Captain Absalom M. Enoch

Absalom M. Enoch is one of the best known characters of Humboldt, Richardson county, where he has made his residence since Thanksgiving day, 1869. He is one of the many old men in whom the healthful, breezy prairies of Nebraska abounds, and whose energies and vital resources are almost unimpaired till the final summons comes. He is approaching the eightieth year of his life, and his active decades of life have been well spent and useful to himself and his fellow men. He is an especial favorite with everyone in Humboldt, and there is not a man, woman or child in the town who does not know him and will not sincerely miss him when he is gone from their number.

Mr. Enoch was born in Miami County, Ohio. September 18, 1825. His father, Jacob Enoch, was born in Pennsylvania, and pioneered it to Ohio and settled in the dense timber. He followed the occupation of hunter and trapper, with incidental Indian fighting. He was in the Black Hawk war in Illinois, and after returning to Ohio said that God had cleared the timber from that country and he accordingly moved out to the prairie state. He came out in 1835, and settled eight miles east of Rockford and six miles north of Belvidere, where he pre-empted and paid one dollar and a quarter an acre for one hundred and sixty acres. He continued farming until 1850, when he crossed the plains with ox teams to California, being some six months on the way, and died in that state in the following year, being buried in Hangtown, now Placerville. He married Mary Maddox, a cousin of the late well known Wilson Maddox, of Falls City. She was a native of Ohio, and they were married in 1824, their first child being Absalom; the second was Sarah, who died in youth in Ohio; Mary Jane became the wife of Dennis Clark, of Overton, Nebraska, who came to this state in an early day, and they have three sons and one daughter living.

Captain Enoch was reared in Ohio and Illinois, and for a time farmed the home place in Boone county of the latter state, and then sold it and bought another farm near Belvidere. He sold this in 1859 and went to Rochester, Minnesota, which was his home until he came to Nebraska. He has made a most creditable military record. He enlisted for the Civil war and was made captain in Company F, Ninth Minnesota Infantry, having raised that company, and he commanded it throughout the war. Part of his service was against the Sioux Indians, and he witnessed the hanging of thirty-nine of them convicted of murder. He was wounded during the Indian outbreak, and still carries a bullet in his right lung. He also saw hard fighting in the south, being present at the engagements at Guntown and Tupello, Mississippi, at the siege of Nashville, and in various minor skirmishes.   He was in the Sixteenth Army Corps, which remained behind when Sherman made his march toward the sea. Captain Enoch's subsequent career has been mainly concerned with farming and hotel-keeping, and for twenty years he was proprietor of the Enoch House in Humboldt, but is now retired from active pursuits and spending the evening of a long and useful life in comfort and ease. Captain Enoch was married in Boone county, Illinois, January 1, 1850, to Miss Elizabeth Caulfield, a native of Ireland. She was born in 1826, and died in the home at Humboldt, in 1888, being without issue. Captain Enoch's present wife, whom he married in Falls City, was Miss Anna Brickey, who was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, a daughter of Peter and Mary (Brock) Brickey. Her father was a farmer and died in York, Illinois, in 1878, leaving three children: Thomas, whose whereabouts are not known; Mrs. Enoch; and Cora Brickey, of Kansas City. The mother of these children died in 1880.  

Mrs. Enoch had only a limited education, and has had mainly to make her own way in life, which she has done most heroically and ably, and her youthful years and energy do not allow her to remain inactive now that she is independent. She is a most competent dressmaker, and is one of the leading ladies in that line of business in Humboldt. She is a member of the Catholic church, and is prominent in social circles. Captain Enoch is a Democrat in politics. He served as police judge of this place for many years, until he refused to serve longer. He has also been a justice of the peace, and for several terms was on the city council and chairman of the board. He was baptized in the Universalist Church. He is still erect and sprightly in spite of his years and work in his own behalf and in the service of his country. 

Source:  "A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904) Submitted by:   K. Torp

Henry A. Scott

Henry A. Scott, the well known retired merchant and business man of Humboldt, Nebraska, has taken a prominent and influential part in business and public affairs in Richardson County for the past thirty-seven years, and has been a resident of the town of Humboldt for thirty years. His career has been one of wide scope and varied in its useful activities, and he and his estimable wife have probably enjoyed as deep draughts of wholesome and happy living as any other two people in the county. While pursuing ways of peace and pleasantness themselves, they have by no means been selfish in their aims or neglected the welfare of others, and their public-spirited and kind-hearted interest and efforts have manifested themselves in many ways for the beterment of the institutions and material progress of their community and city and county.

Mr. Scott is of Puritan lineage on both sides of the house, and comes of a family known and honored in America for many generations. He was born in old Hatfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, January 1, 1844. His grandfather was Thaddeus Scott, a farmer of old Hatfield. He married a Miss Doty, a descendant of Plymouth settlers, and they reared four sons and three daughters. The daughters married and Kid small families, and the sons are as follows: Gad Scott, a farmer, went to Dubuque county, Iowa, in 1856, and died at advanced age, having been married twice but with no children; James died on the home place at old Hatfield when an old man, leaving no children; Alpheus and Lebeus were twins, the former being the father of Mr. Henry Scott. Lebeus was a prominent character in Massachusetts. He was a teacher and school superintendent, was an express messenger many years, was warden of the prison in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and was popular with all parties and classes. He was an orthodox Congregationalism which has been the religion of all the family. He married but had no children. Alpheus Scott was born in the old home in October, 1824, and died in Richardson County, Nebraska, in 1876. In young manhood he married Julia Russell, who was born in the same part of Massachusetts in 1828, a daughter of Charles Russell, a farmer. Their first child was Henry A. The second was Charles, who was born in Lorain county, Ohio, and was accidentally killed in a saw-mill in Oregon, leaving a wife, one son and two daughters.   The third child is Mary, wife of David Weaver, of Boswell. Indiana, and has two sons; Annie, wife of Barton Hued, of Waterloo, Iowa, has a large family; Thaddeus, unmarried, is in Dubuque County, Iowa; Edward died at Epworth, Iowa, in middle life, leaving a wife and four children; Alpheus, unmarried, is in the state of Washington; Lizzie Martin died in Humboldt, Nebraska, in young womanhood, leaving one son; James is married and lives in Waterloo, Iowa; Hattie Bremer lives in Seattle, Washington; Jessie Haskins is in Tekoa, Washington, and has three children. The mother of these children died at Hebron, Nebraska, at the age of fifty-two. Alpheus Scott was not a money-getter, but always lived well, and he and his wife were genial, whole souled people, with hosts of friends, and were strong Congregationalists. He was a graduate of Berea College, studied law under Judge Striker at Sandusky, and was admitted to the bar in Iowa. He taught school while preparing for his profession. He left Erie county. Ohio, in 1852, and moved to Clayton county, Iowa,settling on a claim of forty acres, paying the regular price of a dollar and a quarter per acre. This was bare prairie, with the nearest neighbor two miles and a half away, and he began by building a round-log house of two rooms, in which he and his wife lived three years. He then became one of the two founders of the town of Strawberry Point in the same county. He was engaged in law practice there for several years, and was one of the brainy and clear-headed members of the first constitutional convention of the state. The law firm was Murdock and Scott for two years. He also served as prosecuting attorney and county judge. He was a ready and rapid speaker, with quick wit and ability at repartee and debate, and could make a speech on any and every occasion. He was popular as an auctioneer, and in pleading before a jury he was tireless and earnest and convincing.   He was a successful man. and was helped much by his industrious and sympathetic wife, who was at all times devoted to the interests of her family. Henry A. Scott had a limited education in the public schools, and rather took to work and sport in his youth. In April 1861, he volunteered in the cause of his country, enlisting in Company C, Third Iowa Infantry. He was at the battle of Shiloh and throughout the western campaigns, and after three years veteranized in the same company and regiment. In Sherman's campaign about Meridian he was taken prisoner, and endured incarceration in southern prisons at Cahaba, Alabama, Andersonville, Georgia, and Florence, South Carolina, from February 27, 1864, until he signed his parole March 4, 1865. He participated in the grand review on Pennsylvania avenue in Washington in 1865, and again in 1903 as a member of the Nebraska delegation of Grand Army veterans. After the war. in May, 1867, Mr. Scott came to Nebraska and homesteaded a claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Franklin township. Richardson county, and fanned the land for several years and still keeps it under tenancy. He moved into Humboldt in 1874, and this has been his home and center of activity ever since. For about twelve years he was a salesman in the. hardware and implement house of F. W. Samuelson, and he then opened up a business in the same line under the firm name of Scott and Skalak, which partnership continued most successfully for fifteen years, after which Mr. Scott withdrew from active participation in business affairs and has since been taking things rather easily. For the last few years he has been traveling considerably, and he and his wife have enjoyed many of the fruits of their years of thrift and good management. He was not enjoying good health when he left business, but his subsequent free activity has almost completely rejuvenated him. He and his wife have been to the Pacific coast twice, having traveled the entire length of the coast down to old Mexico, and they also spent one winter in Florida. They reside in one of the pleasant homes of Humboldt, having erected it some five years ago, and he also owns a fine brick business block besides other residence property. September 22, 1868, Mr. Scott was married in his present precinct to Miss Margaret Smith, who was born in Licking county. Ohio, in October, 1849, a daughter of Henry and Sophronia (Payne) Smith. Her father was a blacksmith in Ohio, where he died in old age, and his widow died at Blue Springs, Nebraska, in December, 1903, in the eighty-first year of her age. Mrs. Scott is one of seven living children, two brothers and four sisters. Mr. and Mrs. Scott's only son and child is Aretas, one of the leading dentists of St. Joseph, Missouri. He married Mary Lionberger. He was a graduate of the Humboldt high school at the age of seventeen, then took a course at the State University at Lincoln, and graduated from the Gem City Business College at Quincy. Illinois.   The head of the latter school, D. M. Musselman, gave him a certificate graded at 97. one of the very highest marks, for he never gave higher than 98. Dr. Scott is a young man of much talent in various lines. He graduated with, high standing from the Kansas City Dental College, and has since built up a fine practice in St. Joseph. He was secretary of the Dental Association in St. Joseph. He is a Master Mason, a Modern Woodman, and is a stanch Republican. Mr. Scott has been a Republican for many years. He takes an active part in the proceedings of the Grand Army of the Republic, and affiliates with Humboldt Lodge No. 40, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He has served as constable and is widely and favorably known is the county and state. He has taken an interested part in the campaigns for the past few years.   Mrs. Scott is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

