USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
Mr. Jones is a stanch Republican, but his voting years extend back a number of campaigns before the formation of the Republican party. He has held no office except in connection with school affairs. He belongs to no society or creed, and is a free man in every sense of the word.
375
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
APPOLLAS H. MILLAR.
The industrial interests of the prosperous town of Auburn, Ne- braska, have a strong factor in the subject of this sketch, Appollas H. Millar, a carpenter, contractor and builder. Mr. Millar has done a large amount of building here and elsewhere and during the busy season employs a dozen or more men. The Tom Bath mansion, one of the recently constructed houses in Auburn, shows something of the char- acter of his work.
Mr. Millar was born at Ray Center, near Detroit, Michigan, Octo- ber 15, 1866, and may be said to belong to a family of contractors and builders, two. of his brothers and his father, Lesley L. Millar, having followed this occupation. Lesley L. Millar was born in Ohio, in 1832, and in boyhood went to Michigan, where he was reared and where he has spent the greater part of his life. He is now living retired at Washington, Michigan. During the Civil war he was a band master in the Fourth Michigan Cavalry. He enlisted in 1861 and served all through the war, as a musician, it being his band that played the music when Jefferson Davis was captured. Lesley L. Millar has been twice married. His first wife, whose maiden name was Adalaine Hazelton, died in the prime of life, leaving three sons, namely: Theron W. Millar, who is now married and a resident of Detroit, where he is engaged in contracting and building; Allison R. Millar, also a con- tractor and builder, is married, has one son and three daughters, and lives in Bay City, Michigan; and Ralph C. Millar, who died at the age of thirty years, leaving a widow. For his second wife the father married Vandalie Risk, who bore him four sons and two daughters, as follows : Appollas, whose name graces this sketch; Elizabeth A., who died at the age of twenty-one years; Lewis L., who died at the age of twenty-five years; Minnie M., a resident of Detroit, Michigan: Arthur,
376
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
in the employ of the Grand Union Tea Company, in Detroit ; and Thomas C., also of Detroit, is an employe of the Grand Union Tea Company.
In the spring of the year following his twelfth birthday, Appollas H. Millar began work at the carpenter's trade, under his father's instruc- tions, and worked for him until he was nineteen. Then he went to Bay City and entered the employ of his brothers, with whom he remained five years. Mr. Millar went to Chicago in 1890 and followed his trade there until 1898. In 1900 he located in Auburn, Nebraska, where he bought a place and has since remained.
Mr. Millar was married, in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1900, to Mrs. Fannie Cook, widow of Henry Cook, deceased, and daughter of David and Rhoda (Wood) Hamlin, natives of Oswego county, New York.
Mr. Millar is identified with the Modern Woodmen and, politically, is a "Bryanite." Mrs. Millar is a member of the Presbyterian church.
ELISHA HUFFMAN.
Elisha Huffman is the oldest citizen of Rulo, Richardson county, and, indeed, of southeastern Nebraska. His age is more easily compre- hended when it is stated that he was born before the outbreak of the second war with Great Britain, and that he has been able to vote at all presidential elections from John Q. Adams down to the present; that he was a grown man and enlisted for the Black Hawk war, that he was a man past the prime of life when the Civil war opened; and that he began life about the time of the first steamboat, was a boy when railroads were first successfully operated, had lived a third of a century when the telegraph was invented, and has really been an old man in point of years throughout the wonderful electrical age of the present.
377
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
Such a life, especially when filled from earliest years to the present with useful and busy activity, is venerable and worthy of the highest honor, and in such estimation is Mr. Huffman held by all the citizens of Rulo.
He was born twenty-five miles west of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on January 7, 1811, being the first of nine children. His first years were begun in humble circumstances, and at the age of six, before he had acquired any school training, he was bound out to a widow, with whom he remained seven years, until she broke up housekeeping. At a place four miles south of Pittsburg he learned the wagon-maker's trade, and when he had leisure hours his chum taught him the rudiments of reading and writing. About 1832 he volunteered to fight Black Hawk, but his services were not needed. He went to Ohio, where he was married in 1835, and in 1845 he left Knox county of that state and settled at Savannah, Andrew county, Missouri. In 1856 he went to Brown county, Kansas, where he had a claim, which he later sold. In 1863 he came to Rulo, Nebraska, and made his home on the same plot of ground where he still lives. He had spent the winter of 1855- . 56 in Salem, Nebraska. He owns five acres at his present home, and has a comfortable though not pretentious place in which to pass his remaining years. He has never sought riches, but has done his duty and fulfilled all his obligations to his fellow men, so that the end of his life is peace and contentment. He owns five lots in town. He grows grapes on a hundred vines, has a nice orchard which had been set out before he settled on the place, and his little home is surrounded with fruit trees. In his palmy days he used to make high wages, but he did not care to lay his money by, and has always been liberal and generous in all his relations. He has in his possession a bureau that he made in 1838, over sixty-five years old. He has been a champion shot with a gun, and has bested many an opponent. He is a devout member of the
378
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
Holiness church, which seems to him to open the true path to Heaven, and he has abided by its doctrines and been zealous in its good work for many years of his life.
