History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 83

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742

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As noted above, Wilson, M. Maddox and his wife were the first white couple married within the present precincts of Richardson county. It was on October 4, 1855, that Mr. Maddox was united in marriage, at old Archer, first county seat of Richardson county, to Margaret A. Miller, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. W. D. Gage, a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church at Nebraska City, whose daughter had married a brother of Mrs. Maddox. Mrs. Maddox, who is still living at her pleasant home in Falls City, is a native of Kentucky, born in Knox county, that state, Febru- ary 4, 1835, daughter of Judge John C. and Elizabeth (Campbell) Miller, the latter of whom was born in that same county, not far from Cumberland Gap. Judge John C. Miller, one of the earliest and most influential pioneers of Richardson county, was a native of South Carolina, born in 1804. He was married in Kentucky and continued to make his home there until 1845, when he came West with his family and settled in Lafayette county, Missouri ; later he settled at Rockport, Atchison county, Missouri, moving thence, in 1855, across the river into the then newly created Territory of Nebraska and settling on a tract of land he had pre-empted at the site of what presently came to be the first county seat of this county. He was a member of the Archer townsite company, helped lay out the town, which long since has lost its place on the map, and was the first probate judge of the county when Richardson county presently was organized as a civic unit, and for years took a prominent part in the early affairs of this county, further mention of which is made in the historical section of this work. One of his daughters. Mary, married the first sheriff of the county, Elias McMullen. Judge Miller and wife were the parents of twelve children, those besides Mrs. Maddox being as follow: Mrs. Harriet Catron, deceased ; James F., Union veteran, deceased : George W., deceased; Mary K., wife of Will Maddox, deceased; Mrs. China M. Thompson, deceased: William S., who is now living in Okla- homa : Robert O., who died in 1916; Clay, Sarah and Laura, who died in infancy, and John J., who served in the Union army and died in the service.

To Wilson M. and Margaret A. ( Miller) Maddox six children were born, namely: Frances E., wife of John W. Powell, of Falls City; May, who is now at home: Mrs. Anna L. Crum, of Montpelier, Indiana; Zillah,

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wife of George Dietsch, of Hastings, this state; Oscar H., of Missoula, Mon- tana, and Grace, who is at home with her mother. Mrs. Maddox has a very pleasant home at Falls City and is quite comfortably situated in the beautiful "evening time of her life." She has five grandchildren and one great-grand- . daughter, Mrs. Powell having one child, a daughter, Lela, who married James Mullen and has a daughter, Marjorie Frances; Mrs. Crum, one daughter, Floss; Mrs. Dietsch, one daughter, Margaret, born in Falls City, and Oscar H. Maddox, two sons, Wilson M. and James Frederick. Though now in the eighty-third year of her age, Mrs. Maddox is vigorous mentally and physically and retains vivid recollections of the pioneer days hereabout, she having lived here since the days when this was practically all Indian country. She was nineteen years of age when she came here with her parents back in territorial days and she recalls having ridden over the country from old Archer west to the present limits of the county, without seeing a house throughout the trip. She rode horseback from Archer to Salem to go to church and often took long horseback trips attending camp meetings; but, despite the romantic glamor in which the memory of those distant days of the free days of the open range and the wild life of the plains is set, she is quite content to do her riding in an automobile nowadays, and rejoices as she rides abroad to note the amazing progress which has been made in all ways throughout this region since she came here, a pioneer lass from the hills of her native Kentucky.

FRANK A. NIMS.

Not too often can we of the present generation revert to the lives of the sterling pioneers who, by their heroic courage and self-sacrifice, paved the way for our own modern civilization, making possible our fine farms and thriving towns. One of these sturdy men in Richardson county, who is (leserving of special attention here, is Frank A. Nims, now living in retire- ment in his cosy home in Falls City, after a life of successful endeavor of forty years in this locality.

Mr. Nims was born in Waupun, Wisconsin, August 17, 1863. He is a son of John and Betsey (Bacon) Nims. The father was born in 1829, and was a son of Luther Nims, whose death occurred in 1864 at the age of thirty- nine years. John Nims was one of the early settlers of Waupun, Wiscon- sin. His death occurred in New York state while on a visit to his old home. His wife was a native of Cattaraugus county, New York, and was of English

MR. AND MRS. FRANK A. NIMS.