Source:  "A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904) Submitted by:   K. Torp

Joseph Ogle

Joseph Ogle, agriculturist and stock farmer of Grant precinct, with post office at Dawson, is a Richardson county settler of 1873, having come here from Hancock county, Illinois. He was a young man then, and time has since added to his years, but he is still young in vigor and energy and capacity for enjoyment of the best things of life.  He and his wife have been happy toilers along life's way, have applied all their endeavors and intelligence to the work which was cut out for them, and they therefore richly deserve the magnificent success that has crowned their diligence and wise management.  Their home is to-day one of the fine ones of Richardson county, the lands cultivated to the highest degree of profit and permanent returns, all the operations of the farm being carried on with machine-like system, and the home and household from every standpoint being one of the most attractive, hospital and comfortable that an intimate friend or a far-faring traveler would ever care to find for his solace and pleasure.

The owner and successful operator of this model farmstead was born in Fulton county, Illinois, March 31, 1849.  His grandfather was a cooper in the same county, and died there during the cholera year.  His father was John Ogle, who was born in Ohio about 1823, and died near Humboldt, Nebraska, in 1880.  He was married in Illinois to Jemima Servia Burgess, who was born in Pennsylvania.  After a long marital union and having become the mother of ten children she passed away, being buried on a birthday of her son Joseph, and her husband was again married.  They were members of the United Brethren church.  They reared all their ten children but one, a daughter, Azubah Hayes, died in Montana leaving two sons and two daughters.  The living children are: Mrs. Hattie Davenport, a widow, living at South Sioux City, Iowa, has five living children of the seven born to her; Joseph is the third oldest of those living; John M. lives in Missouri and has a family; William Otto, of Washington county, Colorado, has two sons and two daughters; James Oscar, of Franklin township, Richardson County, has two sons and two daughters; Noah is a farmer of Augusta, Illinois, and has four living children.

Mr. Joseph Ogle had a district schooling until he was eighteen years old.  At the age of twenty-two he left the home and county of his birth, and with a team of good horses, a wagon, plough and cultivator, drove overland to Nebraska, which was the land of promise of his youthful ambition.  He camped out on this journey and leaving Illinois on February 26th arrived in Brownville, March 9, 1873.  He had fifty dollars in cash, and for the first season he farmed on land of his brother-in-law.  He then returned to Illinois for the girl who for thirty years has been the companion of his joys and labors and whom he counts as the coequal partner with himself in the success that has

been vouchsafed to them in all their undertakings.  After his marriage he returned to Nebraska to build up his fortune.  

He bought a quarter section of land that had never been touched by the plow, and this still forms a part of his farm, although he now has three hundred and twenty acres in his place and a quarter section of bottom land in Nemaha County.  He began the  work of improvement in the spring of 1877, having built a snug little frame house which served as his abode for a number years.  A few years ago he moved this house back a few feet and began the erection of his present beautiful country residence which is among the finest in the countryside.  It stands back from the dusty highway, is embowered in trees, and has all the surroundings that harmonize with a successful man's dwelling.  The house is two stories high, with a large attic and a basement, the furnace being in the latter and the large steel tank from which all the rooms are supplied with water being in the attic.  There is a large pillared porch before both stories in front, and the rear of the house is all screened in.  There are seven large and airy bedrooms, and the parlor, living-room, dining-room and kitchen are richly furnished and decorated according to the best ideas of modern taste and arrangement.  Mr. Ogle had this residence built by day work, under his constant supervision, and it cost four thousand five hundred dollars, for every dollar of which he got value received.  They moved into this commodious dwelling in November, 1903.  He also has a cyclone cave made of a solid stone arch.  His large barn was built in 1884, and there are also numerous other buildings and equipments around the place.  Stock-raising and general farming are the profitable departments of Mr. Ogle's enterprise, and he makes his undertakings pay unusually well even for the state of Nebraska with all its fertile resources.  Mr. Ogle is a Republican in politics, but the only office he has held has been as a member of the Grange.  

Mrs. Ogle's maiden name was Lourette E. Swisegood.  She was born in Hancock county, Illinois, a daughter of Daniel H. and Anna C. (Haynes) Swisegood, who were both natives of North Carolina, but were reared in Illinois, of which state their parents were pioneers.  Both her parents are still living, in advanced years but still in good health, on their old homestead in Hancock county, Illinois.  Mrs. Ogle is one of ten children, as follows: Sarah S. who died at the age of eighteen months; John Swisegood, who came to Nebraskah in 1877 and died on his farm near Dawson, having been a locomotive engineer while in Illinois, and three sons and two daughters survived him; Mrs. Ogle is next of the family; Cornelia White, in Augusta, Illinois, has one daughter; the fifth child died at the age of three years; Eliza Blanche died when twenty-six years old; Nora Spence lives in Missouri and has four sons and three daughters; George is a farmer in Illinois and has some six children; Thomas died in Illinois aged twenty-five and unmarried; and one son died in infancy.

