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BIOGRAPHICAL SOUVENIR OF BUFFALO COUNTY in the iron foundries in late life. He was a sober, industrious, upright man, greatly devoted to his family and setting before them in his own life an example of industry, sobriety and self-help worthy of their following. He died in Massachusetts, where he had lived the greater part of his life, in the fall of 1887, at the age of eighty. Mrs. Wheeler's mother, who was a kind hearted christian woman, died in her native state in the fall of 1888, at the age of eighty-four. These were the parents of eight children, of whom Mrs. Wheeler is the sixth, the others being -- Sarah, Elizabeth, Annette and two boys, who died in early childhood, and Hannah A. and Rebecca. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler are the parents of four children, whose christian names are --Willie C., Harry E., Edith A. and Lena A.
It would be next to impossible for man of Mr. Wheeler's personal history and family traditions to be anything but a republican in politics. He has voted that ticket since the formation of the party and is a stanch believer in the principles of his party. He and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist church and contribute in accordance with their means to all charitable purposes.
NELSON W. SHORT. An old settler of Gibbon township, Buffalo county, an old soldier with an honorable record, and a citizen of exemplary habits and blameless private life, is Nelson W. Short, whose eventful career this article is designed to commemorate. Mr. Short is a native of Ohio, and is a descendant of two of the first settled families of that state, his grandparents on both sides being pioneers of the "Buckeye regions" of the Northwest Territory. His paternal grandfather, Elihu Short, moved from Delaware into Ohio, in 1810, and settled in Perry county, where he lived for several years, then moved to Sandusky county, where he subsequently lived and died. Mr. Short's father, Moulton H. Short, was born in Delaware but reared mainly in Ohio, being eleven years of age when his parents moved to that state. He grew up on the borders of civilization, as it were, and being fascinated with the free life of the frontier he in turn became a pioneer, becoming one of the first settlers of Fremont, Ohio. He died there in 1864, at the age of sixty-five years. He was an industrious farmer and led the plain and uneventful life common to his calling. Mr. Short's mother, Matilda Tracy, being a daughter of Phillip and Nancy Tracy, was born in Cumberland county, Pa., and was brought by her parents, when a child, to Ohio, settling in Sandusky county, where she was reared and where she afterwards lived and died. Her father was a Pennsylvanian by birth and her mother a native of Germany. To Moulton H. and Matilda Short were born a large family of children, thirteen of whom reached maturity, these being -- Celia, Susan, John, Phillip, Elihu, Rachel, Nelson W. George, Mary, Frank, Sarah, Matilda and James.
The subject of this notice, Nelson W., was born in Ohio in March, 1835. He was reared in his native place and married there in 1856, and shortly afterwards immigrated West and settled in Missouri, where he was residing when the war came
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on. With an alacrity born of the patriotism in him -- a patriotism characteristic of the sons of Ohio -- he offered his services to the Union cause, enlisting in 1862 in Company H, Third Missouri state militia, and served in this command till local troubles were quelled and confidence was established in the Union cause, and Southern sympathizers were either driven out of the country or forced to go into the Southern ranks. He then entered the volunteer service, enlisting in Company K, Forty-seventh Missouri infantry, being at once elected second lieutenant of his company and going to the front with his regiment to take part in the stirring scenes then being enacted at the theater of war. His regiment covered a wide area, serving in Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky and Alabama; it helped to repel the several raids made into Missouri by Price, Marmaduke and Jeff Thompson, and it took part in the hard fought battles at Franklin and Nashville, Tenn., it being ordered there to re-enforce Thomas. Mr. Short served till the surrender, being mustered out at St. Louis in April, 1865. For the next six years he lived at St. Louis, Mo., Columbus, Ky., and intermediate points, being engaged at the Kingman iron works, Carondelet dry docks, and other places. In the fall of 1871 he came to Nebraska, reaching Gibbon, where he now resides, October 6th. He selected a homestead at once in the northwest part of the township, taking eighty acres in the southeast quarter of section 3, township 9, range 14 west, which, however, he afterwards sold, buying another eighty acres in section 35, township 10, range 14 west, in Valley township. He lived on the farm till October, 1880, when he moved into Gibbon, where he has since resided and has been variously engaged. He has held a number of local public offices and is at present marshall of the town of Gibbon and overseer of the village highways. Mr. Short is an industrious, useful citizen and an honest, upright, capable public officer. Like most of the old settlers, he has seen many hard-ships since coming to the county, but he has borne them with the courage and fortitude becoming an old soldier. He has many friends, and with the better class of society -- the intelligent, law-abiding, home-loving citizens --he is very popular. He has a family himself -- a wife and four children--having married, as before noted, in his native county in Ohio. His nuptials were celebrated August 3, 1856, the lady whom he selected to share his life's fortunes being Miss Maria Gray, daughter of George and Nancy M. Gray. Mrs. Short's parents were natives of New York. They moved to Ohio in 1844 and settled in Sandusky county, where the father died in July, 1871, then in his seventy-first year, the mother surviving him some years, dying at the home of Mrs. Short in Gibbon, February 16, 1888, being near her eighty-first year. Mrs. Short was born in Oswego county, N. Y, and was a child when her parents moved to Ohio, she being reared in Sandusky county. She is one of eight children, all of whom reached maturity and are now living. Mr. and Mrs. Short have had born to them a family of five children, all boys -- Clarence (now deceased), Gilbert, Frank, Vernon and Archie.
