The first settler was Louis Neal, a half-breed, who, with his family, located there in 1853. Two years later, John C. Ellis settled there. The first child born in Aspinwall was Louis Neal, Jr., whose date of birth was in 1856. The first marriage was John C. Odell to Miss Harriet Neal; these parties now reside in Brownville. The first death was in 1856--Mrs. Mary Neal, mother of Louis Neal. An old settler assigns as a reason for naming the town Aspinwall, "We wanted to have a big name." The same pioneer remarks that his town "never enjoyed the luxury of a church." The first ferry, a flat-boat, was owned by John C. Ellis, and was run as early as 1856. A man named Higgler and Israel Cummings were among the earliest settlers. The first post office was established in 1860 and John M. Paulin was the first Postmaster. The present Postmaster is F. M. King. The first settler, Louis Neal, took his family to Aspinwall in 1853 and built a house, but hard times and the horde of begging Indians determined him to remove temporarily. He returned, however, in 1854, and made the town his home. Neal removed to the Omaha reservation some fifteen years since. In an affray with Fontenelle, chief of the Omahas, the latter was killed. Neal mollified the nearest relatives by presenting them with several valuable ponies. Marlatt & King are the present merchants. Ben. Holladay, of Washington City, brother of Dr. A. S. Hollady, owns 800 town lots in Aspinwall, and 1,600 acres of land in the precinct. In May, 1861, Dr. Holladay and John H. Mann established a paper called the Union, at Aspinwall, but, proving unremunerative, the office was removed to Brownville.

Aspinwall was surveyed as a town site in 1867, by J. M. Hacker. Louis Neal, James Craig, Patrick McLaughlin, Johnson Lyon, D. J. Waitian, Ben. Holladay, M. Romback, D. Phipps and Lucretia Holladay were the proprietors. The town site was on the south half of the northeast quarter and south half of the northwest quarter, and Lots 1, 2, 3 and 4, Section 20, and Lots 1 and 2, Section 17, Town 4, Range 16. The town had been laid out and platted at a much earlier date, but no official record was made. The date of original survey was in the year 1857. Louis Neal started the first store in 1856. Hoblitzel & Co., of Brownville, opened the second stock of goods in Aspinwall in 1858, in the store afterward occupied by Edward Weisenrider. The first sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Taylor, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1860. Among the earliest settlers were Darius Phipps, William Thurman, Henry Hart, Milton Paulin, J. Hegler. The first school was taught in the year 1861, by Clara Parker. The Order of Good Templars organized a vigorous lodge in 1877; the original list of officers is not attainable, but the following-named persons were the most active workers in the cause: S. Gilbert, Miss M. J. Steirs, A. L. Steirs, G. W. Culp, John S. Minick. The town was incorporated in 1870, with the following-named persons as the first town board: B. F. Hasness, Chairman; J. S. Minick, Henry Hart, John Crim and Charles Foy. At the date of its incorporation there were two stores--J. S. Minick and Ed. Weisenrider.

EUGENE ALLEMAND, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City, was born in France. He came to America in 1854, locating in St. Louis, Mo. Ten years later, he, with his father-in-law, J. Decuille, located on the present Allemand farm. Here, in 1873, a tasteful farmhouse, 33x33 feet, was built; they also planted a fifteen-acre cottonwood grove and a fine orchard of five acres, comprising apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, grapes, and all the small fruits. Mr. Decuille is now in his native France. Mr. Allemand, owning the large and well cultivated farm, he grows, annually, about 100 acres of small grains and 100 of corn, feeding each year about two car loads of cattle. He married Adele Decuille, by whom he has three children--Georgette, Leonie and Frank, all born on the Nebraska farm.

JAMES W. ARGABRIGHT, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City, was born in 1840, in Fayette County, Ky. Accompanied his father in his removal to Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, in 1859. Has lived on his present farm since 1862, and married Miss M. F. Moore, who was born in Burlington, Iowa. They have six children--Mary P., John W., Cora, Anna E., J. Paul and Richard M., all born in Nemaha County, as well as Zua, who died aged seven, and Samuel M., who died in infancy. Mr. Argabright and wife are members of the Christian Church. John Argabright was born in 1809, in Ohio. Removed to Kentucky, where he married Elizabeth Hillix, who died in Kansas, leaving him six children--Elizabeth, Victoria, James W., John H., Richard M. and Llewelyn. He became a settler of Kentucky at the age of twenty. Removed to Missouri in 1851, to Kansas in 1855, and then to Nebraska, in 1859, settling on his present farm, in Aspinwall, with his children. He married again Mrs. Serepta Vail, by whom he had four children--George V., Alma D., Winfield S. and Ernest L. Mr. Argabright was a Democrat, and a member with his wife, of the Christian Church. Mr. Argabright died April 29, 1882, in his seventy-third year.

