USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 22
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On March 10, 1866, Mr. Scott was married to Anna P. Rogers, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and was a daughter of the late P. M. and Sarah (Beeler) Rogers, old settlers of Pawnee county. Mrs. Scott died January 27, 1902. She was a most estimable lady and possessed the grace and hospitality of her southern birth. The children of this marriage were: Mrs. Sadie Wheeler, of Montesano, Washington; Katie; Effie; Charles M .; Robert; Frank; John T. and George C. Five are de- ceased, one of these, Harry S., being a young man of great promise. Burr died at the age of four years. Matthew died aged two years, John died at the age of sixteen, and an infant died aged one year.
Mr. Scott has served Pawnee county as commissioner for nine years and has also been assessor, filling every office with efficiency. He be- longs to John Ingham Post No. 95, Grand Army of the Republic. He is one of the most public-spirited and progressive men of this section and is liberal in his support of education and church work. Few men of this county are more universally esteemed.
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JOHN A. WARD.
John A. Ward, ex-manager of rural mail route No. 4, of Paw- nee city, Nebraska, is a well known and respected citizen. He was born May 18, 1847, near Bloomington, McLean county, Illinois, and was a lad of eleven years when he came to the territory of Nebraska, on April II, 1858. He is a son of David Adison and Sarah (Harrah) Ward, the later of whom was born in Indiana and was a daughter of Dr. John Harrah, a native of West Virginia. She was her husband's second wife.
David A. Ward was born in Greenbrier county, West Virginia, and he married first a Miss Reeves and had three children : James O., Susan L. and David A. He died in 1851 and left his widow in McLean county, Illinois, with two children : John A. and Joseph R., who died in Ottawa county, Kansas. The mother later married John N. Burge, and in 1858 they came to Nebraska and took up a claim in Pawnee county. Here Mr. Burge died and his widow made her home in Pawnee county with her step-children, Lydia and Lucinda. Later she married Reason Ball and she died at the age of fifty-five years. She was a true pioneer woman . and possessed all the endurance and many virtues of that courageous class. She was beloved in life and mourned in death.
In June, 1862, Mr. John A. Ward enlisted in the army, entering Company I, Fifty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was on duty at Frankfort, Richmond and Lexington, Kentucky. In 1863, after his hon- orable discharge, he visited his mother in Indiana and then returned to Pawnee city, after spending two years at Minneapolis, Ottawa county, Kansas. At the age of twenty-five years he was married in Pawnee coun- ty to Hannah Gallagher, a most estimable lady. She was born near Zanes- ville, Ohio, and is a daughter of Davis and Elizabeth (Morrison) Gal- lagher, early settlers of Pawnee county, who lived through the early Indian troubles in Nebraska. Her father was the first blacksmith in
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Pawnee city and lived to the age of eighty-four years. He was a strong Republican. He died in 1896.
The mother died in 1879. Both parents were much respected and belonged to the hospitable and kind and neighborly people of this com- munity. Their children were : Mrs. Ann Syrung; Mrs. Mary Stall ; Mrs. Hannah Ward; Mrs. Susan McKee, deceased; John ; and James, of Paw- nee city. Both Mrs. Ward and Mrs. McKee were among the first teach- ers in Pawnee county. Mr. Ward served for six months under Colonel Mason, on the plains, in the Indian war.
On November 15, 1900, Mr. Ward began his service on the rural mail route and continued in that service for thirty-two months. His serv- ices were satisfactory in every particular and he had hosts of friends. His daughters are both capable business women, the elder, Lenie, being a teacher and also the manager of the Girl's Industrial School at Geneva, Nebraska, and the other, Susie, being a popular clerk in this city. Mrs. Ward and daughters belong to the Christian church. Mr. and Mrs. Ward have taken little Fern Burlingame to rear and educate.
In politics Mr. Ward is a Republican and is the youngest ex-soldier member of John Ingham Post No. 95, of the Grand Army of the Re- public.
LEWIS H. DEAN.
Lewis H. Dean, who is one of the old settlers of Pawnee coun- ty, Nebraska, coming to Clay township in 1878, is a highly respected citizen and an honored survivor of the Civil war. He was born March 5, 1838, at Xenia, Ohio, and is a son of Joseph Dean, who was born in Kentucky, in 1804, and a grandson of Daniel Dean, who was born in
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county Down, Ireland. The family was established in Kentucky shortly after the settlement of Daniel Boone.
