Hamilton Lanphear
What a pain with the many variants of Lanphear/Lanphere/Lamphear/Lamphere. I bought a picture in an antique store in Minden, Nevada, a man and wife with their 2 small children sitting behind a sod house, because on the back was “ My father and mother homesteading in Nebr. 1888. 12 miles south east of Broken Bow, near Ainsley” [ Berwyn, after the name was changed from Janesville ] Signed by “Mabel Rose 1977". Mary Landkamer of the Custer County Historical Society believes it might be the family of Hamilton Lamphear/Lanphear, early homesteaders of the area. I traced Hamilton to Wisconsin with a new wife and child and his children that match the children in the picture; Arthur b. Mar 1885, Nebraska; Winifred b. 1887, Nebraska. Then there was Mabel b. Aug 1892, Wisconsin. So The west didn’t agree with his wife and he returned to Wisconsin where he left from and her family was probably still. She died and he had a new family started by 1900. I then traced Hamilton back and in the 1870 census, Coloma, Waushora county, Wisconsin, Hamilton is with his father Ezra b. 1823 New York; step mother, Matilda [Gleason]; older brother, Burton; younger brother, Albert and step sister Clara Gleason. Living next door is older brother, Mason and his wife Adeline and son, Lorenzo. On early Homesteaders of Custer county Nebraska web site I found Hamilton, Albert and Ezra Lanphear listed. Does any one have a picture of this Lanphear family so I could compare the one I have with ?