Mr. and Mrs. Ogle have lost three children and have four living:  John, who is farming one of his father's places, has a wife and one son and one daughter; Anna Blanche is the wife of Walter Cross, a tenant farmer, and has one son and two daughters; Susie died March 21, 1903, aged twenty-two; Marcellus died in infancy, January 10, 1883; Lena E. is her mother's right-hand supporter and helper at home and is a charming young lady; Ray, aged eighteen, is at home and still a student; Bertha Pearl died October 28, 1892, aged three years.

A Biographical and genealogical history of Southeastern Nebraska - 1904

Transcribed and Submitted by:  Nancy Washell

Shadrach M. Chaffin   

Shadrach M. Chaffin, farmer and veterinarian of Humboldt, Richardson County, is an old and well known settler of Southeastern Nebraska.  He first became acquainted with this county in 1858, and has resided here continuously since the 12^th of August, 1861, on which date he arrived from Holt County, Missouri.  Nebraska was not yet a state and was indeed a wild country compared to its present highly civilized condition, and its many changes and steps of development are photographed on the mind and engrafted in the experience of Mr. Chaffin, who has himself been intimately identified with the life and times in which he has lived for over forty years.

Mr. Chaffin was born in Scioto County, Ohio, August 12, 1833, so that he is now past the Psalmist's limit of three score and ten years, yet is able to do a day's work and perform his part of the obligations of life with much of the zeal of youth.  He was reared on his father's Ohio farm, and remained with his parents till after he was grown.  His schooling was meager and acquired in the primitive log schoolhouse such as was marked out for the temple of learning in the early part of the last century.  From the age of sixteen he was constantly engaged in farm labor, and has had an increasing ration of success in all the years that have followed.  In 1855 he left Ohio and moved to Holt County, Missouri, and five years later arrived in Nebraska.  For thirty years he was engaged in farming near Salem, and in 1891 he took up his abode on his present nice homestead, a part of which lies within the corporate limits of the town of Humboldt.  Besides working with profit his small farm he follows the vocation of stock doctor, and is well known for his connection with both pursuits.

Mr. Chaffin is a Republican in politics, but has nourished no specific ambition to leave the rank and file of the party and attain office.  He has served on the city council of Humboldt for three terms, and is known as a public-spirited and enterprising citizen.  He and his wife are members of the Christian church, and he is a firm advocate of the temperance cause.

September 25, 1864, Mr. Chaffin was married to Miss Lucinda O. Pierce, who was born in Vermont, November 19, 1847, a daughter of Daniel W. and Lucy Edwin Pierce, both natives of Vermont.  Her father was a cabinet-maker, who moved to Waterloo, Wisconsin, in 1857, and died in 1899, in the same week with the death of his oldest son, Daniel W.  The family had come to Nebraska in 1858 and twenty years later had gone to the state of Washington, where Mrs. Chaffin's mother died in 1891.  Mrs. Chaffin remained at home until her marriage, which was celebrated in Brown County, Kansas.  Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Chaffin, as follows: George is an office man in the employ of the Great Northern Railroad, and has a wife, one son and three daughter; Francis died at the age of one year; Ettie, the deceased wife of Charles C. Pool, died at the age of thirty-three, leaving six children; Mrs. Lucinda Belle Corn, a widow with three children, resides with her parents; Edgar E. died at the age of four years; Mrs. Lucy Boss, in Humboldt, has one daughter; Miss Mary is at home and in the employ of the telephone company, and also sings and plays well; the eighth child, a daughter, died in infancy.

Source:  "A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904)

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Marla Snow

Alfred Page   

Alfred Page, of section 28, Grant precinct, near Dawson, Richardson County, is identified with the best traditions and highest development of agricultural enterprise and public-spirited citizenship in this rich and beautiful section of Southeastern Nebraska.  For forty-five years he has given faithful attention to his life pursuits on the government land that he took up when he came here, and his management and toil have been so effectively directed that now for several years he has lived in retirement on his beautiful homestead, free to spend some time before and all his life after his sixty-eighth birthday in wholesome ease befitting strenuous endeavor during the fullness of manly vigor.  Mr. Page has been prominent and influential in the affairs of his community as well as successful in material circumstances, and has been honored with offices of trust and responsibility and has given a due share of his time and attention to matters concerning politics, religion and institutions of county and state.

This well known Nebraska citizen was born in Monroe County, Kentucky, on Christmas day, 1835.  His father, Samuel Page, was a native of Tennessee, and was accidentally killed in the woods when his son Alfred was five years old.  There were two other sons.  B. W. Page came to Richardson County in 1859, and died in Nemaha precinct in 1879, following his wife in death and leaving seven living children.  He was born in 1832, was a stock farmer, and served in the state legislature.  The other son, Elijah, is a miner in Washington and Montana, and is a bachelor.

Alfred Page was reared by kind god-parents, but had only meager opportunities for gaining an education.  At the age of twenty he left home and went to Missouri, where he followed farming mainly, in Sullivan and Holt counties, and in November, 1859, arrived in Nebraska.  He took up a hundred and sixty acres of government land, the same tract that comprises his present farm, but how vastly changed and improved since he first occupied it only he and his oldest neighbors can picture.  In addition, at present, he also owns a timber lot of twenty acres, and he has sold two other farms in this state.  His first house here was erected of logs that he hewed out of the timber with his own hand.  But in spite of this being a very primitive and rude house, he had one equipment which was in advance of his neighbors' houses and for which he had to endure much good natured chaffing from his neighbors.  This “style” which was the object of so much attention and wit consisted in glass windows for his house, and they were the first in the neighborhood.  The pleasant frame house which is now the family home was built in 1867, and a fine red barn was completed in 1897.  There are also a cow house and hog house and all other improvements needed by the up-to-date farmer.  Mr. Page also planted the hedge around the entire quarter section.  At an early day he carried from the bottoms, on his shoulder, a bundle of one hundred and twenty-one cottonwood and soft maple sprouts, and during the years since they were planted they grew into large trees, from which were sawed much of the lumber which went into the above mentioned barn.  There is also a fine orchard of various fruits, and the embowered home is a scene of beauty and coolness and shade during the most of the year.  Mr. Page has made a specialty of raising shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs, and keeps a considerable number of both varieties of stock.  He now has a tenant on his farm, to whom he has turned over the entire operation and the management of the land.

Mr. Page in politics is a Democrat, and has fraternal affiliations with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  He is a veteran school director, having served twenty-five years on the board.  He was assessor four years, and county commissioner nine years or three terms, he later served on year as county supervisor, being the first Democrat elected in the county to membership on the board.

Mr. Page married, September 26, 1856, Miss Elizabeth Buchanan, who was born in Kentucky in 1832 and was reared in Missouri.  Her father, Fielden Buchanan, was a farmer of Kentucky and Missouri, and married Miss Eliza Edwards, by whom he had two sons and three daughters.  One of these sons, O. A. Buchanan, is a farmer near Mr. Page, and came here in 1865, from the Civil war, in which he served over four years as a soldier from Missouri.  Mr. and Mrs. Page had nine children, eight of whom are living: Mollie, the wife of Frank Porter; Minnie Staley, who lives in Greenwood county, Kansas, and has four children; Fielden Porter Page, who is a liveryman in Dawson and has two living children; Eliza Roberts, in the state of Washington, Lincoln county, who has six daughters and four sons; Sarah Peatling, of Kansas, who has two sons and one daughter; Julia Lee, of Nemaha precinct, who has one son living; Grizell Lawson, of Kansas City, who has one daughter; Eva Whitney, who lives in Liberty precinct and has three sons and one daughter; and Emma, who died at the age of nineteen, in the flower and beauty of young womanhood.