Joseph Dean crossed the river into Ohio, in young manhood, and there married Hannah Boggs, who was born in Gallia county, Ohio, a daughter of Samuel Boggs, who later moved to northwestern Indiana. Joseph Dean and wife took up a homestead farm in Ohio and lived there all their lives engaged in farming, both passing away when about eighty years old. Mr. Joseph Dean was a Whig in politics. The Dean family was Presbyterian in religious belief, while the Boggs's were Methodists. These parents had children born to them as follows: George Washington died in Ohio; Mrs. Julia A. Struthers died at Monmouth, Illinois; Daniel, of Cedarville, Ohio; Louise and Willis both died young; Lewis H .; Anna Oldham lives in Xenia; Joseph N., of Xenia, was a member of Company B, Fortieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and for years after the war served as probate judge; Mrs. Mary C. Wright lives in Dayton, Ohio; Samuel S. is a prominent man in Green county and lives on the old homestead; and Eliza J., wife of Rev. Renwick, died in Henderson county, Illinois.
Lewis H. Dean grew up in Ohio and attended the district schools. On April 16, 1861, he enlisted in defense of his country's flag, just four days after Fort Sumter had been fired upon, entering the Twelfth Ohio Infantry for ninety days. His second enlistment was on August 12, 1862, with Company H, Ninety-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and his faithful service continued until the close of the war. He served under Generals Rosecrans and Thomas and took part in many of the leading battles of the war, among these being Perryville, Stone River, Chicka- mauga, Missionary Ridge, and Bentonville, later going with Sherman to the sea; marching through the Carolinas and triumphantly to the grand review at Washington city. Mr. Dean came out of the service
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unharmed and had never been incapacitated for duty. He has a record of which he may justly be proud.
On November 5, 1861, Mr. Dean was married to Miss Panetta Haines, who was born in Greene county, Ohio, and is a daughter of Sam- uel P. and Rebecca (McFarland) Haines, an old Tennessee family, and a brother of Alfred A. Haines, who was a soldier in the Eighth Ohio Cavalry and now lives in Texas. In 1867 Mr. Dean removed to Clay county, Illinois, but in 1878 came to Pawnee county, Nebraska. He secured a farm of two hundred and forty acres, but this he sold in 1901. He went to California in 1893 and spent eighteen months there. Mrs. Dean died May 26, 1895, aged fifty-seven years. She was the beloved mother of these children; Mrs. Lula M. Albro died at Pasadena, Cal- ifornia; Mrs. Florence McCall, of Washington, Kansas; Lida Gertrude died at the age of eleven years, at White Hall, Illinois, on the journey to Nebraska; Rena is Mrs. Frankenfield of Pawnee city; Mrs. Cora Lo- baugh, of Washington, Kansas; Willis is a successful physician of Sioux City, Iowa; Clara E. is the wife of Dr. A. P. Fitzsimmons, of Tecumseh, Nebraska; Frank A. is a dentist at Colville, Washington ; Joseph Calvin, a bright young man, was accidentally killed in 1890.
On October 28, 1896, Mr. Dean married Mrs. Harriet A. Stephen- son, who is a daughter of William and Senath (Powers) Farrow, of Axtell, Kansas. She had two brothers in the Civil war, Gideon, a member of an Iowa regiment, and William, a member of an Illinois regiment.
Mr. and Mrs. Dean have a home in Pawnee city and own two valu- able farms in Washington county, Kansas, and one of one hundred and ninety-six acres near Emmons. In politics Mr. Dean is a Prohibitionist and he belongs to the John Ingham Post No. 95, Grand Army of the Republic. They have several articles of great historic values in their
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home, one a table one hundred and ninety-three years old, and a gold- smith's mortar formerly used to crush gold.
ROBERT D. BENNETT.
Robert D. Bennett, one of the prosperous and highly respected farmers of Douglas precinct, Nemaha county, Nebraska, was born in Scotland, near Edinburg, December 2, 1833.
His father, Hugh Bennett, also a native of Scotland, was by occupa- tion a coal miner, who came first to America, about 1823, to see his only brother, whose death, however, occurred in Pennsylvania before his ar- rival here. After eighteen months spent in this country at that time, he returned to Scotland. Subsequently, at different times, members of the family came to America, a son-in-law, James Stoddard, and his wife and children, being the first. They came in 1848. In 1850 the father returned, accompanied by his son William, and in 1851 they were fol- lowed by the mother and two daughters and Robert D. This last party was five weeks and two days in making the voyage from Liverpool to New Orleans. They settled in Jackson county, Illinois. The following year, 1852, while at St. Lousi Missouri, Hugh Bennett died of cholera, his age at death being a little more than sixty years. His widow died in Belleville, Illinois, in 1860. She was before marriage Miss Jane Robin- son. Of their eight children, six reached adult age, namely : Violet, wife of James Stoddard, died in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1852; Barbara died in Scotland; William died in Nemaha county, Nebraska, in 1901 ; Mrs. Sarah Nicholson is a widow residing in Nemaha county; Robert D. is the next in order of birth, and Ann is the wife of Henry Naysmith, of Nemaha county.
