267
BIOGRAPHICAL SOUVENIR OF BUFFALO COUNTY appropriate place in the life of the private without exciting any undue suspicion of ulterior designs on the "sovereign voter" or the unsuspecting public. Especially may the record be referred to, if it be an honorable one and the owner has not heretofore attempted to ride into fat office nor sought exemptions from duty as a citizen on the strength thereof.
Mr. St. John has a commendable record; it is only that of a private, but it is a record of duty well done in times and places that tried men's souls, when the "summer soldier and the sunshine patriot" shrank from the service of their country.
The Twelfth Wisconsin battery, in which he enlisted, soon after its organization, was attached to Grant's army and saw it (sic) first service at Iuka, September 19, 1862. Following that it participated in the second battle of Cornith (sic) October 3d and 4th; was then in Grant's raid on Holly Springs and the Yazoo Pass expedition, the Vicksburg campaign, comprising the engagements at Raymond, May 12, 1863, Champion's Hill, May 16th, the assaults on Vicksburg, May 19th and 22d, Missionary Ridge, November 25, and the Atlanta campaign, embracing all the bloody battles down to and including Alatoona Pass, October 5th, 1864, where the Twelfth made a heroic defense. It was the only battery present at that memorable engagement, and there occurred its greatest loss -- six killed and fifteen wounded, including Lieutenant Amsden, who commanded the battery in that fight. Here also Mr. St. John received a wound, but continued in the service and was with Sherman on his famous march to the sea, and the campaigns through the Carolinas, being mustered out at New Berne, N. C., May 1st, 1865.
Returning to Wisconsin at the close of the war, he went again to his trade, establishing a job office at Janesville, in connection with G. Veeder, under the firm name of Veeder & St. John. With the revival of business on the cessation of hostilities, and with the amount of energy they were enabled to throw into their undertaking, they made a success from the start. But prosperous as affairs might go with a job printing office in a small country town, there was neither great wealth nor great fame in the business, and Messrs. Veeder & St. John, if not with a view of attaining great fame, certainly with a strong desire to make more money, and to supply what they were assured was a pressing need, started, in connection with their job printing plant, a weekly newspaper, called the Rock County Recorder. Their experience with the Recorder was the same as that of most men who have founded rural papers to meet a "long felt want." , They toiled incessantly, did cords of gratuitous work, heralded abroad the immense advantages, material, political, social, moral and otherwise of their town and county, chronicled the daily and weekly doings, local, state and national, pelted iniquity in high places and scourged littleness and low dealing wherever found, taught their patrons how to be happy and contented and, in short, made money for everybody but themselves. They ran the Recorder, and the job printing business until 1872, when Mr. St. John, desirous of engaging in more remunerative calling, and with a view also of changing his locality, sold out his interest at Janesville and started for
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the great West. He had heard much of the Platt river country of Nebraska, and particularly of Buffalo county. The town to be built at the junction of the B. & M. R. R. with the Union Pacific and then known as Kearney, but not then in existence, caught his attention, and hither he came. He struck the present town site of Kearney September 19th, 1872, the same month it was surveyed and laid out. He engaged at first in the agricultural implement business, but followed this only a short time. In January, 1873, he started an insurance and real estate agency, being the first established in the town. In fact, its establishment was simultaneous with the founding of the town, which was organized in January, 1873. Mr. St. John was present at the time, was elected town clerk, and recorded the first act of the town of Kearney as a corporate body. His official duties were not very onerous or remunerative. The fact that he was the first town clerk is mentioned here as an item of some interest in the light of the subsequent growth and development of the place. He held the office one term. That which engrossed most of his time and attention was his newly established business. The town and surrounding country grew rapidly -- houses went up on every hand and the field for insurance was wide and constantly increasing. Mr. St. John's agency kept pace with the progress of events and became a source of good revenue. From his earnings he picked up property -- in town and country -- from time to time, and having confidence in the ultimate outcome of the city of Kearney and Buffalo county, he held on to what he got. His investments, judiciously