Source:  "A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904)

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Marla Snow

Wesley G. Hummel   

Wesley G. Hummel, of Grant precinct, Richardson County, with post office at Dawson, is one of the enterprising and progressive farmers of this portion of Southeastern Nebraska.  He settled here in March of 1877, from Kane County, Illinois, and a few years later commenced operations on the bare prairie which has since been transformed into his beautiful farm, one of the best in this county.  Industry aimed at a definite end has been throughout one of his principal characteristics, and thereby he has attained prosperous condition in life and dignity and wholesome esteem among his fellow men.  When a boy in years but a man in patriotism and devotion to duty, he gave loyal service to the Union cause during the war of the rebellion, and ever since, wherever he has lived, he has been noted for his public spirit and genuine interest in the welfare of his community, doing what he could to advance the general good.

Mr. Hummel was born in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, June 8, 1847.  His father, Christian Hummel, was born in Germany, June 11, 1810, and died in Kane County, Illinois, in 1896.  He was married in Philadelphia March 17, 1840, to Miss Barbara Duper, who was a native of Germany.  They were the parents of nine children, seven of whom are now living: Elizabeth is the wife of Samuel Rickert, of Dupage County, Illinois, and has two daughters and one son; Amelia is the wife of Daniel Piper, of Ogle County, Illinois, and has nine children; Wesley G. is the third; C. L., in Richardson County, has six children; F. A., in Franklin precinct of this county, is a farmer; Sarah A., of Edison Park, Illinois, is the wife of Mr. Mesner, who had two children by her deceased sister Catherine, and she had one child by her previous marriage; Mary died in middle life in Kane county, Illinois; and Henry L. lives in Holdrege, Nebraska.

Mr. W. G. Hummel attended school in Illinois up to the time he was sixteen years old, and then enlisted from Ogle County in Company E of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry.  He served two years and three months, until the close of the war.  After the rebellion he lived and farmed in Kane County, Illinois, for several years, and in 1877 came to Nebraska.  In 1881 he bought a quarter section of land, which was in the state of nature, and in the subsequent twenty-three years had devoted his best efforts to its profitable cultivation and improvement.  He planted all the fruit and ornamental trees on the place.  He built his first house in 1880, and the present large two-story residence was erected quite recently, and the commodious barn in 1899.  Each year he raises about seventy-five fine Poland China hogs, and from thirty to sixty head of Polled Angus cattle, which he has bred up during the past ten years.  He keeps about ten horses and tills from sixty to eighty acres of corn, with an average yield of fifty bushels to the acre, and also some twenty acres of wheat.

Mr. Kummel is a man of intelligence, and takes an interest in the world about him as well as his immediate daily affairs and needs.  He finds much delight in collecting things of antiquarian interest, and has a copy of the first paper printed in America, having bought it at the Philadelphia Centennial, and also a cane made from the wood of the old ship Constitution.  Mr. Hummel is a Republican in politics, and is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.  He served two years as county supervisor and for fourteen years as school director of district No. 92.  He and his wife are members of the United Evangelical church.

Mr. Hummel was married in Grant precinct November 3, 1880, to Miss Helen E. Burr.  They have a bright and happy family of nine children, some of whom have already taken up life's responsible duties and others have the joys of childhood still before them, as follows: Boyle, aged twenty-two, is at home, farming; Frank Everett, aged twenty-one, is at home; Ethel Kate is a teacher and at present a student in the Peru Normal; Nellie F., is at home and in school; Wilber Harrison; Wesley Earl; Nannie Pearl; Harry Christian; and Helen Martha, the baby of the family.

Source:  "A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904)

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Marla Snow

Michael Meliza   

Michael Meliza, of section 9, Liberty precinct, near Verdon, Richardson County, is an agriculturist and stock-raiser of pronounced prominence in this county, thoroughly successful in his operations and business transactions, thrifty and most enterprising in the management of his place, and withal a representative and public-spirited citizen who acts and accomplishes results in his various dealing for the benefit not alone of himself but also of the community in which he lives and of which he is a most worthy part.  He came to Richardson county and his present place twenty-two years ago, on March 4, 1882, so that, while not a pioneer, he is an old and honored resident of this portion of southeastern Nebraska.

Mr. Meliza was born in Henry County, Indiana, April 9, 1850.  His grandfather was John Henry Meliza, a farmer and carpenter in Virginia, where he died, leaving six children, two sons and four daughters, who all had families.  Jacob Meliza, the father of Michael, was born in Virginia, April 12, 1809, and died in Adell, Iowa, in 1889, preceded two years by his wife.  He was a very successful farmer, and his landed estate was valued at twelve thousand dollars.  He had also engaged in merchandising, losing some six thousand dollars by security, which was the principal misfortune that he met in his career.  He married Margaret Shively, who was born in Germany one year later than her husband, and came to this country at the age of fourteen, being three months on the voyage.  She was the only daughter, and her two brothers are: Mike Shively, who owns nineteen hundred acres of land in California and a similar amount in South Dakota; and John Shively, an able farmer of Missouri.  Jacob and Margaret Meliza had eight children: Lydia is the wife of Thomas Fike, in Iowa, and has three children; Perry is a farmer and fruit-grower in Ashland, Oregon, and has two sons and one daughter; Michael is the third of the family; Sophia, wife of James Trimble, died in Richardson County in 1900, aged forty-eight years, leaving two sons; Martha is the wife of W. F. Hulbert, of Auburn, and has two daughters; Francis Marion lives in Iowa and has one daughter; Melissa is the wife of J. B. Shuey, of Adell, Iowa, and has one son and three daughters; Rosa died at the age of sixteen, in Adell. 

Mr. Michael Meliza was reared principally in Davis County, Iowa, and his school advantages in youth were rather limited.  He worked on the home farm, and when he started out for himself at the age of twenty-three he had five hundred dollars that he had saves from his wages.  He was married in 1874, and then began as a tenant farmer in Davis County.  Seven years later, when he came to Richardson County, Nebraska, he had thirty-five hundred dollars that had accrued from his industrious labors.  He bought the quarter section of his present homestead, paying sixteen hundred fifty for it.  It was naked prairie at that time, and all the present fine improvements have been placed here at his own cost and under his management.  He has on of the finest barns in the county, built in 1892 at a cost of two thousand dollars.  It has a stone basement, is painted yellow, with a cupola on top, and altogether is one of the most commodious and best equipped structures of its kind anywhere in the county around.  He completed his modern, two-story house in 1899.  It is amply large, is well built, and its inviting quarters plus the genial hospitality that pervades it all and the comfort and good cheer, for which the noble and energetic Mrs. Meliza is responsible, make this home one out of a hundred.  There are two fine orchards, of apples and other fruit, which Mr. Meliza planted.  He owns another quarter section, adjoining this place, and a half section in South Dakota.  He keeps a large herd of shorthorn cattle, and a number of horses and mules for working his farm.  He sold forty head of cattle in the fall of 1903, and some of his fine cows have brought as much as eighty-five dollars.  He has some two hundred blooded Poland China hogs, and in one season he sold three thousand dollars' worth from the breeding of twenty sows.  There is a fine hedge around the home quarter section, and half way round the adjoining tract, and all his land is divided into forty acre fields, fenced hog-tight.  Without doubt this is one of the best cultivated, best managed and best equipped farms in Richardson County, and Mr. Meliza's pains have been well rewarded in the profitable enterprise he has built up since coming here over twenty years ago.

Mr. Meliza is a Republican in politics, but the only offices he has held are road overseer and school director.  He and his wife are members of the Christian church, in which he is a deacon.

December 28, 1874, Mr. Meliza married Miss Arminta J. Chamberlain, who was born in Davis County, Iowa, and whose family history will be found in the accompanying biography of Abraham Zook.  Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Meliza.  Lem Elmer, born in Iowa September 16, 1875, died at Hunter Springs, in 1900.  He was a graduate of Lincoln University, and at the time of his death was employed by a wholesale dry-goods firm at a salary of eighty dollars a month.  He is buried in Verdon.  His parents and sister were in California when he died, and his taking off in the height of young manhood has remained a lasting bereavement to them all.  Katie Meliza, a young lady of fourteen years, is in the ninth grade of the Verdon schools, and is also taking musical instruction, having much talent in that direction.  Mrs. Meliza is a full copartner with her husband, and the way in which she keeps up her end of the domestic establishment is most creditable to her many virtues of heart and mind.

