USA > Nebraska > A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska, Vol. II > Part 21
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Mr. Darr was married in 1867 to Sarah Elizabeth Rhoads, who has been his devoted partner in life for thirty-six years, and is a woman of fine characteristics and keen intelligence. She was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1845, a daughter of Jacob and Susanna (Myers) Rhoades, both natives of Pennsylvania, and the former of German ancestry, and the latter a daughter of John and Eve Myers, a respected
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Pennsylvania family. Jacob and Susanna Rhoads had the following children : John; Angeline; Sarah; Samuel; Rebecca; Florence. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Darr: Clara J. is the wife of George M. Myers, of Diller, and has two children, William F. and Grace Myers; Charles E. Darr is on the homestead farm; Fannie E. is at home; the daughter Anna died when about ten years old ; and two boys died in infancy. Mr. Darr is a Republican in politics. He was on the school board for six years. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, and one of the trustees, and belongs to Nickajack Post of the G. A. R. In his home he is noted for his hospitality, and his worthy cit- izenship gives him a place of esteem among all his friends and associ- ates.
JOHN H. WOODMAN.
John H. Woodman has been a resident of Jefferson county since 1885 and now makes his home in Eureka township. Many of the citizens of this portion of the state are numbered among the honored veterans of the Civil war, and of this class Mr. Woodman is a repre- sentative, having for three years faithfully fought in defense of the Union cause, making for himself an honorable military record and doing effective service in behalf of his country.
Mr. Woodman is a native of New York, his birth having occurred in North Hoosick, Rensselaer county, on the 29th of December, 1845. His father, John Woodman, was born near Windsor Castle in England, and married Miss Margaret Argraves, whose birth occurred in Lincoln- shire, England. They came to the United States in early life and were married in Massachusetts. Both the father and mother are now de-
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ceased, the latter having passed away in New York when fifty years of age, while the father died in Bennington, Vermont, at the very vener- able age of eighty-five years. He was extensively engaged in merchan- dising, developing an excellent business which brought to him a good financial return. In the family were five children : Anna ; Sarah ; Ruth, deceased; Mary, who is living in Louisville, Kentucky; and John H., of this review.
In his early boyhood days John H. Woodman went to Lee county, Illinois, to live with an uncle, who was a farmer of that locality. He acquired his education in the public schools and his youth was largely devoted to labor. He watched with interest the progress of events in the south which brought on the Civil war, and his patriotic spirit was aroused by the attempt of the advocates of slavery to overthrow the Union cause. He was not yet seventeen years of age when he enlisted for service in the army, being enrolled among the boys in blue at Paw- paw in Lee county, Illinois, on the 11th of August, 1862, in response to President Lincoln's call for more men to aid in crushing out the rebellion. He joined Company K, of the Seventy-fifth Illinois Volun- teer Infantry, under command of Captain George Ryan, who was mus- tered as colonel, and D. M. Roberts captain. The regiment went into camp at Dixon, Illinois, and after a short time was ordered to Louis- ville, Kentucky. Soon Mr. Woodman was familiar with all the experi- ences of war, participating in the battles of Perryville, Toloma cam- paign, the engagements at Stone River, and Chickamauga. He was taken prisoner by the rebel forces at Chickamauga and was first sent to Libby prison at Richmond, where he remained for seven days. He was then transferred to Castle Thunder, and while there the greater part of the prisoners suffered from smallpox, but Mr. Woodman did not become infected by that contagious disease. Later he was taken
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to Andersonville, and afterward to Florence. The period of his incar- ceration covered about fifteen months, during which time he suffered all the hardships known to those rebel prison pens-hardships which were greater than any tongue or pen can describe. He was five months without either shoes or shirt, and because of the dampness and crowded conditions of the prisons he became seriously afflicted with rheumatism, so that he could not walk upon his feet but used his hands for crutches, and when he was released a sailor took hold of one arm and he was brought like a child to the transport at Annapolis, Maryland. Making his way northward to Columbus, Ohio, and afterward to Chicago, he was granted a furlough, which he spent at home. On the expiration of that period he rejoined his regiment at Nashville, Tennessee, and later he returned to Camp Douglas at Chicago, where he was honorably dis- charged in June, 1865. He sacrificed much for his country, but he did it willingly, and he certainly deserves the gratitude of all lovers of the stars and stripes. His constitution, however, was greatly impaired and it was some time ere he recovered from the hardships of his army life. In early manhood because of ill health he traveled quite extensively in the south, visiting Texas and Mexico. He saw the Mexican and French troops engaged in battle at Acrapulco, Mexico, and later he went to Cali- fornia where he remained for two years, and then returned to Lee county, Illinois.
