USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 33
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widow in Falls City, with three sons, lives with her mother in Falls City ; and Emma, in Falls City, has four daughters.
Mr. Downs was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, and in politics was a Democrat. Mrs. Downs is a member of the Christian church. She was left with a good home, and in 1883 she built the large home in which she has maintained her boarding house for the past twenty years. She is blessed with twenty-seven bright grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren, and her life's closing years are crowned with happiness and peace, secure in the affections of all around her.
P. L. GILLESPIE, M. D.
P. L. Gillespie, M. D., physician and surgeon of Wymore, Ne- braska, is one of the successful representatives of the medical profes- sion in that locality, and is a graduate of the John A. Creighton Medical College of Omaha, Nebraska, class of 1901. He was born at Potts- ville, Pennsylvania, September 2, 1875, and is a son of Hugh F. Gil- lespie, also born in Pennsylvania, the son of Peter L. Gillespie. Hugh F. Gillespie married Ellen Salmon, a daughter of Dr. James Salmon. The father of our subject was a skilled railroad engin- eer, who came to Wymore, Nebraska, in 1887. He now resides in Lin- coln, Nebraska. Seven children were born to these parents, four sons and three daughters, and of them Dr. Gillespie is the eldest. His early education was received in the schools of Wymore, and later he graduated from Creighton University in 1897 with degree of A. B. Two years later he received the degree of A. M. from the same institution. After his graduation from medical college, Dr. Gillespie was an interne in
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the St. Joseph hospital at Omaha, and after his experiences there, he settled at Wymore, and has already built up a very flattering practice.
The suite of rooms occupied by Dr. Gillespie are now located in the Jones Building, and his library is one of the best in this section of the state. Being a young man with great enthusiasm for his profes- sion, Dr. Gillespie is a close student and keeps thoroughly abreast of the great discoveries of science and the healing art. In manner he is genial and courteous, and his many friends predict a successful future. Dr. Gillespie married, November 4, 1903, Stella R. Mercer, daughter of Lewis Mercer, and a native of Salem, Illinois. He is a member of the Gage County Medical Society, and was elected president of the same for 1904.
JAMES A. McGUIRE.
James A. McGuire, cashier of the First National Bank of Wymore, Nebraska, was born in Scandia, Kansas, in 1879, and is a son of Daniel C. McGuire, the first mayor Wymore. The father was born in Scot- land, where he was educated and lived until he was twenty-one years of age, and then came to the United States, after which he married Jane Doctor, who had been born in Dundee, Scotland. The father was a mechanic and finally located in Republic county, Kansas, where he was engaged in the erection of a number of public buildings in that locality. In 1881 he went to Wymore, Gage county, Nebraska, and in addition to being the first mayor of Wymore he held a number of minor offices and always did everything in his power to advance the interests of the community. During a useful life he was a firm adherent of the Democratic party, and was a loyal friend, kind neighbor and patri-
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otic citizen. He died at Goodland, Kansas, at the age of forty years and left his widow with five children, as follows: Catherine, who is a suc- cessful teacher of Wymore; James A .: Daniel D., assistant cashier in the same bank with his brother: Barbara, and Thomas. After the death of her husband the mother removed to Wymore and brought up her children in a manner that reflects great credit upon her.
James A. McGuire was educated principally in Wymore and when still a boy became a clerk. So faithful was he in the discharge of his duties that his brightness and pleasing manner attracted the attention of those who desired the services of such an individual, and he was chosen cashier of the First National Bank, which is a very responsible position for a young man who has not passed the quarter century mile- stone. Mr. McGuire was elected city clerk, first in 1901 on the citi- zen's ticket, and has been twice re-elected. The entire McGuire family are firm adherents of the Episcopal church, in which they take an active part. Mr. McGuire himself is a bachelor and is one of the lead- ers socially in Wymore, where he has a host of friends.
LEWIS P. WIRTH.
Lewis P. Wirth, senior member of the firm of Wirth and Winter- bottom, general hardware, plumbing and heating, has been prominently identified with the business interests of Falls City for over a decade, and his connection with Richardson county is life-long, since he was born, reared and has performed his best efforts in this county, resulting in success and a place of esteem among fellow citizens and associates that is truly creditable to his character and ability. His firm is the leading hardware house in the city, and has been in business since 1893.
