The Cast of Characters

Last week I was in Nebraska for genealogy research. My first stop was York, Nebr., the county seat for Henderson where three generations of my Fast and Penner ancestors lived. Let me introduce you to the cast of characters.

My grandfather David D. Fast #112786 (1884-1974), was born and lived there with his parents until they moved to Fairchilds, Tex., in 1897. He was a small kid, so he was nicknamed "Little Rabbit." He had six sisters and no brothers, so his closest friend was his cousin Jacob P. Fast #7454 (1886-1971), who was a couple years younger and had seven sisters and no brother. When he was 13 years old, his family moved to south Texas with other Mennonites to start a new colony. Source: Viola (Fast) Funk, Fast Family Trails and Footprints (Corn, Okla.: self-published, 2004), 6-7.


His parents David Fast #86812 (1858-1932) and Katharina Penner #86813 (1852-1940) had immigrated from Russia as young people. Both Here's a photo of David and Katharina Fast with their three youngest children with the house they built near Henderson. But land was getting scarce around Henderson, and the Panic of 1893 had hit Kansas and Nebraska hard, so in 1897 David and Katharina and three of their siblings and their families joined a group of Mennonites moving to Fairchilds, Tex., to start a new colony.

David's parents were Jacob and Elisabeth (Thiessen) Fast, who had immigrated from Russia in 1874 in their early 50s. They bought 120 acres of land near Henderson on credit from the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. They lived near Henderson until 1900, when they retired from farming and moved with their oldest son, Jacob J. Fast, to Jansen, Nebr., where he became elder of the Jansen KMB church. They are pictured below with their youngest daughter around the time of their move away from Henderson.

Katharina's parents were Franz Penner #70045 (1816-1885) and Katharina Fast #51804 (1814-1890). They immigrated from Russia in 1875  More posts on what I found during my trip are coming.