NEGenWeb Project
Resource Center
On-Line Library

bor was twelve miles away. In the little dugout he constructed he lived for three years, when it was replaced by a better dwelling, and in 189t his present residence was erected, it being one of the best homes in the county. To the improvement and cultivation of his land he has devoted his energies with good results, and now has two quarter-sections of land under a high state of cultivation. In connection with general farming he is also interested in stock raising.

      In 1858, in Michigan, Mr. Kingston married Miss Lucinda Hunt, who died in that state, and the only daughter born of this union is also deceased, but two sons, L. P. and R. C., still survive their mother. Mr. Kingston was again married, March 14, 1872, his second union being with Miss Mary E. Shultz, a native of Pennsylvania, by whom he has four children: Jessie B., William D., Essie M. and A. J., all living.

      In his political affiliations Mr. Kingston is a Republican, and has acceptably filled the office of justice of the peace many years, and has been a member of the school board twenty-five years. He is an honored member of the Grand Army of the Republic and enjoys the respect and esteem of all who know him 

---

EORGE WASHINGTON McKNIGHT, an honored veteran of the Civil war, is now a leading grocer of Brainard, Nebraska, and as a public-spirited citizen is thoroughly interested in whatever tends to promote the moral, intellectual and material welfare of the community.

      Mr. McKnight was born December 27, 1840, in Lafayette county, Wisconsin, a son of Miles and Joannah McKnight, and brother of J. T. McKnight, a prominent banker of Brainard. The family is of Scotch origin and was established in this country by three brothers, one of whom settled in Michigan, the second in Pennsylvania and the third in Virginia. Our subject belongs to the Virginia branch, and in Washington county, that state, his father and also his grandfather, Anthony McKnight, were born. By occupation they were farmers. At the age of eighteen Miles McKnight went to Tennessee, where he was married about 1827, and in 1837 emigrated to Wisconsin, settling in Lafayette county, where the subject of this sketch was born, reared and educated.

      Hardly had the echoes from Fort Sumter's guns died away when Mr. McKnight offered his services to his country, enlisting May 29, 1862, in Company D, Twentieth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, which was attached to the Thirteenth Army Corps, Second Brigade, Second Division. The first year was spent in Missouri and Arkansas, and our subject-took an active part in the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, where he was wounded. He was also in a skirmish on White river, where he witnessed the death of Quantrall, the famous guerrilla leader. Later he was sent to Vicksburg, where he arrived about May 26, 1863, participating in the-siege at that place until its surrender on the 4th of July. Under General Herron he went up the Yazoo river and assisted in the capture of Yazoo City, from there went to Port Hudson and New Orleans, and in October crossed the Gulf to Point Isabel, Texas. At Brownsville, that state, the troops remained during the winter, Mr. McKnight having command of the mail guard at that point. In the spring of 1864 he was sent to New Orleans, where he was on provost guard duty until the following November. During the winter of 1864-5 he did garrison duty at Detroit, Michigan, and in May of that latter year was honorably discharged. He was twice wounded and twice taken prisoner, but managed to escape both times.

     After the war Mr. McKnight returned to

his Wisconsin home and resumed farming. He was married April 14, 1866, the lady of his choice being Miss Anna Scott, and they have become the parents of six children, one son and five daughters, namely: Martha J., now the wife of William Gladish, of Omaha; Nora A., wife of George Perkins, of Shelby, Polk county, Nebraska; Emma M., wife of Thomas Stoddar, of Omaha; Alcena E., wife of J. B. Slade, of David City; Rebecca I., wife of Fred Hurst, of Omaha; and James W., who is now nineteen years of age, and is at home with his parents.

      In 1875 Mr. McKnight removed to Mills county, Iowa, where he was engaged in farming and the grain business until coming to Butler county, Nebraska, in 1885. Being a carpenter by trade, he worked at that occupation here up to within the past three years, since when he has successfully conducted a grocery store in Brainard, having by fair dealing and courteous treatment of customers succeeded in building up a large and profitable trade. He has ever taken a prominent part in fraternal matters, and is one of the influential and honored members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Blue Lodge of the Masonic Fraternity, the Order of Ben Hur, and the Grand Army of the Republic, being at present second officer in his post. In religious belief he is a Methodist. 