D. D. DAVIS, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City. The subject of our sketch is a native of Wales, and was born in 1833. The year 1856 found him with his wife and child on American shores, locating in Iowa County, Wis. He remained until 1863, when he moved to Nebraska. He has since been the owner of a large and very valuable farm, land well improved. Mr. Davis is a member of the Welsh Baptist Church, with his wife, and in his house the first Sabbath school was organized. He is politically a Republican, and is now serving a second term of Justice of the Peace. They have six children--David (born in Wales), Thomas, John, Benjamin, George and Mary. Mr. Davis is a son of David Davis, who was, for years, County Clerk of Carmarthenshire. Mrs. Davis' maiden name was Rachel Davis, daughter of David Davis, Deacon of Baptist Church, Carmarthen.

HON. JOHN B. FISHER, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City, is a son of Isaac Fisher, a native of North Carolina, who settled, in 1828, in Tazewell County, Ill. Here John B. Fisher was born in 1829. He followed farming until 1866, when he brought his family to Nebraska, locating on a farm, where he has since lived, taking this quarter-section as the hand of Dame Nature left it. He has made it one of the most fertile and valuable in the county, and has planted upon it about 700 fruit trees, and fine groves of forest timber, and several hundred rods of hedge, besides erecting substantial buildings. Mr. Fisher was elected as a Republican to the State Senate, in the fall of 1874. He married, in Woodford County, Ill., Mary J. Linn, native of Ohio. They have four living children--Lavina, Clarissa, Martha E. and George. The daughters were born in Illinois and the son in Nebraska.

THOMAS HIGGINS, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City, was born, in 1817, in Wales; came to America when twenty years of age, locating in Oneida County, N. Y., remaining in that State until he removed to Wisconsin, in 1854. In the spring of 1859, he came from Wisconsin (with a team) to Nebraska, locating on his present farm with his family. He began life here in a rude shanty, sided up with black walnut boards, which still stands, though in striking contrast to the tasteful farmhouse which superseded it in 1869. Mr. Higgins and wife belong to the Baptist Church, and in the old house the first religious services in the vicinity were held, by the Rev. Mr. Collins, in 1859-60, there being only ten members in the congregation. Mr. and Mrs. Higgins have seven children-- Ann (Mrs. R. Ritchie), Elizabeth (Mrs. Francis Hart), Mary (Mrs. William Wilkinson), Daniel, who married Lucy Christy, and is now managing the homestead; David, who married Eliza James, and is now farming in another part of the county; John, of the firm of Moore & Higgins, merchants at Stella, and who married Rosa Edwards. The youngest, Margaret Higgins, is the wife of Thomas Edwards, of Richardson County. Mr. and Mrs. Higgins have thirty-three grandchildren, the eldest of whom; Ida May Ritchie, is now married to Charles Collins, of Richardson County, Neb.

FRANK M. KING, merchant and Postmaster, Aspinwall, was born August 17, 1848, in Livingston County, N. Y. His father, Mason A. King, removed to Iowa before the outbreak of the civil war. Frank M. King was educated in Colesburg, Iowa, and in Lennox College. Soon after leaving college, he came to Nebraska and taught school for about ten years, in Richardson County, where he now owns a farm. He married Miss Sarah E. Marlatte, by whom he has one son, Clyde F., born in Richardson County, in February, 1881. Mr. King associated himself with his father-in-law, the firm of Marlatte & King, buying the bankrupt stock of William Tidrow, Aspinwall, and continuing the business. Mr. King was appointed Postmaster in March, 1881.

W. M. LAMBERT, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City, is by birth a Virginian, and by trade a stone-mason. Seven long years of his life were spent on the stone work along the line of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. In June, 1857, he came to Nebraska, H. Elliott and himself platting Blue Springs, Gage County. Three years later, he came east to the Missouri River, running saw-mills along its banks for five years. In 1866, he located in a rude log house on a farm four miles east of his present farm. This he brought to a good state of improvement; then, in 1870, began on a larger scale on his present farm. He had only about $200 after paying for his land, and yet he now has one of the best fenced and improved farms in the county; his orchard and forest-tree grove are a credit to him, or any other settler, while his tasteful farmhouse, 18x26 and 16x32, is one of the best in this county. Mr. Lambert married Melinda Long, of Franklin County, Va., and they hare eight children--Albert, Edward, Curtis, James, Charles, Sarah E., Emma and George W. Another son, John W., died in infancy.

