Sherman Beldin and Catherine Barrett Beldin

Every life has a story… Catherine Barrett Beldin rests peacefully at the Andrew Cemetery. Catherine was born in Ontario, Canada on July 4, 1829. Catherine’s parents moved their family from Canada to Jackson, Illinois. Catherine married George Wright, also of Illinois, and they were blessed with a daughter named Elizabeth. George passed away when he was just 33 years old. Catherine remarried two years later. Her second husband, Sherman Beldin born in Vermont, was living in Illinois when he met Catherine. Sherman had served in the Civil War with Company E, 6th Cavalry of Michigan. While living in Illinois, Catherine and Sherman had five children. Around 1872, their young family moved to Friend, among some of the early homesteaders. Imagine their excitement, determination, and anxiety as they made the decision to leave family in Illinois to homestead land in Nebraska. Not many years after moving to Nebraska, sadness fell upon their family. One of their young children died (William); he is buried at Andrew Cemetery near Friend. (Their daughter, Emma (aka Emily), was originally buried at the Friendville Cemetery but a headstone is now at Andrew). The Beldins continued farming and making improvements on their land near Friend, as required by homesteaders. Like most homesteaders, the Beldins were frugal, resourceful, and self-sufficient.
The family experienced happiness when their daughter, Eleanor, married Charles Petersen, from Exeter, and stayed close to the area. Their son, John, married Anna Hawthorn. He, his wife, and their oldest two children lived in the Friend area before moving to California where another child was born. John and his wife then moved to Colorado. Catherine’s daughter from her first marriage, Elizabeth Wright, married James Yates, and lived in Lincoln.
The Beldins played an important part in Friend’s beginning. They, like many homesteaders, took a chance to begin a new life in a community just starting. Catherine Beldin died December 30, 1908 at the age of 79. Two years later, her husband, Sherman Beldin, died April 1, 1910. Sherman has no stone.