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Wirth and Winterbottom succeeded Wilson Maddox, who was one of the early merchants of this section of the state. They carry a large and full line of shelf and heavy hardware, and all things in their line used in an agricultural community. The large brick, two story and a half, twenty-five by one hundred feet, store was erected by Mr. Wirthi in 1894.
Mr. Wirth was born in Arago, Richardson county, December 4, 1864. His father, Joseph O. Wirth, was born in Wurtemberg, Ger- many, June 19, 1822, and at the age of twenty-four came across the ocean and settled in Buffalo, New York. He had some capital and worked at his trade of tinner. He was in Chicago for about eight years, and in the spring of 1857 arrived in Nebraska in company with a colony from Buffalo. He was one of the earliest merchants of this vicinity, and carried on a general hardware business in Arago until 1873, and then continued the buisness in Falls City for six years, after which he retired with a competency. He died November 27, 1901, at the age of seventy-nine. Most of his estate he had made in Nebraska, and he was enabled to give his children good advantages.
Mr. L. P. Wirth received a common schooling at home, and re- mained with his parents until he was of age. He had learned the tinner's trade of his father, and he worked at it for six years in Stella. He then returned to Falls City, and in May, 1892, set up business for himself, in the following year forming the firm which is now doing such a successful business.
Mr. Wirth was married, May 15, 1896, to Miss Maud Maurer, of Canada. They have three children: Louis, born April 2, 1898; Maud, born July 12, 1900; and Ruth, born May 15, 1903. The family home is at the corner of Third and Morton streets, where he erected a nice dwelling in 1901.
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GEORGE LINCOLN KENNEDY.
This name is one known throughout Nemaha county, for here Mr. Kennedy has passed his entire life and here his parents lived for many years. He was born in the precinct of London, near Brown- ville, on the 17th of December, 1861, a son of the Rev. Stephen Wilken- son Kennedy, whose life history will be found below. George Lin- coln is one of fourteen children born to his father by two marriages, and the fifth of seven children by the last marriage. He received liberal educational advantages during the period of his boyhood and youth, attending the district schools of the neighborhood and was also a student of the Brownville schools. On the 28th of March, 1883, he was united in marriage to Miss Anna Marsh, a native daughter of Brownville, where her birth occurred on the 9th of September, 1861, and she was a schoolmate of her husband. Her parents were H. H. and Mary Jane (Thompson) Marsh, the former born at Jamestown, New York, in March, 1834, and the latter in Calloway county, Missouri, in February, 1841. At his death the father left his widow with two children, Mrs. Kennedy and Cassius Henry, the latter now a printer in Omaha, Ne- brąska. The mother is now the widow of Albert D. Marsh, a brother of her first husband, by whom she had one daughter, Almira, now the wife of Rutherford Carter, of Nemaha county. The following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy : Ethel Leone, a young lady of nineteen years and a graduate of the state normal school, class of 1904; Ilma Isola, a member of the class of 1906 at the same institution ; Mary Burtis, who is thirteen years of age and at home; a daughter who died in infancy ; and George Cassius, who was born June 30, 1894.
In 1882 Mr. Kennedy became the owner of eighty acres of land in London precinct, the purchase price being eleven hundred dollars, and two years later, in 1884, he purchased an additional eighty acres. He
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has made all the many improvements now to be found on this place, including the good one-story residence and an orchard of seven acres. About one hundred acres of his place is planted with corn, yielding an average of forty bushels to the acre, and from fifty to sixty acres with wheat, with an average yield of about twenty-five bushels. In his pastures may be found a mixed herd of shorthorn and Hereford cat- tle. As the years have passed by Mr. Kennedy has been adding to his landed possessions, first purchasing forty acres and later eighty acres of the old Kennedy homestead, where he was taken when but four years of age. His own industry and enterprise have been the means of bring- ing to him the splendid success which he now enjoys, and he is numbered among the extensive agriculturists and stock-dealers of the county. In political matters he is an independent voter, and for two terms held the office of assessor. He was reared in the Methodist faith and is still a member of that denomination, while for a number of years he has been one of its trustees. Progressive and public-spirited in all his ideas, he lends his influence to all measures which he believes useful to the ma- jority, and at all times performs the part of an earnest and patriotic citizen.
STEPHEN WILKENSON KENNEDY.