---

ACOB H. COLEMAN, the well-known proprietor of the Headlight, is one of the most popular and influential citizens of Stromsburg, Polk county, with whose business and political interests he has been prominently identified since 1881. He was born in Rock Island county, Illinois, November 5, 1841, his parents, John and Sarah (Hesser) Coleman, being early settlers of that county. With the pioneer history of that state the father, who was a farmer and carpenter, was closely identified, building the first frame house in Chicago, and serving as a soldier in the Black Hawk war. He died in 1891, and his wife passed away the following year. They were the parents of eight children, namely: Mrs. Harriet Murray, Jacob H., Mrs. Mary Jones, Mrs. Lydia Duck, Alexander, Mrs. Annie Skelton, Mrs. Ella Pitsenbarger and Mrs. Rachel Hereendeen.

      During his boyhood and youth, Jacob H. Coleman accompanied his parents on their removal to Madison county, Illinois, and later to Macoupin and Green counties, the same state. He was reared to farm life and acquired a fair education in the district schools. On the 9th of August, 1862, he enlisted in Company I, Ninety-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was first sent to Louisville, and afterward to Perryville, Kentucky. At the battle of Multro's Hill, he was captured, and sent as a paroled prisoner to the parole camp at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, where he was subsequently exchanged. Later he took part in the siege of Vicksburg and then went to Port Hudson, New Orleans and Chaplie river, participating in the skirmish at the last named place. He went on the Banks expedition to Brownsville, Texas, and then returned to New Orleans. He spent one year in the Lone Star state as a cowboy in the employ of the United States government, and afterward participated in the Mobile campaign, and the siege of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely. His term of enlistment having expired, he was mustered out at Mobile and returned home.

      For three years Mr. Coleman continued a resident of Illinois, and then removed to Dallas county, Iowa, where he was first engaged in farming and later in the drug business until 1881. That year witnessed his arrival in Stromsburg, Polk county, Nebraska, but after working for seven years at the carpenter's trade there he went to

Colorado, where he secured and improved a homestead, making that state his home for three years. During his residence in Stromsburg he organized Company I, of the Second Nebraska Militia, but resigned his commission as captain at the end of one year. On his return to Polk county, he engaged in farming until 1892, when he purchased the Headlight plant, and has since engaged in the publication of that journal. The paper was established by I. D. Chamberlin, May 14, 1885, and is now one of the leading newspapers of this section of the state. Mr. Coleman has two children: Ada M. and Chattie.

      Fraternally Mr. Coleman is a member of the blue lodge of the Masonic Order, in Stromsburg; the Knights of the Maccabees, in which he has served as sergeant; the Home Forum, of which he has been president since its organization; and the Business Men's Fraternity, of which he is vice-president. He is one of the "charter members" of the People's party, and is one of its most active and influential workers in this section of the state. He has been honored with a number of official positions, having been a member of the city council, mayor of Stromsburg two terms, police judge six years and justice of the peace fourteen years. 

---

HILANDER CHURCH, a farmer of good standing in Arborville township, York county, successful as a tiller of the soil, and one who has been prominently identified with local affairs, is the proprietor of a good farm on section 8. A native of New York, he was born in Jefferson county, October 24, 1841. His parents Philander and Elizabeth Church, were born in Ireland and New York, respectively, and on coming to the United states in 1840 settled in Jefferson county, New York, but in 1854 removed to Iowa. In the latter state our subject was reared and educated, and at an early age began life for himself.

      On the twentieth of August, 1861, Mr. Church responded to his country's call for aid to assist in putting down the rebellion, and enlisted in Company K, Twelfth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He participated in the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and at the latter place the regiment was captured, being held as prisoners of war from April to November, 1862, during which time they were confined in all the southern prisons, including Libby. The regiment was reorganized on being released, and again entered the service in January, 1863, taking part in the battle of Jackson, Mississippi, and the siege of Vicksburg. They were then sent on the Arkansas campaign, and were later in the battles of Nashville, Tennessee, and Tupelo, Mississippi, and the siege of Mobile and Spanish Fort. During the reconstruction period the regiment was on duty in Alabama, and was honorably discharged January 20, 1866, after four years and a half of arduous service. Mr. Church participated in every engagement in which his company took part and escaped with a slight wound at the battle of Shiloh. At the close of the war he was mustered out with the rank of first corporal and returned to his home in Iowa.