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descent, her ancestors having come to America in Colonial days. Betsey (Bacon) Nims was born on January 8, 1831, and died March 10, 1912, in . Falls City, Nebraska. She was a daughter of Leander and Sarah (Hilbert) Bacon, natives of the state of New York and early settlers in the vicinity of Waupun, Wisconsin. After the death of John Nims, his widow moved with her only child, Frank A. Nins, of this sketch, to Crawford county, Pennsyl- vania, the mother teaching school there several years; then moved to Ohio in 1867 and taught one term in Ashtabula county, where her father, Leander Bacon resided. Leander Bacon had sold out in Wisconsin and had located in Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he operated a large dairy farm and manu- factured cheese. Mrs. Nims assisted him in the manufacture of cheese for some time. In 1874 she and her son came to Nebraska, seeking a new loca- tion. Two years later they located in Richardson county, buying a farm in Nemaha precinct, where the mother made cheese for the market for a num- ber of years, the son, Frank A., taking care of the herd of cattle which they kept on the home place. He was thirteen years old when they built a com- fortable residence on the place, also made other improvements. They were successful in their farming and dairying operations, and when he became of legal age the son took charge of the farm, which consisted of four hundred acres of good land. They sold two hundred and forty acres, keeping the west one hundred and sixty acres. One hundred and sixty acres were sold to Willard Burgett and eighty acres to Walter Colson. Part of the remain- ing quarter section of land became the site of the village of Nims city. Mr. Nims continued active farming with uniform success until September 8, 1911. He raised cattle on an extensive scale ; he also raised good horses. He remodeled his dwelling, making it both convenient and attractive.

Mr. Nims was married on September 8, 1884, to Etta Archer, who was born in Nemaha county, Kansas, a daughter of Jerome Archer and Althea (Westcott ) Archer, natives of Pennsylvania. They were early settlers in Nemaha county, Kansas. Jerome Archer came to Kansas in 1859 and died in January, 1915. Mrs. Archer, who resides in southern Kansas, was born September, 1842.

Politically, Mr. Nims is a Republican and fraternally he belongs to the Knights and Ladies of Security, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Ger- man Hall. He has lived to see Richardson county developed from a wild state, a vast, little-improved plains country to its present-day prosperity and wealth and he has played well his part in this great transformation.

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JOHN PHILPOT.

John Philpot, well-known farmer and poultryman at Humboldt and a resident of this county since 1877, is a native of Ohio, born on March 9, 1860, son of Robert and Susan (West) Philpot, also natives of that state, who came to Nebraska in 1882 and settled on a farm two miles south of Humboldt, where Robert Philpot died in 1899. John Philpot was the fifth in order of birth of the nine children born to his parents, the others being as follow: James, also of Humboldt; S. M., a former well- known lumberman of Humboldt, now deceased; Mrs. Belle Adams, of Ohio; Hugh, who died on his farm six miles north of Humboldt and whose widow is still living there; William, a carpenter at Humboldt; Mrs. Tina Craw- ford, of Montana; Mrs. Lizzie Cope, of Humboldt, and Charles, who died at the age of twenty-one years.

When John Philpot was seventeen years of age he left his home in Ohio and came West, locating in Richardson county, where he has lived ever since, with the exception of three years spent in Colorado. It was in 1877 that he arrived here and upon his arrival he began working as a farm laborer and was thus engaged until his marriage in 1886, when he rented a farm and began farming on his own account, remaining on that place until 1909, when he bought an eighty-acre farm northeast of Hum- boldt and lived there until he traded that place for a twenty-acre tract adjoining the city, where he since has made his home. In 1914 he erected a handsome residence there and he and his family are very comfortably situated. In addition to his general farming Mr. Philpot for some years gave particular attention to the raising of live stock and did quite well in that line. Since taking up his residence at the north edge of town he has given much attention to the raising of poultry, with particular reference to the Rose Comb and Brown Leghorn varieties and has built up quite an extensive poultry concern there. He and his nephew, Ralph R. Philpot, have lately engaged in the fence-post business on quite an extensive scale, utilizing grown- up hedge timber for this purpose, and have developed quite a profitable business in that line, also doing quite a business in cordwood. Mr. Philpot is a Republican and has ever given a good citizen's attention to local political affairs, but has not been a seeker after public office.

In 1886 John Philpot was united in marriage to Anna Leatherman, who was born in Indiana in 1866, daughter of Washington and Useba (Sinford) Leatherman, the latter of whom died in Indiana, Washington Leatherman later coming to Nebraska and settling in Richardson county, his daughter.