Stephen Wilkenson Kennedy, deceased, was for many years a Methodist Episcopal minister and a farmer, but during the last eleven years of his life lived retired at Auburn. He came to his farm in Nemaha county, Nebraska, from Buchanan county, Missouri, forty-six years ago, but his birth occurred near Dayton, Ohio, June 12, 1816, and the family is of Irish descent. His father, Stephen Kennedy, was born
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in Georgia in 1784, and his death occurred in Warren county, Indiana, in 1856. During the war of 1812 he was drafted for service, but hired a substitute. He was six times married, his first wife being Mary McMann, a native of Georgia and a few years his junior. Their mar- riage was celebrated in 1805 or 1806, and their first child was Elizabeth, who became the wife of John Stephenson, and she reared our subject from the age of sixteen months, after his mother's death. The second child, John Kennedy, was born in 1808, and died at about the age of ninety years, in Highland, Kansas, where he was visiting his daughter. He was the father of two sons and a daughter. Andrew Kennedy, born in Montgomery county, Ohio, in 1812, died at Indianapolis, Indi- ana, of small-pox. For six years he was a member of Congress, and at the time of his death was the candidate for the office of governor, and would no doubt have been elected. He also was the father of two sons and a daughter. Stephen Wilkenson was the fourth child in order of birth. The mother of this family died in Ohio in 1818. By his second wife Mr. Kennedy had four children, by his third wife six and by his fourth, one. His sixth wife survived him several years.
Stephen Wilkenson Kennedy spent the early years of his life on the homestead farm, during which time he received a fair education in the neighboring schools. At the age of fourteen years he left home and went to Lafayette, Indiana, where he was bound out for four years to learn the blacksmith's trade, but at the expiration of two years' time, on account of failing health, he abandoned the occupation. In Tippe- canoe county, Indiana, on the 23rd of March, 1837, Mr. Kennedy was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Frogge, a native of that state, and they became the parents of four children, namely : Eliza Jane, the wife of B. F. McIninch, a farmer of Nemaha county, and they have eight children, four sons and four daughters; Mariam Alice, now the widow
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M. L. Gates, who resides in the house adjoining that of her father, and she has five children; Charles H., a hotel proprietor in Broken Bow, Custer county, Nebraska, and the father of two sons and two daughters; and the fourth and youngest child, a daughter, died at the age of four years. 'The mother of these children died in Missouri, April 9, 1852, while the family were enroute from Indiana to that state, passing away at the age of thirty-three years. On the 6th of May, 1853, near Savan- nah, Missouri, Mr. Kennedy married Miss Eliza Ware, who was born in New Jersey, December 16, 1828, a daughter of Joseph A. and Lydia (Clutch) Ware, also natives of that commonwealth, where they were farming people. From that state they removed to Cleveland, Ohio, and seven years later to Wayne county, Indiana, where they also remained for seven years, going thence to Andrew county, Missouri. During the Civil war they returned to Indiana, in 1862, to the home of Mrs. Rachel Gray. In 1879, he came to Mrs. Kennedy's, and later went to his daughter's, Mrs. George Crow's, where he died in Decem- ber, 1879. The mother survived him five years, dying at the home of her youngest son, I. C. Ware, in Greenleaf, Kansas, when eighty-five years of age. Her birth occurred in 1800. Seven children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy, namely: William Walter, who died when less than a year old; Sarah Ellen and George Sullivan, who died at the ages of two and four years, respectively, their deaths occurring from eating matches; Margaret Ann, the wife of David Edwards, of Oklahoma, and they have three living children; George L., whose sketcli appears above; Lydia Belle, the wife of Seymour Calvert, also of Okla- homa, and they have five children; and Lizzie Etta, the wife of Samuel Gilliland, of Oklahoma, and they have eight children. This worthy old couple became the grandparents of thirty grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren.
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Mr. Kennedy was for many years a local minister in the Methodist Episcopal church. He became a member of that denomination when eighteen years of age, was afterward made a class-leader, became an exhorter at the age of twenty-five years, and nearly fifty years ago entered the ministry in Nebraska. In political matters he was a Prohi- bitionist from the ranks of the Republican party, and for fourteen years served as a justice of the peace in Nemaha county, for seven years was a county commissioner and for many years served as a member of the school board. He was also a life-long farmer, and at the time of his death owned two farms, consisting of forty and eighty acres, and at one time was the owner of four hundred and eighty acres in three farms. He also owned two houses in Auburn in addition to his own comfortable cottage, which was erected in 1895. For eleven years Mr. Kennedy made his liome in Auburn, living retired from the active cares of life, and there his death occurred in September, 1903. His widow still makes her home in that city, although she spends much of her time with her children liere and in Oklahoma.