In politics, Mr. Short was reared a democrat, but, differing widely with that party on the war issues, he cast his lot
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with the republicans and affiliated actively with them for some years and still votes their ticket occasionally; but, being a strong temperance man he has in recent times given his support to the prohibition ticket, especially in local and state elections. Mr. Short believes in temperance, sobriety, in preserving the purity of the moral atmosphere where he lives, and in defending the sanctity of home and the innocence of youth and the helplessness of women, and for these reasons he favors strong laws and their strict enforcement against the liquor traffic.
JOHN W. FORREST, farmer of Gibbon township, Buffalo county, was born in Delaware county, N. Y., and is a son of William and Jennette (Miller) Forrest. His parents were both natives of Scotland and came to America when children, aged three and five respectively. They were reared in Delaware county, N. Y., where their parents settled. There they were married and thence moved to Ashtabula county, Ohio, where the father died in April, 1886, at the age of sixty-nine, and the mother in 1860, at the age of forty-four. They were the parents of eight children as follows -- William, Grace, John W., Robert, Walter, Jane, Andrew and Thomas. The eldest of these died in the Union army from the effects of exposure, being a member of the Seventh Kansas cavalry.
The third, John W., the subject of this notice, was born in January, 1843. He was reared in his native county and in Ashtabula county, Ohio, whither his parents moved when he was young. He enlisted in the Union army in August, 1862, entering as a member of Company A, Fiftieth Ohio volunteer infantry, and served with the armies of the Ohio and the Cumberland. During the first six months of his service he was on post duty in and around Louisville. His regiment during the summer of 1863 guarded the L & N. R. R. bridges and built the forts at Big Run trestle. Crossing the Cumberland mountains in the winter of 1863-64, his regiment was sent to Knoxville, Tenn., where it built Fort Strickland, named after the colonel of the regiment. His command then entered the Georgia campaign and was in all the engagements from Resaca down to Atlanta. Returning with Thomas on his campaign into Tennessee, Mr. Forrest was in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, followed Hood to the Tennessee river, where his regiment was put aboard a boat and shipped to Washington, N. C., and thence to Wilmington, N.C., and overland to Goldsboro, where it joined Sherman's army. He was mustered out June 25, 1865, but not paid off and discharged till July 17th, following. He served as a private, but was never captured nor ever wounded. Returning to Ohio, he married, in November, 1868, Sylvia, daughter of Albro Woodruff of Ashtabula county, settled down to farming and lived there till 1871, when he came to Nebraska as a member of the Old Soldier's Homestead Colony. He settled in Gibbon township, Buffalo county, in May of that year, and there made a homestead filing on the south half of the northeast quarter and the north half of the southeast quarter of section 4, township 9, range 14 west, where he now lives. One hundred acres of this he has in
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cultivation and otherwise well improved. He also owns eighty acres across the township line in Valley township. He raises considerable live stock and is an enterprising, successful farmer. He has voted the straight republican ticket since the formation of the party. He is an intelligent gentleman, a kind, good neighbor and a worthy citizen.