Mr. Woodman was married in 1870 to Miss Jane L. Craddock, of Illinois. Her parents, James and Susan (Brooker) Craddock, were both natives of England, and after coming to the new world they established their home in Illinois. Later they removed to Saline county, Nebraska, where the father retired. He died at the age of eighty-two years, and his wife passed away at the age of seventy years. They were the parents of twelve children, four sons and eight daughters.
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After his marriage Mr. Woodman removed to Stone county, Ar- kansas, hoping that his health would be benefited by a sojourn in the south. He afterward went to Fitzgerald, Georgia, living in a colony of ex-soldiers there. In 1885 he arrived in Jefferson county, Nebraska, and purchased here his farm of one hundred and twenty acres. He built a good house at a cost of eight hundred and fifty dollars and at once set to work to improve his place and equip it with modern conveniences. He now has a well developed farm and everything about his property indicates his careful supervision and enterprising methods. He is justly accounted one of the representative agriculturists of his community, and he deserves great credit for what he has accomplished. He had a handicap of ill health for many years, but with persistent purpose he has labored on and is now in comfortable circumstances.
To Mr. and Mrs. Woodman have been born four children : Leonard, who is living in Thayer county, Nebraska; Emerson, who makes his home in Hall county, this state; Arthur, who is living in Jefferson county ; and Grace, at home. Mr. Woodman is a strong Republican in his political affiliations, and he belongs to Norton Post No. 266 G. A. R., at Daykin. He has filled all offices of the post except that of com- mander, and he maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades through his connection with this organization. As a citizen he is as true and loyal to-day to his duty to his country as he was when he followed the old flag on southern battlefields. In the war his health became impaired and he has never been a well man since, but he has made the best use possible of his opportunities and his life has ever been honorable and upright, commending him to the confidence and good will of his fellow men.
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A. D. McCANDLASS.
A. D. McCandlass, attorney at law at Beatrice, Nebraska, and city attorney for Wymore, located in this state in 1882. He was born in McDonough county, near Macomb, Illinois, August 27. 1849. He is a son of William Wallace McCandlass, one of the early settlers of the county, who purchased his land of the government for one dollar and a quarter per acre. He came from Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, and was in turn the son of William McCandlass, the latter of whom was born in Scotland of an old Highland Scotch family. William Wal- lace McCandlass, father of our subject, was born in 1820. He came to Illinois in 1833 right after the Black Hawk war, and was a carpenter and contractor. His wife bore the maiden name of Sarah Duncan, and was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, a daughter- of J. and Sarah (Swearinger) Duncan, of Scotch and German ancestry. Both parents are now deceased, the father being killed in Stone River Deceni- ber 21, 1862, in middle life while serving in the Eighty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. After the death of her gallant soldier husband the mother did her best to bring up her family which consisted of these chil- dren, namely : Mrs. Mary Ward, of Nebraska ; A. D., our subject ; Mrs. Anna J. Cornell, of Creston, Iowa; Hallie Johnson, of Nebraska ; Thomas, of Nebraska; Addie Ruth; William, of California. In politics the father was a stanch Republican, and voted for General Fremont, in 1856.
