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into Nebraska, where he bought a farm in Richardson county. He tried to hold it against the grasshoppers, but after a war of three years he lost two crops, and could see no signs of improvement. A fair offer was made for his land. He accepted it, and located in York county. Here, under the homestead and timber claim acts, he secured one hundred and sixty acres of land. This was the last move for them. Here their children grew up to maturity. Here they secured the opening of a district school, and here they welcomed the advent of the pioneer Congregational preacher and the inevitable Methodist circuit rider. Here, for twenty-one years, Mr. and Mrs. Tracy walked side by side, never shunning the duties and responsibilities of life, trusting God and doing their duty, as he gave them strength and opportunity. One evening Mr. Tracy came home from the village apparently as well as ever, sat by the fireside reading the family papers until the hour of retiring, and then went off to bed. In half an hour he was dead. This was on April 28, 1896. It was a great sorrow, and yet it had the consolation of freedom from prolonged suffering. The physician attributed the sudden death to congestion of the lungs.

      Mr. and Mrs. Tracy were a peculiarly congenial couple, and their married life was of the happiest character. Wherever she could she would help him on the farm, and he would always assist her about her housework. They had seven children: Mary M., Rachel R., Olivia A., Amanda H., Isaiah W., John W., and Charles. James Talbott, having become acquainted with the oldest daughter Mary, while she was in Richardson county, followed her to their new family home in York county, and was married to her from her father's home. They are now living on a farm in Johnson county, Iowa. Rachel married Lew Weeks, has her home in the city of York. Olivia is Mrs. Plummer, and is a resident of North Platte.

      Amanda married Granville Woolman, and is in Julesburg, Colorado. Isaiah wedded Miss Maria Rails, and lives in the old home with their mother. John W. was married to Miss Mary Russler, and has a home on the same section with his mother. Charles became the husband of Miss Lizzie Shepherd, and rents a farm six miles to the east. Thus Mrs. Tracy, in her old age, is most happily situated. She has a farm of two hundred and forty acres, highly improved, and well provided with farm buildings, which she received from her husband. Her sons and daughters are close at hand, and her grandchildren gather about her knees to love her, and care for her with tender ministries. 

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ELLINGTON FLANSBURG.--Among the pleasant rural homes in Butler county is that of Mr. Flansburg, the culture and artistic taste of its occupants being reflected in its appointments, while a gracious hospitality adds a charm to its material comforts. This beautiful farm is pleasantly located on section 9, Read township, and to its cultivation and improvement the owner has devoted his time and attention since locating thereon in the spring of 1880.

     In Albany county, New York, Mr. Flansburg was born July 15, 1849, and on both the paternal and maternal sides is descended from prominent Holland families, which were founded in the Empire state at an early day in the history of this country. His grandfather, Garrett Flansburg, and his father, Peter Flansburg, were both natives of New York. The latter, who was a farmer by occupation. was born in 1823, and on attaining to man's estate was married in Albany county, New York, November 9, 1846, to Miss Jane Ann Van Wormer, also of Holland descent, who could trace her ancestry back for more than two hundred years in

this country. Among her paternal ancestors the names of Frederick and Cornelius alternate.

      Wellington Flansburg is the second son in a family of seven children, the others being James E., Mary, Catherine, Hester, Lucretia, Mabel Edna, and Francis J., now dead. Of these only Mrs. I. N. Lock, of Clay county, Nebraska, resides in this state. When five years old our subject accompanied his parents on their removal to Cedar county, Iowa, and upon the home farm there he spent his boyhood and youth in much the usual manner of farmer lads in a frontier settlement. On starting out in life for himself he continued to engage in agricultural pursuits in that state until 1880, when he came to Butler county, Nebraska, with D. L. Sylvester, his capital at that time being rather limited. His first purchase consisted of eighty acres on section 9, Read township, and he at once commenced its improvement, as it was then vacant prairie. Through his untiring efforts he has transformed the land into one of the most desirable farms of the county; the fields are under a high state of cultivation; and the comfortable residence plainly indicates the taste and refinement of the occupants in both its interior and exterior appointments. The well-kept lawn, shaded by beautiful evergreens, has the reputation for miles around of being the prettiest in this section of the county.

