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the Mexican War. He married Margaret Young, by whom he had four children -- Henry, Martha, Mary and Joseph. After the death of his mother in 1850, Joseph Clayton, then a lad of six years, lived with Thomas Alexander for eight years. When the war began he was one among the first to offer his services, and although but a mere boy, enlisted August 17, 1861, in the First Ohio cavalry, and performed four long years of honorable service. His first experience in a battle was had at West Liberty, Kentucky. He also participated in the siege of Corinth. His company for some time served as special escort to General Mitchell while at Cincinnati. He was shot in the lung at the terrible battle of Russellville, Ala., on the 3rd of July, 1862, and for several months afterward was closely confined in a hospital. He was mustered out of the service January 20, 1865.
After the war he spent a few years at farming in Ohio, from which state he went to Iowa, where he remained two years.
The spring of 1873 found him on a homestead in Cedar township, Buffalo county, Nebr. He was one of the first actual settlers in the township, and there was but one house on the road between his homestead and Kearney, the county seat. He built a good, comfortable sod house, and proved upon his claim in 1875. The Pawnee Indians frequently passed through the settlement during the first year or so of his residence there, but he never experienced any difficulty with them. He had more fault to find with the grasshoppers in 1874 than with the occasional presence of a few Indians. The former took, without asking, everything he had that was green, while the latter usually begged hard for what little they got. Joseph Clayton was married May 8, 1879 to Miss Rosey Ewer. She is the daughter of Rural and Ellen (Wamsley) Ewer, and was born in Grant county, Wis., March 9, 1859. Her father was a Pennsylvanian by birth, but emigrated to Wisconsin when a small boy. He was a soldier in the late war, and died in the service at Helena, Ark. Her mother was born in England, but when a mere child came to America with her parents.
Three bright children bless the home of Mr. and Mrs. Clayton -- Raymond E., born July 9, 1882; and Mary May, born May 5, 1887; and Earnest, born March 4, 1890.
Mr. Clayton owns a splendid farm in the Cedar Creek valley, and has it well improved. He has always had great faith in the future development of this country, and even when the grasshoppers robbed him of his crop he did not become discouraged. He always believed exactly the opposite from the man who said, "It is simply a fight between the grasshoppers and drought on the one hand and the plow on the other, and he believed the former would win." He has held various local offices, and is commander of Cedar Mountain Post, No. 220, Department of Nebraska, G.A.R.
CHARLES R. WATERS first saw the light of day at Springville, Vernon county, Wis., August 4, 1860. His parents, Henry and Arminda (Harkness) Waters, were natives of Illinois, the former having been born in Knox county in 1823. The senior Waters moved to Wisconsin in 1848, where his wife died in 1875. He came to Nebraska in 1876,
153BIOGRAPHICAL SOUVENIR OF BUFFALO COUNTY but is now enjoying the pleasures afforded by a residence in California. He was the father of ten children, seven boys and three girls. He served as supervisor of Cedar township, Buffalo county, Nebr., two years. He also served three years in the war. Young Waters accompanied his father to Nebraska in the spring of 1876, and began life for himself about that time. He worked out by the month for a year or so, then engaged in farming for himself. The country in that portion of Cedar township, Buffalo county, Nebr., was very sparsely settled, there being only a few houses in sight. He pre-empted a claim in 1880 and proved up on it soon after. He now has one hundred and sixty acres well improved, and is a prosperous young farmer.