      In 1867 he moved to Omaha, but afterward returned to Iowa and did not locate permanently in Nebraska until coming to York county in February, 1871, when he took up a homestead, on section 8, Arborville township. He was the second settler in this part of the county J. W. Kingston located here a short time before. Upon his place he erected a sod house with a shingle roof, hauling the lumber for its construction from Lincoln. In the fall he brought his family to the home he had prepared for them, and in that house they continued to live for eight years, when it was replaced by a more substantial and modern dwelling.

He began life here in earnest, and now has his farm under a high state of cultivation and well improved with good buildings.

      In Iowa, Mr. Church was married, in 1868, to Miss Alice Hurlbutt, a daughter of William and Sarah Hurlbutt, natives of Connecticut, who emigrated to Iowa in 1852, and in 1880 took up their residence in Arborville, York county, Nebraska, where they still continue to reside. Of the six children born to our subject and his wife three are still living, namely: Nellie A., Jennie H. and Julia M.

      Fraternally Mr. Church affiliates with the Grand Army of the Republic and the Modern Woodmen of America, and politically is identified with the Republican party. He has been an important factor in the development of the county, assisted in the organization of Arborville township, has most capably and satisfactorily filled all the local offices, and for three terms was a member of the board of county supervisors, serving from 1888 to 1894. 

---

. C. GOULD, assistant cashier of the Platte Valley State Bank, at Bellwood, Butler county, is one of the ambitious and enterprising young men of that portion of Nebraska who bid fair to become one of its substantial and worthy citziens.(sic) Mr. Gould was born in Michigan City. Indiana, May 1, 1865, a son of Zebina Gould, a history of whom will appear in the sketch of George S. Gould, on another page of this volume. After receiving a liberal education in his native state, our subject moved west and located in Omaha in 1865, and accepted a position with the McCormick Harvester Company, under his brother, H. R. Gould, who was then general agent for that company. In October, 1891, our subject resigned his position with the Harvester Company, and has since been engaged in the Platte Valley State Bank and in buying grain for the Gould Elevator, in Bellwood.

     Mr. Gould is a man of excellent business capacities, having met with eminent success in all the business enterprises in which he has embarked. He is a man of strict integrity, careful and methodical in his business habits, and carries these characteristics into all the details of his life. At whatever lines of business he has been engaged he has made many friends by his push and energy. Although he is comparatively a young man he has gained a position of prominence and is recognized as one of the rising young men of the community, and is very popular in social as well as in business circles. Mr. Gould is a bachelor. 

---

ENRY BEDFORD, one of the pushing and prosperous business men of Seward county, has recently made his home in Bee, and his coming to this bustling town made a very valuable addition to its business force. Although he is drawing near the accepted span of life his natural force is not abated, nor do the fires of hope and enterprise burn less brightly in his heart. He is one of the pioneer settlers in this region, was among the first to break the soil in Bee township, and knows by experience what it means to open a new country to civilization.

      Henry Bedford was born in Huntingtonshire, England, April 27, 1834. His parents, Henry and Elizabeth (Bass) Bedford, were of English ancestry, and belonged to families long native to the soil. They lived and died in the country of their birth. Henry Bedford spent the first nineteen years of his life in his native town, and emigrated to America in 1853. He landed in New York and went to Evansville, Indiana, where he remained two years. The soil and climate did not please him, and so he removed his residence to Marshall county, Illinois. In 1874 he became a resident of

Seward. In 1876 he took a farm some miles north of the city, and he was occupied in farming until 1894. As a farmer he was eminently successful, and accumulated very substantial savings, with which he was able to leave the farm and reside in Lincoln. He spent two years in the capital city and in 1896 came to Bee and opened a general store in a building of his own erection. He became a popular and successful tradesman, and combines with his mercantile labors the buying and shipping of grain. He is a good man with whom to deal, and people have learned to know him as honorable and reliable.