      On coming to Nebraska, Mr. Flansburg was still single, but in the spring of 1882 he was united in marriage with Miss Ellen Sisty, a daughter of J. H. Sisty, an honored pioneer of Butler county, of whom mention is made elsewhere in this work. Three sons have been born to them, as follows: Warren James, now fifteen years of age; Frank Wellington, fourteen years; and Ralph Henry, eight years.

      The Republican party finds in Mr. Flansburg a stanch supporter of its principles, and he has ever taken an active interest in local political affairs, giving his aid to all measures which he believes calculated to advance the moral, intellectual or material welfare of his adopted country. For some years he has most acceptably served as a member of the township board. With the English Lutheran church he holds membership, and socially is connected with the Order of Ben Hur 

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LLSWORTH N. EVANS, a representative and prominent citizen of York county, Nebraska, is a native of Maine, born March 17, 1826, and belongs to an old and highly respected family of New England. His grandfather, Robert Evans, was a native of New Hampshire, but spent the greater part of his life in the Pine Tree state, where he died at the age of seventy years, his wife at the age of seventy-five.

      Ira Evans, our subject's father, made his home in Harmony, Maine, and, as a mechanic, worked in both iron and wood. He married Miss Hannah Merrill, a daughter of John Merrill, a farmer by occupation, who carried on operations along that line in Maine. Ira Evans died at the age of forty-nine years, honored and respected by all who knew him. In 1857, the mother, with her two sons, emigrated to Wisconsin; and located in Manitowoc county, where she died, in 1877, at the ripe old age of seventy-two years. Our subject took her body back to Maine and laid it beside his father in a cemetery there.

      During his boyhood and youth, Ellsworth N. Evans worked with his father at his trade, and during his younger years was employed as a millwright and machinist in the east, but later in life became a dealer in lumber and grain. After his father's death, with his mother and older brother, he left Maine, in 1857, and removed to Manitowoc county, Wisconsin, where he made his home for several years. He was

married, December 11, 1850, to Eliza Dorr, and to them were born three children, namely: Frederick E. and Francis V., twins--the latter died at nine months--and Otto E. Since 1879 the family have made their home in York county, Nebraska, have been prominently identified with its interests, and are numbered among its most highly esteemed and valued citizens.

      Mrs. Evans' parents. Nathaniel and Mary (Smith) Dorr, were both natives of Pembroke, England, and came to America about 1795, and located at Harmony, Maine, after their marriage. The father followed farming, and died in 1866; the mother in 1838. They had ten children--five sons and five daughters. One sister, besides Mrs. Evans, resides in York--Mrs. Hannah Newell.

      Mr. Evans was engaged in milling while in Wisconsin, at Cato, Manitowoc county, in both grain and lumber, and followed this business continuously at that point until his removal to York county, Nebraska, in 1879.

      The first year after his arrival in York county he engaged in the grain and lumber trade at York and Bradshaw, and followed that for nearly three years. Since that time he has lived retired. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church. In politics he is a stanch Republican, but has never sought political honors. Mr. Evans has been successful since coming to Nebraska, and is more than pleased with his adopted home. 

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REDERICK RICH.--The soldier who risks his life on the field of battle for a principle in which he believes has always received the highest praise of men; next to him stands the pioneer who braves the dangers and hardships of the frontier and opens up new and uninhabited districts to civilization. In quiet endurance of difficulties, he works on day after day at the arduous task of making the wild land bring forth the harvests that shall provide him and his family with a living. In the early development and improvement of York county Mr. Rich has borne no inconsiderable part and as the result of his labors is now the owner of a good farm of two hundred and eighty acres.

      Born in Germany, April 6, 1856, he is a son of Gotlieb and Henrietta Rich. When he was six years old his father died and his mother afterward married Gotlieb Schmattz, who brought the family to the new world in 1866. They landed at New York city, thence went to Wisconsin and on to Benton county, Iowa, where the step-father secured work as a farm hand. As the family was poor and Frederick was then eleven years of age, he was bound out to service, and worked for some time in Iowa, receiving from six to ten dollars per month. He was thus employed in Iowa for eleven years.

      In 1877 he came to Nebraska, bringing with him a team and wagon and three hundred dollars in money, every cent of which had been earned by the hardest toil and saved through the closest economy. Here he purchased the northwest quarter of section 11, Henderson township, York county, and later bought the north half of the southwest quarter of the same section. He built a sod house and stable and then commenced the work of plowing, planting and improving his land. He planted some sod corn, which gave him a good living for the first year, and with great industry he has prosecuted his further labors. In the year of his arrival he went on a visit to a friend on Lincoln creek, in York county, and formed the acquaintance of Amelia A. Kaeding, daughter of Ferdinand and Mary Kaeding, natives of Germany, who came to York county in 1869 and died in 1886. On the 16th of December, 1877, Mr. Rich and Miss Kaeding were married, and he took his bride to the home which he had prepared. Their union has been blessed with nine children:

Matilda E., Ludwig G., Mary H., Amelia S., Emily L., F. August, Amanda A., Henry W. and John Otto. As they attain a proper age they are placed in school, for the parents are firm believers in liberal education which will fit them for life's responsible duties.

      Both Mr. and Mrs. Rich are members of the Lutheran church, and the former has been a stalwart Republican since casting his first presidential ballot for General Garfield. His life is a busy and useful one. Not afraid of work he labors earnestly and perseveringly to secure a competence and is ably assisted by his wife, who is indeed a faithful helpmeet to him. He has already acquired a handsome competence, and his name may yet be an index to his financial condition. 

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IETRICH ZIMMERMANN, one of Seward county's wealthiest farmers and most extensive land owners, is one of the men in whose coming to this country all who honor honest industry and good citizenship can rejoice. His career has been marked throughout with persistent and faithful efforts, and he has been rewarded by the acquisition of a good property and a high reputation. His home farm is situated in precinct H, Seward county, near the town of Germantown.

      Mr. Zimmermann was born in Hanover, Germany, October 12, 1841, and was educated in the common schools of that country between the ages of seven and fourteen. Before reaching the age of fifteen years, he started for America, with a family of his acquaintance. After a voyage of seven weeks and three days in a sailing vessel for steamers were hardly known on the ocean then they landed in New Orleans, Louisiana. From thence our subject took passage in a steam boat to St. Louis, Missouri, arriving in that city about October 30, and from there he went in another steamer to Alton, Illinois. From there he went to Bunker Hill, Illinois, and from Bunker Hill he traveled by means of team and wagon to Staunton, Illinois, landing there just at the time James Buchanan was elected president of the United States. By this time, Master Dietrich had passed his fifteenth mile-stone. At Staunton, he hired out to a farmer at sixty-five dollars per year, and soon after applied himself to the study of the English language. After harvest, of that season, he left his first employer, partly for the sake of getting among English-speaking people and partly on account of the higher salary that the English people paid their laborers, his first employer, however, telling him to return if any thing should happen and he should always find a good home. With the assistance of an interpreter, he made a contract with an Englishman to work on his farm for ten dollars per month, and was in the employ of this man until the following spring.

      After thus working as a farm laborer for something over a year, Mr. Zimmermann began farming on his own account. Two years later, his father's family joined him, and they lived together until our subject arrived at the age of twenty-six years, at which time he met and married Miss Catherine Stillahn. Having previously purchased a farm of one hundred and fifty-two acres in Madison county, Illinois, near New Douglas, he moved with his wife to this place and here they lived for four years. On the account of failing health, Mr. Zimmermann decided to move to a more favorable climate, and accordingly in 1871 he sold his farm and located land in Nebraska. Upon returning to his home, however, he received another attack of billious remittent fever and was unable to move until the spring of 1872. He then moved to his new home in Seward county, Nebraska; and located in precinct G, where he had purchased

a homestead right to an eighty-acre farm for seven hundred dollars, and made this his home for seven years. He next moved to his present home, which consisted of one hundred and sixty acres, and which he bought for a cash consideration of one thousand and twenty-five dollars. Upon applying for a deed to this property, the real estate agent informed him that he was too early; that deeds were not given in this section of Nebraska, but finally consented to make a contract for a deed. In the following November, after purchasing the farm in June, 1872; a deed to this property was obtained, and it being the first instrument of the kind in the locality, every one was anxious to read it and to be convinced of its validity.

      Mr. Zimmermann then set about to develop the raw, unbroken stretch of prairie which comprised his new farm, into a more attractive and profitable piece of property and a cozy and comfortable home for himself, his wife and his little ones, and soon had the entire tract under cultivation, and was furnished with a fine residence, barns, granaries and windmills, hedges, groves, orchards and fruit trees of many varieties. Our subject came to Nebraska with a capital of four thousand five hundred dollars and he has met with eminent success in every line in which his faculties have been directed. Besides the farm on which he makes his home, which, according to the county records, is the most valuable in the county, our subject has other farms in Seward county, making an aggregate of seven hundred acres, and also has two hundred acres in Jefferson county, one hundred and fifty-four acres in Kearney county, Nebraska, two hundred and forty acres in Buffalo county, Nebraska, ten acres in the town site of Seward and also six other lots in the same town, 311 of which are clear of incumbrance. The farms are all well stocked and finely improved. Not only has Mr. Zimmermann been very prosperous financially, but he has been careful to incidentally gather treasures of still greater value, and he has gained a reputation which is worthy the emulation of the rising generation. He is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran church, which he joined in 1856, at the age of fourteen years, and has ever since been true to that denomination and consistent with his profession. Later he served as a trustee of the society in which he held his membership, and is now its elder. He is also president of the Seward Agricultural Society.

      In 1880 there was a new public school district organized in his neighborhood and he was the first treasurer of that school district, which position he has held ever since, till now, 1899. Politically he has always been a Republican and cast his first presidential vote for U. S. Grant, when he was elected the first time. He took out his minor naturalization papers the day after President Abraham Lincoln was killed. Mr. Zimmermann has recently purchased town property, where he now lives and expects to spend the remainder of his life enjoying the fruits of his labor. October 29, 1867, our subject was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Stillahn, and to this congenial union have been born nine children, whose names in the order of their birth are as follows: Annie D., born July 28, 1868; Sophia M. K., born September 23, 1870; Mary M., born November 22, 1872; Doratha S., born February 10, 1877; Albert H. D., died at the age of fifteen months; Lena D. W., born March 15, 1881; Minnie M., born April 1, 1885; Metta M. L., born June 16, 1889; and Wilhelm D. H., born June 13, 1894. Our subject's parents, Wilhelm and Doratha (Meier) Zimmermann, were both natives of Hanover, Germany, and were educated in that place. The father followed the occupation of a farmer during the greater part of his life, although, prior to his mar-

riage, he spent twelve years in a sugar factory in Amsterdam. In the fall of 1858, he migrated to America, and died in Illinois, in 1880, at the age of eighty-one years and eight months. His companion passed away four years previous to his death. They are both buried in Staunton, Illinois, cemetery, side by side. Mrs. Zimmermann's parents were also born in Germany, and migrated to this country in 1856, and settled first at Bethalto, and later in Madison county. The mother died in 1858, but the father is still living, and is making his home in Bunker Hill, Macoupin county, Illinois. 

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HARLES SANDBERG, a leading and representative agriculturist of Fillmore county, is now the owner of one of the finest farms in Momence precinct. Like many of our most progressive and energetic citizens, he is a native of Sweden, born February 21, 1845, and is a son of Carl and Elias Sandberg, in whose family were only two children, the other being Emma, who died in Sweden at the age of eighteen years. The father died during the infancy of our subject, and the mother, who was always in poor health, passed away when he was seventeen. His boyhood and youth were passed in his native land and in its public schools he was educated. At the age of fifteen he was confirmed in the Swedish Lutheran church. For twelve years he worked for a farmer in Sweden, receiving nine dollars per month, and with the hope of benefiting his financial condition he emigrated to America when twenty-seven years of age.

      Mr. Sandberg first located in Illinois, where he worked as a farm hand for three years, and then commenced life for himself upon a rented farm. At the age of twenty-eight, he was united in marriage with Miss Edith Peterson, the oldest child of Peter and Hannah (Hanstrom) Bergstrom, who are still living. Eight children were born of this union, namely: Carl, who married Mollie Spurling and lives in Momence precinct, Fillmore county; Emma, wife of August Pearson, a farmer of the same precinct; and Anna, Ella, Oscar, Minnie, Grant and Lena, all at home.

      Mr. Sandberg continued to make his home in Illinois until the spring of 1885, when he was advised by his physician to come to Nebraska, and the climate of this state soon restored him to health. He had already met with success and on coming to Fillmore county purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Momence precinct for two thousand and six hundred dollars, and later bought an adjoining tract of eighty acres for one thousand and six hundred dollars, making a valuable farm of two hundred and forty acres. The place was partially improved, one hundred and ten acres had been broken, a one-story house, 16 x 22 feet, had been erected, and there was also an old straw stable, but no fence had been built. To the further improvement and cultivation of the place he has since devoted his energies, and his efforts have been crowned with success, which is certainly well deserved as he began life in the new world empty-handed and his prosperity is all due to his own industry, economy, good business ability and sound judgment.

      While still a resident of his native land, Mr. Sandburg (sic) served for two years in the Swedish army. He and his family now belong to the Swedish Lutheran church of Stockholm, Nebraska, and occupy an enviable position in the social circles of the community in which they live. They have made a number of visits to their old home in Illinois, but are perfectly satisfied to make Fillmore county their future abiding place. In connection with general farming Mr. Sandberg is quite extensively interested in raising fine stock of all kinds. He is not

only one of the prosperous men of his precinct, but is also one of its most influential and prominent citizens, and has been called upon to fill a number of local offices, serving as justice of the peace for two terms and as school director, for thirteen years. He has also been a delegate to the congressional and senatorial conventions of the Independent party, and no trust reposed in him has ever been been misplaced. 

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AWRENCE M. SHAW, M. D.--One of the most exacting of all the higher lines of occupation to which a man may lend his energies is that of the physician. A most scrupulous preliminary training is demanded, and a nicety of judgment but little understood by the laity. Our subject is well fitted for the profession which he has chosen as his life-work, and his skill and ability have won for him a lucrative practice in and around Osceola, where he makes his home.

      The Doctor's grandfather, Levi Shaw, was born in Newark, N. J., in 1802, and in early life went to Pennsylvania, where he married Martha Metzler, who was born in Westmoreland county, that state, in 1812. From there they removed to Coshocton county, Ohio, subsequently made their home in Fort Wayne. Indiana, and finally located in Sangamon county, Illinois, among the pioneers of that region. Here Mr. Shaw met Abraham Lincoln and a warm friendship sprang up between the two gentlemen. He served as orderly sergeant in Lincoln's company during the Black Hawk war, and in later years had the pleasure of entertaining both the Martyr President and Stephen A. Douglas several times at his home in Rock Island county, Illinois, during their memorable debates when candidates for the United States senate. Mr. Shaw spent his last days in Mercer county, Illinois, dying at Berlin, in 1864. He amassed a handsome property, and also gained the confidence and respect of all who knew him. He was twice married, his first wife being Jane Metzler, a sister of the Doctor's grandmother, and by that union he had one son, Almond, who was captain of Company C, One Hundred and Second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil war, and now resides near Springfield, Missouri. By his second marriage he had the following children: Mrs. Samantha Bowling; Mrs. Cedilla Bryan; Velzer; Lanson, the father of our subject; Amy, deceased wife of George W. Gregg, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work; Freeman; Clinton; Milan and Mina, twins; Siremba, a practicing physician of Chicago; and Eliza, who died at the age of thirteen years. The mother of these children is still living, and now makes her home with a son in Iowa.

      Lanson Shaw was born September 22, 1840, and on reaching manhood was married in Mercer county, Illinois, May 2, 1867, to Miss Mary E. Valentine, whose birth occurred October 25, 1848. Her father, David M. Valentine, was a native of Ohio, born in 1822, and married Orleana Baughman, who was horn in Pennsylvania in 1829. From their early home in Logan county, Ohio, they removed to Mercer county, Illinois, and in 1868 took up their residence in Poweshiek county, Iowa, where they still reside. Mr. Valentine was one of the defenders of the Union in the Civil war. Their children were Mary Elizabeth, the mother of our subject; Susan, who died in 1877; William; one that died when young; Edwin and Burton. In 1867 Lanson Shaw and wife also removed to Poweshiek county, Iowa, but seven years later they returned to Mercer county, Illinois, and in 1879 came to Osceola, Nebraska, where they have since made their home, being numbered among the honored and highly esteemed citizens of that place. They are the parents of two sons, Lawrence M. and
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Clarence L., and are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. By trade the father is a mechanic. Three times he endeavored to join the Union army during the Civil war, but was always refused on account of physical disability.

      Dr. Shaw was born in Poweshiek county, Iowa, February 4, 1868, and came with his parents to Osceola, Nebraska, in 1879. Here he attended school until fifteen years of age, but during the last two years engaged in farming through the summer season, while in the winter he pursued his studies. From fifteen until seventeen years of age he taught school and worked at the carpenter's trade, and then attended the Nebraska Wesleyan college at York for one year. The following three years he was a student in the medical department of the State University of Iowa, and graduated from that institution with the class of 1889. On the 6th of March, that year, he opened an office in Osceola, where he has since successfully engaged in practice. In 1893 he took a post-graduate course at Chicago, and is now one of the best qualified physicians of the regular school practicing in Polk county.

      The Doctor was married, January 15, 1890, to Miss Etta Moffett, who was born August 24, 1867, in Rush county, Indiana. where she was reared and obtained a good common-school education. Coming to Nebraska, in 1884, she took a course in music at the Nebraska Wesleyan college, at York, and afterward located in Osceola. Her parents, Robert and Viola (Bilby Moffett, are both deceased; the father dying in 1883, the mother in 1882. Their children were Stephen, Edgar, Mrs. Dora Fliesbach, Robert,. Viola, Mrs. Etta Shaw, and Robert, deceased. Dr. and Mrs. Shaw have three children: Marion Ansley, born April 2, 1893; Leah Brittonmart, born December 5, 1894, and Lawrence Ian, born February 19, 1898.

      The Doctor and his wife are leading members of the Methodist Episcopal church of Osceola, in which he is now serving as trustee. Socially he is an honored member of the Masonic lodge, in which he has been junior and senior warden; the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; the Modern Woodmen of America, of which he is medical examiner; and he is also medical examiner for the Order of Ben Hur and the Royal Highlanders, all of Osceola. For nine years he has most efficiently and satisfactorily served as county physician; has been physician on the board of insanity in Polk county; United States pension examiner; and examining physician for the following insurance companies--Connecticut Mutual, Equitable of New York, the Northwestern of Vermont, the Union Central of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Pennsylvania Mutual of Philadelphia. He has been the honored president of the York county District Medical Society, and is also a prominent member of the State Medical Society. 

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ONATHAN FURMAN LEAMING, who may be found at work the season through on his well-kept farm near Bradshaw, Nebraska, brought thrift and energy, industry and character as his contribution to the advancement of York county. He has done his work well in the past years, and is entitled to honorable mention in any work that pretends to sketch the lives of the makers of this rich and prosperous Nebraska county.

      The Leaming family were among the early settlers of this country and have long been a prominent name in it. Christopher Learning came to this country in 1674, and settled at a town called Sag, in Long Island. Here, in the same year, he married Esther Barnett, and in 1691 he moved to Cape May, New Jersey, and engaged in whaling, and being a cooper by trade, in the winter

made casks for the oil. His eldest son, Jonathan, is ancestor to the Leamings in Lower township and Cape May City, New Jersey. J. S. Leaming, who married Helen Leaming, is a descendant of this Thomas, and is the sixth generation in line.

     Christopher's son, Jeremiah, and daughters, Elizabeth and Jane, settled in New England; Hannah settled in Philadelphia, and Christopher (2) was lost at sea in a privateer. Aaron (1) married Lydia Shaw and left a large family. His son, Aaron (2), married Mary Furman. All four of his children left large families. His son, Jonathan (1), married Marguerite Stites, and had one daughter, Priscilla. Afterwards he married Judith Hand. By her he had Jonathan Leaming (2), born 1770, and who was the great-grandfather of Jonathan Furman Leaming the subject of our sketch. He married Elizabeth Yates, of Philadelphia, and by her he had William, grandfather of our subject, and Priscilla, who never married. William married Catharine Wood, of Philadelphia, and by her had Eliza, and William, who was the father of Jonathan Furman Learning, the subject of this sketch. Afterwards he married Sarah S. Somers, and by her had Jonathan F. and Julia. The Leaming family originally spelled their name Leamynge. The first Christopher and all his children changed the spelling to Leaming, excepting Thomas, who spelled his Leamynge. The second Aaron Leaming was for thirty years a member of the legislature and, in connection with Jacob Spicer, compiled the laws of New Jersey. He was by far the wealthiest and most prominent man in the county. Religiously, the early of were of the Friends of Quaker persuasion, not much for war, but during the Revolution were most active in providing the army with military stores, and the second Aaron served on the committee of safety, whose duty it was to arrest and imprison all who opposed the war by aiding the enemy, Tories, they were called. The family came from England. In social and public life, they have always stood with the best and highest, and their descendants have no cause to blush for them. The families have representatives all over the land, largely in New England, Philadelphia, Illinois, and Cape May, under the name of Leaming, Bradley, Stone, Fisher, Hand, etc., into which they have married.

      Jonathan F. Leaming, whose name heads this article, was born in Cape May county, New Jersey, April 16, 1846, and is a son of William Stanton Learning, whose death occurred there in August, 1898.

     William S. Leaming was a teacher of mathematics, was a navigator when a young man, and afterwards became a teacher of mathematics. He was a sea captain and a man of much ability and power in his prime. He owned a farm for many years near Dyer's Creek, which was his home for nearly twenty-five years. He moved in his old age to Cape May island, New Jersey, where he and his wife still live at the advanced ages of eighty-five and seventy-seven years. They have reared nine children to maturity, and who are all living in various states of the Union. Their names are, John D., Jonathan F., Edward, William S., Cassie D., Pennington, Benjamin, Emma and Elizabeth.

     Jonathan F. Leaming left his father's home when he has about twenty years old, and repaired to Cedar Falls, Iowa, but only reached Waterloo, where he found work, and for five years his home was in that beautiful little city. In 1871 he bought a team and drove to this county, and filed a homestead claim on the west half of the northwest quarter of section 10, township 10, range 4 west. He built a sod house and went to work making the prairie a tillable farm. He lived alone for three years, and was then married to Miss Sarah M. Russell, who was a daughter of Alferd and Martha M.

(Greenlee) Russell who came from Greene county, east Tennessee, to Iowa. She was born in Belle Plaine, Benton county, Iowa, and was the youngest of two children, her brother, Francis Marion, being two years older. Both her parents died before she was two years of age, leaving the two children alone in the world. She lived in Belle Plaine until she was thirteen years of age, when she moved with her foster parents to Taylor county, Iowa, and later to York county, Nebraska, and where her marriage with our subject occurred on February 24, 1874, and for five years the young couple still dwelt in the sod house. In these years they had prospered so they felt free to abandon the old "Nebraska brick" house, though it was the birthplace of both their sons, and move into a frame building. In 1885 they sold their homestead and bought two hundred and forty acres of land on Beaver Creek, six miles north, and here they have remained, busy in works of improvement and ornamentation. Their second home in this township is well kept and farmed, and ranks with any far or near. They have two children, both sons, Francis Furman and William Alfred, twenty-two and nineteen years old. They are both at home and are busy on the farm. The husband and father was a Republican until that party flung the gold standard to the breeze. He is in favor of the free coinage of silver and the restoral of the finances of the United States to the former conditions that prevailed under the fathers of the Constitution. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and his wife is in the Degree of Honor. They are profoundly enlisted in the cause of morals and religion, but are not members of any religious denomination. Mr. Learning says, when he crossed the Great Muddy, he did not have fifty cents in his pocket, and his present condition presents a wonderful contrast to his state that day. 

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HARLES JOSEPH RUSLER, an enterprising agriculturist of York county, is the owner of a fine farm in Henderson township, and his management of the estate is marked by the scientific knowledge and skill which characterizes the modern farmer. He was born in Baden, Germany, August 10, 1849, a son of Joseph and Anna Rusler, also natives of Baden. In 1852 the father started for America on a sailing vessel and was six months in reaching the new world, as the boat collided with an another vessel, which stove a hole in her hull, making it necessary for them to put into the nearest port. After making repairs, they again started on their way three days later, but were overtaken by a storm, which broke the masts, destroyed the captain's cabin and kitchen, and indeed every object the waves in their mad career could destroy. The ship settled so much that one-half of it was under water, but as the crew were well trained, the captain soon had them at work at the pumps, and in three days' time the whole deck was above water, and they put into England. After fourteen days hard work they were again ready to proceed, and when going aboard the second time, the Queen, who happened to be in the city and heard of the destitution of the passengers, who had lost all their clothing in the storm, gave to each with her own hands such garments as were needed. She gave to Mr. Rusler, our subject's father, a vest, which he wore on the. journey and afterward kept as long as he lived. While the storm was raging the captain's wife was thrown overboard, but was saved by the bravery of a common sailor. Having no money when he landed in New York, Mr. Rusler worked in that city for thirty-five cents per day for some time, and then proceeded to Chicago, where he also worked for a short time. He then started for Oregon, Illinois, but his money gave out when he reached Belvidere, and he walked the

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