Mr. Huffman was a Whig during the first years of his political activity, and since the organization of the party has been a stanch Republican. For twenty-seven years he was a constable in Ohio and Kansas, and for twelve years was constable and marshall in Rulo. .
He was married in Ohio, April 20, 1835, to Miss Rebecca Hender- son, who died in 1849, at the age of thirty-six years. There were seven children of this marriage: Jacob, who died in infancy; Samuel was in the Civil war; a daughter that died in infancy; Anna, who died in infancy; Louisa, who died in Kansas leaving three children; Mary, wife of Langdon Jackson, at her father's home in Rulo, has three child- ren, by her first marriage, Sherman Alexander and Hattie, the mother of three children by her deceased husband Cyrus Wetzel, and by her second marriage, Florence Jackson; Hepsibeth Huffman, the seventh child, died at the age of five years.
JOHN HOSSACK.
John Hossack, now serving in his third term as sheriff of Richard- son county, has held this county his home and center of activity for forty-five years, since he was a boy of seven years. He knew this section of the state in the pioneer days, and he and the country grew up and developed together. He has followed farming most of his life, and during his incumbency in his present office he has given unusual satisfaction to the citizens, as is evidenced by his two re-elections. He is a popular and genial man, and is well worthy of the esteem and honor accorded him by his friends and constituents.
379
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
Mr. Hossack was born in Williams county, Ohio, November 3, 1852, and several moves took place before he finally arrived in this state. At the age of three he was taken to Illinois, and in 1857 to Black Hawk county, Iowa, and on June 3, 1859, arrived with the rest of the family on the "half-breed" tract in Richardson county. His grandfather was a Scotch farmer, and lived and died in his native land, and very little is known of the family history. Mr. Hossack's father was Alexander Hossack, who was born near Inverness, Scotland, in 1804, and died in Jefferson precinct, Richardson county, October 3, 1864. He was married in Scotland to Miss Janette McNeechen, who was born about 1815, and died in 1855. They had seven children, and reared but four of them. One of the deceased children was Elizabeth, wife of L. F. Hitchcock, of Richardson county, and she left two chil- dren. The living children are Margery, the widow Grant, of Preston, Nebraska, and has a family of nine children; Anna, the wife of John Freel, of Jackson county, Kansas, and his six children; and John. The parents came from Scotland shortly after their marriage, being six weeks on the sailing vessel, and they began life without money and gained their livelihood by their industry and persevering toil.
Sheriff Hossack passed his youth in pioneer communities, so that his education was meager and acquired in the primitive old schoolhouse and methods. He has in his possession a card written by his teacher and given him as a reward of merit when he was eleven years old. He still cherishes highly both the memento and the memory of the giver. The card is inscribed as follows: "Aug. 21, 1862. From Mrs. E. C. Mosse, presented to John Hossack for good attention to his books in school. You must be a good boy and learn your books. Forget me not." As his father died when he was twelve years old he soon began doing for himself, and has made his own way in the world ever since.
380
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
His first work was driving five yoke of oxen to a breaking plow, at the wage of four dollars a month. He also worked at home. His father had bought a tract of eighty acres, but the family was compelled to pay a second price for it owing to a defective title. He continued farming until 1898, and in that year went to Alaska in search of gold. He was taken sick after arriving in the gold fields, was in a canvas tent surrounded by the snow for two weeks, and was then put on a hand- sled and hauled to a vessel, on which he was shipped to Seattle, Wash- ington, finally reaching home without a cent. In the following year he was elected to the office of sheriff of Richardson county, and is now in his third term and fifth year of a most successful official service.