WILLIAM H. KILLGORE came from Bradford county, Pa., to Buffalo county, Nebr., in February, 1872, locating in section 12 township 9, range 15, remaining here about four years. In 1876, going into the stock raising business, he went to what is now Custer county, helping to organize that county and serving as commissioner several terms. In 1880 he pre-empted a quarter section, and in 1883 he came to Kearney City, feeding cattle for one year. He then went to the territories of Utah, Idaho and Montana. He remained in Montana a short time only, although he had intended to make it his home, and left for Iowa and Minnesota; not liking these states, he again returned to Kearney, and bought some land on Drover Island, directly opposite old Fort Kearney, in Platte river. He there owns five quarter-sections of the finest hay and grazing lands in the state, and on Farm Island four quarter-sections, one hundred and fifty acres of which are under cultivation, producing corn and oats. He also raises a quantity of stock. When he came West, he had $3,000; he now owns fifteen hundred acres of land and a number of town lots, together with improvements, which he rents out at Kearney. He has upwards of two hundred head of cattle, seventy horses and a large number of hogs. Mr. Killgore was born in Bradford county, Pa., in August, 1839, on a farm. His father, John Killgore, a native of New Jersey, went to Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the tailoring business; but, leaving this, he engaged in farming. He is still residing in Pennsylvania at the ripe age of eighty-one years. His wife, Lydia W. Haynes, was a native of New York. To this union were born eleven children, William being the fourth. At the age of thirteen he ran away from home, going to a lumber camp; remaining at this a short time, he went into the butchering business, remaining in this several years; then, returning home, he worked at carpentering. The war breaking out in 1861, he enlisted in April with Battery E, First Pennsylvania light artillery, serving the first two years as quartermaster's sergeant. He was then promoted to a second, and shortly after to a first, lieutenancy, serving in all four years and three months. His battery was the first to go into Richmond. He sustained a rupture during one of the numerous battles in which he was engaged, for which he is now drawing a pension. After being mustered out at Philadelphia,
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he returned home and started a saw-mill. In 1867 he married Miss Sophie Dilts, a daughter of Philip Dilts, of New Jersey. Her father died in 1876; her mother is still living in Pennsylvania. This union has not been blessed by any children. In politics Mr. Killgore is an ardent republican, and is also a member of the Loyal Legion of the United States. As a citizen he is highly respected.
ALEXANDER ST. PETERS was born in Paris, France, December 15, 1807, and is the son of Lewis and Mary Ann St. Peters. Alexander St. Peters came to Canada with his parents in 1815. They settled at Three Rivers, where the father died, in October, 1839. Young St. Peters began farming for himself at the age of eighteen. He immigrated to the United States before becoming of age and settled in Vermont. In 1835, he moved to Massachusetts, where he remained about eighteen months, and in 1837 moved to Iowa, settling in Benton county. He purchased a farm there and followed his chosen occupation for several years. In April, 1874, he moved to Nebraska and took up a claim in Cedar township, Buffalo county. The country was new then and settlers were few and far between. Wild game, especially elk, antelope and deer, was quite plenty, and it was not an unusual thing to see a few Indians passing back and forth to their hunting grounds.
Mr. St. Peters built a sod house, barn and other necessary buildings, and has since devoted himself diligently to improving his farm, which is, by the way, one of the best in the township. He suffered severely the first year or so from the grasshoppers, and at a time, too, when the destruction of an entire crop meant a great deal to him. He witnessed a great deal of terrible suffering among the settlers in those days, many of whom came near starving to death. They were indeed trying times, and the courage of men was put to the severest test. Alexander St. Peters married Mary Ann Hatcot, a native of Canada and of English descent. She bore him eleven children, as follows--Mary Jane (deceased), Franklin (deceased ), Silvia, John J., Alba E., Annie, Laura, Charles, Stephen, William E., and Emma B. Both Mr. St. Peters and his estimable wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. St. Peters enlisted in August, 1862, in the Fortieth Iowa infantry, and served seventeen months. He was taken sick during his service, and after being confined in a hospital for some time was discharged. He is a modest, unassuming man and always tries to do what is right by his fellow man.
W. H. ANDERSON, one of the representative farmers of Buffalo county, Nebraska, was born in New York City, October 10, 1852. His father, James Anderson, also a native of New York City, was born in 1812, and there he was raised, following the carpenter trade for many years. He moved to Lake county, Indiana, however, and remained there a short time; he then returned to New York; then moved again to Indiana, and in October, 1862, came to
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Nebraska, settling on Wood river, near what is now known as Wood River Station, remaining three years. He then went East, living at Woodford county, Illinois. Returning to Nebraska in March, 1879, he settled in Center township four miles east of Kearney. Subsequently growing old and infirm, his son, William H, brought him to his own residence, where he died August 8, 1886, at the age of seventy-four years--a prominent member of the Evangelical church. His wife, Isabella, was a daughter of William Hodge, a native of Scotland, a blind musician, who came to this country, settling on Long Island, N.Y. There he died in 1884 at the age of ninety-nine. Mrs. Isabella Anderson is still living. This marriage was blessed with seven children, viz.--Isabella (deceased), Robert (deceased), James, Mary Ann, David, Alexander and William II. James Anderson, Junior, served in the late war in the union ranks and now lives at Newton, Kansas. Sarah is the wife of A. B. Cherry; Mary is the wife of V. B. Smith, of David City, Nebr. David was, for several terms, sheriff of Buffalo county, Nebr, and died but a few years ago; Alexander was killed by Indians at Wood River Station, February 3, 1862, when he was fourteen years of age.
