opportunity to further its interests. He has been, most of the time since coming here, a member of the School Board of his district, served as Justice of the Peace two years, and has represented his precinct in the County Board of Supervisors. Both he and his estimable wife are members in good standing of the United Brethren Church, attending services at Union. Mr. Andrus officiates as Class-Leader, and is Assistant Superintendent of the Sunday-school. In this brief summary of his life it will be seen that he has been a good and useful citizen, and one whose name will he field in remembrance long after he has been gathered to his fathers.

SGIL S. WILL. There is no pleasanter picture to be found on the face of the globe than a well-regulated country estate, with fields of green and gold, with well-fed cattle, horses and swine, substantial farm buildings, groves of forest trees and orchards of fruit trees, and the air of plenty and comfort which surrounds the ideal homestead. These thoughts were suggested in a most forcible manner as the biographer strolled over a portion of the farm belonging to the subject of this sketch. He found him comfortably located on section 1, in Mt. Pleasant Precinct, and the owner of 400 acres of land, of which he became the possessor in February, 1883.
   During the early settlement of Nebraska, and before making his present purchase, Mr. Will had for some years operated on rented land, and thus acquired the capital with which to secure his first quarter-section, which lay in Rock Bluff Precinct. In the spring of 1886 he added to his real estate, and by subsequent purchase has become the owner of 400 broad acres, which, under his wise management, makes an estate of great value. The improvements are first-class, the dwelling being convenient and substantial, and the barn and other out-buildings suitably arranged for the storing of grain and the shelter of stock. Of the latter Mr. Will keeps about 200 head of cattle alone; he is, in fact, one of the largest stock-feeders in this locality. By close attention to business this industry has been to him the source of a fine income. The Will homestead, with its appurtenances, is one of the distinctive features of Mt. Pleasant Precinct, and reflects great credit upon the perseverance and industry of him by whom it was inaugurated and is being perpetuated.
   A native of the Old Dominion, our subject was born in Highland County, April 23, 1848, and is the son of Washington W. and Elizabeth (Arbogast) Will, the former of whom died about 1877. They also were natives of Virginia, and traced their ancestry to England. The paternal grandfather settled in Virginia during its early days, and there spent the remainder of his life. On the mother's side of the house the family were among the pioneers of Highland County. The parental family included seven children, six of whom are living. Of these Asgil S., our subject, was the eldest born son. Susan is the wife of Josiah Palmer, of Highland County, Va.; Swope H. came to the West about 1883, and lives in Mt. Pleasant Precinct, this county; Virginia married J. A. Harold, and they continue residents of West Virginia; Molly, the wife of Isaac Eckard, also lives there; William came to Nebraska about 1887. The mother is still living, being now nearly seventy years of age, and continues a resident of her native State, She is a good woman in the broadest sense of the term, and is held by her children and neighbors in the highest regard.
   Mr. Will was reared to man's estate in his native county, where he was early trained to habits of industry, and received but a limited education. He, however, availed himself of every opportunity to gain useful knowledge, and there are few men possessed of more practical information, and with whom it is more pleasant or profitable to converse. He found his bride in his native county, being married, Jan. 16, 1870, to Miss Barbara, daughter of Allies and Catharine (Waybright) Darold, who were also Virginians by birth, and who are now living in that State.
   Mr. and Mrs. Will commenced their wedded life together in Highland County, Va., and there became the parents of three children. Their household finally numbered seven, four sons and three daughters. These were named respectively: Fred-

erick S., Jasper N., Blanche, Nora B., Thomas, Minnie and Grover. Mr. Will cast his first Presidential vote for Horace Greeley in 1872, and has since continued a strong supporter of Democratic principles. He is at present serving as a School Director in his district, and lends a helping hand to those projects designed for the general welfare of the community. A man prompt to meet his obligations, and one scorning a mean action, he is a typical Virginian, with decided ideas, and one who, while having a thorough respect for the old usages, avails himself also of the new methods, and takes advantage of the age of progress, reducing to practice the theories which commend themselves to his judgment and understanding. In the management of his farm and business interests he displays the practical good judgment which is invariably crowned with success, and thus we find him surrounded by all of the comforts and many of the luxuries of life.
   Portraits of our subject and his estimable wife appear on adjoining pages, and elsewhere in this volume will also be found a view of his fine residence, which is a feature of the precinct.