EDWARD M. McCOMAS.
Edward M. McComas, who is now living a retired life on his farm one and a half miles west of Brownville, was born in Greene county, Ohio, on the Ist of December, 1826. The family is of Scotch origin, and is descended from four brothers who came from that country to America, one locating on the Maryland side of the Potomac, of which one our subject is a direct descendant, and three on the Virginia side. The maternal grandfather of Mr. McComas, Edward Mitchell, died in Covington, Kentucky, when seventy-five years of age, and his wife
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passed away at the age of eighty-six years. They were the parents of twelve children, the youngest of whom, Mrs. Mahala McFetridge, died in Madison, Indiana, in 1903, at the age of ninety-two years, and their oldest daughter died in Covington, Kentucky, in 1901, aged ninety- eight years. She bore the name of Arabella and became the wife of Richard Langdon, the proprietor and editor of a paper and a life-long and able journalist, our subject serving as his printer's devil.
Daniel McComas, the father of Edward M., was born in Maryland in 1799, and died in Cincinnati, Ohio, of smallpox, at the age of thirty- three years. About 1823 he was united in marriage to Mary Ann Mitchell, a native of Pennsylvania, and at her husband's death she was left with five children. Our subject's eldest sister, Elizabeth, became the wife of ex-Governor Furnas, and died in Brownville in 1898, at the age of seventy-one years. One brother, Mortimer, was burned to death when eight years of age, when the house was destroyed by fire. The mother passed away in death in this city when eighty-two years of age.
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Edward M. McComas was privileged to attend the public schools only at intervals until his fifteenth year, at which time he entered the Western Military Institute at Georgetown, Kentucky, of which Bushrom R. Johnson was the principal and James G. Blaine the professor of mathe- matics and our subject's teacher, while General Buckner was his room- mate. After attending that institution for eighteen months Mr. Mc- Comas went to Miami county, Ohio, and entered a printing office, where he helped set up Polk's message. For a year and a half he was also engaged in the jewelry and drug trade. In 1854, after his marriage, he removed to Kickapoo, Kansas, being accompanied by his wife and their one child, the family taking up their abode in the first house, a cottonwood box structure, erected there, and in which one child was
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born to them. At that time there were only three houses in Leaven- worth, and Mr. McComas there purchased six lots for sixty dollars, selling the same eight months later for eleven hundred dollars. While residing in Kickapoo he was engaged in the drug trade and as a physi- cian. At one time he was pressed into the service, as surgeon, of the Kickapoo Rangers, in their night march on Lawrence. They arrived at the break of day, and a blue jay, hopping upon a limb, called out "too slick," when the brave warriors broke ranks and never stopped until they were safe within Kickapoo. On the 7th of April, 1856, Mr. McComas came from that place to Nemaha county, Nebraska, and in the following May brought his family here. They had witnessed the stirring times in Kansas prior to that time, and his drug store was once burned by the pro-slavery followers. When Mr. McComas came to this state he had but two hundred and fifty dollars in money, and he first took a claim of one hundred and sixty acres one and a half miles northwest of Brownville, beginning work on the same on the 3d of May, 1856, and succeeded in placing forty acres under the plow, while during the months of July and August he also split rails and fenced his land. A herd of cattle and a flood, however, completely devastated his property, and becoming discouraged with farm life here he abandoned his property and went to Nemaha city, where he erected two houses and for three years was engaged in the purchase and sale of city property. He next went five miles southwest of Nemala and pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land and also purchased the quarter section adjoining, his nearest neighbor at that time being a half-breed Indian five miles distant. Seven years later Mr. McComas sold his half section for twelve hundred and fifty dollars and removed to Brownville, where for the third time he embarked in the drug business, thus continuing with success for twenty-three years, on the expiration of which period
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he sold his store, and in 1888 went to California, there spending eighteen months. During his residence in the Golden state, he was engaged in the drug business in Modesto, and leaving his son Harry in charge returned to Brownville and resumed the same line of trade here. Two years later he again sold, and came to his present farm of one hundred and thirty-five acres, which he had purchased in 1868 for fifty dollars an acre. The old log cabin which stood upon the land at the time of purchase gave place to a two-story brick structure in 1871. Mr. Mc- Comas has made a specialty of fruit-raising, peaches being his leading crop, and for this fruit he received a premium in Boston and Richmond. In 1876 he sent a sample of his Talpahawkin apples to the United States fruit show at Boston, Massachusetts, and a facsimile of three of them are now to be found in the Smithsonian Institute at Washing- ton. At one time he owned ninety acres of orchard land, but sold forty acres for four thousand dollars to ex-Governor Furnas's son.