MARLATTE & KING, merchants, Aspinwall. Mr. Marlatte was born in 1833, in Monroe County, N. Y. Until his eighteenth year, he was on his father's farm ; then clerked in a store and attended school until his removal, in 1854, to Holt County, Mo. In April, 1856, he came to Nemaha County, Neb. In 1855, he had made a claim on the present Division Plasters' farm, which was jumped. Mr. Marlatte taught school in Missouri, and continued the same business in Nebraska for about six years. He then engaged for about fifteen years in farming, and still owns a good farm in Brownville Precinct. Mr. Marlatte married Nellie M. Gulic, by whom he has two daughters, Effie, the wife of William Drain, and Sarah E., wife of F. M. King, his present partner.

ALEXANDER R. McCANDLASS, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City. Mr. McCandlass was born in 1818 in Wayne County, Ind., but lived many years in Pennsylvania before coming West. He married in Pittsburgh, his native city and life-long home, Rachel McCulloch. This lady shared the privations and inconveniences attendant upon their settlement in Omaha, Neb., in 1857. This Western metropolis was then a mere village like the Nemaha of to-day. In 1859, Mr. McCandlass became one of the settlers in Saratoga, a rising suburb of Omaha, making a claim on a quarter of Section 20, of which he still owns. He secured it only after much litigation, the case being carried before the Secretary of the Interior at Washington. It is thought that the patent finally granted Mr. McCandlass was the first ever signed by President Lincoln. Having learned the trade of carpenter in the East, Mr. McC. found plenty of employment in and about Omaha for a short time after his location here, he then devoting himself to his farm interests. In 1869, he bought of Dr. Burley his present magnificent farm of 640 acres, paying $6 per acre. It was as the hand of nature left it, and during the spring of 1870 fifty acres were broken by his sons and Mr. McCandlass himself. The tasteful and roomy farmhouse was then built. It is two stories, the main building being 26x32, and the wings 16x18, surrounded by various shade and ornamental trees and two orchards wherein are growing over 1,000 apple and peach trees. In a third and young orchard are several hundred trees, and this with the other groves give the "Forest Home" an unusually sylvan appearance. The farm is well supplied with springs and spring brooks; 140 acres are seeded with timothy, a grass that holds a high place in the estimation of Mr. McCandlass, who sold from eighty acres of it $700 worth of seed, besides wintering about 100 head of cattle on the hay. Mr. and Mrs. McCandlass have six children--Sadie E., James A., Elliott S., Alexander, Belle and Harvey K.

MICHEL MONETTE, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City, born in 1830 in the Montreal District, Can. Settled, when seventeen years of age, in Iowa ; went to Illinois in 1851, and to the Rocky Mountains in the employ of the American Fur Company in 1855; returned in 1857, and located on a farm in Richardson County, Neb. Married, in Nemaha City, in 1858, Mary Beaunon, who was born near the present site of Omaha, Neb. They have seven children--David M., Jenelene, Maggie, Abbie L., Michel, Peter and Cassie. Mr. Monette has improved three farms in Nebraska, and settled where he now lives in 1872. He is one of the prosperous early settlers of this State, and a man well known and respected by his neighbors.

HON. V. P. PEABODY, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City, was born March 15, 1842, in Ceres, N. Y. His father, Thomas Peabody, removed with his family in 1844 to a farm in Athens County, Ohio. V. P. Peabody, to use a homely term, shirked for himself ever since he was nine years old, first as a drover's boy, then as cabin boy on an Ohio River steamer, and later seeking an independent livelihood in Illinois, where he located in 1856. He enlisted in April, 1861, in the Seventeenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry; received slight wounds at the battle of Shiloh; was discharged, and six weeks later re-enlisted in the Seventy-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Served with Grant through the Vicksburg campaign, and under Gen. Banks went on the celebrated Red River expedition; was captured and confined for fourteen months in various rebel prisons in Texas. He made his escape on four different occasions, only to be re-captured and severely punished by bucking, gagging, etc. He was exchanged at the mouth of the Red River, and honorably discharged at Springfield, Ill. For two years thereafter, he was under medical treatment in Chicago for disease of the eyes contracted while in confinement. In 1868, he came to Nebraska, located on his present farm in 1876, it being the third farm he has improved in the State. Upon it he has built a tasteful home, flanked by a fine grove of fruit and forest trees. Mr. P. was United States Census Enumerator in 1880, and was elected as a Republican to the Legislature from his district in 1881. He was married, February 7, 1869, to Mary E. Dressler, of Tazewell County, Ill., by whom he has five children--Laura A., Mina C., Lester M., Elsie M. and Clarence, all born in Nemaha County, Neb.