H. P. ROGERS, farmer of Gibbon township, is one of the oldest settlers of Buffalo county, and is one of that county's most successful and highly esteemed citizens. Mr. Rogers located where he now lives, four miles northwest of the town of Gibbon, on April 7, 1871, and there he has since resided, and during all the years that have elapsed since that date he has been actively identified with the best interests of his community, and has succeeded far beyond the average of old settlers. Mr. Rogers came from Pennsylvania to Nebraska, coming directly from Bradford county, the place of his birth. He was born on the ninth day of April, 1846, and is next to the youngest of a family of five boys, born to Hiram and Mary (Chandler) Rogers, his mother having been previously married, and having had, by her former marriage, three sons. His father has resided all his life in Bradford county, where he has been engaged in the pursuit of agriculture. His mother died there in 1870. The subject of this sketch grew up in a household of eight boys; three half brothers Daniel, Edwin and Marshall, and four brothers of the full blood--George, Lorenzo M., Murray and Frank; our subject, Horace P., being next to the youngest of the second set. Of these eight boys, five served in the Union army, namely--Edwin, George, Lorenzo M., Murray and Horace P.
Horace P. Rogers was reared in his native place, growing up on his father's farm. On February 10, 1864, he entered the army, enlisting in Company K, One Hundred and Sixty-first New York infantry. His regiment served in the department of the Gulf, was in the Red River campaign under Banks, and took part in all its engagements in Louisiana and Arkansas. Mr. Rogers served as a private, and was discharged December 12, 1865. He bears to this day, the marks of his service, having contracted a lung trouble in the performance of his duties.
Returning to Pennsylvania, when he was mustered out of the service, he resumed farming. On December 24, 1870, he married a neighbor girl, Miss Cassandra Crum, a daughter of Harrison Crum, of Litchfield, Bradford county, she being a native of New York state. The year following, that is, in the spring of 1871, Mr. Rogers came to Nebraska and settled as above noted in Gibbon township, where he has since resided. His beginning on settling, in accordance with his means, was modest enough, he taking only a homestead. He has added to this, however, by purchase, until he now owns three hundred and sixty acres in one body, one hundred and twenty acres of which he has under plow. It all lies on the banks of Wood river, and is highly productive. With that industry and commendable foresight which characterizes the good husbandman, Mr.
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Rogers planted out a large grove around his homestead when he first located on it, consisting of box elder, walnut, cottonwood, maple and ash, and this has become one of the handsomest artificial forests in the county, and is not only pleasant to the eye, but is a source of profit. Mr. Rogers is not only an intelligent, energetic farmer, but he is a progressive, public-spirited citizen. He has served his township in a number of local offices, and he has done it creditably. He is a stanch republican, and takes considerable interest in public matters, never to the extent, however, of seeking public office for himself. He has a pleasant home and a growing family of children, around whom he finds his interests and sympathies drawing closer and closer as the years roll by. These are Virgil, Cora, Nora, Herman, Jennette, Lizzie and Roy and Gertrude. Of one son, Rutherford, he has been bereft.
MARTIN V. ESLER, was born in Columbia county, Pa. July 18, 1844. His father, Frederick Esler, was native of France, born November 11, 1796, and came to this country in 1826, locating in Philadelphia, where began the manufacture of glass (at which business be lost $80,000), and after wards located on the Susquehannah river and engaged in the manufacture of soap and candles. Our subject's mother, Elizabeth (Aull) Esler, was a native of Bavaria, born in 1809. Martin remained at home helping his father until twenty-four years of age, at which age he emigrated West and located at Belleville, St. Clair county, Ill. He engaged as traveling salesman for Johnson, Huntly & Co., agricultural implement dealers of Brockport, N. Y., and traveled for five years over the state selling their goods. He then bought a farm in St. Clair county and tilled it for one year, but was taken sick and for four years his health was such that he was unable to do any work. He then moved back to Pennsylvania, residing there three years and working on a farm. He again emigrated West in January, 1878, and pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres in section 8, town 10, range 17, Buffalo county, Nebr., on which he still resides. He had on arriving here but $7.35 in money, and constructed a cheap dug out in which he resided for two years, after which he built a more convenient house out of sod. When he first located in that section, deer and antelope were numerous. He has seen as many as nine deer in a bunch around his stable. The country about him was mostly raw and his nearest neighbors lived several miles distant. He borrowed money at 3 per cent. per month with which to buy a team, and on account of the failure of crops was unable to pay it back for three years. He now has one hundred and sixty acres of the best land in the Wood River valley and has it all under cultivation except fifteen acres. Mr. Esler was married December 25, 1869, to Elizabeth Aull who was born in St. Clair county, Ill., December 29, 1850, and is one of eleven children born to Frederick and Elizabetih (Schragg) Aull, both of whom were natives of Bavaria, the former having been born in 1813 and the latter in 1829, and came to this country in 1833.