William H. Anderson first saw Nebraska in 1862, his parents having moved here when he was but ten years of age. He was raised mainly in Illinois, to which state he was taken by his father. He again came to Nebraska in March, 1879, and has lived in Buffalo county ever since. He owns two hundred and sixty five acres of land lying on the Platte river, in Center township, six miles southeast of Kearney, most of which is in grass. In 1873 he married Mary A., daughter of Peter Berg, of El Paso, Illinois. She was born in Pennsylvania, near Johnstown, in Cambria county. To this union have been born three children --Walter, Guy and Estella May. Mr. Anderson is a member of the Evangelical church, a staunch republican and has served as township treasurer. He has also served on the school board. His integrity and faithfulness while in those positions have fully won him the regard and esteem of his fellow citizens.
S. J. WALDRON, one of the representative farmers of Buffalo county, Nebr., was born and raised in Macomb county, Mich. His father, Evert J. Waldron, was born and reared in Saratoga county, N.Y. In 1834 he moved to Macomb county, Mich., where he married Catherine, daughter of Jacob Straup, who had moved to Macomb county the same year with his family from Genesee Falls, N. Y., where this lady was born and reared. After his marriage, Evert Waldron moved to Michigan, settling in Macomb county and actively engaging in farming. There the worthy couple still reside, he in his seventy-ninth year. Their union has been blessed with twelve children.
Mr. S. J. Waldron came from Macomb county, Mich., to this state, settling in Buffalo county, in September, 1872, and entering into a mercantile life at Kearney, which he followed eight years. He then moved on his farm, consisting of the north half of section 8, township 8, range 15, 100 acres of which he has under thorough cultivation; the remainder consists of fine hay land. The
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farm is situated not two miles from Kearney, and on account of its situation it is one of the finest in the county. Mr. Waldron has given it all his attention since 1880, and as a natural result he has been rewarded by fine crops. His homestead is the northwest quarter of section 8, and has undergone the most perfect improvements. He has on his farm the first frame building that was erected in the City of Kearney. It is a small box house, now used for a granary. Mr. Waldron has experienced all the vicissitudes of farm life in Nebraska, having undauntedly gone through grasshopper visitations and dry seasons. He enjoys single blessedness, and the respect of his neighbors, who honor him as a genial and upright citizen.
MRS. SARAH L. LAYTON came to Nebraska in 1872, locating at Loup City. She remained there one year, and then took up her residence where she now resides, consisting of the northeast quarter of section 35, township 9, range 15, it being then in the military reservation. Here she lived as a squatter two years before she could file papers for her claim, and seven years before proving it, as the papers were filed in the name of her husband, he having died before the claim could be proven. She is, in fact, one of the pioneers of the county, there being but a few houses in Kearney when she came. Time brings its changes, and she has lived to see the then struggling village of Kearney grow to be a prosperous city -- one that is gradually assuming a metropolitan air. With her own hands and very little help, she has so improved her farm that it is now producing excellent crops, and is estimated as one of the best in the county, it having always yielded well, excepting only the grasshopper year of 1874. Mrs. Layton is the daughter of Solomon Kinner, a native of New York, who is at present residing in Pennsylvania at the advanced age of ninety-three, being perfectly deaf and blind. Mrs. Layton's mother was born in 1813, and is still living at the age of seventy-seven. Mr. and Mrs. Kinner were devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and were the parents of nine children.
Mrs. Layton, the sixth child, was born July, 1845, in Pennsylvania, and passed her childhood there. In 1865 she married Jacob Layton and the couple went to New Jersey where they remained four years; thence they went to Virginia. Not liking the climate, they removed to Nebraska, where her husband died. She has three sons, viz. Carlos S., Arthur P and Walter A. Mrs. Layton belongs to the Evangelical church. To her as well as to many others is due the gratitude of the noble sons of Nebraska for the cheering of the weary days when they toiled to make the great country which at the present is before the citizens of this state as an example of what industry can accomplish.