Mr. Hossack was married December 28, 1874, to Miss Mary Sin- clair, who was born in Connecticut in 1853, August 10, a daughter of James and Jane (Ladd) Sinclair, of Scotch lineage. Her parents moved to Illinois at an early day, and in 1868 came to Richardson county where her father pursued his blacksmith's trade, which he had learned in Scotland. Mrs. Hossack is one of eight children, five sons and three daughters, all of whom are married and most of whom have children. Mr. and Mrs. Hossack have had nine children: William, born on the farm in 1876, is a bridge-building boss in Iowa, and un- married; James, born in 1878, works with a bridge gang in Kansas; Janette, who died at the age of twenty-one, was a graduate of the Verdon high school, had been a most successful teacher for two years, and her death was all the sadder because of the fact that she was to have been wedded within a few days; Elizabeth is a bright young school teacher in this county; Isabelle, a graduate of the Verdon schools, is a compositor on the Falls City Tribune; Pearl May is the wife of Wil- liam Sloan, of Verdon, and has one baby boy; Quinby John is a young man of eighteen, and graduates from the Falls City high school in
.
38:
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
1904: and George P. and Nellie, the two youngest, are both in school. Mr. Hossack is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and in politics is a stanch Republican.
JAMES N. PORTERFIELD.
James N. Porterfield, deceased, was one of the respected citizens of Liberty township, Gage county, Nebraska, where he died March 26, 1895, at the age of sixty-four years.
Mr. Porterfield was born in Belmont county, Ohio, son of James and Mary (Cavender) Porterfield, and one of a family of sixteen children, of whom twelve reached adult age-eight sons and four daughters. The eight sons all volunteered for service in the army during the Civil war, made good records in the Union cause, and all returned home. On one occasion the youngest son narrowly escaped death, a bullet passing through his mouth, taking out his front teeth, and afterward being removed from his neck. The father of this large family died in Ohio, in 1855, at the age of seventy-two years. The mother survived him some four years and her death occurred in Penn- sylvania.
James N. Porterfield was reared in Ohio and in early life learned the trade of blacksmith. In September, 1853, at the age of twenty-one years, he was married in Belmont county, Ohio, to Miss Catharine A. Tracey, and the following year they moved west to Richland, Keokuk county, Iowa, where he was employed as blacksmith in a carriage factory. When the Indian reserve was opened up for settlement, about 1885, he came to the place where his widow now resides and located on eighty acres of land, which cost him seven dollars per acre.
382
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
Here he developed a farm, passed the rest of his life and died, his death occurring in 1895, as stated at the beginning of this sketch.
Mrs. Catharine A. (Tracey) Porterfield was born December 23, 1833, and is a native of Ohio. Levi Tracey, her father, was born in Maryland. He was a shoemaker by trade, was employed in Baltimore for some years, and was regarded as a fine workman. In early life he went to Ohio and there met and married Maria Holt, daughter of one of the wealthy pioneers of that state, who had large land holdings. To each of his children Mr. Holt gave a farm and what was termed in those days a "fitting out." He may be said to have been generous to a fault, for while he was at one time a very wealthy man, he gave away and lost much of his property and at the time of his death he was in only moderate circumstances. Levi and Maria Tracey became the parents of fifteen children, of whom seven sons and three daughters grew to maturity and are still living, namely: Jacob, David, John, Levi, Isaac, Everett and Ayers, and Nancy, widow of Samuel Mosler, Mrs. Porterfield, and Sarah, wife of Hiram Gentell.
Sons and daughters to the number of eleven were given to Mr. and Mrs. Porterfield. Four died in infancy, and Isaac died at the age of twenty years. Alice is the wife of Martin Heffelinger of Brighton, Iowa; Laura died at the age of fourteen years; Hattie died at the age of thirteen; Nettie is the wife of Edward Burgett, and the youngest daughter is Sadie Doyle.
383
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
HON. JOSEPH. M. CRAVENS.
Hon. Joseph M. Cravens, of Armour, Nebraska, member of the state legislature and otherwise prominent in business and public rela- tions, was born in Highland county, Ohio, March 19, 1855, and is the son of Isaac and Mary J. (Stockwell) Cravens, the former a native of Pennsylvania and a farmer and local preacher in the Methodist church, and the latter a native of Virginia. Mr. Cravens has three brothers living. David B., who lives in Scotland county, Missouri, was a private in Company I, Twenty-first Missouri Volunteer Infantry, enlisting June 18, 1861, at Memphis, Missouri, and mustered out December 5, 1864, at Nashville, Tennessee; he participated in the battles at Shiloh, Corinthi, Iuka, Pleasant Hill, Nashville, Fort Blakely, and many others. William T. is of Knox county, Illinois, and Wesley F. is also of Knox county.