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Robert D. Bennett had limited educational advantages in his youth, his schooling being obtained chiefly in night sessions. At the early age of ten years he began work in the mines. He remained a member of the home circle until his marriage.
Mr. Bennett was first married, in 1856, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Miss Jane Kinghorne, who died, childless, at Belleville, Illinois, in 1862. March 4, 1869, he married Miss Sarah E. Long, daughter of John and Rachael (Price) Long. John Long was a native of Washington coun- ty, Maryland, born August 1, 1811, and his wife was a native of Balti- more county, that state, the date of her birth being October 29, 1811. They were married at Beardstown, Illinois, November 2. 1836, and set- tled soon afterward on a farm in St. Clair county, Illinois, where they made their home until 1852. That year they moved to Atchison county, Missouri, and in 1856 they came to Nemaha county, Nebraska. Before the family moved here, Mr. Long visited this locality on a prospecting trip. He was the first white man here. The first house he built-a double log house-was burned by the Indians. In 1857, the year following their permanent settlement, he pre-empted a claim, and in 1866 he took a homestead claim, making in all three hundred and twenty acres; and by industry and good management he accumulated a competency. He and his good wife were the parents of ten children, as follows: Ephraim, born in 1838, died in Nemaha county, in May, 1890, leaving a family of four sons and one daughter ; John, who died in childhood in Illinois; A. J., who died in 1856; Mrs. Bennett, born in Illinois, August 9, 1842 ; Melinda Ann, wife of William Stoddard, was born in 1844: Josephine, wife of John Loveless; Rachel Melvina, wife of Elbridge Hughes; Mary Jane ; Louisa B., died at the age of thirteen years ; and the youngest, a daughter, died in infancy, in Illinois.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennett have had seven children, namely : Robert,
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who died at the age of sixteen months; Mary J., wife of J. G. Ramsey ; Frank, a farmer, resides near his father; Anna, wife of Albert Allspa ; Rachael, wife of Russell Razean; Grace, at home; and an infant son. Mr. Bennett has taken pleasure in affording his children better educa- tional advantages than it was possible for him to have in his youth. His daughter Anna won the one hundred dollar prize, awarded for scholar- ship, at the Auburn high school.
It was on Christmas Day, 1869, that Mr. Bennett landed in Nemaha county, Nebraska, with his wife, and they took up their permanent abode here on land he purchased at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. Several years previous to this, in 1857, he had been here and pre-empted land. A change in the law, however, made this pre-emption claim invalid. He is the owner of two hundred acres, well improved, where he carries on general farming. During the early years of his residence here he worked early and late, but of recent years as his health and strength have waned, he has turned the laborious part of the farm work over to younger and stronger hands. His present residence he built in 1883. A large two-story, square house, it stands in a pleasant location; its books and its pictures, and its general surroundings, both inside and out, give evidence of the culture and refinement of the family as well as the prosperity which is theirs.
Mr. Bennett cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, and has harmonized with the Republican party ever since, always taking an active interest in local affairs and frequently, as a delegate, attending the conventions of his party.
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O. H. LOCH.
O. H. Loch, county treasurer of Pawnee county, Nebraska, is one of the well-known and popular citizens of this part of the state. He was born August 3, 1875, in Pawnee county, and is a son of the late Walter Loch, an early settler here and a native of Scotland. In that country Walter Loch married Isabella Rutherford, and in 1859 they came to the United States and settled in Henry county, Illinois. Fourteen years la- ter they came to Pawnee county, Nebraska, and settled in West Branch township, where Walter Loch operated a farm. He died there at the age of seventy years. He became a man of prominence in his township and held many positions of trust and responsibility. In politics he was a Republican and served many times as delegate to conventions and for three years was a county commissioner. The mother of our subject died at the age of sixty-five years. Both parents were most estimable Christian people. They had a family of eleven children born to them as follows : Mrs. Jennie Scott ; Mrs. Ellen Welch; George; James ; Walter C., assist- ant county treasurer ; Mary Loch : O. H .; W. T .; A. R .; Bessie died at the age of twenty years; Mrs. Katie Reece died aged twenty-seven years.