Source:  "A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904)

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Marla Snow

Abraham Zook   

Abraham Zook, a retired farmer of Verdon, was born in Wayne County, Indiana, June 24, 1832, shortly after the death of his father, Abraham Zook, who left his widow and three children already born, as follows: Daniel, who was born in 1824 and died near Birmingham, Iowa, in 1902; Esther, who was the wife of John Hoover and died in Indiana, leaving two sons and one daughter; and Joseph, who is a retired farmer of Appanoose County, Iowa, and has three sons and one daughter.  The mother of these children died in Iowa at the age of sixty-two.  She kept her little family of children together and reared them to be honest and industrious.  She had been left with a hundred and sixty acres of land, so that they all had a home until they could do for themselves.

The father was buried in Indiana and the mother in Iowa.  Both parents were Brethren in church faith.  When he was a child Mr. Abraham Zook saw his grandfather, John Zook, who was a prosperous farmer in Indiana.  His earliest American ancestor was his great-grandfather, who was one of two brothers and a cousin that came from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania

Mr. Abraham Zook had only a limited schooling in the district school.  He lived at home until his first marriage, on November 6, 1851, in Indiana, when he was united in wedlock with Miss Mary A. Ulrich, who was born in Indiana in December, 1831, a daughter of John and Catherine (Teeter) Ulrich, all of Pennsylvania.  There were four children of this marriage: Mrs. Susanna Price, a widow, who lives in Iowa and has five children; Martin, of Falls City, who has five children; Catherine, who died at the age of seven; and Oliver, who is a farmer two miles south of Humboldt and has one son and two daughters.  The mother of theses children died in Iowa in 1871.

January 2, 1876, Mr. Zook married Mrs. Mary C. Chamberlain, nee Wallace, who was born in White County, Illinois, September 19, 1838.  Her first husband was Raymond Chamberlain, a native of Virginia and a farmer of Iowa, where he died in the prime of life in 1873, leaving three children, as follows: Mrs. Arminta Meliza, wife of the prominent Richardson county farmer whose biography is given above; John Calvin Chamberlain, who is an able farmer of Nuckolls County, Nebraska, and has five sons and one daughter; and Robert Marshall Chamberlain, who bought Mr. Zook's farm of one hundred and forty-six acres in Liberty precinct and is farming it very successfully, and who has one son and one daughter.

Mr. Zook is a member of the Brethren Church and his wife of the Christian church.  In 1897 he paid eleven hundred and fifty dollars for a ten-acre tract in Verdon, which was then a ploughed field, and after taking out a sixty-six foot strip for a street, he built his fine house of two stories and attic, containing nine rooms, with modern high ceilings and all the conveniences that mark the twentieth century residence.  He has a barn twenty-four by thirty-two, and several other buildings.  He has now one of the delightful homes of Verdon.  There is a large lawn before the house, which is almost surrounded by shrubbery and orchards.  Both he and his wife are now passing their old age in comfort and amid surroundings that are fit rewards for previous lives of honorable effort.

Source:  "A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904)

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Marla Snow

John W. Heskett, M. D.   

John W. Heskett, M. D., is the longest established physician and surgeon of Salem, Richardson County, and for the twenty years, since April 11, 1884, the date of his locating in this town, he has held a recognized place as a reliable and successful practitioner and a prominent and public-spirited citizen. Medicine was the profession toward which his aspirations early in life reached out to, and by considerable self-denial and energetic resolution he attained his M. D. some thirty years ago. Since then he has not failed to make definite progress toward high professional standards and successful practice with each year, and through the large part of a generation he has been favored with the confidence and been esteemed as the counselor and professional friend of many a household of Salem and the adjacent country.

Dr. Heskett was born in West Carlisle, Coshocton county, Ohio. His father, Benjamin F. Heskett, was born in old Virginia, and during the Civil war was captain of Company C, Fifty-first Ohio Infantry, and was killed at the battle of Stone River. He left a wife, a half-brother and this one son. His wife was Hannah Barcroft, a native of Harrison county, Ohio, and a daughter of John Barcroft. Dr. Heskett lost his mother when he was three years old, and was then taken into the family and reared by his grandfather Barcroft and his second wife.

His early life was spent in Coshocton and Knox counties, Ohio, and he was well educated. After he had finished the common schools at Martinsburg he taught several terms, and then entered the Cincinnati Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1874 with the degree of M. D. On March 11 of the same year he began practice in West Bedford, Ohio, where he continued his professional labors for ten years. At the time above mentioned he came to Salem. He located on the south side of the village, building a pleasant cottage home, on a hill overlooking the town and the surrounding country, and he is the only resident on the south side within the city corporation who has lived there for twenty years without moving. He has nine acres of ground around his home, enough to be dignified with the name of a farm, and on this he has placed all the improvements and planted the many fruit and ornamental trees. He has an extensive regular practice, and he has lived here so long that in his professional rounds he knows by sight or name every person he meets, both in town and the surrounding country.

Dr. Heskett is a Master Mason and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. In politics he was a Republican for many years, but is now a Democrat. He and his wife are members of the Methodist church. He is vice president of the Salem Chautauqua, which has a reputation throughout Southeastern Nebraska and has been a very successful assembly for several years.

He was married. September 15, 1874, to Miss Anna E. Coulter, a native of Jefferson County, Ohio. Five children have been born to their union: Leo B. is operator and local cashier in the railroad office at Tecumseh, Nebraska, and has a wife and one daughter; Dasie V. is the wife of Ray Huston, cashier of the Salem Bank; A. Frank is the station agent at Thompson, Nebraska, and has a wife and one daughter; Charles M. farms his father's one hundred and twenty acre farm near Salem, and has a wife and two sons; and the fifth child, a son, died in infancy.

Source:  "A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904)

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Sandra Davis

James Harvey Overman   

James Harvey Overman, who is for the second time in the last thirty years serving as an efficient postmaster, lacks only a few years of having completed a half century of residence in a state which has only existed that length of time as a territorial organization, and he was taking up his active career in life when the territory was made one of the states of the Union. He has been engaged in the mercantile business in several Nebraska towns in addition to his career in public office, and at all times and in all places has displayed qualities of loyal citizenship, upright manhood and strictest integrity and fair dealing.

Mr. Overman's family record details much that is connected with the early life of various communities, and the representatives of the name have always filled honorable and useful places in the world. His ancestry on the paternal side is Holland Dutch, and of his grandparents he remembers little, except that his grandfather was one of the early settlers and a farmer of Indiana, where he died in 1830, in early life, leaving by his wife, who was a Miss Amick, a large family.

James L. Overman, the father of James Harvev Overman, was an old and esteemed citizen of Richardson county, Nebraska. He was born in Clark county, Indiana, February 15, 1824, and died at his home in Stella, Nebraska, December 28, 1894, aged seventy years, ten months and thirteen days. At the time of his birth Indiana was almost an unbroken wilderness, and he grew up surrounded by all the pioneer conditions which have fitted so many men for large positions in the world's strife, and at the same time compelled them to undergo hardships and privations which in the twentieth century would seem unendurable, and which, in fact, cannot be realized by the present generation. In 1852 he moved with his family to Missouri, where he remained until 1858, when he advanced further out on what was then the western frontier and located at St. Deroin, Nebraska. He operated a ferry at this place, and many of the older families in this section of the state can yet remember having crossed the river under his guidance. Roving bands of Indians and outlaws infested the country at that time and made both residents and property insecure, and the children were seldom allowed to go beyond call. Land was then worth from sixty-two and a half cents to a dollar and a quarter an acre, and went begging at that price. In March, 1861, Mr. J. L. Overman enlisted in Company D, Fifth Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, and served sixteen months until he was discharged for disability. He saw a great deal of the roughest kind of work in fighting the bushwhackers under Quantrell Jesse James and others. After being discharged he engaged in the cooperage business in St. Joseph, Missouri, and for the following ten years prospered, after which he again came to St. Deroin, where he lived until 1884, when he moved to Stella, where his long and busy life was brought to a close, peacefully and quietly for one who had witnessed so many stormy scenes.