In the fall of the year in which Mr. Cravens was born his parents moved to Scotland county, Missouri, where they remained till 1861, and then removed to Henry county, Illinois, and from there to Knox county, in the same state, in 1864. Joseph lived at home and attended the common schools until 1872. In December of that year his mother died, and the home was broken up. He, being the youngest child and the only one at home, went to work for a neighbor during the summer, and during the following three winters did chores for his board and went to school. In August, 1875, in company with a neighbor boy, he bought a small grocery in Gilson, Knox county, Illinois, and under the firm name of Lawrence and Cravens conducted it for three years. In 1878 he sold out and, with Henry Linn, bought a drug stock, which they conducted under the name of Cravens and Linn until 1879, when Mr. Cravens sold to his partner.
In 1882 Mr. Cravens, with his wife and baby, came by wagon
384
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
to the west; the first stop was near the state line south of Falls City, Nebraska, where he lived for two years, then moved to a new farm near Barnes, Washington county, Kansas, in the spring of 1885. Farm- ing was his occupation for the next five years, but from 1890 to 1893 he clerked in a store in Barnes. In April. 1893, he took up his per- manent location in Armour, Nebraska, and started a general merchandise store. In 1895 he bought the farm on which the present town of Armour is located, and platted the townsite, so that he is in large measure founder and promoter of Armour's prosperity. In the spring of 1897 he was appointed postmaster, which office he retained until he was elected to the state legislature in 1902, when he resigned.
Mr. Cravens is a self-made man. When his home was broken up at the age of seventeen he was given a one-dollar bill 'as capital for his start in life, and by economy, industry and careful attention to business,; he has gained a comfortable place in life, with a good home and business, and with the respect and regard of associates and friends.
Mr. Cravens cast his first presidential ballot for Hayes in 1876, and has been a consistent Republican since that time. He held the office of town clerk in Haw Creek township, Knox county, in 1879, and tax collector in 1880. He has never sought office, and has only done his duty as a private citizen and Republican partisan, his recent election to the legislative body coming more in recognition of his worth and sub- stantiality than as a political worker.
October 26, 1891, he became a charter member of Guardian Camp, M. W. A., at Barnes, and served as banker until he removed to Nebraska in 1893. March 2, 1896, he joined the Ancient Order of United Work- men at Armour, and was financier six years. In March, 1875, he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, at Orange Chapel, Knox county, Illinois, and in the different parts of the country in which he
385
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
has made his home has served the church as steward, trustee, recording steward, and for ten years as superintendent of the Sunday school.
Mr. Cravens was married near Gilson, Knox county, Illinois, December 5, 1878, to Miss Hattie L. Smith, who was born and reared in Knox county, Illinois, and spent one year in Abingdon College, that county. Her father, H. W. Smith, served in Company F, Fifty-seventli Illinois Infantry, Fourth Division, Fifteenth Corps, under Logan. The children born of this marriage were as follows: Raymond R., born in Gilson, Illinois, August 13, 1880, and is still at home with his parents, being postmaster of Armour; Ora Edith, born in Richardson county, Nebraska, September 7, 1884, died of membraneous croup in Washing- ton county, Kansas, December 15, 1887; Edna Pearl, born August 15, 1887, in Washington county, Kansas, is still at home.
JACOB W. MOORE.
Jacob W. Moore, one of the prominent and successful early settlers of Pawnee county and pioneers of Clay township, an ex-soldier of the Civil war, came to Nebraska in 1865. He was born in Summit town- ship, Erie county, Pennsylvania, November 9, 1839, of ancestry noted for integrity and industry. His father was John Moore, a soldier of the war of 1812, was also born in Erie county, and was a son of John Moore, who was born in Argyleshire, Scotland. The mother of our subject was Catherine Steinbrook, who was born in Berlin, Germany, and was a daughter of Dr. Jacob Steinbrook, who came to Pennsylvania when she was a child. A family of seventeen children were born to John and Catherine Moore, namely : Isaac, Adam, Andrew, Mary Ann,
386
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
Augustus, Sarah J., Samuel, Jacob W., David C., James K., John W., Elizabeth, and the others died in childhood.