O. H. Loch was reared on the old homestead and developed a fine physique in the active outdoor life of the farm. He was educated in the local schools and spent two years at the Pawnee Academy. He then engaged in the drug business for a time and then served three years as assistant cashier in the First National Bank. His eminent qualifications and his popularity made him the choice of his party and the public for the office of county treasurer, to which honorable position he was elected in 1901, having a majority of sixty-one votes over his opponent, and was re-elected in 1903 with a majority of seven hundred and sixty-three.
On August 23, 1900, Mr. Loch was married to Miss H. M. Kelley,
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and they have one son, Oliver H. Fraternally Mr. Loch is an Odd Fel- low, also a member of Pawnee Lodge No. 23, A. F. and A. M.
He has the distinction of being the youngest county treasurer in the state.
MICHAEL SHAFER.
Michael Shafer, who is a prominent retired farmer in Stella, Ne- braska, has enjoyed a most prosperous career of over twenty-five years in Southeastern Nebraska, and he is certainly deserving of the rewards of his life's efforts, because of his willing industry and perseverance in striving for a definite goal. He is reputed to be one of the wealthy men of Richardson county, and is accordingly esteemed for the successful out- come of his useful and well spent life. He came to Nebraska before the days of that state's great prosperity, having only a small amount of capital, and by judicious investment and wise management, supplemented always by his energy and diligence, in a few years he came into posses- sion of a large amount of landed property, and has ever since been on the up grade of financial and material prosperity.
Mr. Shafer was born in Clark county, Indiana, December 3, 1848, and when almost thirty years of age, on August 28, 1878, arrived in Falls City, Nebraska, from Carroll county, Illinois, where he had been reared from the age of three years. His parents were George and Rebecca Ann (Miller) Shafer, both natives of Germany, whence they were brought to this country at the respective ages of eight and five years. His maternal grandfather Miller spent fourteen weeks on the voyage to this country, and, coming here with small means, followed farming in the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Mis- souri ; he reared two sons and two daughters. George and Rebecca Ann Shafer were industrious people, and to the property inherited from their
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parents they added a large bulk by their own efforts, and were able to set their children on the sea of life with good advantages. They were members of the Evangelical church.
The children born to George and Rebecca Ann Shafer were as fol- lows: Elizabeth, a widow in Stella, has six children; William, who at the age of eighteen served for six months in Company E, Fifteenth Illi- nois Infantry, and was discharged from the hospital, is now a retired farmer in Polo, Illinois, with two daughters : Mrs. Melvina Manning was accidentally killed while driving a team, and left five children ; the fourth is Michael Shafer; Reuben is a retired farmer in Brookville, Illinois, and has three sons and three-daughters; George lives at Fremont, Carroll county, Illinois, and has a daughter and twin sons, the latter as much alike as two peas : Joseph died in Illinois at the age of thirty years, leaving a son and a daughter ; Wesley is in Jewell City, Kansas; Martha, the widow of Henry Weaver, of Richardson county, has five children; and Mary is the wife of Isaac Campbell, of Polo, Illinois, and has two living daughters, and lost four.
Mr. Michael Shafer was reared on a farm, enjoying only a fair common schooling, which in his later years he has supplemented by abund- ant reading and intelligent observation of affairs of the world. At the age of fourteen he began working in a blacksmith shop in Polo, Illinois, and was thus engaged steadily for three years, and then for five follow- ing winters. He remained at home until his removal to Nebraska in 1878. He came here with six hundred dollars, and first bought an eighty acre farm. He sold this two years later, and purchased a quarter section at ten dollars an acre, later forty acres for one thousand dollars, and still later eighty acres for thirty-two hundred dollars. This fine farm of two hundred and eighty acres is now worth from seventy-five to one hundred dollars an acre. It is divided and conducted as two farms with two sets
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of buildings. In addition he owns his good home in Stella, with eight lots in all. He has carried on general farming, and of late years has done considerable stock-raising.