WILBERT S. HORMEL. With the many representative and successful farmers of Buffalo county. Nebr., is Wilbert Hormel, born in Warren county, Ohio, in March, 1857. His father, Joel Hormel, a native of Ohio and a carpenter by trade, married Miss
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Jane Hoffman, also a native of Ohio. To this union were born two sons--Wilbert S. and Benjamin. Wilbert passed his early days in Warren county, receiving an education at the common school. In September, 1874, with his father, he came to Nebraska, settling in Buffalo county on thc southeast quarter of section 10, township 9, range 15. Here he improved the land and lived fifteen years. In 1879 he bought his father out, and became the sole owner of the farm, which he afterwards so successfully managed until the fall of 1888, when he sold this property and bought his present farm. This tract of eighty acres is situated in the south half of the southeast quarter of section 15, township 9, range 15, consisting of the finest improved land in the county. He has built a commodious house, fine barn, granaries and outhouses, also a large wind-mill for grinding grain. He raises mixed crops, and is giving considerable attention to the dairy business.
At the age of twenty-seven, Mr. Hormel married Miss Jennie Willhelmy, a daughter of Theodore Willhelmy, a native of Wisconsin, who came to Nebraska and located on a farm in the neighborhood. Of this union was born three children viz. -- Bertha, Francis and Earl S. Politically Mr. Hormel is an ardent democrat, and his fellow-citizens have honored him by electing him four consecutive terms as school director. He is also a member of the Farmers' Alliance. The mother of the subject of this sketch died in 1859 and Joel Hormel took for his second wife, Miss Anna, daughter of James Ward, of Ohio, and to this union were born seven children, all of whom are residents of Nebraska. This lady died in 1879. Joel Hormel served in the late war about three months, and is now making his home in Nebraska. W. S. Hormel, although only thirty-three years of age, has demonstrated his ability to conduct a farm on strictly business principles. He exhibits good taste in all things, and his wisdom is shown in his selection of the best agricultural implements and the convenient arrangement of his barns and other outbuildings, and the cheerful and neat appearance of his comfortable dwelling.
Photo of Francis G. Hamer, Page 158 FRANCIS G. HAMER was born on a farm near Fostoria, Seneca county, Ohio, February 20, 1843. The cabin was built of unhewn logs and floored with puncheons, and one of the first important events which he remembers was the building of an addition to this cabin.
At the age of five years his father carried him to school and he began the pursuit of knowledge seated on a slab, supported by four legs made from a sapling and with no back. His little feet did not reach the floor, and he remembers his position yet as one of discomfort. Before he was ten years old, his mother died and his father moved to another farm near Delphi, Carroll county, Ind. The house occupied was a slight improvement on the first cabin. It was built of hewn logs, but the floor was still made of puncheons, and a chimney, built of mud and sticks, permitted the smoke to rise from the fireplace, where huge back-logs roasted in the winter. The school-house was still a cabin, and the seats were rough boards
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without backs, but it contained an innovation, being warmed by a wood stove. In these good old days nearly everybody wore homespun, and he well remembers his first store coat. In winter the mental instruction was procured at revival meetings, spelling schools and debating societies. In summer, the corn-field and harvest fields furnished occupation, and instruction was obtained at the quarterly and camp-meetings. It was a Methodist neighborhood, and the arrival of the presiding elder was looked forward to with great interest. He could preach a sermon, and from miles about the farmers came in wagons, driving along corduroy roads and were delighted to listen to the man who could instruct and entertain. The spelling school and debating society were every day affairs, and in them young Hamer learned to spell, and at twelve years of age spelled down the whole school, and went home with more glory than he has ever had since, or hopes to obtain. In speaking he had more trouble; he began to declaim at nine and tried to debate at fifteen, and at eighteen years of age, he was participating as best he could with those who had more or less experience on the stump -- men who had been members of the legislature, or practicing lawyers. Before he was sixteen, he attended school at the county seat, returning to the district school at home during the winter.
