The Old Folks At Home
Logan County
Some of Nebraska's Centenarians who still live and have their being
Gandy, Nebraska, March 1 - (Special correspondence of the World Hearld)
In a country so new as is Logan County, Nebraska, one would hardly expect to find many very old people. We have however, in this county two men about whom centers some interest.
John Connelly was born in April 1814, and is, therefore almost 77 years of age. He is a native of North Carolina. When quite a young man he moved into Indiana, where he resided till 1877, when he removed to Burion County, Illinois, residing there only two years. From there he moved to Allen County, Kansas where he spent three years, and thence to Custer County, Nebraska. Where he lived till the spring of 1890, when he came into Logan County and settled upon a homestead claim. He has always been a farmer and was at one time well to do in the world, but was ruined financially in that good old fashioned way, by going security for other men, and at this present age is homesteading a far, doing his own work thereon.
He has been twice married and is the father of fifteen children, eleven of which are living, six boys and five girls. One child is in the state of Washington, one in Iowa, four in Broken Bow, Nebraska, one in Arkansaw and one in Texas.
Rather more remarkable though has been the life of Allen Sharp, now residing in Logan County. He is 84 years old January 10, 1891, being born in Tennessee, January 10, 1807. He is as erect today as any man in the county. He is father of ten children, seven of whom are living, three in Logan County, Nebraska. One in Colorado, one in Wyoming, one in Iowa and one in South Dakota. He has seventeen grandchildren living and ten great grandchildren. He, too, has always been a farmer and lives on a farm in Logan County. When quite a boy he moved from his native sate to Ohio, where, in his early manhood, he opened and cleared a good farm in the heavy forests of that state, where he married and lived till after two of his children were born, when he moved to Howard County, Indians and there cleared off another farm in a dense wood. He next moved to Breemer County, Iowa. Now comes the fug of war. During the succeeding thirty years he moved back to Indiana and again returned to Iowa or some other western state eleven times. He lived during this time in Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas. Later, in 1873, he ventured further west and moved from Iowa to Oregon, returning to Iowa in 1874. In 1877 he migrated to Dakota and in 1886 came again to Nebraska and settled upon a homestead in Logan County, with a view of growing up with the country. But few men of 50 years in this country are more rugged than he, and he is today able to make a fair hand at any ordinary farm work. In 1862 he lived in Ohio and while he had three sons in the army he was himself a member of the home guard in that state.
His sons, known to your correspondent, are all men of remarkable activity, strength and endurance, and the fact stands out boldly that they are all “chips from the old block.”
Morning World Herald, Omaha, Monday, April 20, 1891
|