James L. Overman became a member of the Christian church when he was twenty years old, and lived and died true to that faith. He was a loyal member of Shubert Post, G. A. R. December 29, 1845, he was married to Miss Mary Daily, who was born in Clark county, Indiana, May 16, 1819, and is still living in Stella, at the age of eighty-four years, and several others from a family of sixteen brothers and sisters, of whom she was the first born, are living. There were four children born of this union: Kate is the widow of Peter Fraker, of Stella, and has three children; Andrew M., who enlisted, in 1865, at the age of fifteen, in the Forty-eighth Missouri, and because of his youthful strength and vigor gave loyal service till the end of the war, is now living in Oklahoma territory and has one son and one daughter; Arabelle, who lives in Stella, is the widow of John M. McCullough, who died in Kansas in September, 1900, leaving one daughter, Ona, who is now serving as the assistant postmaster in her uncle's office; James H. Overman is the youngest of this family.

James Harvey Overman was born in Clark county, Indiana, January 10, 1852, and was brought by his parents to St. Deroin, Nebraska, May 6, 1858. He had a common schooling until he was seventeen years old, and then became a clerk in his brother-in-law's store at Deroin. He has been a resident of Stella most of the time for the past twenty years, having come here soon after the town was laid out. He received his first appointment as postmaster from President Hayes, in 1879, at Deroin, serving over a year, when he moved to Corning, Missouri, and his second from President McKinley, and was also appointed by Roosevelt, April 27, 1904, as postmaster of Stella. His business life has been devoted to merchandising and hotel-keeping. He was in business at St. Deroin from, 1868 to July, 1871, in Severance, Kansas, until 1874, from then till March, 1870, in St. Deroin, for the following three years in Corning, Missouri, and since that time has been in Stella with the exception of ten months spent in conducting the Enoch House in Humboldt.

He is now building a modern hotel at Stella, of twenty-three rooms, three stories, brick structure, furnace heat, located on Main and Third streets.

Mr. Overman was married March 24, 1878, to Miss Lucinda Marie Thomas, a native of Putnam Countv, Missouri. They have not been blessed with any children of their own, but their home has seldom been without young people. Their foster daughter, Mary Palmer, came to live with them at the age of twelve, and was educated in Stella, and was married there, September 22, 1895, to W. Harris, a son of a wealthy farmer, and they are now engaged in sheep ranching in North Yakima, Washington, where they took up their residence in March, 1896.

Mrs. Overman's father, Elijah P. Thomas, was born at Maysville, Kentucky, February 11, 1827. His great-grandfather came from Wales, and his grandfather, Solomon Thomas, was a soldier in the Revolution, going from his native state of Virginia. John Thomas, the father of Elijah P. Thomas, was born in Kentucky about 1795, and when about seventeen years old became a soldier in the war of 1812. He was a miller and a farmer. He married Margaret Harmer, of Champaign county, Ohio, and they reared nine of their twelve children, all of whom married and had children, and the oldest, William Thomas, is living in Oregon at the age of eighty-three years. Their mother died in Putnam county, Missouri, in old age, and their father died in Scotland county, Missouri, at the age of eighty.

Elijah P. Thomas was married September 15, 1859, in Knoxville, Iowa, to Miss Samantha Ann Hillis, who was born March 18, 1833, a daughter of J. D. B. Hillis, M. D., who was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, January 10, 1810, was college bred, and married Lucinda Stearett, who was born in Ohio, near Urbana, in 1813, and died in 1843, leaving three children, as follows: Samantha Ann; Mary E. Stephens, a widow; and Minerva, the wife of H. H. Pierce, of Portland, Oregon, and her first husband was a brother of Elijah Thomas, Stephen Thomas, who died in the hospital during the Civil war. The father of these daughters, was assistant surgeon to the Second Wisconsin Cavalry and was present at the surrender of Vicksburg. Elijah Thomas and his wife were hotel-keepers in Missouri, and are now living retired in Stella, Nebraska.

Source:  "A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904)

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Sandra Davis

Michael Shafer   

Michael Shafer, who is a prominent retired farmer in Stella, Nebraska, has enjoyed a most prosperous career over twenty-five years in Southeaster Nebraska, and he is certainly deserving of the rewards of his life’s efforts, because of his willing industry and perseverance in striving for a definite goal. He is reputed to be one of the wealthy men of Richardson County, and is accordingly esteemed for the successful outcome of his useful and well spent life. He came to Nebraska before the days of that state’s great prosperity, having only a small amount of capital, and by judicial investment and wise management, supplemented always by his energy and diligence, in a few years he came into possession of a large amount of landed property, and has ever since been on the upgrade of financial and material prosperity.

Mr. Shafer was born in Clark County, Indiana, December 3, 1848, and when almost thirty years of age, on August 28, 1878, arrived in Falls City, Nebraska, from Carroll County, Illinois, where he had been reared from the age of three years. His parents were George and Rebecca Ann (Miller) Shafer, both natives of Germany, whence they were brought to this county, and coming here with small means, followed farming in the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri; he reared two sons and two daughters. George and Rebecca Ann Shafer were industrious people, and to the property inherited from their parents they added a large bulk by their own efforts, and were able to set their children on the sea of life with good advantages. They were members of the Evangelical church.

The children born to George and Rebecca Ann Shafer were as follows: Elizabeth, a widow in Stella, has six children; William, who ate the age of eighteen served for six months in Company E. Fifteenth Illinois Infantry, and was discharged  from the hospital, is now a retired farmer in Polo, Illinois, with two daughters: Mrs. Melvina Manning was accidentally killed while driving a team, and left five children: the fourth is Michael Shafer: Rueben is a retired farmer in Brookville, Illinois and has three sons and three-daughters: George lives at Fremont, Carroll County, Illinois, and has a daughter and twin sons, the latter as much alike as two peas; Joseph died in Illinois at the age of thirty years, leaving a son and daughter; Wesley is in Jewell City, Kansas; Martha, the widow of Henry Weaver, of Richardson County, has five children; and Mary is the wife of Isaac Campbell, of Polo, Illinois, and has two living daughters and lost four.

Mr. Michael Shafer was reared on a farm, enjoyed only a fair common schooling, which in his later years he has supplemented by abundant reading and intelligent observation of affairs of the world. At the age of fourteen he began working at a blacksmith shop in Polo, Illinois, and was thus engaged steadily for three years and the five following winters. He remained at home until his removal to Nebraska in 1878. He came here with six hundred dollars, and first bought an eighty acre farm. He sold this two years later, and purchased a quarter section at ten dollars and acre, later forty acres for one thousand dollars, and still later eighty acres for thirty-two hundred dollars. This fine farm of two hundred and eighty acres is now worth from seventy-five to one hundred an acre. It is divided and conducted as two farms with two sets of buildings. In addition he owns his good home in Stella, with eight lots in all. He has carried on general farming, an of late years has done considerable stock-raising.

