the grading and improving of the tract and just a short while before his death he deeded the land to the city of Rushville for an airport. He also deeded the city seventy acres of land for a municipal golf course. He served several years as chairman of the Rushville Chamber of Commerce and was instrumental in many civic improvements.

I believe that his will portrays the man’s ideas better than mere words of a stranger can paint.

After establishing trust funds to take care of his sisters and brother during their lifetimes and a few bequests to cousins and friends, he established a trust fund, the income from which goes to support a negro woman, the daughter of the old negro mammy who took care of him and the other children in the Modisett home in West Virginia. He also established an income for the cemetery where his mother and father were buried and also for the cemetery at Rushville, where he desired to be interred. To each employee on the ranch, he gave a month’s wages for each year they had worked for him. He then directed that a park be purchased for the city of Rushville; that a baseball park be established; that a Community Hall be built; a fund was left for the Masonic fraternity to use when they should desire to erect a building in Rushville; he directed that a lot be purchased and a building erected and furnished to be used as a club house for the elderly men of Rushville, to help them while away their lonesome hours. A fund was established, the income to be used to maintain these institutions.

The immense crowd of people that flocked to his funeral evidenced the tender regard in which he was held in his own home community. He left no children and left two sisters and a brother surviving him.

Albert Modisett was one of those vigorous, strong, active, tender, friendly men who could not know failure. He was a builder - a man with a vision. A man of high ideals - and was always striving to attain them. He helped push the gray dawn of civilization on past his chosen home. He saw the raw, flat, uninhabited prairie country ripen into a garden of beautiful homes. He saw man made birds flying over fields of waving corn where the buffalo had thronged. He saw the great American desert blossom into a haven for the men and women who were not content without a home of their own - and who were brave enough to overcome the hardships and privations of pioneering in a new country. He was one of them. He did more than his share in the upbuilding of his chosen home to be.

I think everyone who knew him could honesty say, “He was my friend - faithful and just to me.”

In the passing of Albert Modisett - Rushville - Sheridan county - Nebraska - yes, and the United States of America lost one of its most valuable characters - one of the men who visioned what was to be, and who helped carve it from its natural roughness.

He sleeps--
“Out where the hand clasps a little stronger,
Out where the smile dwells a little longer,
That’s where the West begins.
Out where the sun is a little brighter,
Where the snows that fall are a trifle whiter,
Where the bonds of home are a wee bit tighter,
That’s where the West begins.”
He sleeps--
“Out where the skies are a trifle bluer,
Out where the friendship’s a little truer,
That’s where the West begins.
Out where a fresher breeze is blowing,
Where there’s laughter in every streamlet flowing,
Where there’s more of reaping and less of sowing,
That’s where the West begins.”
He sleeps--
“Out where the world is in the making,
Where fewer hearts in despair are aching,
That’s where the West begins.”