Mr. Shafer was married December 19, 1886, to Miss Lillie Ann Bright, who was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, in 1865, and died on the home farm in Nebraska, December 23, 1891, having lost an infant daughter, Bertha Adelia, and leaving her only living daughter, Jessie Myrtle who was born June 23, 1890. Mrs. Shafer was a good scholar and a musician, and a lady of much culture and ability, and especially skillful in all kinds of needle work. Her death was due to consumption, and she was ill from March to December. Mr. Shafer was married on September 1, 1893, to his present wife, who was Mrs. Malinda Sultz- baugh, a daughter of William and Catherine (Erdman) Kehres, the former of who was born in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, April 5, 1806, and the latter born in 1808, and died in 1884. Mrs. Shafer has her only son, William Sultzbaugh, who was born in 1882, and is a steady young man engaged in farming in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Shafer were married in Chicago, while he was there attending the world's fair. Mrs. Shafer was a successful manager of a boarding house in Chicago for six years, at two locations on the north side, and owing to her energy and executive ability, she has not been content to be at ease since her mar- riage, and in the fall of 1903 opened a boarding house in Stella, of which she is the popular hostess and which has a well deserved reputation for appetizing and wholesome cuisine and first-class homelike comfort. She is also a member and an active worker in the Baptist church, and is held in the highest esteem among all circles of Stella and the vicinity. Mr. Shafer has fraternal affiliations with the Ancient Order of United Work- men, and in politics is a stanch Republican, but content to perform his duties of citizenship by casting intelligently his ballot for good men and
WALTER D. BUSH
MRS. WALTER D. BUSH
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good principles. His religious creed is a strict observance of the golden rule, and his life history shows how well he has followed this principle.
WALTER D. BUSH.
Walter D. Bush, who passed away from his sorrowing friends and household on October 26, 1903, had during the latter years of his life passed his days in retirement from the activities of his earlier career, and his death occurred on his pleasant home farm in Glen Rock precinct, Nemaha county.
Mr. Bush was born in Leeds county, Ontario, Canada, January 5, 1828, and had accordingly lived more than three quarters of a century when his life was terminated. He had in his veins a mixture of English, Irish and German blood, his paternal ancestors being English and Irish, and his mother's people being of German origin. His father, F. T. Bush, was born in Rutland county, Vermont, about 1799, and died in Johnson county, Nebraska, about 1885. Grandfather William T. Bush, a native of Rutland, Vermont, was a tailor and fine machinist. He died when his son, F. T., was a boy, and grandmother Bush subsequently married a Mr. Sutherland. F. T. Bush married, in 1825, Narcissa Middleton, a native of Canada, born in 1805, daughter of Ezekiah and Betsy (Carpen- ter) Middleton, of Rutland, Vermont. They became the parents of eleven children, all of whom reached adult age, namely: Sidney, a farmer and miller in Canada, and later in Nebraska, to which place he came in 1875, died in this state in 1900, leaving a widow and one daugh- ter and an adopted son ; Walter D .; Emma, widow of W. W. West, lives in Lenawee county, Michigan; Azubah, wife of Knowlton Lawrence, died in Iowa at the age of twenty-three years, leaving one son; Jane,
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unmarried, died in South Dakota at the age of fifty-eight years; Andrew, a farmer in Johnson county, Nebraska, is married and has a family of four children ; Hester Ann, wife of Edward Williams, died in Lockport, New York, at the age of thirty-three years, leaving four children ; Albert, a Montana farmer, has a wife, two sons and two daughters; Jonas, a Union soldier in the Civil war, died in hospital at Little Rock, Arkansas, in October, 1865, at the age of twenty years; Wallace W., a farmer and miller of Idaho, has a wife and eight children ; and Julia, wife of Austin Nickelson, of the state of Washington, is the mother of five children.
The first emigration of the Bush family to Nebraska was in 1866, when Albert and Andrew Bush, the latter of whom died June 10, 1904, settled in Johnson county. A year later, in 1867, Walter D. Bush left his home in Canada and followed his brothers to this state. Here he acquired one hundred and sixty acres of land in Glen Rock precinct, Nemaha county, and made that his home and place of business all the re- maining years of his useful life, having made farming and milling his principal occupations.
February 14, 1849, Walter D. Bush married Miss Eliza Ann Bul- lard, who was born in Canada in 1829, a daughter of Josiah and Amy (Sly) Bullard. She shared the joys and sorrows of life with him for over half a century, until her death, January 9, 1900. Two children were given to them, a son and a daughter, the former dying in Canada at the age of four years; the latter, with her family, now residing at the old homestead.
About twenty-five years before his death Mr. Bush met with a serious accident which resulted in the loss of his left eye. In politics he was throughout his long residence in the United States a Republican. Whether in the United States or in Canada he always stood ready to defend the stars and stripes, as did his father and grandfather before
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