R. RITCHIE, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City. Mr. Ritchie is a native of Switzerland, born in 1834; he came, in 1852, to America, living in New York, Ohio and Indiana prior to his location in Nebraska in 1858. During the first few years he worked as a sawyer in many of the early saw-mills. In 1860, he, with J. Sidoras and M. Kavanagh, ran a steam saw-mill in Brownville. From 1863 to 1866, he was in the same business in Excelsior, Mo., and Hillsdale, Neb. Late in 1866, he located on an "eighty" adjoining his present farm, now incorporated with it. Mr. Ritchie began with raw prairie, and has made a good farm and pleasant home, erecting substantial buildings; planting trees, etc. He married Ann Higgins, by whom he has seven children--Ida May (Mrs. C. Collins), Mathew W., Alice E., Arthur B., Lewis G., Isabel and Garfield.

E. D. ROGERS, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City, was born in 1832, in Crawford County Ind.; two years later his father, Levi Rogers died at his place, in 1873, aged eighty-six years, removed with his family to DeWitt county, Ill. From there, in 1854, they removed to Hardin County, Iowa. E. D. Rodgers enlisted in the Thirty-second Iowa Regiment, October, 1862, serving under the Union General, A. J. Smith, in scouting and guard duty in Arkansas and Missouri, until chronic disease caused his honorable discharge in October, 1863. In 1864, Mr. Rogers settled on his present farm of 240 acres; here he has planted a large orchard and grove of forest trees, built a commodious farmhouse and made other improvements. He was married, in Hardin County, Iowa, to Mary Sumner, born in St. Francisville, Mo. They have seven children--Laura E. (now Mrs. J. W. Coons), Helen (Mrs. Henry Neff), Rosa, Alvah R., Leroy, Effie and Eddie. Addie A. Rogers died July 10,1865.

HENRY W. SHUBERT, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City. Mr. Shubert was born in Kentucky, and settled in 1865, in Richardson County, Neb., where he still owns two large and valuable farms. Has been a resident of Nemaha County from 1873, and is the owner in both count/es of over 700 acres of land. Mr. Shubert has built a large and well-arranged farmhouse here, and is now erecting a barn of corresponding dimensions. Nearly all the grain grown on his farms is fed to cattle and hogs. Mr. Shubert being regarded as one of the progressive farmers of the county. By a deceased wife, formerly Mary Griffin, he has seven children. The present Mrs. Shubert was Miss Mary, daughter of A. D. Skeen, Esq., one of the earliest pioneers of the State, and an honored resident of Nemaha City. James M. Shubert, a brother of H. W.. was born in Indiana; came to Nebraska with H. W. Shubert, and met a tragic death at Brownville in March, 1882; while driving a spirited team between the railroad track and the river near the Brownville depot, a passing train caused the team to plunge about in such a way as to break loose from the wagon, throwing Mr. Shubert forward so violently as to cause death instantaneously. The horses sprang into the river and were drowned. Mr. Shubert was a bachelor, and a large land-owner, a man whose manly ways made many friends, and one whose generous qualities will long be missed. J. W. Shubert, of the firm of Shubert & Rogers, Stella, Neb., is another of this family, as is W. M. Shubert, now a Richardson County farmer.

SAMUEL L. STIERS, farmer, P. O. Nemaha City; born in 1831, in Guernsey County, Ohio. Located, April 10, 1855, in Brownsville, working as a carpenter on Richard Brown's saw-mill, the first in the county. Mr. Stiers has the honor of being the first man married in Nemaha County, as he was united, June 10, 1855, to Miss Nancy Swift, the Rev. Joel Wood performing the ceremony in a log building near the present site of Nickell's drug store. They reared a family of ten children--Sarah B., Mary J., Joseph, Leila, Samuel (deceased), John, Elmer, Maggie, Ida and Minnie, both deceased. The eldest was born August 19, 1856, it being one of the first births in Nemaha County. Mr. Stiers has followed the occupation of farmer and carpenter ever since his settlement, and is now a resident of Aspinwall Precinct.

EDWARD WEISENREDER, of Aspinwall, was born, 1834, in Baden, Germany. Came to America in 1854, and located in Illinois; removed to Nebraska in 1863, locating at Aspinwall, where, in partnership with Joseph Watton, he engaged in mercantile business for sixteen years. Was Postmaster of Aspinwall from 1866 to 1872, and from 1877 to 1881. He now owns about one-third of the entire village site; a large tract of land in the same precinct, and is erecting a commodious residence in the village. He married, January 16, 1866, Miss Wilhelmina, daughter of J. B. Rothenburger, by whom he has three children--Adelia, Minnie and Frank. The parents of Mrs. Weisenreder are among the first settlers of Nebraska, as they located near Humboldt in 1854, and are still living there.