In Troy, Ohio, on the 6th of July, 1852, Mr. McComas was united in marriage to Miss Almira Wagner, who was born in Covington, Miami county, that state, July 18, 1835, a daughter of M. S. and Anna (Fouts) Wagner. Twelve children were born of this union, as fol- lows: Mortimer M., who is engaged in the sheep business near his father's farm; Robert, who was born in Kansas and died in California at the age of forty-two years; Anna, the wife of Oscar Cecil, of Cali- fornia, and they have three sons; Edward, who has been engaged in the drug business at Broken Bow, Nebraska, since 1884; Mary, employed in the telephone office at Auburn; Almira, wife of W. H. Rice, of Modesto, California; Harry, a druggist of Stockton, California; Nell, the wife of J. S. Squires, of Broken Bow, Nebraska; Nine, a farmer of that place; Louis, who died at the age of two years; Helen G., em- ployed as a saleslady in Modesto, California; and Louise, the wife of
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J. D. Curtis, on the old farm near Stella. In his fraternal relations Mr. McComas is a member of the order of Odd Fellows, and in politi- cal matters is a gold-standard Democrat. On its ticket he was a can- didate for the office of probate judge, overcoming a Republican major- ity of three hundred and fifty and was elected by eleven votes, while at the succeeding election, two years later, he was placed in office by eight hundred votes. Mrs. McComas is a worthy member of the Bap- tist church.
MORTIMER M. McCOMAS.
Mortimer M. McComas, one of the leading stock farmers of Nemaha county, was born in Ohio, but when two years of age was brought to this state by his father, Edward McComas, the pioneer physician and druggist of Brownville, and whose history appears above. On the 29th of March, 1882, Mr. McComas was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Howard, who was born in Woodford county, Illinois, on the 6th of December, 1859, a daughter of Sylvester and Rachel (Patton) Howard, the former of whom was born in Greene county, near Jackson- ville, Illinois, in March, 1833, and the latter a native of Kentucky. They were farming people, and reared two of their four children, the bro- ther of Mrs. McComas being Albert, an agriculturist of Oklahoma and the father of five living children. The mother died at the early age of twenty-five years, when Mrs. McComas was only four years old, and she was reared in the home of her grandparents at Chenoa, Livingston county, Illinois. She was married at the age of twenty-one years, on the golden wedding anniversary of her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. McComas being the same age as her grandparents were at the time of
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their marriage. This young couple met for the first time at Brownville, where she was visiting, their marriage being celebrated two years afterward, and they first located on his farm of forty acres, now the property of Sheriff Lawrence. Selling that farm, Mr. McComas went to Cherryvale, Kansas, where for three years he was engaged in the grocery business, and for a time thereafter was engaged in the same occupation in Bluff City, that state. Returning thence to Nemaha county, in February, 1894, he purchased his present farm of one hundred and twenty acres from Charles Butler, one of the early settlers of this locality, where he homesteaded a quarter section of school land and made many improvements thereon, including the large, two-story, brick residence which now adorns .the place. On this fertile and well improved farm Mr. McComas is now extensively engaged in the stock business.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. McComas are as follows : How- ard, who was born in 1883, and is now assisting his father and attending school; Hila, perfecting herself in piano music; Clarence, a freshman in the state normal at Peru; Helen, who died in infancy; Earl, who died at the age of nineteen months; Leonard, a bright little lad of ten years; Nina, eight years of age; and Edward, a beautiful boy of four years. Mr. McComas gives his political support to the Democracy, and both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church.
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