I can sit and study this photo for hours. It was taken in 1886. My great grandmother, Ida Rose Coen, is second from the right standing with her hand over her heart. Her parents William and Lydia Coen were homesteading in Custer County, Nebraska when it was taken.
,%20Jake%20(standing),%20Ada,%20Ida,%20and%20Lydia%20Armettie.%20Sod%20House%20Built%20by%20William%20Coen%20in%20Sand%20Hills.%20Sod%20was%20hauled%20by%20buggy%20(in%20picture)%20from%20banks%20of%20river.jpeg)
My great great grandfather, William Gatton Coen, was born in Ohio in 1839. The fourth of six children, he was still a young boy living in Indiana when his mother died. His father remarried and fathered ten more children with his second wife. Eventually the family relocated to Minnesota.
Lydia Ressler was born in 1846 in Tipton, Indiana. The eldest of three daughters, she was only 8 years old when her mother died. That same year her father remarried and with his second wife they had 8 more children. By the time Lydia was 14, the family had moved to Morristown, Minnesota.
About the time the Resslers moved to Minnesota, 21-year-old William was among the first to respond to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers in the defense of the United States. He enlisted in the 1st Minnesota Infantry Company G. He faithfully served his country in this capacity for three years and participated in fifteen different battles, being wounded at both Gettysburg and Antietam. What Courage!
In September of 1864, just four months after his discharge from the army, William and Lydia were married. They started their family, and then by covered wagon moved to Central Nebraska. It was still a pretty wild place back then. One story is told of an encounter Lydia had when they lived away from town in a small cabin with a dirt floor, possibly the sod house pictured above. William was away that day when a Native American man walked into their house, uninvited. Lydia told her children to quickly hide under the bed. She then proceeded to feed him biscuits and eggs. Then he left. Again — Courage!!
My Grandpa Kenny Nott remembered visiting his grandparents in Sargent when he was young. He said his Grandpa Coen had three cherry trees in the yard. And little Kenny loved cherries. Grandpa Coen even at his advanced age, would go and get his ladder and climb to the top of the tree so that he could reach those few cherries and give them to his grandson because he knew he liked them so much.
Kind and loving people and friends to all, they lived out the remainder of their lives there in Nebraska, raising their family and teaching them of Christ. They were faithful members of the Free Methodist Church. Lydia labored 14 years in the Nebraska conference of the church, having been granted an evangelist’s license. In 1929, just after celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary, Lydia passed away. William followed three years later.
I have knelt at the foot of their graves and felt sweet peace in that quaint little cemetery nestled among cornfields. It wasn’t until I read their obituaries that I realized the hymn Jesus, Lover of My Soul had been sung at both of their funerals. It must have been a favorite of theirs. I was surprised to find it in our hymnbook as I’m honestly not that familiar with it. So in their honor I have arranged this hymn - a hymn that passed through their hearts and minds all those years ago.
Click HERE to download free sheet music