Our subject was reared in McDonough county and received an ex- cellent education in the common schools. After pursuing his legal studies for some years with Bassett and Cornell, at Aledo, Illinois, he was ad- mitted to the bar at Ottawa, Illinois, and since then has proved himself a leading light of the profession. In 1873 he was married at Aledo, Illinois, to Miss G. Cabean, a daughter of Richard Cabean, who died
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at Wayne, Nebraska, at the age of eighty years. Fraternally Mr. Mc- Candlass is a member of the Order of Elks of Beatrice and of the Knights of Pythias. He possesses the faculty of winning friends outside of his professional duties and is a close student, being well versed in all the technicalities, especially those relating to the practice of law in Ne- braska. His library is one of the finest in Gage county, being valued at three thousand dollars. When addressing a jury Mr. McCandlass' powers are best shown, for he possesses a personal magnetism which makes his arguments irresistible, and his success, while remarkable, is not surprising, considering his attainments.
ANDREW DILLER.
Andrew Diller is one of the extensive landowners of Jefferson county, living in Richland precinct. His possessions aggregate four hundred and eighty-five acres, and he is accounted one of the most prosperous and enterprising agriculturists of his section of the state. He has resided in Nebraska since 1873, and in the years which have since come and gone he has borne an active and helpful part in the substantial improvement and development of the great west.
Mr. Diller is a native of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, born on the 16th of December, 1846. His father, Francis Diller, was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and the grandfather. Francis Dil- ler, Sr., was also a native of that state and served his country as a soldier in the war of 1812. After arriving at years of maturity Francis Diller, Jr., was married to Miss Nancy Commery, whose birth occurred in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and who was a representative of one of the old families of that locality. In 1874 they came to Jefferson county, Nebraska, and here both spent their remaining days. Francis
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Diller gave his political support to the men and measures of the Repub- lican party and was a man whom to know was to respect and honor because he lived an upright life and in all of his business transactions was fair and straightforward. His wife was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In their family were the following children who reached mature years; Henry; Susan, now deceased; Eliza; Amanda; Jacob; Andrew ; Mary A .; Malinda; Martha; and Levi, who died at the age of nineteen years.
In the usual manner of farmer lads Andrew Diller spent the days of his boyhood and youth under the parental roof in Pennsylvania. No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of farm life for him until he was about sixteen years of age, when he displayed a brave and loyal spirit by enlisting in 1863 in response to the country's call for men to aid in crushing out the rebellion in the south. He beame a member of Company F of the First Battalion of Pennsylvania troops, and was under the command of Captain Ega. He served for six months with this battalion and then re-enlisted as a member of Company K, Two Hundred and First Pennsylvania Infantry. One of the first en- gagements in which he participated was the hotly contested battle of Gettysburg. He was afterward at Alexandria, Virginia, and at Fair- fax Courthouse and engaged in fighting the rebel troops under General Mosby, and took part in several skirmishes with the bushwhackers. This regiment was also detailed to guard Governor Stevens. Mr. Diller was at length honorably discharged from the service at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in June, 1865, and returned to his home with a creditable military record. He was always found at his post of duty, and his valor and loyalty were equal to that of many-a veteran of twice his years.
Mr. Diller continued to remain in Pennsylvania until 1866, when he started westward, settling in Champaign county, Illinois, near Rantoul.
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There he was identified with agricultural pursuits, and in 1872 he sought a companion and helpmate for life's journey, being united in marriage to Miss Ellen Pitts. They have lived together as man and wife of thirty-two years, their mutual love and confidence increasing as time has passed by, and Mr. Diller has found in his wife a faithful com- panion and helpmate. She was born in McLean county, Illinois, near Bloo:nington, and is a daughter of Henry and Margaret (Wright) Pitts, the former a native of Kentucky, while the latter was born in North Carolina and was a representative of an old southern family. They became pioneer residents of McLean county, Illinois, and both died in Champaign county, that state. Mr. Pitts had always carried on farming as a life work and his energy and determination were numbered among lais strongest characteristics. He voted with the Democracy. In his family were fourteen children, twelve of whom reached years of ma- turity, namely : M. L., Susan C., Mary Hannah, Sarah Miranda, Amanda M., William Henry, Thomas A., Jane B., Nancy E., Ellen L., Iola A. and John R. Those who have passed away are Martha Ann and one that died in infancy. Two of the sons were soldiers of the Civil war. William H. Pitts, who served with an Illinois regiment in defense of the Union, is now living in Cloud county, Kansas. Thomas A. Pitts, who wore the blue uniform as a member of an Iowa regiment, is now living in Champaign county, Illinois.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Diller has been blessed with four children : Dora Allen, the wife of William Beannus, who carries on agricultural pursuits on the Diller farm and by whom she has one daugh- ter, Lottie Arvilla; Anna, who died at the age of five years, one month and twenty days; Willie Henry, who died at the age of three years, five months and twenty-six days; and Minnie, who died at the age of nine months and fourteen days.