To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Esler have been born the following children: Fred-
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erick, born October 5, 1870; Dora E., born January 17, 1872; Catherine A. (deceased), born March 6, 1874; Emma G. (deceased), born March 8, 1878; Rosa E. (deceased), born March 8, 1878; Mary F., born February 15, 1879; Henry A., born April 19, 1881; Roy A., born November 26, 1884; Daniel H., born March 20, 1887, and May V., born June 19, 1889.
In the spring of 1879 Mr. Esler secured by petition the establishment of a post-office at Greendale, in Buffalo county, and was appointed the first postmaster at that place April 26th of the same year, and served until June 30, 1883, when he resigned in favor of Edward Haase. March 3, 1890, Mr. Esler relinquished farming entirely and settled in Kearney City where he employs his time in removing cancers.
Mrs. M. V. Esler had four brothers in the late war. Of these, Daniel, a member of Company F, One Hundred and Thirtieth Illinois volunteer infantry, was killed at the battle of Vicksburg, Miss., and Jacob, a member of Company C, Twenty-sixth Illinois volunteers, died at Scottsboro, Ala., of congestive chills contracted from exposure a few months before the expiration of his three years' term of enlistment. In politics Mr. Esler is a prohibitionist and an Alliance man.
JAMES H. DAVIS, president of the First National Bank at Gibbon, Buffalo county, is a native of the town of Whitingham, Windham county, Vt, and was born May 6, 1843. He comes of New England parentage, his father, Amiel K. Davis, and his mother, whose maiden name was Betsey Saunders, both being natives of Vermont, where they always lived and where they died, the father in 1885 at the age of seventy-one years, and the mother in 1873 at the age of sixty. Mr. Davis is the third of a family of eight children born to his parents, the others being Lucy, George, Francis, Amelia, Romanzo, Flora and Reuben. He received the meager rudiments of a common school education, leaving home at the age of nine and going out into the world to make his way alone. He sought his first employment in the northwestern part of Massachusetts and was there in 1862, when in August of that year he entered the Union army, enlisting in Company B, Fifty-second Massachusetts infantry. He served in this command for nine months, when the term of his enlistment having expired he returned to Massachusetts and remained there till August, 1864. He then entered the service a second time, enlisting in the Second Massachusetts light artillery, but that command being full he was transferred to the Sixth Massachusetts battery. With this he served until the surrender, being mustered out in June, 1865, at New Orleans, La. Returning to Franklin county, Mass., he was for two years engaged as manager of a grist mill at Colerain, that county, and two years in the general mercantile business at the same place. Moving thence to Milford, that state, he entered the employ of Davis & Eastman, manufacturers of boot and shoe boxes, learned the business with them, became their second manager and remained with them between three and four years. Then, in July, 1873, he came to Nebraska and settled at Gibbon, Bu-
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falo county, where he immediately began the erection of the Gibbon flouring mills. He operated this mill for a period of twelve years, it being one of the first mills built in central Nebraska and having a reputation all over the central and western part of the state not only as pioneer mill but as turning out the best milling products to be found any where west of the Missouri river. Quitting the mill in 18S5 on account of a failure of health, Mr. Davis started a private bank at Gibbon, which he continued up to August, 1888. At that date he organized the First National Bank, of which he became president and to which he has given his attention chiefly since. The First National Bank has a capital of $50,000. It has done a steadily increasing volume of business since it was organized, and its affairs are in a prosperous condition, which fact is due in no small measure to the influence and judicious management of its chief executive. Mr. Davis has considerable real estate and stock interests in Buffalo county and is thoroughly identified with the farmers and stock-growers of his community. He has devoted himself strictly to the prosecution of his own personal affairs and yet it could not happen that a man of his interests and business qualifications should escape being called upon to fill public office. In the fall of 1879 he was elected to the legislature from Buffalo county and served one term, taking an active part in the general course of legislation before the lower house and doing a large amount of efficient work as a member of the several committees on which he served. One measure of significance for which the people of Buffalo county have special cause to remember him was the bill which he secured having enacted into a law, locating the State Industrial school at Kearney. For the passage of this bill he was a tireless worker and it was due mainly to his efforts that Kearney and Buffalo county secured the much coveted prize. To the discharge of his general duties as a legislator he brought the same zeal, energy and sound and discriminating judgment which had characterized him and yet continues to characterize him in his conduct of his own personal affairs. In the growth and development of his own locality he has exhibited equal zeal and fidelity. He has been a member of the village school board of Gibbon for more than fifteen years, he has served as a member of the village council when called on for that purpose and he has been among the first, both with money and with personal influence and effort, in securing and promoting industries, enterprises and interests of a local nature for his town and community. He is a man of progressive ideas, broad and liberal in his views and practical in his methods. Honest and frank by nature, generous in disposition, he is not without friends and admirers and his influence is sought by those who know his ability and who prize his judgment.