Before he was eighteen he began life as a Hoosier school master, and the succeeding summer, having borrowed a copy of Blackstone from a lawyer at the county seat, he began to prosecute his legal studies, regretting that he could not be admitted to practice for three long years, or until he became twenty-one. For three successive winters, including his eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth birthdays, he taught school, read law, and attended the debating societies, and during the corresponding summers he farmed and raised corn and wheat and pigs, and tried to accumulate money to pay the expenses of attending a law school. In the spring succeeding his twentieth birth-day, he went to Indianapolis and became a student in the law office of Perrin & Manlove, and shortly after entered the law school, then under the management of the Hon. Samuel E. Perkins, who was for many years one the supreme judges of Indiana, and a lawyer with a national reputation. He was admitted to practice on his twenty-first birth-day, or as soon as was honestly practicable. He then returned home and began farming and stock-raising, for the purpose of accumulating money to support himself during the first years of his practice as a lawyer. After watching the struggles of young lawyers in a city he doubted his own ability to make a living at the commencement of his proposed professional career. He still attended the debating society, read law and literature, and occasionally contributed to neighboring newspapers. At twenty-six, he formed a partnership with P. A. Brown, a lawyer of Indianapolis, and together they were, for a short time, engaged in the real estate business in Chicago. December 6, 1869, at Eddyville, Iowa, he was married to Miss R. A. McCord, of Delphi, Ind. Together the young partners came to Lincoln, Nebr., and began house-keeping in the humblest sort of way. One small room was rented for $10 a month and in this for the time being they lived. Desk room was obtained in a real estate office for $8 per month,
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and here the subject of our sketch, at the age of twenty-seven, earned his first money as a lawyer. It was only $2.50, but it gave promise of the means of a living. In five months he began to earn enough to support himself and wife. He held his office in Lincoln a little more than two years, but during five months of this time he lived in the country, six miles from the town. During the first nine weeks of his residence in the country he walked to and from his office, making a daily walk of twelve miles. Half-past 7 o'clock usually found him in his office, fresh from the invigorating labor of his six-mile tramp. When his day's labor was at an end, he returned. Some times the trial of a case ran into the night, and on such occasions he did not reach his home until midnight, or later. On one such occasion, the lawsuit ended about 11 o'clock; the ground was covered with slush and mud, which prevented the usual rapid walk, and it was 3 o'clock in the morning when the tired young lawyer arrived at his humble domicile. Shortly after this, he was able to buy a pony and pay cash for it, and the long walks were discontinued.
During his residence in Indianapolis he became acquainted with Gen. A. H. Connor, at that time, one of the leading citizens of the Hoosier state. He knew him to be a strong lawyer, and an eloquent advocate, and when General Conner found a home in Lincoln, he and the subject of this sketch formed a partnership which lasted through twelve long years, and until Mr. Hamer's appointment as district judge. In May, 1872, Mr. Hamer removed from Lincoln to the present site of Kearney. At that time there was no town, only a prospect for one, and Mr. Hamer's first efforts were made in the direction of discovering a claim for himself and partner. For himself he found a pre-emption between the present site of the State Industrial School and the city. For General Conner, he found another claim lying a short distance north of the city. The result of this day's discovery was a removal of the firm and its effects from Lincoln to Kearney, Mr. Hamer coming a short time in advance of his partner. A small building containing two or three hundred dollars' worth of goods and the postoffice, was at that time, the only business house in Kearney, the proprietor being Mr. F. W. Dart. Mr. Hamer needed an office, and Mr. Dart kindly informed him that there was plenty of room in his store. The building was only 14x20, but he thought there was plenty of room for a store, postoffice and law office. A little corner was fenced off by a rough plank, which could be used as a table, and behind this was placed an empty nail-keg, covered with a sheep-skin, and on this seat one of the future judges of Nebraska installed himself, and spreading the statutes out before him, was ready for business with the first law office in Kearney.
Immediately upon his arrival at Kearney, he and Mrs. Hamer began to reside upon, the pre-emption, where sod was broken and Mr. Hamer personally planted his first crop of sod corn. The residence was an unpainted shanty, 12x16, ceiled with tar paper tacked upon the studding, and in this they lived two winters and two summers. The winters, however, are remembered more vividly than the summers.
In the fall of 1880, Mr. Hamer was nominated as the republican candidate
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for representative in the state legislature. Mr. Hamer was supposed to favor Judge Elmer S. Dundy; who, it was known, would be a candidate before the legislature for United States senator, but other republicans favored the election of Senator Paddock to that position. Mr. Hamer was defeated by the joint vote of democrats and Paddock republicans. Mr. Simon C. Ayer, independent republican, became the successful candidate. After the senatorial contest which followed, Paddock and Dundy were both defeated by C. H. VanWyck. As is well known, Senator Paddock since defeated VanWyck and is one of the United States senators from Nebraska. Two years later, Mr. Hamer actively supported his law partner Gen. Conner, who was brought out as a candidate against Mr. Luman R. Moore. Mr. Moore was an excellent and public-spirited man, but he had been nominated as a candidate for state senator by the same faction of republicans that had defeated Mr. Hamer. Gen. Connor made a vigorous canvass on his own account, thoroughly discussing the arbitrary exercise of corporate power before the people and the dangers which menaced their welfare, and he was elected over his competitor by a large majority. A year later, Mr. Hamer was the favorite candidate in the republican state convention of the people of the central and western part of the state for the office of justice of the supreme court. He was beaten by a majority of thirty-five, by M. B. Reese, of Wahoo. On the death of Judge Sam'l L. Savage, Mr. Hamer was appointed in December, 1883, judge of the Tenth judicial district, by Gov. Dawes, and he immediately entered upon the discharge of his duties. He was also elected, in the fall of 1884, running on the republican ticket against Judge Barnd, the democratic nominee. His majority was 1,700, and in the fall of 1887, he was re-elected. This time his competitor was the Hon. Wm. L. Greene, democratic and labor candidate, and one of the best stump orators in the state. Mr. Hamer's majority at this election was a little short of 5,000 votes.
