The community was shocked last Thursday when the news was spread that Hans Aye of Blair township was dead. Mr. Aye has been on the sick list for some time, but none looked upon his case as so serious, and a return to his usual good health was confidently expected. In 1868 he came to Nebraska and later to Washington county, since which time he has been one of our most substantial and influential citizens. He was a kind, good parent and his noble example and upright manhood will be the enduring monument to his memory. The funeral took place Saturday afternoon at the Germania hall under the auspices of the German Verein of which society he was a member. Over the county he numbers his friends by his acquaintances, and so long as The Pilot editor has lived in Washington county he has never heard anything but good words for the deceased who was always inoffensive and cheerful in his business and social transactions. The community loses an exemplary man and good citizen and The Pilot joins with the many friends of the family in extending to them sympathy in their sad bereavement. Mr. Aye was born in 1840 in Clove Province, Germany, was a carpenter by trade and served three years in the Danish army in the Prussian-Danish war of 1866. He removed to America in 1868 and in 1869 moved to Blair. since 1888 he has resided on the farm a few miles west of the city.

#2- Feb., 1901 - Blair Courier - Hans Aye

Death is never expected and is therefore always more or less a surprise. While Hans Aye has been very poorly of late, yet his death from heart trouble which occurred last Thursday noon, came as a sudden and painful blow to his family. He had been in bed for about two weeks, but had been up for his meals twice, saying he must get stronger. Dinner was just over, and he had sat down by the stove when his head fell over on his breast, for his heart had ceased to beat. Death came without a struggle, ad the end was as peaceful as the life he had lived. Rev. A. T. Young held a short funeral service at the home on Saturday afternoon, only the family being present on account of the illness of Mrs. Aye. A delegation from the German Verein met the funeral procession as it entered the city, and went out to the cemetery where all that was mortal of a truly kind and loving husband and father was laid in its final resting place. Mr. Aye was born in Clove, province of Schleswig Holstein, Germany in 1840. There were six children in the family, three of them, Hans, Rolf and Mrs. Anna Stain, coming to this country in 1868, immediately after the close of the Prussian Danish war in which the deceased served three years. Mr. Aye was married to Caroline Peckenschneider in Davenport, Ia., coming to Omaha in ’68 and to Blair in ’69, where he plied his trade of carpentering. In ’88 they moved onto the farm, located about three miles west of this city. He leaves a wife and three sons, John, Herman and Adolph. Two sons, August and Charles died in infancy. Mr. Aye belonged to no other society or order than the Verein, his religion being “do right because it is right”. His tendency to heart trouble began about a year ago, a severe illness occurring in July of last year. There was a constant weakening of the organ from that time until death hurriedly overtook him on Thursday, though he struggled with it heroically.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

Find a Grave Memorial #113533874