      Mr. Bedford was united in marriage in 1859 with Miss Catherine E. Molton. She was born in Illinois, and the wedding occurred at the home of her parents in that state. They have had seven children, whose names are Mary C., Henry S., Oliver C., Martha B., Katy Bell, Francis E. and George Leslie. They are a bright and attractive family and are making place for themselves in the world. Mr. Bedford takes strong ground as an advocate of the Populist party, and while he has no hunger for office nor ambitious for the honors of politics, he has served a two-years' term on the board of supervisors. He has been very successful in his business enterprises, and his general business capacity may be judged from the fact that when he set foot in Indiana he did not have five dollars to his name, and to-day, aside from many important mercantile and stock and grain interests, he holds an unclouded title to eighteen hundred acres of choice land. 

---

HOMAS KERBY, whose home is on section 18, Beaver township, belongs to that countless host that is the pride and glory of Nebraska, who began life with nothing, and come, long before their natural forces is abated and the eye has lost its luster, to possess honor and independence through their own worth, and not by any accident of fate or fortune. He is a solid man in every sense of the word, and is the unchallenged proprietor of a farm that consists of hundreds of tillable acres. The career of such a man should be studied and understood.

      Mr. Kerby is a native of the Emerald Isle, and was born near the city of Dublin in 1844, and was brought to this country when a mere baby under the care of an uncle. His first years were spent in the city of New York, but his education was mostly acquired in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was very early thrown upon his own resources and at the age of fourteen years assumed the responsibility of his own maintenance. He found work and wages among the farmers for the next five years, though he did some railroading in that period of his life. He came to Nebraska in 1869, and located in York county where he resides to-day. He secured his first land under the homestead law, and has since added to it until he has now over five hundred acres of good farm land. When he appeared in the county it was nearly all wild land. There were no neighbors in sight, and the lonely pioneer must have had many dreary days. But he buckled to and constructed a dug-out for his first abode. This was followed by a log house and then a frame house, and in the summer of 1890 his present well appointed family mansion arose. In 1869 he had no crop to gather, and the next year but a small yield. He was quick to take advantage of every opportunity to earn a dollar outside. He helped on the survey of the Burlington road from Crete to Kearney, and has extensive interests in cattle in this state.

      Mr. Kerby was married in 1882 to Miss Millie E. Nichols. She was a native of Wisconsin, and died in 1884, leaving one child, now dead. He again entered into

matrimonial relations in October, 1893, Miss Lizzie L. Hoffman uniting her destinies with his. He is a man of extensive business connections. He has three hundred and fifty acres under cultivation, and this work is all done by renters. He is a director in the First National Bank of York. He belongs to the York lodge of the Order of Odd Fellows, and in politics votes and acts with the Republican party. Mrs. Kerby is a member of the Lutheran church, and is a lady of much force of character, and attractive social qualities. 

---

ILLIAM J. PARKER.--Failure is a natural sequence of the lack of certain well-known characteristics; success the result of the possession of these qualities. It is not genius or the favoritism of fate that brings prosperity, but earnest effort, close application and undaunted perseverance, and the life-record of Mr. Parker stands in incontrovertible evidence of this fact. Entering upon his business career without capital, he has by his own labors won a place among the substantial citizens of York county, and is accounted one of her leading agriculturists.

      He was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, December 30, 1843, his parents being Joseph C. and Sarah (Loomis) Parker, the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of Ohio. From the state of his nativity the father removed to Ohio and thence to Illinois, locating near the present site of the city of Peoria in 1830. There he spent many years, his death occurring in that locality in 1865, in which year his wife also passed away. In his last years he followed the plasterer's trade, but had previously engaged in farming.

      William J. Parker is one of a family of four sons and two daughters, and was educated in the schools of Illinois. He received ample training at farm labor and devoted his energies to the cultivation of the fields until July 9, 1862, when prompted by a spirit of patriotism he responded to his country's call for aid, and in his nineteenth year entered the service as a member of Company G, Sixth Illinois Infantry. He participated in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, was stationed at Nashville for ten months, took part in the siege of Atlanta and all the engagements in which Sherman's troops participated on the celebrated march to the sea, and on the 9th of May, 1865, received an honorable discharge. He was also in the grand review at Washington. where wave after wave of bayonet-crested blue passed by the place where the president viewed the victorious army.