The task of building up a new town is one of great labor. Upon those who have public spirit and a patriotic love of home, this task always falls. No enterprise for the benefit of his town, county and state has yet been presented that has not received Mr. Hamer's cordial and energetic support. He has given months of his time to enterprises in which he had no personal interest beyond that of the common good of his section, and has repeatedly pledged his future earnings to subscription lists for the benefit of his city. His first efforts of a public nature in Buffalo county were directed toward the defeat of a bill introduced into the state legislature for the purpose of dividing the county. This bill, if it had become a law, would have placed Kearney on the western boundary of Buffalo county, and would have prevented it from becoming a county seat. His next efforts were directed towards the establishment of a bridge across the Platte river at Kearney. He also participated in the matter of locating the State Industrial School, he was a subscriber to the fund which procured the building of the Midway hotel, and was an earnest advocate of the canal and water power. He has helped to erect every church in the city and on all occasions has given time and money for the
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public good of his city and section. As a lawyer, Mr. Hamer is careful, painstaking, laborious and much in earnest. He aspires to a thorough knowledge of the law and facts pertaining to his case rather than to a display of rhetoric. As a judge, he is a persistent and unremitting worker. The Tenth judicial district is the largest in the state, and contains fifteen counties, in thirteen of which courts are held. Until the appointment of Judge Church, of North Platte, about one year ago, Judge Hamer heard all the cases in all this immense territory---a territory about three hundred miles long and about one hundred miles wide. He annually disposes of about twenty-five hundred cases.
Judge Hamer is of English stock on his father's side. His great-grandfather, John Hamer, was born in the state of New York a century and a quarter ago, and his grandfather, William Hamer, was born in the same state and moved to Pennsylvania, where his eldest daughter, Mary, was born, and shortly thereafter he moved to Stark county, Ohio, where his other children were born, including Francis Hamer, the father of the subject of this sketch. Francis Hamer married Mary Mahan, and removed from Stark county to Seneca county, Ohio, about the year 1840, and three years later his son, Francis G. was born. Francis G. has no brothers or sisters living. A brother and sister died in infancy, and Thomas L., another brother, died in the Union army, at the age of sixteen, in 1864. Francis Hamer, the Judge's father, David Hamer, his uncle, Oliver Hamer, his half brother, and Mrs. Martha Shallenbarger and Mrs. Amanda Allen, half sisters, reside near Delphi, Carroll county, Indiana. The Judge's father is a farmer, as were his grandfather and great-grandfather, and the Judge himself is also quite a farmer. He owns several valuable farms well stocked with fine cattle, horses and hogs, and has had crops growing every year but one since he was eighteen. While he has worked hard as a lawyer and as judge, he has not forgotten the farm nor left it.
JOHN W. KING, M. D., a young, well-read physician of excellent natural ability of Armada, Buffalo county, Nebr., was born near Indianapolis, Ind., February 10, 1859, and is the son of John G. and Martha (Park) King. The latter was born in Virginia, September 20, 1831, and is still living. John G. King was born in Indiana, February 28, 1831, and was a farmer. He enlisted in Company G, Twenty-sixth Indiana infantry, but only served about thirteen months, when he died in a hospital at Springfield, Mo., August, 1862. He was married to Miss Martha Park, September 21, 1854, by whom he had three children--Bertha (deceased), John W., and Fannie K. Dr. King was reared on a farm near Indianapolis, and provided for his widowed mother after his father's death. He attended the normal school at Valparaiso, Ind. for two years, after which he spent two years on the old homestead. He began to read medicine with Dr. J. G. Gressler of Bluff Creek, Ind., and afterwards attended a course of lectures at Bennett's Medical College, Chicago. He then practiced about eighteen months at Waverly, Ind., and in Decem-
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