OSEPH T. MILLS, a prosperous farmer and leading citizen, resides on section 8, Elmwood Precinct. He was born July 19, 1838, in the town of Argyle, Washington Co., N. Y., where he lived with his parents until reaching the age of twelve years, when the family removed to Peoria County, Ill., where his mother died in 1880, aged seventy years. He was the eldest son in a family of ten children, four sons and six daughters, born to his parents. His father now resides on section 4, in Elmwood Precinct, seventy-seven years old. The early years of our subject were spent in the ordinary farm duties of the time, and for many winters he drove oxen, hauling sawlogs and other similar work, in which he became an expert, having driven as high as nine teams of oxen at once. He pursued this life until the Civil War opened, and he at the age of twenty-four enlisted, Aug. 11, 1862, in Company E, 77th Illinois Infantry. He was mustered into the service at Peoria. From Peoria the regiment was sent South, and was attached to the 1st Brigade, 4th Division, 13th Army Corps. They first encountered the rebels in the swamps of the Yazoo River, before the battles of Vicksburg. They also participated in the engagement at Arkansas Post.
   The regiment of which our subject was a member was engaged in digging the canal that was designed by Gen. Grant to turn the floods of the Mississippi River, and leave Vicksburg an inland town. They took an active part in the siege of that city, and had a fierce and bloody encounter with the rebels at Champion Hills. In 1863 they were in the Louisiana campaign; in the autumn of the same year were in the Matagorda Bay expedition. In the spring of 1864 he was in the Red River campaign. In the desperate battle at Sabine Cross Roads or Mansfield, he and many other comrades were taken prisoners by the rebels and taken to Camp Ford, as the prison at Tyler, Tex., was known. At this place they suffered everything but death. The second night after arrival they had only raw cornmeal and salt meat to eat, and no water to drink. After suffering similar hardships for a long time, Lieut. Henry L. Bushnell and our subject planned to escape, and on Feb. 12, 1865, they were successful in getting away, and they eluded their pursuers until they reached Louisiana, when they were recaptured and placed in the bullpen at Shrevesport, La. The adventures and experiences had by the comrades were at once hazardous and romantic. Being pursued, and right in the rear of the rebel army, making their way slowly onward, suffering every hardship and hunger, cold and exposure, and their final recapture, would furnish an inexhaustible theme for the pen of the novelist.
   In April, 1865, they were removed from Shrevesport to Tyler, Tex., and confined in their first prison. For many weeks and months he, with his comrades, eked out a miserable existence in this Southern hell. While there the last time he became acquainted with John T. Roberts, of Lieut. Earl's United States Secret Service, who had been taken prisoner while out on a scouting expedition up the Mississippi River, and taken to Shrevesport, La. Here also he met Confederate Maj. Robin-

son, who proved to be a loyal man at heart, although forced to serve in the Confederate Army. Upon conversation they found they were both born near the same place in New York. The Major gave our subject a blanket and woolen shirt, which he needed very badly. While traveling in New York State a year or two ago he was happily surprised to meet the Major, and they passed many hours recalling the life in Tyler. The soldier Roberts, above referred to, did not dare reveal his identity, either to the prisoners or the Confederates. Had he done so he would have been tried and executed as a spy. He passed himself off as being a member of the 2d New York Cavalry.
   Our subject was the only man who gained his confidence to such a degree that he told him his real character and the branch of the service to which he belonged, and when captured was out on an expedition as special spy. Roberts was an interesting character, and it would have been pleasant to have continued the friendship formed under such trying circumstances, but Mr. Mills has lost track of him since he parted with him at New Orleans, at the close of the war. "Roberts of Natchez," as he was usually called, was a Southern born man, but a loyal Union citizen. He was offered a commission as Lieutenant Colonel if he would enter the Confederate service, but he hated the rebels and their cause, and to all their overtures he replied: "The stars and stripes shall be my winding sheet." They tried to make their escape in many ways. A second attempt was unsuccessful; they were quickly discovered and brought back to the prison. While in that prison our subject saw deeds of cruelty that would make one's blood run cold. Although they were often defeated in their attempts to get away they were determined to try again, and were always on the watch for something to turn up that would be to their advantage, and it was not long until the opportunity came. One day twenty prisoners were out in the woods for the purpose of gathering brush for fuel. Roberts and our subject met a disabled prisoner from the 6th Kansas Cavalry. Arrangements were made at once to have him go back to prison in order to make the number twenty, and let Roberts escape, and Roberts was to wait until Mills could make his escape and meet him. Like a flash this plan suggested itself: Twenty more of the boys would be let out in the afternoon to gather brush, and it was his plan to jump over the stockade while the guards were not looking. In this hazardous undertaking he was singularly successful, and the same afternoon he joined Roberts at a ravine west of the graveyard, as previously agreed upon.
   Mr. Mills and his comrade Roberts now being out of the stockade, laid their course toward the Sabine River. They had no arms or means of defense but a dirk knife. They put asafetida on their feet so the hounds might not trace them. At length, after enduring many hardships and privations, they reached the river. They ingeniously constructed a raft from sassafras poles that had been used in a trap to catch wild bogs. Mounting their raft away they went down the river, until finally the raft, began to sink, the wood having absorbed so much water, and they were obliged to abandon it. Scouting along the river bank they finally discovered a flat-bottom boat, which they appropriated to their use, and continued their journey down the river for a distance of 400 miles, It would require a volume to describe this journey with all its incidents, narrow escapes and dangers. They traveled at night and camped in the daytime, when they would conceal themselves and their boat. At one time they were lost in one of the numerous bayous.
   For the first time in their journey they were not able to agree -- Roberts wanted to leave the boat and Mills wanted to keep it. Roberts was of a very nervous disposition, and he broke down entirely. Being lost in a dismal place and at the point of starvation, and at the constant risk of being recaptured, were things that would test the bravest heart. Roberts swore, prayed and cried alternately. Mr. Mills finally succeeded in persuading him to stick to the boat, and carefully watching the current of the water, they were, in the course of an hour afterward, in the main channel of the Sabine River. Their objective point was the United States gunboats, which they knew were on the coast in the Gulf of Mexico. They had but little food for several days, and were now growing desperate. The small amount of parched