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The year 1873 witnessed the arrival of Andrew Diller in Nebraska. He cast in his lot with the pioneer settlers of Jefferson county, and during years which have since elapsed he has not only faced the conditions of frontier life but has ever borne his part in reclaiming wild districts for the purpose of civilization. Year after year he has worked on earnestly and persistently, and he is now the owner of four hundred and eighty-five acres of valuable land. Upon his farm is a windmill, a good grove and an orchard. Not far away are the schoolhouse and the church, and he is pleasantly situated where he is thus enabled to enjoy good advantages. His attention is given to general farming and stock-raising and his life record proves the force of industry and enterprise in business affairs. In politics he is a stanch Populist and a warm advocate of W. J. Bryan. He has served as justice of the peace, and he belongs to Fairbury Post, G. A. R., to the Masonic fraternity and to the Ancient Order of United Workmen. The Diller household is noted for its gracious and pleasing hospitality, and both Mr. and Mrs. Diller have a very large circle of warm friends in Jefferson county.
DAVID BRAINERD PERRY, D. D.
David Brainerd Perry, president of Doane College, Crete, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, March 7, 1839. His ancestors on his father's side came from England to Massachusetts at a very early date, and the old homestead farm bordering on the city of Worcester was for many generations a permanent and noted family possession.
John Perry, the emigrant ancestor, with his son bearing the same name emigrated from New Farnham, England, to this country in 1666 or 1667, and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. Josiah, the seventh
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son of John Perry, Jr., with his son Nathan, moved from Watertown to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1751. Father and son bought a large farm one and a half miles south of the center of Worcester, on what is now known as Vernon street, which has been in the family ever since, although the greater part of it has recently been covered with city residences. Nathan Perry's son Moses was the grandfather of Dr. Perry, who is in the sixth generation from John Jerry, Sr., the line being as follows : John Perry, Sr., John Perry, Jr., Josiah Perry, Nathan Perry, Moses Perry, Samuel Perry, David Brainerd Perry. Grandfather Moses Perry married Hannah Hall, and lived to be over eighty; his wife died at the age of ninety-three. The Perry ancestors were weavers in England, and for the most part farmers in this country, and they were men and women to be proud of, whether their individual characters or their usefulness to the social world are considered.
Samuel Perry, the father of President Perry, was born November 26, 1796, and died February 12, 1878. He inherited the sturdy characteristics of the family, and was a thrifty farmer. Possessing the respect and con- findence of his neighbors to a rare degree, he was an important member of the community in which he lived, and a generous supporter of religious and educational enterprises near and far. The aid he rendered to Doane College at an early and critical period in its history was invaluable. He married Mary Harrington, who in addition to the the care of her own family of ten children, was an efficient and much loved medical adviser for the neighborhood. She was born March 20, 1804, and died February 18, 1869, being a daughter of Francis and Lydia ( Perry) Harrington.
In his early boyhood Brainerd Perry preferred work on the farm to attendance at school. Perhaps few boys have been more fond of an out- door active life. Few boys took more interest in the great anti-slavery agi- tation with which New England was at that time all alive. As he was too
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young to go in person to Kansas to take part in the struggle for freedom, he did the next best thing-he sent his small earnings to buy Sharp's rifles. When at the age of seventeen his life work had been chosen he gave himself with intense purpose to making amends for lost educational time. He fitted for college in the Worcester high school, an institution of high grade. He went to college for the purpose of preparation for the Chris- tian ministry. His high school teachers, who were recent graduates of Yale, did much to determine his choice of a college. He entered Yale in 1859 and graduated in 1863 with the degree of A. B., taking second rank in scholarship in a class of one hundred and twenty-two. During his training at Yale the freshmen and senior college societies were in high Javor, but he carefully avoided the sophomore society, and used that of the junior year simply as a stepping stone to the senior society. The war for the Union was being fought out while he was in college, and he would gladly have thrown himself into the conflict, but he was held back by the advice of friends.