Mr. Davis married in August, 1864, taking for a companion Miss Emily M. Avery of Franklin county Massachusetts, who like himself is a descendant of old New England stock, being a daughter of James Avery, a native of the "Bay State." Two children have been the result of this union -- a daughter, Emma L., now wife of Charles Galloway, of Broken Bow, Nebr., and a son, Roy.
In politics Mr. Davis is a republican, a
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stanch believer in the teachings and methods of his party. He is a zealous mason, having taken all the degrees up to and including that of Knight Templar, being also a member of the Mystic Shrine.
THOMAS W. ELDRED, the subject of this biographical memoir, is one of the most prosperous farmers and perhaps the largest stock raiser in Grant township, Buffalo county, Nebr. He was born at North Kingston, R. I., December 1, 1837, comes from a long line of New England ancestry, and has the pluck and energy which is characteristic of that people.
His father. James Eldred, a contractor and mason by trade, was a native of Rhode Island, born June 29, 1809. There were ten children in the family -- seven boys and three girls of whom Thomas is the third. Having first obtained a somewhat liberal education in the common schools, Thomas W. Eldred for two years attended a seminary at East Greenwich, R. I., and later graduated from Eastman's Commercial College at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He then engaged in the grocery business at Providence, R. I., for two years. Disposing of his business, he began the manufacture of spinning rings for cotton-mills, which he continued with considerable success for two years, when he sold his establishment and engaged in buying, sorting and selling cotton waste. At this business he continued for a period of eight years, accumulating, in the meantime, quite a fortune. During a big real estate boom in Providence, R. I., and while he was yet engaged in buying, sorting and selling cotton waste, he made heavy investments in realty. Contrary to his expectations, the boom collapsed, and realty depreciated to such an extent that he lost every dollar he possessed. This circumstance, instead of robbing him of his ambition, only served to nerve him for the conflict of life; and instead of sinking into a state of lethargy, as many an individual under similar circumstances would have done, he set to work once more with an invincible determination to retrieve his lost fortune.
To Mr. Eldred's reverse in fortune is due the fact of his location in the West. After earning a considerable sum of money, he made a trip to the Red River country, Dakota, with a view of locating there; but, not liking its general appearance, he came south into Nebraska and decided to locate in Buffalo county. He came to this country July 9, 1879, and pre-empted the northeast quarter of section 24, Grant township; moved his family here February 14, 1880, and here he still resides, he first built himself a sod house, which he occupied for four years. The country was new at the time of his coming and very sparsely settled, there being but one frame house for seven miles in the direction of Kearney; the balance were sods and dugouts. In 1880 he broke and put out thirty-five acres of wheat, from which he harvested and threshed only seventy-three bushels. Corn, oats and potatoes were also a failure, there having been no rain to speak of from September 1, 1879, to June 8, 1880. From that time to the present he has had abundant crops and has been prosperous. The old sod house has been replaced by a large and commodious frame, and a me-
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dium-sized barn, together with other out-buildings, attest the fact of his prosperity. Of late years he has engaged on a large scale in the raising of fine Poland-China stock hogs, which he sells and ships by express to all parts of Nebraska. He now has some two hundred head of these stock hogs on his farm.
Mr. Eldred was married January 20, 1864, to Carrie Pitcher, daughter of John and Isabella (Greene) Pitcher, both natives of the state of Rhode Island; the former was born September 14, 1819, and the latter May 11, 1820. To them were born five children, Carrie being the oldest.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. Eldred has been blessed with six children -- Mamie, John, Lillie Estelle, Willie and Carrie Belle, and one that died in infancy, not named.
Politically, Mr. Eldred is a republican and a firm believer in the party's principles.