cornmeal and sugar Mr. Mills had received from the boys, which he had stored away in his haversack while in the prison, was exhausted. Roberts declared he would sooner starve than be caught in attempting to procure food, but a hungry man will undertake almost anything to relieve his sufferings. One night about 12 o'clock they came to a large plantation. Roberts at first thought it would be advisable to kill a mule with their knife, but finally they came to a place where a lot of hogs were confined. He got a piece of a rail and raised it to strike a porker on the head, but the blow took effect on a beam overhead. This aroused the hogs of course, so he came down to the river again, as he had left it, without any food.
   There was a fine cypress canoe belonging to the plantation, which they decided to take in exchange for their old friend, the flat-bottom boat. After a little consultation they formed the following plan: Mills should go up again to the plantation and make an effort to get some corn out of the crib, and if he was detected he should run back to the canoe, get into it and float down with the current. He was to lie flat on the bottom of the boat so he could not be hurt should he be fired at. This was a good plan, and its fulfillment undoubtedly saved his life. He approached the corn-crib very carefully, as he thought, but not so still but that he awakened a pack of hounds, who came rushing at him. He, thinking discretion the better part of valor, made for the canoe with all the speed of which he was capable. By the time he reached the boat twenty of the dogs were on the bank ready to attack him, he having escaped them by a very small margin of safety. Entering the boat with Roberts they resumed their journey down the stream. Their search for food in this instance proved unavailing.
   As morning was approaching they turned their boat into a bayou for the day's rest, and both being exhausted they fell soundly asleep. Our subject awakening from a frightful dream heard strange noises. Climbing to the top of a burr-oak tree he could see a large plantation in the distance. The noise which awoke him were the yells of a colored woman who was being terribly whipped. He aroused Roberts and told him of their dangerous situation. Without another word they got into their boat and moved down the river, seeking a more secluded place, which they found. and where they landed and concealed their boat. They had just got the boat hidden and themselves into shelter, when three white men, armed with guns, rowed down the river, evidently looking for our refugees. They apparently belonged to the plantation where the hounds had made the racket the night before. This was one of the many providential escapes and deliverances which occurred during this eventful journey. For two days more they had nothing to nourish them but sweet-briar root. Every night they would pass from two to four rebel boats. In such instances they rowed alongside of the rebels, so the men on board those boats could not see our wanderers, who had procured and wore the rebel uniform. If they had rowed on the opposite side of the stream they would have been seen and detected. During all the journey they spoke only to negroes, and when they got food or other supplies from them they swore them into eternal silence.
   Mr. Mills says he will never forget one full blooded African he met. One night, driven by hunger, they stopped at a large plantation and went up to arouse one of the negroes, and if possible procure something to eat. Of course this was a great risk. He succeeded in arousing a colored man and making him swear that she would never tell on him, and that he would support Abe Lincoln's government, and much more on the same line, to which the colored man eagerly assented, had faithfully gathered up all the crumbs and food left from the previous evening meal, and a quantity of corn meal, which he gave Mr. Mills. The old darkey was loyal to the heart's core, and he pleaded that he might go with our subject, promising him that he would assist him all he could, and when the war ended he would live with him all his life. They did not take him with them, but sped on their journey down the river.
   The rebels were stationed close to Sabine Lake, near which the refugees must pass. There they sunk their boat and concealed themselves in the rushes, having no weapons but oyster shells to protect themselves from the alligators, which