Of the above family, Samuel resides in this county and was a mem- ber of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry during the Civil war; James K. is now deceased, and he was a member of the Second Ohio; and John W., who lives at Waterloo, Nebraska, was a member of the Eighty- third Pennsylvania Regiment. The father died at the age of fifty-four years, but the mother lived to be sixty-five. Both were consistent mem- bers of the Methodist church.
Jacob W. Moore was educated in the common schools and then went to work in the pineries of Wisconsin. He voted for President Lincoln, in 1860. The outbreak of the war found him ready to enlist for service in defense of his country, and on August 2, 1861, he became a member of Company C, Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteen Infantry, and served for three years and three months, in this time participating in thirty battles. He was with Colonel J. W. McClaine in the Peninsular campaign, with Fitz John Porter at the battles of Gainesville and Har- rison Landing, with the Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg and Gettysburg and was stationed at Little Round Top on guard duty. He also took part in the battles of the Wilderness under General Grant and was also under General Meade at Petersburg. On August 29, 1862, at the second battle of Bull Run, he was struck by a piece of shell which cut his haversack and caused a flesh wound in the leg. He returned home safely, however, after an honorable and faithful service.
In 1864 he was married in Erie county to Emma J. Walbridge, who was born in Springfield township, Erie county, Pennsylvania, being a daughter of John and Jane (Malory) Walbridge, the former of whom served in the war of 1812. Her father died at the age of forty- five years and her mother at the age of fifty-four. They had these
1
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA. 387
children : Mrs. Moore: Charles P., a soldier in the One Hundred and Forty-fifth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, of Marshall county, Kansas; Florence H., of Pawnee county; Henry Carl, also a soldier of the above regiment, who lost a leg at Chickahominy; Andrew, of Erie county ; Delos, of Pennsylvania; Mrs. Ida Church; and Mrs. Eliza Mor- gan, who died in Kansas.
After coming to Nebraska, Mr. Jacob Moore became first a foreman on a stock ranch. Seven months later he went to St. Joseph, Missouri. to meet his wife, a distance of eighty miles, with a team and wagon. With her assistance Mr. Moore soon began to prosper, and now has a fine farm of one hundred and forty-six acres, including meadows, orchards, and pastures. His home is comfortable and his large barns give shelter to stock and abundant harvests. A family of six children has been born, namely: Mrs. Clara Scott, of Nemaha county, Kansas; Mrs. Vinnie Judkins, of Broken Bow, Nebraska; Mrs. Angie Tracy, of this county; Kate, a successful and popular teacher at Table Rock, Nebraska; Mrs. Lucia Hildebrand, of Dubois, Nebraska; Mary A., at home. Three sons and one daughter died in infancy.
Mr. Moore has taken a prominent part in public affairs in his locality, was deputy-sheriff for a time, and for two years was tax collector. He belongs to the Masonic order, blue lodge, No. 23, of Pawnee, Nebraska. The family is one of the intelligent, hospitable households of this locality, and its members enjoy the esteem of the community.
.
388
SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.
JEFFERSON D. BROWN.
Jefferson D. Brown, a retired merchant and now stockman of Burch- ard, Nebraska, was born in Miami county, Indiana, May 13, 1842. He is a son of Samuel L. and Harriet (Idson) Brown, the former of whom was born in Virginia and became a successful farmer in Ohio, to which state he emigrated at the age of twenty years. Later he went to Indiana and still later located at Centerville, Iowa, where he died aged sixty-four years. The paternal grandfather of our subject was Samuel Brown, a native of Graceland county, Virginia. The mother of Mr. Brown was born in Ohio and died in Miami county, Indiana, when Mr. Brown was but three years of age. She was the mother of six children, but our subject is the only survivor.
Jefferson D. Brown was reared and educated in Indiana and Iowa. At the first call for men when the rebellion broke out, he enlisted, on July 15, 1861, in Company B, Forty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry under Colonel Daniel Miles and Captain Joe Miles. The regiment was ordered to the front at once, and at the battle of Corinth in October, 1862, he was wounded and taken to the hospital at St. Louis. In May, 1863, he was honorably discharged and returned home. On July 25th of the same year he re-enlisted in the Eighth Iowa Cavalry under Captain M. M. Waldon, and served until the close of the war. In July, 1864, he was wounded and captured with his regiment and taken to Anderson- ville, where he was kept a prisoner for nine months, when he succeeded in making his escape. He enlisted as a private and when he was mustered out he was a commissioned first lieutenant. After his second discharge he returned to his father's farm and soon after opened a livery estab- lishment in Centerville, Iowa.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.