Thos. T. Osterman, foreman of this office, received a telegram last Tuesday evening notifying him of the death on the 9th last of his brother, Charley, who was trailing sheep near Rock Springs, Wyo. Only meagre particulars have been received since, but in all probability he was killed by the cattlemen for he wrote a letter a few days before saying they had killed 4,000 of his sheep with axes and that it would “break” him and he would soon come home. His father, Chas. Osterman, Sr. and sister, Alice, left for Rock Springs immediately upon receipt of the news, but nothing definite has been heard from them up to today. Charley worked in W. M. Martin’s hardware store here for some time several years ago and had many friends in this city. He was married to Miss Jessie Haven of Nickerson only last spring, which makes the case an unusually sad one.

#2-18 Aug., 1902 - The Pilot - Charles Osterman

News of the killing of Charles Osterman, a young man aged about thirty years, who was born in Fremont and lived here until he grew up near Rock Springs, Wyoming, this week was received in the city yesterday. It came by way of Nickerson, where relatives of Mrs. Osterman’s wife live. The information was embodied in a telegram and did not give details of the manner in which he came to his death, but it is conjectured that he was shot in some of the trouble that has been in progress between the cattlemen and sheepmen of Wyoming. Oysterman was the owner of a sheep ranch and had been in the business of raising those animals for some years. His father, Charles Osterman, Sr. lives at Central City. He was formerly a member of a Fremont partnership in the commission business. Only three months ago the young man was married to Miss Jessie Havens, a niece of Platte and M. Havens of this city, at Nickerson, and the couple went west to live on the groom’s ranch. The relatives expect to receive the remains on an afternoon Union Pacific train today, but whether they will be buried here or at Nickerson is still to be decided.

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