      Returning then to his Illinois home, Mr. Parker continued farming in that state until February, 1869, when he removed to Dallas county, Iowa, and from there to Missouri. In the spring of 1872 he went to Omaha, Nebraska, and in the autumn of that year came to York county, where he entered the claim upon which he now lives, having made a permanent location thereon in 1873. His first home was a sod house, which continued to be his shelter for ten years, when he erected a commodious and modern frame residence. He has made other excellent improvements on the farm, which is now supplied with all the accessories and conveniences of the model farm of the nineteenth century. He is very industrious and energetic and to-day ranks among the leading agriculturists of the community whose well-directed efforts have brought them success.

      In August, 1868, Mr. Parker married Miss Ellen Simpson, a native of Indiana, and they have two children, William T. and Joseph E. They have also lost six children. Theirs is a pleasant and hospitable home and they enjoy the warm regard of many friends. In his political views Mr. Parker is a Populist, and in 1891 was elect-

ed to the office of assessor. He has always discharged his duties of citizenship with the same loyalty that marked his course when on southern battle fields he followed the stars and stripes to victory. 

---

ATHAN FELLOWS.--In the respect that is accorded to men who have fought their way to success through unfavorable environments we find an unconscious recognition of the intrinsic worth of a character which can not only endure so rough a test, but gain new strength through the discipline. The following history sets forth briefly the steps by which our subject, now one of the substantial agriculturists of Polk county, overcame the disadvantages of his early life. He is now engaged in farming on section 24, township 13, range 3.

      Mr. Fellows was born in August, 1834, in Jefferson county, Ohio, and is the only child of William and Catharine (Jacobs) Fellows, natives of Ohio and Virginia, respectively. The father, who was a farmer by occupation, died in his native state, in 1834, and the mother passed away there several years later. Our subject was reared by strangers in the county of his nativity, and received a very limited education. As soon as large enough to handle a hoe, he was set to work, and has since been dependent upon his own resources for a livelihood, working as a farm hand by the month after he attained his eighteenth year. In 1856, he married Miss Eliza Jane Toole, who was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, in 1838, and they became the parents of three children: Marion, Albert and Rosie. In March, 1874, he was again married, his second union being with Miss Mary A. Stewart, whose birth occurred in Pennsylvania, in 1846. Five children blessed this marriage: Mary Catharine, William Isaac S., Homer, Orange and Ray. All have been provided with good school privileges.

      In August, 1861, Mr. Fellows joined the boys in blue as a private in Company F, Forty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and after going to Paducah, Kentucky, took part in the following engagements: the two days' battle of Shiloh, the sieges of Corinth and Vicksburg, and the battles of Jackson, Mississippi, and Missionary Ridge. On re-enlisting he was granted a thirty days' furlough, and afterward was all through the Atlanta campaign, was with Sherman on his march to the sea, and after the battle of Savannah went by boat to Beaufort, and on to Goldsboro and Raleigh, North Carolina, being at the last named when Johnston surrendered. The troops then marched to Washington, District of Columbia, where they participated in the grand review, and then proceeded to Louisville, Kentucky, whence Mr. Fellows was sent home. He was discharged at Columbus, Ohio, in July, 1865. The first day of the battle of Shiloh he received a gunshot wound in the left leg, and at Jackson, Mississippi, was wounded by a piece of shell, which injured his left shoulder and broke the collar bone, but fortunately he was never captured by the enemy, although several times he narrowly escaped.

      After the war Mr. Fellows continued to live in Ohio for three years, and then removed to Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he engaged in farming for the same length of time. It was in 1872 that he came to Polk county, Nebraska, and located his homestead on the southwest quarter of section 24, township 13, range 3. All that summer he had but five dollars which he had borrowed, to support himself and team, and his first dinner eaten in the county consisted of a watermelon. The logs for his little shanty he hauled from the Platte river, a distance of eighteen miles. The first year spent here he rented a piece of ground, on which he raised some corn, and in 1874 raised 500 bushels of wheat, but the grasshoppers

destroyed his crop of corn and oats. In 1895 he removed to the northwest quarter of the same section, and now has 305 acres, all under cultivation and well improved, it being one of the best farms in the locality.