Immediately after graduation from Yale he took one year of theo- logical training at Princeton Seminary, New Jersey. For an interval during this year he was able to give himself to the service of the Chris- tian Commission in Virginia, where he saw the camp fires of the enemy. He spent the following year at Union Theological Seminary, New York city, and engaged in religious work in Iowa during the summer vacation. He had gone to Andover, Massachusetts, for a third year in the theolog- ical seminary at that place when he received an invitation from President Woolsey to become a tutor in Yale, which led him to change his plans and to take his third seminary year in the Yale Divinity School during the two years of his college tutorship.
President Perry graduated from the Yale Divinity School in 1867 with the degree of S. T. B. In the following year he went abroad and
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continued his study and travel for fourteen months. Upon his return he was engaged for nearly two years again as a tutor in Yale. At the end of his student life his health, which had always been exceptionally good in his college days, was so much impaired that he asked the Congregational Home Missionary Society for a frontier parish, where he could have outdoor life and breathe the high, dry air of the plains. Superintendent O. W. Merrill assigned him to Hamilton county, where he lived near Aurora from April to September, 1872. In a short time the north half of Clay county was added to his parish, and he was then in charge of three little churches.
Efforts that had been put forth for some time to establish a Congre- gational college in the state culminated in June of this same year, and Mr. Perry was at once urged to take up educational work in the new in- stitution soon to be known as Doane College. During his first year of service at Doane, 1872-73, he was sole instructor with the title of tutor. and was engaged in preparing a few students to enter a freshman class. Then he became professor of Latin and Greek, and afterwards successive- ly senior professor, acting president, and, in 1881, president. He re- ceived from Yale the degree of A. M. in 1866, and of D. D. in 1898.
His sympathies have always been with the Republican party, but he has taken no active part in politics, and has neither held nor sought public office. He is a member of the Crete Congregational Club, the oldest organization of its kind in the state, and the Schoolmasters' Club, which was organized in 1898. He was married, July 3, 1876, to Helen Doane, and five children were born to them : Thomas Doane, born May 27, 1877; Brainerd Clark, August 13, 1879 (died July 21, 1880) ; Charles Boswell, January 25, 1884; Helen Clark, February 17, 1888; Henry Eldridge, October 8, 1889.
If, contrary to expectations, the college educator speedily took the
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place of the frontier home missionary, President Perry has never for- gotten the missionary work that drew him to Nebraska, and he has lost no opportunity to identify himself with the religious life of the state. He has sought to come in close touch with every phase of school life whether public or private. It has seemed to him that there should be no divorce between education and religion, but that each should help the other to what is highest and best. The college of which he has been the head for thirty years has taken a high rank, and it is his ambition that he may be a part of its vitalizing power in the generations to come. He still fills the office of president of Doane College acceptably to all who are con- cerned in its welfare.
DOANE COLLEGE. Crete, Nebraska.
Congregationalists have always put emphasis upon education. They have a genius for building colleges. The institutions that bear their name from the Atlantic to the Pacific shine out like bright constellations in the heavens.
What Congregationalism had done in other states it sought to do in Nebraska. When there were but three Congregational churches in that part of the territory of Nebraska which subsequently became the state, and ten years before statehood. the General Association of Congre- gational churches was organized, and at its first session, held at Fremont, October, 1857, it made declaration in favor of proceeding at once to lay the foundations of an educational institution of high order.
The General Association of 1871 passed the following resolutions :
"Resolved, That we believe the time has come to take measures for the establishment of two or more academies."
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"Resolved, That it is the sense of this Association that we should concentrate our educational efforts on our academies and our one College for our order in the state."
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