Mr. Shafer was married December 19, 1886, to Miss Lillie Ann Bright, who was born in Tazewell County, Illinois, in 1865, and died on the farm in Nebraska, December 23, 1891, having lost an infant daughter, Bertha Adelia, and leaving her only living daughter, Jessie Myrttle who was born June 23, 1890. Mrs. Shafer was a good scholar and a musician, and a lady of much culture and ability, especially skillful in all kinds of needle work. Her death was due to consumption, she was ill from March to December. Mr. Shafer was married on September 1, 1893, to his present wife, who was Mrs. Malinda Sultzbaugh , daughter of William and Catherine (Erdman) Kethres, the former of who was born in Schurykill County, Pennsylvania, April 5, 1806, and the latter born in 1808, and died in 1884. Mrs. Shafer has her only son, William Sultzbaugh, who was born in 1882, and is a steady young man engaged in farming in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Shafer were married in Chicago, while he was there attending the World’s Fair. Mrs. Shafer was a successful manager of a boarding house in Chicago for six years, at two location on the north side, and  owing to her energy and executive ability, she has not been content to be at ease since her marriage, and in the fall of 1903 opened a boarding house in Stella, of which she is the popular hostess and which has a well deserved for reputation for appetizing and wholesome cuisine and first-class homelike comfort. She is also a member and an active worker in the Baptist church, and is held in highest esteem among all circles of Stella and the vicinity. Mr. Shafer has fraternal affiliations with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and in politics is a staunch Republican, but content to perform his duties of citizenship by casting intelligently his ballot for good men and good principles. His religious creed is a strict observance of the golden rule, and his life history how well he has followed this principle.

 Source:  "A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904)

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Erny Long

J. Lee Dalbey   

J. Lee Dalbey, publisher and editor of the Shubert Criticism, has been in the printing and newspaper business since he was a boy of sixteen years, having been a man of experience in the profession long before the modern machinery of type-setting and rapid manifold printing were thought of. His career has been typical, for he has had many of the ups and downs of the veritable journalist, and only recently, in August 1903, his plant was burned out with great loss to him, but the Citizen still continues to enlighten the public of al the news in and about Shubert, and in the spring of 1904 the paper moved to a new home of its own, and, was equipped with a new dress, improved machinery and everything mechanical needed to keep its lead among the enterprising, bright and public-spirited journals of Richardson county. The Shubert Citizen was established by Mr. Dalbey on April 6, 1893, and has had a successful career of more than a decade. It was begun as a seven-column folio, and is now a six-column quarto, with from four hundred to five-hundred subscribers, and the office does an especially large business in job printing and advertising, for which it is well equipped and has gained a reputation for the high-grade work.

Mr. Dalbey was born in Jamestown, Ohio, July 1, 1846, a son of Dr. Jacob S. and Delilah Albertine (Johnson) Dalbey, the former of whom was born in Ohio in 1811, and the latter in Virginia, March 4, 1812, and they were married at the county seat of Highland county, Ohio, in January, 1831. Dr. Dalbey, was a lifelong eclectic physician, and was a resident of Indiana, where one son was born, later of Ohio, and in 1847 came to Iowa. He was a man of considerable property, and in addition to his practice carried on merchandising for some time. He died in Montezuma, Iowa, January 27, 1866, and his wife survived him and died at Falls City, Nebraska, at age eighty-four years. They reared ten of their thirteen children, and seven are now living, as follows: Simeon J. is a music dealer in Des Moines, Iowa, and has three children; J.W. is an attorney at Hamburg, Iowa, and President of the Big Four Mining Company at Deadwood, South Dakota, and has one son; Mrs. Louisa Day lives in Helva, Nebraska, and has two sons and two daughters; J. Lee is the next child; Mrs. Mary Margaret Sherman, of Kankakee, Illinois, has two children; Francis Lydia Davis lives in Falls City, Nebraska, and Mrs. Alice Mcloed has two sons, and her husband is manager of a mine at Deadwood, South Dakota.

J. Lee Dalbey was in the common schools of Montezuma, Iowa, until May 21, 1861, when he began as apprentice to the printing trade with Frank Campbell, who was later a Captain in the Army and Lieutenant-Governor of Iowa. Before coming to Nebraska in 189, Mr. Dalbey edited four different papers in Missouri and two in Iowa. He establishes the Leader at Falls City and in 1888 came to Stella and established and conducted the Stella Press, which he carried on until coming to Shubert.

Mr. Dalbey was married at Hamburg, Iowa, July 31, 1870, to Miss Belle Halle, of Kentucky, a daughter of George B. and Della (Higgenbotham) Hall, both of Kentucky. Two children were born of this marriage, but the son, Luis, died in Albany, Missouri, when a month old; the daughter Mrs. Agnes Tipton, now resides in Albany, Missouri, and has one son. Mr. Dalbey affiliates with the Masonic Order, with the Nights of Pythias, is a commander of the Woodsmen of the World, is a Highlander, and a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security. In politics he is a Democrat by principle, but runs his paper independently; his relatives are nearly all Republicans. He has never sought or held office, but was solicited to run for Representative to the Legislature. He and his wife are members of the Christian church, and are very popular in the town and vicinity. They erected their present home and moved into it in October, 1899.

 Source:  "A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904)

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Erny Long

George Lum   

George Lum, dealer in lumber, was the first businessman to establish himself in Verdon, when he settled and began his prosperous business career about twenty-two years ago. The second man to open a shop in the village was Charles Oathout, a blacksmith, and the third was Hopper and Carroll, general merchandise. Mr. Lum has had a busy and successful life,one marked with enterprising effort and good business management and foresight, and he has taken a prominent part in public and material affairs concerned with the development of this town of Verdon.

He was born in Oswego County, New York, October 15, 1836, being a son of Ransom Lum, he was born near Decatur, New York, in 1797, and died on his farm in Oswego in 1845. Ransom Lum was one of the five sons and some three daughters, whose father was a well-to-do farmer. Ransom married a Miss Prindle, who was a widow many years and died in 1880. They had seven children:  Aurelia, the wife of O. B. Wright, lives in Litchfield, Michigan, and has one son and one daughter: Julia, the first wife of Nathaniel Stewart, died without issue; Abel, at Steinauer, Nebraska, has one son; Clark, who died in Verdon, in 1894, left two sons and one daughter; Electa, the second wife of Nathaniel Stewart, died leaving one son, Clark A. Stewart, a physician in New York; Georges if the sixth child; and Charles died in his seventeenth year.

Mr. George Lum was reared on the farm in New York until he was eighteen years old. In 1855 he went to Boone County, Iowa, and began farming on three hundred and twenty acres of government land, which he bought at one dollar and a quarter and acre, paying interest at the rate of  ten per cent. He and his two brothers “batched” for two or three years while engaged in this work. One brother had a half section and another a quarter section. After coming to Verdon in 1882 he belt his lumber yard and office and sheds, one hundred and fifty-two feet by twenty-six feet, and his more recent addition is fifty by eighty feet. He carries a stock valued at about six thousand dollars. The business at Verdon is carried on under the name of Georgia Lum and Son, and the yard at Steinauer as M. H. Lum and Company. Mr. Lum also owns three quarter sections of land in Nebraska. He was one of the founders and the first president of the first bank in Verdon, named the Farmers State Bank of Verdon, which is now the Verdon State Bank and is owned by the Hall Brothers, to whom it was sold sixteen months after it was opened. Mr. Lum elected his good home in Verdon in 1883, but he has since changed it considerably and made a number of improvements. In 1890 he was one of a party of lumbermen of the northwest who took an excursion to California and Old Mexico and many other points in the west, leaving Minneapolis in January and returning in March. It was a most delightful trip, filled with many occasions of interest, and the various scenes of the daily panorama of travel from indelible and happy memory pictures and Mr. Lum's mind. A most joyous part of the journey was a ride by steamer from Puget Sound to San Diego in Southern California

.

On August 6, 1861, Mr. Lum enlisted at Des Moines, Iowa, for three years' service in the Union cause. He became corporal of Company D, Second Iowa Cavalry, and after thirty-seven months of campaigning was mustered out of Davenport, Iowa, with a most credible record as a patriot and soldier. He has been a staunch Republican since arriving at majority, although he usually votes for the man he believes the best representative of the people's interest. He served as president of the town board for four years.

