HISTORY NEBRASKA MANUSCRIPT FINDING AID
RG1468.AM: Milton Lawrence Trester, 1843-1903
Autobiography: 1898
Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska:
Size: One item
BACKGROUND NOTE
Born at Aurora, Indiana, on July 21, 1843, Milton Lawrence Trester grew up on a farm and received a country school education. He served in the Civil War with the Army of the Cumberland. Trester attended Gundry’s Commercial College in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then taught school for a year. He married Harriet “Hattie” Wright at Aurora, Indiana, on March 20, 1867. The couple lived in Cincinnati for two years before relocating to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1869. Trester worked as a carpenter for several years before acquiring a homestead in Lancaster County. He raised cattle and hogs before selling the farm in 1883 and moving back to Lincoln. He platted Trester’s Addition to Lincoln in 1886.
Trester was involved in various businesses and organizations, including serving as secretary and president of the Nebraska State Bee Keepers’ Association; president of the Nebraska State Swine Breeders’ Association; and director of the Lincoln Board of Trade. He also founded the Trester Lumber and Coal Company. Milton Lawrence Trester died on November 16, 1903. He is buried in Wyuka Cemetery, Lincoln, Nebraska, next to his wife.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
The collection consists of one folder containing a typescript copy of Milton L. Trester’s autobiography. Written in 1898, the autobiography is entitled, “Life and Experiences of Milton L. Trester.” The title page states, “The following autobiography is just as it was written by Milton L. Trester in 1898 except for a few corrections in proof reading of the original manuscript.” In the autobiography, Trester talks about helping to build the picket fence around the State House and working on the residences of Governor David Butler and Secretary of State, Thomas P. Kennard. He also describes the grasshopper plague of 1874.
Note: History Nebraska does not hold the original autobiography manuscript.
INVENTORY
Autobiography of Milton L. Trester
Subject headings:
Farm life — Nebraska — Lancaster County
Frontier and pioneer life — Nebraska
Grasshoppers — Nebraska
Lancaster County (Neb.) — History
Lincoln (Neb.) — History
Trester, Milton Lawrence, 1843-1903
Revised TMM 02-14-2020