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Anna, keeping house for him here until her marriage to Mr. Philpot. Mrs. Philpot has three brothers, Edward, now living in Colorado: Fred, who is engaged in the live-stock business in Indiana, and Daniel, now a resident of Dunavant, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Philpot have six children, namely : May. who married Frank Fergus, of the precinct of Porter, this county, and has three children, Frank, Earl and Margaret; Iva, who married Archie Yarling, also of Porter precinct, and has one child, a daughter, Bernice; Fay, who married Laurence Oberly, also of Porter precinct; Effie, wife of Paul Moritz, of Porter precinct, and Thelma and Enid, who are still at home with their parents. The Philpots are members of the Presbyterian church and take a warm interest in the various beneficences of the same, as well as in the general good works and social activities of their home town and the community at large. Mr. Philpot is a member of the local lodge of the Modern Woodmen of America and takes an active interest in the affairs of the same.

JAMES F. KELLY, M. D.

Dr. James F. Kelly, well-known young physician of Dawson, is a native of the city of Boston, but is a product of the West, having been reared and educated at Omaha. He was born at Boston on February 1, 1891, while his parents, residents of Iowa, were in that city. His father, John Kelly, was reared in Ireland and when a young man came to this country, in the early eighties, and made his way to Des Moines, Iowa, where he presently mar- ried and made his home. During the Cleveland administration he became connected with the postal service, with headquarters at Omaha, and it was while thus engaged that he returned East with his wife, and made a stay of one year in Boston, Massachusetts, during which residence the subject of this review was born. John Kelly died at Omaha on February 14, 1892, and his. widow is now living in Iowa. She was born, Margaret Meade, in the state of New York, daughter of John Meade, a native of Ireland, who came to this country, locating in New York and moving thence to Iowa, homestead- ing a tract of land in Johnson county in 1850 and becoming a large land- owner.

Reared at Omaha, James F. Kelly received his early schooling in the parochial schools of that city, supplementing the same by a course in the Creighton high school and university. He then entered Creighton Medical College and was graduated from that institution in 1915. Upon receiving his

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diploma Doctor Kelly received the appointment as an interne in St. Joseph's hospital at Tacoma. Washington, and was later made an interne in St. Joseph's hospital at Omaha, thus receiving some excellent practical experience in the practice of his profession before actively engaging in that practice. On August 1, 1916, the Doctor located at Dawson, where he opened an office for the prac- tice of his profession and where he already has built up an extensive practice. He is a member of the Richardson County Medical Society and of the Neb- raska State Medical Association and in the deliberations of these bodies takes an active interest. Politically, the Doctor is a Democrat, but on local issues is inclined to be "independent." He is a member of the Catholic church and takes a proper interest in parish affairs, while, fraternally, he is a member of the Knights of Columbus and of the medical Greek-letter fraternity. Phi Iota Sigma.

GEORGE E. TAYLOR.

The late George E. Taylor, for years one of the best-known and most substantial farmers of Arago precinct, this county, and an honored veteran of the Civil War, who died in 1912, was a native of Illinois, but had been a resident of this section of the country since 1868. He was born on a farm in the neighborhood of Mason City, Illinois, February 28, 1843, son of Jesse and Mary ( Harding) Taylor, and was the eldest of the ten children born to that parentage, eight sons and two daughters. Jesse Taylor was a native of Illinois and his wife was a native of Virginia. About 1885 they came to this county and located at Rulo, where their last days were spent.

George E. Taylor was reared on the home farm in the vicinity of Mason City, Illinois, and was living there when the Civil War broke out. he then being eighteen years of age. One day in 1861, not long after the first call for volunteers, he drove to town with a load of wheat, completed the business transaction and then went to the recruiting station and enlisted his services in behalf of the Union. He went to the front as a member of Company F. Eighth Illinois Regiment, Volunteer Infantry, and with that command served until he was honorably discharged following a serious wound received at the battle of Shiloh. From the battlefield at Shiloh he was removed to a camp hospital, whence, after he had recovered sufficiently to endure a transfer, he was removed to his home by his parents, who had come after him ..

