bios.htm

Biographies

Mrs. Mattie O. Milliard

Mrs. Mattie O. Milliard, who has so capably and acceptably performed the duties of superintendent of public instruction in Pratt county for the last eight years, is a native of Iowa, born on a farm in Warren county, Jan. 1, 1866. She is a daughter of Charles L. W. Proudfoot, a West Virginian by birth, born Feb. 20, 1842, to parents that were natives of the Old Dominion. He removed to Iowa early in life and, in 1860, wedded Rebecca Lewzader of Warren county, Iowa, but a native of In¬diana. Mr. Proudfoot was a farmer by vocation, but part of his business life was spent as an employee in a railroad office. He and his wife were the parents of two sons and three daughters: Emma Hester, born May 5, 1862, married William Herbert, a blacksmith, and they reside in Petaluma, Cal.; Merritt Ulysses Grant, born Sept. 29, 1864, is a train dispatcher at Des Moines, Iowa; Mrs. Hilliard is next in order of birth; Harriett Elizabeth, born Nov. 13, 1868, is the wife of William Burg, a successful farmer of Polk county, Iowa; and James Paris, born Jan. 29, 1870, died in 1903¬.

Mrs. Hilliard was educated in the public schools of Warren county, Iowa, and at Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa, where she graduated in 1881. After a splendid career as a student she entered duly upon the life of a teacher. However, after teaching one year in Iowa, she gave up her profession for domestic life and was married, Nov. 7, 1883, to Albert Hilliard of New Virginia, Iowa. He was a farmer, and in May following their marriage they removed to Kansas, making the journey by wagon and locating on government land in Pratt county. They made final proof on 160 acres by preemption, after one year's residence there, and then in 1885 removed to Meade county, where Mr. Hilliard took a soldier's homestead, making final proof after three years' residence. They then returned to Pratt county, where he became a salesman in a hardware store. He died Sept. 1, 1906. It was his to render valiant service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war, enlisting as a private in Company B, Thirty-seventh Illinois infantry, with which he served three years. To Mr. and Mrs. Hilliard were born four children Blanche died in infancy; Alta Geneva, born July 20, 1886, was engaged in teaching five years and on Sept. 10, 1908, married Harry Warren, a bank clerk, and they have two sons-Hilliard, born July 30, 1909, and Harold, born Oct. 23, 1910; Frank Charles was born Nov. 23, 1887, is a graduate of the Pratt County High School and was a law student at the University of Kansas two years, being compelled to give up that course on account of ill health, and is a railroad conductor at Los Angeles, Cal.; and Vernon Victor, born Oct. 19, 1890, is also a graduate of the Pratt County High School and is a salesman.

For eleven years Mrs. Hilliard proved an exceptionally energetic and able member of the teaching profession in Pratt county. Her ability in that direction and her unusually strong talent for administration se¬cured her election to the office of superintendent of public instruction in Pratt county, in 1904, on the Republican ticket. She was successively reelected to the office in 1906, 1908 and 1910, a strong and convincing testimony as to her fitness for the position and the esteem in which she is held. In the election of 1910 her opponent on the Democratic ticket was a lady candidate, over whom Mrs. Hilliard was elected by a ma¬jority of 297 votes. Out of forty-seven women who are holding similar positions in Kansas Mrs. Hilliard's record stands exceptionally high as a school woman and as a public officer. She is a member of the Coterie Literary Club of Pratt, and of the Rebekah lodge, and is also a member and recording secretary of the Royal Neighbors, auxiliaries respectively of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. She is president of the Woman's Relief Corps, Grand Army of the Republic. She is active and prominent in both club and church work in Pratt and is the teacher of a class of fifty in the Methodist Epis¬copal Sunday school at Pratt.

Kansas Biography Part 2, Vol. III, 1912
Page: 982-984
Submitted and Transcribed as written by Millie Mowry.

J. W. Nusum

J.W. Nusum, M.D., Crescent City, came to Crescent City four years ago, and began the practice of medicine, though previous to this he had practiced some time in Spring Hill, Warren County, Iowa. The doctor was born in Waynesburg, Greene Co., PA, in 1848, though his people moved to Virginia when he was four years old; there the early years of his life were spent. In 1866, when he was nineteen years old, he removed to Des Moines, Iowa, with his people. He began the study of medicine in Des Moines, under Dr. J. Grimes, and then studied with Dr. James T. Wakefield, of Spring Hill, Iowa, after which he took a course at Rush Medical College, Chicago, where he graduated in 1868. He then returned to Spring Hill, where he spent two years in partnership with his old preceptor, Dr. Wakefield.

In 1872, at Indianola, Iowa, the doctor married Emma Armstrong, a native of Guernsey County, Ohio, born in 1852. Five children have been born to them, three of whom are now living, viz., Georgie G., Maggie E., and Ivy F. The genealogy of his family, the doctor is able to trace back to an honorable ancestry. His grandfather and grandmother were both natives of England, and born a short distance north of London. In their early settlement in the United States, his grandfather joined the Americans in the Indian War, and while fighting under St. Clair, was taken prisoner by the Indians and held a captive for three years. His father, George G. (who spelled his name Neusum), was born in Virginia in 1822, and lives in Iowa; his mother, Eliza J. (Kimball) Nusum, was born in Greene County, PA, in 1826, and died in 1861.

During the war of the rebellion, the doctor spent some time in the Confederate service, under command of Gen. Morgan; he was wounded three times during his service; he has now a good and lucrative practice established and has gained a place in four years which many physicians struggle ten years to attain.

[1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Part 2, page 90, submitted by Ann]