      Mr. Fellows and his family hold membership in the United Brethren church, in which he is serving as steward and trustee, and also takes an active part in Sunday school work. He is one of the most prominent members of the Grand Army Post at Stromsburg, in which he has twice served as commander and filled all the other offices. His wife and daughters are connected with the Womans' Relief Corps, and Mrs. Fellows has been president of the same. The family is one of prominence in the community where they reside, and at their pleasant home they delight to entertain their many friends. Politically Mr. Fellows is an unswerving Republican, takes an active interest in the success of his party, and has served several terms as school director in district No. 35. 

---

OHN B. DEY is the editor and proprietor of the Bradshaw Republican, published in Bradshaw, York county. An enterprising newspaper that is thoroughly alive to the interests of a community has probably more to do with the advancement and progress of that community than any other one factor, and through the columns of the Republican Mr. Dey has become the exponent of every movement for the public good and the general welfare. He possesses the true western spirit of progress and indomitable energy, and his well directed labors have made his journal a paying investment.

      Mr. Dey was born in Shelby county, Ohio, October 14, 1845, and is a son of Lewis and Polly M. (Valentine) Dey, the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of Ohio. The father was a farmer and a blacksmith, and removed from the Buckeye state to Iowa in 1847, and to Seward county, Nebraska, in 1871, making his home there until his life's labors were ended in death in 1894. His widow is still living.

      The subject of this review was educated in the common schools of Iowa, and when in his eighteenth year responded to his country's call for troops, enlisting in April, 1863, as a member of Company F, Eighth Iowa Cavalry. He was at the front until the following September, and participated in the battles of Kenesaw Mountain, where he was wounded, Buzzard's Roost, Dalton, Tunnel Hill, Resaca, Burnt Hickory, Franklin, Nashville, and all the lesser engagements of that campaign. On being mustered out he returned to Iowa, where he continued to make his home until 1870, when he removed to Seward county, Nebraska, and secured a homestead claim, on which he carried on agricultural pursuits for five years. He went through the grasshopper siege and other hardships while developing that land, and after a time he abandoned farming, removing to Stromsburg, where he worked at the carpenters trade, and also engaged in real-estate dealing to some extent until 1884. In that year he was made deputy postmaster, in which capacity he served for five years. He also filled the office of village clerk and justice of the peace, and in 1891 he established the Surprise Herald, a newspaper, which he conducted for a short time. In 1892 he founded the Ulysses Monitor, which was later consolidated with the David City Tribune.

      From 1893 until 1896 Mr. Dey resided in York and during that time established and conducted the Vidette. In September of the latter year he came to Bradshaw, and established the Bradshaw Republican, which he is now publishing. He has secured a liberal patronage, and a good advertising

list, and the enterprise is meeting with success. He is a wide-awake man, in touch and sympathy with the needs of the community, and is found as a promoter of every interest designed for the public good along educational, moral, material or social lines.

      In August, 1866, Mr. Dey was united in marriage to Miss Sarah J. Hall, a native of West Virginia, and they have six daughters, Laura, now the wife of D. D. Bloom; Rhena, Lillie, Alta, Iva and Pearl, all at home. Mr. Dey and his family hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is a member of the Masonic lodge, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Grand Army of the Republic. In politics he is an unfaltering advocate of the principles of the Republican party, and in 1887 and 1888 he was postmaster of the state senate. He is a man of social manner, courteous demeanor and genial disposition, which taken in connection with his genuine worth makes him a favorite in all classes. 

---

ILLIAM MORFORD.--Not only is there particular interest attaching to the career of this gentleman as one of the honored and highly esteemed citizens of Seward county, but in reviewing his genealogical record we find his lineage tracing back to the colonial history of the nation and to that period which marked the inspection of the grandest republic the world has ever known. He was born in West Carlisle, Ohio, February 8, 1835, a son of William and Mary (Fulks) Morford, and on both sides is of English descent. His paternal grandfather, John Morford, was one of the men who so valiantly fought for the freedom of the colonies, and our subject well remembers hearing him tell of his experience at the battle of Monmouth under command of General Washington and of other noted engagements including the first skirmish at Lexington. He also remembers the great rifle which he carried through the whole of the Revolutionary war. Our subject's father was a volunteer in the war of 1812, belonged to the army of the Chesapeake and served until the end of the struggle. At its conclusion he and his young wife made their way to Newark, Ohio, but afterward removed to Carlisle, Coshocton, county that state, where he died at the age of eighty-four years. Our subject's maternal grandparents were Jacob and Priscilla Fulks.