Upon the completion of his military service George E. Taylor remained

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on the home farm in Illinois until 1868, when he came out to this part of the country and bought a tract of three hundred acres of land one mile north of Hiawatha and proceeded to improve the same, making the town his place of residence. He later traded that farm for property in Rulo, this county, and while living there, in 1871, was married, presently selling his town property and moving to the farm in section 36 of the precinct of Arago, on which he spent the remainder of his life, becoming a substantial and well-to-do farmer, his death occurring there on February 10, 1912. Mr. Taylor was an active member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic, in the affairs of which patriotic organization he took a warm interest and was also a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

On March 19, 1871, not long after coming to this county, George E. Taylor was united in marriage to Sophronia Elshire, who was born in Madi- son county, Indiana, May 4. 1848, daughter of Ephraim and Maria ( Hoppes) Elshire, also natives of Indiana, who were the parents of eight children, of whom Mrs. Taylor was the third in order of birth. Ephraim Elshire came to Nebraska with his family in 1860 and settled on a brush-land farm in the precinct of Arago, this county, where he built a log cabin, broke up his land with oxen and established his home, eventually prospering so largely that he became the owner of a tract of four hundred acres of choice land in that pre- cinct. In the division of the Elshire estate Mrs. Taylor became the owner of two hundred and forty acres of that farm, which she still owns, besides her home farm of five hundred and ten aeres in section 36. Ephraim Elshire. who was born in 1820, died at his home in this county on March 14. 1897. His widow survived him a little less than a year, her death occurring on February 7, 1898. She was born in 1823. For some time after coming out to this part of the country Ephraim Elshire was employed as a freighter on the old trail from St. Joseph to Denver, in the company of such other well- known plainsmen as James Hosford, Louis Phillips and Charles Gagnon, also of Rulo.

To George E. and Sophronia (Elshire) Taylor were born six children, namely: Mrs. Bertha Rickard, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Gertrude Kanaly, wife of Martin Kanaly, a farmer, of Falls City, this county; Mrs. Jessie Keobrich, of .Atchison. Kansas: Edward Taylor, of Cleveland, Ohio; Fred Taylor, of Falls City, and George Taylor, who is managing the home place for his mother. Mrs. Taylor is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as was her husband, and has ever taken an active part in the good works of the community in which she has lived since pioneer days.

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JOHN LICHTY.

John Lichty, of Falls City, secretary and manager of the Richardson County Farmers Mutual Fire and Lightning Insurance Company of Falls City and former representative from this district to the Nebraska state Legis- lature, is a native of the old Keystone state, but has been a resident of this county since 1870 and may therefore very properly be regarded as one of the "old settlers" of Richardson county. He was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, April 21, 1851, son of Solomon and Mary ( Meyers) Lichty. both natives of that same state, of Pennsylvania-Dutch stock, who cmigrated to Illinois in 1856 and settled on a farm in Carroll county, that state, where they spent the remainder of their lives.

John Lichty was but five years of age when his parents moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois and in the latter state lie grew to manhood, reared on a farm and receiving his schooling in the public schools. There he con- tinued to reside until he was nineteen years of age, when, in 1870, he came to Nebraska, having borrowed one hundred and fifty dollars with which to make the trip to Falls City and enable him to look about a bit with a view to getting a Nebraska farm. He was so well pleased with conditions here that almost immediately after his arrival here he bought a small farm in the precinct of Ohio, eight miles northeast of Falls City, proceeded to develop the same and after his marriage in the fall of 1873 established his home there. From the very beginning of his farming operations in this county Mr. Lichty prospered and as he did so gradually added to his land holdings in Ohio precinct until he became the owner of a well-improved and profitably cultivated farm of five hundred and twenty acres there, and there he made his home until his retirement from the active labors of the farm and removal in 1900 to Falls City, where he has since made his home and where he and his wife are very comfortably situated. Since his retirement Mr. Lichty has disposed of his old home farm to his children, but is still the owner of eighty acres in the precinct of Barada, of two hundred and fifteen acres in Brown county, Kan- sas, and a fine bearing apple orchard of thirty-five acres. Mr. Lichty is a Bryan Democrat and an ardent supporter of the Nebraska "drys," an earnest advocate of state-wide prohibition. In 1900, the year of his removal to Falls City, he was elected to represent this district in the Nebraska General .Assembly and in the session of 1901 rendered admirable service in the House. one of the committees on which he served having been the important com- mittee on judiciary. He and his wife are members of the Brethren church and have ever given their earnest attention to community good works.