GEORGE FORRESTER was born in Lee county, Iowa, May 22, 1843, and is the son of Oliver C. and Elizabeth (Loughhead) Forrester. His father was a Canadian by birth and farmer by occupation. His mother was a native of northern Ireland and died in 1845. George had not yet reached his majority when he concluded to accept the advice of Horace Greeley and "go West and grow up with the country," and started out, with Central City, Colo., as his objective point. There he met the frontiersman in all his glory, but he was not delighted with the picture of western life, and, after working for a freighting company some little time, he returned to Iowa. He taught school until the spring of 1864, and then entered the Union army, enlisting in the Forty-sixth Iowa infantry. His regiment was assigned to the duty of guarding railroad property, principally in the South, and he was mustered out in the fall of 1864, after serving the time for which he had enlisted. Returning to Iowa, conscious of having discharged his duty to his country, he attended a school at Tabor for a time, and then followed teaching for several years. In the meantime, however, he had completed a course in a commercial college in Chicago. He had thus thoroughly fitted himself for the transaction of business in the commercial world, and he soon found a position as clerk and manager of the warehouses of the firm of Henry Le & Co., of Red Oak, Iowa. In the fall of 1879 he met with a most peculiar accident by being struck by lightning, while he was in a granary moving some grain. The lightning melted a hole through his watch-case and burned his clothing badly; portions of his body were paralyzed and he was rendered perfectly helpless for some time. Shortly after his recovery a horse fell on him, breaking his leg and crippling him for life.
In the spring of 1883 he came to Nebraska and took a soldier's claim in Harrison township, Buffalo county. He also took a tree claim and now has three hundred and twenty acres of good land under a lair state of cultivation, on which he has planted fifteen thousand trees, and erected a commodious frame dwelling, which attests his present prosperity. He was married, September 29, 1875, to Miss Harriet C.
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Jenkins, a daughter of Thomas and Martha Jenkins, both natives of Kentucky, and they have had six children -- Fannie F., Eldafonso B., Raymond R., Marmaduke M., Hazel G. (deceased), and Earl. Mr. Forrester and his estimable wife are active members of the Methodist church. He belongs to the G. A. R., and affiliates with the republican party, although he is no politician.
Photo of S. S. ST. JOHN S. S. ST. JOHN. In these "flush times" of material growth and development, and especially in this progressive western country, but few men have the time or inclination to look after as antiquated a matter as ancestral history. "It don't pay -- nothing in it," is the reflection of the average mind, and, failing on the crucial test, the subject drops from consideration. Still, we must all have been born -- must have come from some sort of stock, and have had our origin in some locality. It is pleasant, therefore, when the fact exists, to know that we come of fairly representative people, and that we started the race of life in at least respectable quarters. The subject of this sketch is a New Englander by birth, and may therefore refer to the land of his nativity with some pride and satisfaction. He is a descendant of New England stock as far back as memory or tradition goes -- his ancestors being people of respectability, honest, industrious, frugal, rising into the higher virtues and graces of life with increasing advantages. His father, Albert St. John, was a native of Fairfield county, Conn., and a son of a Revolutionary soldier, Jesse St. John, who, family traditions say, served as escort to General Washington, enlisting in the colonial cause when a lad seventeen years of age. No other fact in the elder St. John's history is preserved. Albert St. John grew up in his native place, married Clarissa S. Hoyt, a native also of Fairfield county, and when his family came on to be provided for, moved them to the inviting fields of industry in the new Northwest, settling in Janesville, Wis., where he subsequently lived, and where he died in 1873 at a somewhat advanced age. There his wife also died some ten years later.
Svlvester S. St. John, their son, and the subject hereof, was born in Fairfield county, Conn., October 8, 1540, and was reared mainly in Janesville, Wis. He was early apprenticed to the printer's trade accordance with the New England idea of bringing up the young to some calling of usefulness. The first event of importance in his life, as it was in the lives of many of his age, was his enlistment in the army at the opening of the Civil war. He entered the Union army, August 90, 1862, as a member of the Twelfth Wisconsin light artillery, the organization of the command having begun the April previous, and finished about the date of his enlistment.
This is the reminiscential period in the history of the country. It is pre-eminently the war history era in American literature. While the generals and special correspondents are giving to the public the biographies of the noted leaders and the history of the several campaigns, corps and division movements, the record of the private soldier may be mentioned in its
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