      During his youth Mr. Morford, of this review, learned the wagonmaker's trade in his father's shop and also attended the public schools conducted in the little log school house of the district, with its huge fire place over five feet wide. Later an old tin plate stove was put in. In this institution of learning he arrived at a certain kind of proficiency in the branches of study known as the "three R's," reaching the single rule of three in arithmetic. At the age of fourteen he turned his back forever on the school room and commenced the battle of life in earnest, working for his father until twenty-two.

      Coming to the conclusion that it was not best for man to be alone, Mr. Morford was married December 24, 1857, to Miss Mary E., daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Groves) Severns. Her paternal grandparents were Joseph and Mary Severns, natives of this country, and her maternal grandparents were John and Ann Betsey Groves, natives of Germany. Her paternal grandfather and two brothers did duty as soldiers against the Indians and British in the war of 1812 and all were over eighty years of age at the time of their deaths. She remembers the harrowing stories about the Indian raids which so frightened her in her childhood. Both grandfathers were farmers by occupation and right well did they till the soil of the old Ohio hillsides and valleys, both becoming quite rich in this world's goods.

      Mr. and Mrs. Morford began their domestic life upon a farm in Ohio which she inherited from her ancestors, and there they continued to live for about twenty years, with the exception of a short time spent in Indiana. Selling their little farm in 1880, they removed to Efflngham county, Illinois, where they purchased property, but as the climate did not agree with their health they soon sold and went to Hiawatha, Kansas, remaining there, however, only six months. We next find them in Wahoo, Saunders county, Nebraska, where they lived for one year, and then came to precinct N, Seward county, purchasing from George B. France his old pre-emption claim, a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres in the beautiful valley of the northwest branch of the Big Blue river. Here they have since made their home.

      Mr. and Mrs. Morford have become the parents of seven children, all born in Ohio, but only three are now living. (1) Arena is now the wife of Douglass Tipswood and they live on a farm within a mile of the old homestead. Of their five children, three are still living: Sarah E., William A. and Roland, who are attending the district school and are a joy and comfort to their grandparents. (2) Jacob C., a farmer residing near the old home on section 18, N precinct, married Elizabeth Rains, daughter of Richard Rains, who now lives on section 7, the same township, and to them have been born three children, two of whom are living: William and Earl. The elder is a bright lad who is making excellent progress in his studies. (3) James, now twenty-three years of age, has grown up a stout, healthy young man. When war was declared between Spain and America, he donned a soldier's uniform, joining Troop K, United States Volunteer Cavalry, under Captain Culver, formerly a soldier of the great Rebellion, mounted his horse and was off to Camp Thomas, but the war ended before he was called into active service and he was discharged at Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is now with his parents and is determined if he cannot be a soldier he will be a well educated man. When his school days are over he intends to study law and make himself useful to his day and generation. The parents take a just pride in their children, both sons being strictly temperate, not using either intoxicating drinks or tobacco in any form. They are especially proud of their soldier boy who has passed through all the temptations of army and camp life unsullied.

     In politics Mr. Morford is independent, at all times voting for principle and the best men, rather than for party. He is a firm believer in bi-metalism, and is willing to support any party which will raise the standard of silver to the place it occupied during the days of Abraham Lincoln. He and his wife are prominent and active members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Goehner, and she also takes a leading part in temperance work. When thirty-five years of age she joined the temperance "crusaders" who did such a grand work in Ohio, and was always faithful to the trust reposed in her by her sister crusaders, giving freely of her time and money to the cause of aggressive temperance. She was with them when they first started the Good Templars and she is still willing to devote her energies to the great work. During the days of the crusaders Mrs. Morford used to spend weeks away from home in that work, coming .home only for a short stay when relieved, then hasten back to take up the work again. 

---

ENJAMIN C. McCASHLAND.--A representative of the agricultural class, and one who has met with good success in his independent calling, we take pleasure in giving a brief sketch of the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this notice. He is one of the worthy pioneers of Fillmore

 

© 2002 for the NEGenWeb Project by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller