gent mind. Mr. Brown spent eighteen months on this tour, which practically wound up his wanderings. He is now quite well advanced in years, but is bright and active as ever, and a man with whom it is very pleasurable and profitable to converse.
   To Mr. and Mrs. Brown there have been born eight children, only four of whom are living. Thomas died in Nebraska City, Oct. 20, 1885, aged thirty years; Otis, Ida, Harvey and Arlington are married. Ida is the wife of Frank McCartney, County Clerk of Otoe County; Harvey is working as a carpenter, and makes his home with his parents; Arlington married Miss Atwood, of Nebraska City, where he lives. Mr. Brown is a member of the Republican party, although meddling very little with politics. He has probably taken a greater interest in the success and extension of the I. O. O. F., with which he has been connected for the past thirty-five years, and of which he is Past Grand.

ARTIN PARENT, one of the largest landowners of Rock Greek Precinct, is proprietor of 320 acres on sections 24 and 26, where he has made his home since April, 1868. He came to this county in 1856, and pre-empted land in Otoe Precinct the year following. He had made his way across the Mississippi from Douglas County, Ill., of which he had been a resident eight years. He is a native of Parke County, Ind., and was born Aug. 26, 1833.
   William Parent, the father of our subject, was born in Tennessee and reared in Kentucky; in the latter State he married Miss Priscilla Martin, who was born there, in Hardin County. They continued residents of the Blue Grass regions until after the birth of five children, then emigrated to Parke County, Ind., where five more little ones were added to the household circle. They were among the pioneers of that county, and endured in common with the people about them the vicissitudes of life in a new settlement. The country around them abounded in wild animals, and it is hardly necessary to say their neighbors were few and far between. The labors of the father as a tiller of the soil met with their legitimate reward, and he built up a comfortable home, where he spent the remainder of his days, his death taking place about 1843, when he was sixty-five years old. The mother after the death of her husband went to live with her son Martin, in Coles County, Ill., where she passed away when about fifty-four years of age.
   Our subject was educated in the schools of Indiana and Illinois, his home being in that part of Coles which is now Douglas County. He was married during his early manhood to Miss Mary Ann Moore, who was born there Jan. 7, 1837. She became the mother of three children, and accompanied her family to this county. Her death took place at the homestead in Rock Creek Precinct, Nov. 12, 1880, and her remains were laid to rest four days later in the cemetery on a part of the land owned by her husband. Mrs. Parent was a lady of many estimable qualities, greatly beloved by her husband and friends, and her death was mourned by a large circle of acquaintances. Two of the children of this marriage, William and Joseph, died young. The surviving child. a daughter, Mary R., still remains at home with her father, whom she cares for with filial affection, anticipating his wants and striving as far as possible to supply the place of the wife and mother, who was for so many years his solace and comfort.
   Mrs. Mary Ann Parent was the daughter of Joseph and Amelia (Whitaker) Moore, who were old residents of Coles County, Ill. Mr. Moore entered a claim and improved a farm, where he and his excellent wife spent the remainder of their days. Both Mr. and Mrs. Parent identified themselves with the Methodist Church many years ago. When the new school-house was built in District No. 2, Mr. Parent, being a great admirer of the martyred President, Abraham Lincoln, insisted that the property should be named Lincoln Grove, which name it now bears. He believed that it would be a fitting and proper reminder to the children in future years of the career of the great Emancipator, one of the noblest of his kind, who was closely connected with the pioneer history of Illinois, and later arose to the highest position in the gift of the American people.
   Mr. Parent is a quiet and unobtrusive citizen, meddling very little with public affairs, but keeps

himself well posted upon current events, and uniformly gives his support to Republican principles. He was one of the moving spirits in securing the passage of the Nebraska Herd Law, for which he received the thanks of the right-thinking people of the State. In the fall of 1869, he, with others, went down into Kansas on a buffalo hunt. Several of these animals were killed by the party, and Mr. Parent himself laid low one of the monsters of the plains.
   Martin Parent has been abundantly prospered in his labors as an agriculturist, and has a competency for declining years. He has brought his farm to a good state of cultivation and keeps about enough stock to consume his corn. With the exception of the land immediately about the home place, he rents his farm, receiving therefor a living income. We take pleasure in presenting to our numerous readers the portrait of this honored pioneer, together with that of his deceased wife.

ALVIN CHAPMAN is one of the most active and enterprising citizens of Nebraska City, with whose business interests he is identified as a prominent stock dealer, and also as a dealer in coal, wood and hay. He is one of the self-made men of whom this country is so justly proud, as he came to Nebraska without a dollar, and by a quiet but persistent determination to succeed, through resolution and unceasing industry, has acquired a handsome competence and a large amount of valuable property.
   Mr. Chapman was born in Winchester, Madison Co., Ohio, May 16, 1843. His father, Thomas Chapman, was born in Virginia, and was reared and married in his native State. He then moved from there to Ohio, the removal being made with wagons, as it was before the time of railways.. Mr. Chapman bought a tract of timber land in Madison County, built a log house, the one in which our subject was born, and resided there until 1845. when he again started westward, removing his family and household goods with teams to Iowa, and there became one of the early settlers of Louisa County. He took up a tract of Government land, one and one-half miles northeast of Wapello, the county seat. There were no railways west of Chicago at that time, and Muscatine, twenty-five miles distant, was the nearest market and trading point. Indians were plentiful, and deer, wild turkeys, wolves and wildcats were abundant. Mr. Chapman improved the land that he had entered from the Government, and resided on it about twenty years. He then bought another tract of land, a part of which is now occupied by the village of Harrison, and he has resided there continuously ever since. Mr. Chapman has lived to see that part of Iowa developed from the wild prairie to a well-settled, wealthy country, and by his enterprise and industry has done his share in bringing about this prosperous condition. He has reached the advanced age of eighty-six years, but still retains his mental faculties to a great degree. and enjoys remarkably good health. In political events Mr. Chapman takes a marked interest, and is it firm believer in the principles expounded by the Republican party. Before the formation of that party he was a Whig. He has been twice married; his first wife, the mother of our subject, was Mary Binizer, a native of Virginia, and she died in 1845. His second marriage was to Grace Greenwood, a native of England, and she still lives to comfort him in his old age.
   The subject of this sketch was two and a half years old when his father with his family crossed the prairies of the Central Western States to make his home in Iowa, and he has a vivid remembrance of the incidents of the pioneer life, amid whose scenes he was reared to manhood. He attended the early schools of that State, assisted on the farm, and lived with his father until he was sixteen years old, when he started out to seek his own fortune further west, and consequently come to Nebraska, landing in Nebraska City in September, 1860. Here he commenced to learn the cooper's trade, receiving twenty-five cents a day and board for his work. He was industrious, of good habits, attended steadily to his work, and even from that meager pay he contrived to save money, as he was very ambitious to make something of himself, to become, perhaps, a rich and influential man of business.
   Our subject worked as a cooper for two years

when his enterprising and adventurous spirit made him seize joyfully a chance to cross the plains with teams, as assistant wagonmaster for Majs. Russell and Wardell, Government freighters. He returned the same season, and, although a youth of but nineteen years, patriotically offered his services to the country, to help suppress the Civil War that was then raging, enlisting in October 1862, in Company F, 2d Nebraska Cavalry, and being commissioned as Second Lieutenant, gallantly served for one year, and was then honorably discharged on account of the expiration of his term of enlistment. He found that his services were required nearer home, and it few days later re-enlisted as a member of Company A, Independent Scouts, organized for the purpose of suppressing Indian warfare that had sprang up in Nebraska and adjoining Territories. Company A was composed of men who had explored that section of the country and were perfectly familiar with its topography, and it was joined to Gen. Sully's force, and acted as guides to him in the Northwest. Our subject did efficient service for nine months, and then his regiment was discharged and he returned to Nebraska City.
   Our subject, with the money that he had saved up, formed a drug company, and was also engaged in teaming, and finally was enabled to buy a livery stable and bus line. He continued to carry on that and the drug business very successfully until 1880, when he sold out and engaged in the sale of coal, wood and hay, and has built up an extensive and profitable business, besides makin considerable money in dealing in horses, cattle and mules, which he has always dealt in more or less. Mr. Chapman occupies an important place in the business circles of Nebraska City, and is a stockholder and Director in the Farmers' Bank. He owns the place that he now occupies on First Corso street, besides five lots on First Corso street, between Fourth and Fifth streets; a lot on the corner of Seventh and First Corso streets; one lot, with two buildings, on the corner of Third and Corso streets; one house and lot on Fifth street; three lots in Anderson's Addition; and 320 acres of farm land near Nebraska City.
   Mr. Chapman was married, in 1863, to Miss Harriot Shallenbarger, a native of Pennsylvania, and three children have been born of their happy married life -- Edna, Harriet and Bota. Mrs. Chapman is a superior woman in many ways, and is greatly esteemed far beyond her home circle, is she has endeared herself to many by numerous acts of kindness and friendship. To her devotion to his interests, and to her steady encouragement and cheerful help, her husband gratefully acknowledges himself to be greatly indebted for his present prosperity. Mr. Chapman is a frank, generous-hearted man, pushing and energetic in his character, and possessing a decided talent for business. Politically, he is a Republican, and socially, is a member of Council of Frontier Lodge No. 3, I. O. O. F. Mr. and Mrs. Chapman are valued members of the Baptist Church.

LEXANDER REEVES. The subject of this notice deserves more than passing mention, having been the first man to homestead land in Otoe County, if not in the State of Nebraska, settling then in South Branch Precinct. His career has been one reflecting very great credit upon his industry and enterprise, and one in which he has experienced many hardships and difficulties, but fortunately was enabled to surmount them, and transform a portion of the wild prairie into a fertile tract, yielding in abundance the rich crops of Southern Nebraska. He has now retired from active labor, having deeded the greater portion of his land to his children, reserving eighty acres with its comfortable buildings, occupying one of the prettiest locations on the Nemaha River. He and his estimable wife, both well advanced in years, are spending the evening of their lives quietly and peacefully, comfortable in the reflection that they have done what they could its citizens, neighbors and parents. Many are the friends they have gathered around them during their long sojourn in this county, and many are the scenes which they have witnessed while Nebraska was being transformed from a Territory into a wealthy and prosperous State.
   Mr, Reeves as a Justice of the Peace, conducted the first lawsuit in his precinct, which was a case of assault and battery--James Knox vs. Augustus

Greenwood, in which the latter was fined. He was early appointed a member of the district School Board, which office he held for years, was Postmaster a period of nine years, Assessor one term, and Road Supervisor three terms. He was appointed by Gov. Butler Register of Elections, but resigned the office. He has been foremost in those enterprises having for their object the moral and social welfare of the people, was one of the early members of the Baptist Church, and since its organization has been an earnest adherent of the Republican party. In his native State of New York he served as Postmaster in the town of Brooks Grove, in Livingston County.
   Our subject was born Aug. 25, 1818, in Wayne County, N. Y., and lived there with his parents until a lad twelve years of age. He then went with his father to Warren County, Pa., and six years later occurred the death of his father, when the family was broken up, and Alexander, returning to his native State, worked by the month in Chautauqua County. In 1843 he returned to Livingston County, where he was variously employed until the fall of 1856. Then resolving to seek his fortune in the West, he migrated to Will County, Ill., where he was employed at various jobs until 1862.
   Our subject now crossed the Mississippi and homesteaded the first land in this county, while Nebraska was a Territory, and before the organization of South Branch Precinct. He laid claim to it about sunrise on the 1st of January, 1863, when it was designated as claim No. 2. The party taking No. 1 never proved up, so Mr. Reeves was the first bona fide settler. The right to the first settlement is disputed by Mr. Freeman, of Beatrice. who claims he took his immediately after 12 o'clock, January 1.
   The manner in which Mr. Reeves labored from this time on can perhaps better be imagined than described. His first rude plow was drawn by a team of horses in breaking sod, and the pioneer himself and his little family were first sheltered in a log dwelling. There was little of elegance or convenience in those days, but Mr. Reeves had abundant faith that his labors would meet with their legitimate reward, and battled manfully with the difficulties which beset his way, until after a few seasons had passed he found himself on the road to prosperity. He enclosed his fields with neat and substantial fences, planted groves and an orchard, in due time put up a stone dwelling (the first in this part of the county) and a barn, and added the conveniences and improvements which have so much to do with the comforts of a home. He was particularly fortunate in his choice of a location, his land being well watered and easily brought to a productive condition.
   To the lady who has stood by the side of our subject while he bore the heat and burden of the day, and who in her girlhood was Miss Alvira R. Bassett, he was married in Livingston County, N. Y., Oct. 27, 1846. Mrs. Reeves was born in Allegany County, that State, Feb. 13, 1828, and is the daughter of David and Lucinda (Coggswell) Bassett. David Bassett was born in Massachusetts in 1779, and his wife, Lucinda, in Otsego County, N. Y., in 1796. They were married in the Empire State, and resided there until the death of the father, which occurred in 1848. He was a farmer by occupation, and during his early manhood served as a soldier in the War of 1812. The mother after the death of her husband went to the home of her children in Will County, Ill., where her death took place in 1859. Six children of the parental family are living, namely: Sabrina, Lavina L., Joseph W., Elvira, Helena and Cyrus N. Those besides Mrs. Reeves are residents mostly of Michigan and Nebraska.
   To our subject and his estimable wife there have been born two children, both sons, Eugene and Marion Cyrus. Eugene married Miss Mary J. Chamberlain, and is farming in South Branch Precinct; he is the father of four children -- Nellie M., Ina Elvira, Frederick and Vernon. Marion married Miss Sarah Whitaker, and is farming in Frontier County. Mr. Reeves cast his first Presidential vote for Martin Van Buren, and since its organization has been a stanch supporter of the Republican party. Mrs. Reeves is a member in good standing of the Methodist Rpiscopal (sic) Church at Rockford.
   Stacy Reeves, the father of our subject, a native of New Jersey, was born in 1785, and married in New York State, Miss Phebe Clark, who