Frank W. Laase and Henry E. Laase purchased their Antelope County farm in 1913 in Custer Township. They were the sons of Fritz and Dorthea Kuehn Laase who homesteaded in Cuming County, Nebraska in 1869. Their older brother, George, remained in Cuming. They had four sisters, Bertha who died young, Mary, Matilda and Augusta. Fritz and his brother, Theodore, had come to America from Germany in 1866.
Frank attended school in Cuming County and as a young man worked odd jobs. He met Mathilda Lueth in Winside and they were married on November 25, 1903. She was the daughter of Andreas and Caroline Horn Leuth. They had come to America in 1882. Mathilda was the first of eight children, born on May 23, 1883 in Mills County, Iowa. Her family moved near Emerson in 1892. Frank and Mathilda had two children, Leigh and Opal. Opal graduated from Neligh High School in 1928. Leigh had graduated at Emerson. They both attended Wayne State College. Leigh married Alma Harris and taught in rural schools. Frank Laase died on June 19, 1932. Leigh was killed in a sawing accident in April 1935. Leigh and Alma’s daughter Ruth was born in 1931. Opal met Earl E Nicholas, son of Edwin and Minnie Smith Nicholas while in college. They married on November 25,1931. They were parents of one daughter, Marlene, born in 1935. Mathilda died in December 1964. Henry Laase died in 1939.
Source Unknown: Originally submitted for this website in Sep 2007