Mr. Lum was married in Boone County, Iowa, in January, 1865, to Miss Laura E. Shepard, he was born in Genesee County, New York, a daughter of Chauncey and Laura (Bristol) Shepard, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of Genesee County, New York. Her parents were farmers, as she was one of seven children, four of whom were reared: Chauncey K. Shepard, who died in Summertown, Tennessee; Frances C., wife of Abel Lum, mentioned above; Eliza A., widow of Amos Cooper, of Forest City, Missouri; and Mrs. George Lum. Mr. and Mrs. Lum became the parents of five children: Fred B., he died at the age of three years; Gertrude L., at home, who was obliged to leave school on account of failing health; Clyde V., who is a graduate of Gem City Business College and is in business with his father; Harry C., who is in the class of 1907 at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska; and Roy E., who is in the same college and in the class of 1908.

A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904)

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Debbie Gibson

John F. Cornell   

John F. Cornell, of section 9, Liberty Township, is one of the old settlers of Richardson County and has been prominent at agriculturist and public man in county and state affairs for a number of years. When he came to the state as a boy of nine years, nearly fifty years ago, Nebraska territory had been only recently organized and he has witnessed the entire growth and development of the country into one of the remarkably fertile states of the Union. The entire family has been identified in many ways with Richardson County, and the first school taught in Liberty Township was at the house of Mr. Cornell's father, it was also the teacher, and, for many years following, a director of the school district, which embraced four precincts, but had only fifteen scholars, Salem being in a large district. For many other reasons the name of Cornell is an honored one in Richardson County, and those who have borne the name have never failed in the discharge of their proper obligations to themselves, their community and to all the institutions of church and state.

Mr. Cornell was born in Indiana, February 7, 1847. His grandfather, Smith Cornell, was born in North Carolina, where he was a farmer and also in Maryland, where he died in middle life, leaving six sons: Benjamin, who was a farmer in Ohio, where the family settled in 1836; William; John; Samuel, who settled in Indiana; Charles; and Nathaniel, an able minister of the Lutheran Church, located in New York. The father of these sons was Welsh descent, and during the war of 1812 was a captain in the American army.

John Cornell, father of John F., was born in Maryland in December, 1808, and died January 8, 1883, on his home farm on section 4, Liberty Township, of this county. He married, in 1837, Levina Wilhite, who was born in Maryland in 1814, and died in this County in 1896. Her father came from Germany to Maryland at a very early day, and many relatives are to be found in that state at the present time. After his marriage John Cornell moved to Indiana, settling into the woods, and taught school several years and also cleared up a farm. He began life very humbly, but was successful and a prominent personage in every locality where he made his home in from Indiana he went to Nebraska, and in 1856 took up his residence in Richardson County. He and his wife had the following family of sons and daughters: Mary Elizabeth, the life of Alfred Hollingsworth, who was a large farmer of Idaho; Lydia Ann, who died in infancy; William Henry Harrison, who died in Verdon, Nebraska, in July, 1903, at the age of sixty-two, leaving three daughters, and who had served in the ranks for one year during the Civil war and afterwards farmed; Mrs. Celestie Worley, a widow, and Boxbute, Nebraska, the mother of two daughters and one son; John F.; Jane, who is the wife of Allen Tingley, of Oklahoma, and has a large family of sons; Mrs. Catherine Simpson, a widow, of Lawrence, Kansas, with three sons, one of whom is a teacher in the Philippines; George Wash, of Auburn, Nebraska, who has a large family; and Charles T., he died at the age of thirteen.

Mr. John F. Cornell was reared to manhood in Nebraska, and spent two years as a student at the State University at Lincoln, after which he was a teacher for some time. The fine farm of two hundred acres which he has been operating for some years is known as the John Patterson Farm, and he is also owner of one hundred and ninety-two acres of land in Oklahoma. He has been successful in his business ventures, and is one of the representative agriculturists of the southeastern part of the state. For some years he was a staunch adherent of Republican principles and policies, but voted for W. J.  Bryan in 1892 or Congress and at both the presidential elections. He has been in public affairs for many years, and has become known for his ability and unswerving integrity in all public acts. He served as state auditor for two terms, and the press of the state gave him unequivocal commendation for his conduct an excellent accounting of the large amounts of state funds. He was a member of the County Board for five years. He is an active member of several fraternal orders, and in church affiliations is a Baptist, while his players were both Presbyterians.

December 21, 1882, Mr. Cornell married Miss Bell Patterson. They have four children of their own, and have adopted a bright boy of eight years. Zelie May, their first child, is the wife of Robert Mickle, on the staff of the daily Star at Lincoln, Nebraska; she was educated in the Lincoln high school and one year in the State University, and taught for two years; she is an able pianist. Neenah Vashti, the second daughter, is in the Peru normal. Ann Eunice W. is a girl of thirteen, and Helen is aged nine years. All the family are blessed with fine physiques and the best of health, and are happy, interesting people, with something worth while to say and with plenty of ability to act in the world about them.

Mrs. Cornell is the only daughter in the only surviving child of John W. and Lucy (Girwell) Patterson. Her brother, Albert H. B. Patterson, died in his tenth year, November 25, 1871. John W. Patterson, now a retired farmer of Verdon, came to Richardson County in August, 1858, from Birmingham, Van Buren County, Iowa. He was born in Lawrence County, Indiana, close to Bedford, April 10, 1838. His grandfather, Gilbert Patterson, was born in North Carolina about 1770, became an early settler of Davis County, Indiana, and it there. By his wife, a Miss McBride, he had nine children: Rebecca Bynum; G. B.; Betsey Lytton; William; Gilbert; Kizzie, wife of William Baker; Dr. Mary Parsons, M. D.; Louis Patterson, the only one living, and Nancy.

G. B. Patterson, father John W., was born in North Carolina in 1811, and died in Richardson County, Nebraska, in 1891. He married Patsy Cavaness, an Indiana, and they had three children, Mary Ann, who died at the age of five years; John W.; and Sarah, who died in infancy.

John W. Patterson was taken to Illinois in 1848, and there reared to manhood, receiving his schooling in the subscription schools. February 11, 1858, he married Miss Lucy A. Girwell, who was born in Holmes County, Ohio, in 1834, a daughter of D. R. a Rachael (Speelman) Girwell. Mr. Patterson came out to Richardson County soon after his marriage, and for some years was engaged in freighting across the plains to Denver and other points, laying the foundation of his later prosperity in this enterprise. He has been prominent in farming and other lines of business in this state, but ten years ago sold his last farm, and has since lived in Verdon. While Mr. Cornell was state auditor he also resided in Lincoln. For several years he has written some fire and life insurance and attended to some collection business. For about ten years he did a large business in feeding and shipping livestock. He has lived in this part of the state for so many years that he has witnessed almost every detail of its progress. For many years he and his wife have been accustomed to making summer trips to the west, and from year to year the changes in the country through which he has traveled have been almost startling in their rapidity, resulting in a complete transformation of the region in a few years.

Mr. Patterson is a Democrat in politics and fraternally is a Master Mason. His wife is a member of the Evangelical Church. They are particularly proud and happy in the grandchildren, the children of Mr. and Mrs. Cornell, and find a renewing of years and delightful solace in their youthful companionship.

A Biographical and genealogical history of southeastern Nebraska" (1904)

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Debbie Gibson

Edward Burbanks   

Edward Burbanks, soldier, statesman and founder of Falls City, Neb., was born Aug. 20, 1822, in Hanover, Pa.  He was one of the founders of Falls City, Neb.  He has served as a member of the Nebraska State Legislature.

Herringshaw's American Blue-Book of Biography by Thomas William Herringshaw and American Publishers' Association, 1914, Transcribed by:   AFOFG