George Washington Christlieb
1851–1930
George Washington Christlieb (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Carl Christlieb2, George Christlieb3, William Christlieb4) [941], born 29 June 1851; died, 9 April 1930, in Kearney County, Nebraska; married, 25 December 1883, Dora Horn. George unsuccessfully participated in the Cherokee Run into Oklahoma and later settled in Kearney County, Nebraska. George worked as a carpenter. In the 1920s, the family operated a boarding house on Main Street in Wilcox, Nebraska. “In 1886, my parents, George and Dora Christlieb, traveled by covered wagon from Illinois to the Solomon River in Kansas in 1886. They spent their first winter in a dugout before erecting a sod house for their dwelling.” Dr. John M. Christlieb, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Children of George Washington Christlieb and Dora Horn
Glessner Willis Christlieb (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Carl Christlieb2, George Christlieb3, William Christlieb4, George Washington Christlieb5) [941], born April 1894; died 24 April 1954 in Franklin, Nebraska. He was a baker by trade.
Velma C. Christlieb (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Carl Christlieb2, George Christlieb3, William Christlieb4, George Washington Christlieb5) [941], born November 1899; married Howard C. Hudson.
John Merle Christlieb (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Carl Christlieb2, George Christlieb3, William Christlieb4, George Washington Christlieb5) [942], born 15 April 1902, Wilcox, Kearney County, Nebraska; died 8 September 1981, Bellevue, Nebraska; married Elizabeth “Betty” Rigdon. No issue.
John Merle Christlieb became a physician and over the years amassed a vast collection of fine art which he and his wife, Elizabeth, gifted to the Great Plains Art Museum at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Opening in 1981, the museum was founded with the Christlieb Collection of Dr. John Sipe Christlieb, of Bellevue, Nebraska.
“The Christliebs had presented their collection of the University of Nebraska’s Love Library at the Center for Great Plains Studies in the summer of 1980. Consisting of nearly 400 pieces, their gift included 175 bronzes – 75 by Charles M. Russell and five by Frederick Remington; 160 paintings and drawings; and 50 other pieces, including serigraphs, lithographs, etchings, sculpture models, and carvings. Among the artists represented in the collection are Olaf Weighorst, L. E. Shafer (discovered by Christlieb), Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, Norman Rockwell, William Henry Jackson, Alfred Sully, Hans Kleiber – to mention only a few. In 1980 these works were valued at 2.5 million dollars, according to the University.”
“A 4,000-volume library collection of Western Americana, valued at somewhere between $200,000 and $500,000 was also part of the gift. An interest in books about the West both fictional and factual, with their illustrations by now-famous artists, was an early fact of John Christlieb’s collecting enthusiasm for the western heritage of America. A third element of the gift was farm properties in Iowa and Nebraska.”
“Dr. Christlieb retired in 1971, after 50 years of practice as a physician and surgeon in Omaha. His collection started at an early age near his boyhood home, when he found an Indian Peace Medal, an item issued by Ulysses S. Grant. One artifact led to another as he branched into paintings, drawings, and sculptures, depicting the culture of the West. Among the many joys of collecting were the friendships formed with art dealers, artists, and other collectors. Financing for the acquisitions did not come easy in the early years of his collecting, despite low art prices (by today’s standards) and the doctor’s well-established practice. His wife, Elizabeth (Rigdon) Christlieb, recalled that her husband often worked without vacation in order to pay for purchases in the collection.” Wendell F. Lauth, Bristolville, Ohio.