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It was on November 13, 1873, about three years after his arrival in this county, that John Lichty was united in marriage to Ann Ashenfelter, who was born in Illinois, a daughter of Josialı and Margaret Ashenfelter, Datives of Pennsylvania, who had settled in Illinois and who afterward came to Neb- raska, and to this union six children have been born namely: Albert H., who was graduated from Ashland College, later took up the work of the Young Men's Christian Association, in which work he displayed such marked ability that he was rapidly advanced and is now the state secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association in the state of Ohio, with offices in Colum- bus ; Lillie Alverta, a professional nurse, who is the wife of C. W. Stump, of Hastings, this state; Frank S., who now owns and operates the old home- stead farm in Ohio precinct; Daniel J., who died at the age of three years; Guy C., who is farming in the precinct of Barada, and Esta Marie, now a student in Ashland College (Ohio), a member of the class of 1918.

It was in 1916 that John Lichty became secretary of the Richardson County Farmers Mutual Fire and Lightning Insurance Company, succeeding his brother, the late Samuel Lichty, to that position. He had for years had an active interest in that company and since taking up his secretarial duties has been virtually office manager of the concern, one of the best-established local mutual insurance companies in the state. This company was organized in June, 1887. the late Samuel Lichty having been the practical promoter of the same and a leader in the movement that led to the general introduction of such companies in this state, for it was he who wrote the bill that was introduced in the Legislature by Representative Gerdes, then representative from this district, and the enactment of which paved the way for the organ- ization of mutual insurance companies in Nebraska. Samuel Lichty also organized the Nebraska Mutual Insurance Company, which provides fire. lightning and cyclone insurance, the Richardson county company writing its storm insurance, through its secretary, John Lichty, in this latter company. Later a company of retired farmers in Falls City and property owners there organized the Dwelling House Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Nebraska, for the purpose of insuring city dwellings, barns and private residences against loss by fire, and Mr. Lichty also writes insurance for this company. which has many patrons throughout the county. The Richardson county company, which was formally incorporated under the laws of the state in 1891, and which originally was backed by Samuel Lichty, I. W. Harris, George Abbott and George Watkins, began business with the aim of eventually writing one hundred thousand dollars in insurance, but that figure was passed

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within a few months and the company has now more than one thousand policy holders and has in force more than two million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars of insurance. It is an assessment company and the losses are so almost wholly negligible that in 1916 a levy of two mills covered all assessments against the policy holders. The present officers of the company are as follow : President, N. D. Auxier, of Salem; secretary, John Lichty ; treasurer. Joshua Bloom, of Verdon, and directors, besides the above-named officers, John Ahern, of Shubert; Martin Nolte, of Falls City; S. H. Knisley, of Falls City; J. . \. Hartman, of Rulo; Gus Duerfeldt, of Barada; R. R. Draper, of Dawson; John Hollecheck, of Humboldt, and E. E. Ewing, of Verdon.

ANDREW TYNAN.

During his long and active career in this county there were few men better known in this part of Nebraska than was the late Andrew' Tynan, veteran plainsman, "bull-whacker", pioneer merchant, farmer, stockman and politician, who died at his home in Stella in the summer of 1912, and there have been few hereabout whose names are held in better memory than his. A native of Ireland, he came to this country alone as a poor, ignorant boy of thirteen and by his own indomitable energy rose to a position of influence in the community in which he settled in pioneer days and attained a degree of financial competence that must have been beyond the wildest dreams of the immigrant lad who left his native Kilkenny and faced the shores of the new country on this side the Atlantic back in the forties. Big, generous and whole-hearted in his operations, he did on a large scale what he had to do and was successful in his various undertakings, leaving a handsome estate to his family, and his widow, who is still living at Stella, very comfortably situated in the pleasant "evening time" of her life. Unable to acquire an education in his youth, Andrew Tynan took the time out of his busy life, after he was grown, to school himself in all the essentials of a common- school education and there was no more ardent champion of the cause of good schools in Richardson county than was he. An equally ardent tem- perance advocate he was a tireless worker in the anti-liquor cause and the saloon in Nebraska had no more fearless opponent than he, his influence and activities in that behalf doing much for the cause of temperance in this part of the state. Generous to a fault. he was ever open-handed in his contribu- tions to all worthy local causes and when solicited for subscriptions to

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 83

Author: Edwards, Lewis C Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1742

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742