managed, have made for him the bulk of what he has. He is now one of the financially solid men of Kearney. He still owns a large amount of realty which is gradually increasing in value. In the meantime his insurance agency continues to do a thriving business, growing in strength and metropolitan proportions, as the growing importance of the city of Kearney demands. The agency now runs in the name of St. John & Baldwin, Mr. St. John having sold out a one half interest to Mr. B. L. Baldwin not long since. On April 1st, 1888, Mr. St. John, in connection with Judge John Barnd and eastern parties, organized the Mutual Loan and Investment Company, of Kearney, with a capital of $250,000, #125,000 of which is paid up. Mr. St. John became secretary and manager of the company and now holds that position. August 1st, 1889, he and Judge Barnd bought the private bank of L. R. Robertson, known as the Commercial and Savings Bank of Kearney, which they re-organized under the state banking law. The bank has a capital of $100,000, 40 per cent. of which is paid up. Mr. St. John became president of the institution at the date of its purchase and re-organization, and now holds that position. It is established on a sound basis, and has a board of directors composed of some of the best representative business men of Kearney. Its affairs are judiciously managed and it is doing its share of the legitimate banking business of Kearney and Buffalo county. Mr. St. John now gives his entire attention to his duties in the bank, the loan and trust company, of which he is secretary and manager, his insurance agency and his private investments. He has never been a public man in the generally understood
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meaning of the word, although he has filled some minor local offices, such as every good citizen is expected to accept when duty demands. In addition to having served as the first clerk of the board of councilmen of Kearney, he has served as city clerk, treasurer, and city councilman, but has never been afflicted with the itch for office. The abundant opportunities offered for exercising all his talents has been improved in attending to his own personal affairs. He does not believe that he is the apostle of any great thought nor an agent especially commissioned to reform any great abuse. He has no desire to pose as an example of any great truth or exalted virtue. He is content to be a plain untitled citizen -- simply a man of affairs - business man in the strictest and best sense of the word. Yet it must not be supposed that his life has been, nor is it now, devoted exclusively to the selfish purpose of accumulating money. He has borne his full share of the burden of helping along all public enterprises; has contributed liberally from his pocket and has helped with his own hands when his help was needed, or he deemed that it would be of any avail, he is somewhat conservative and is not, therefore, an easy man to catch with visionary schemes, but whatever measure by the wisdom of its purpose or its fitness in time and place commends itself to his judgment receives his assistance. He believes in growth and development. He is a constructor and builder. He has added to the solid wealth of his town by putting his money in bricks and stone. He is one of the very few of the first settlers of Kearney who has grown with the growth of the town and county, - who has risen to a keen appreciation of the advantages of his surroundings - who has shown himself equal to the emergencies as they arise. Mr. St. John married, July 15, 1868, Miss Hattie E. Carter, of Rock county, Wis. He has a family of interesting children growing up around him, to whom he is much devoted, and in the training of whom he finds most congenial labor. He should be happy. He resides on the corner of Twenty-ninth street and Central avenue.
EDWARD W. THOMASis one of the oldest pioneers of Buffalo county. He was born at Brownsville, Maine, April 24, 1828, and is the third of seven children born to Jonah and Sarah (Wilkins) Thomas, as follows - Charlotte C., Artemus C, Edward W., Moses S., Bray W., Susan S. and Louisa. His father was a native of Maine, born at Sidney, March 26, 1796, and was by occupation a farmer; his mother was born in Billerica, Mass., December 25, 1794; his paternal grandfather, Schabed Thomas, a farmer by occupation, was born in 1756, and was a soldier and pensioner of the Revolutionary war. Of his paternal grandmother, Mehitable (Crosby) Thomas, little or nothing is known.
Edward W., the subject proper of this memoir, resided at home, in Maine, until twenty-one years of age, attending school, helping on the farm and working in the pineries. Arriving at his majority, and being the possessor of quite a little sun of money, he set out for himself, finally locating in Cabell county, Va., where he engaged in the timber business. He continued in this business for some three
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years, and lost $2,200, ,all the money he had. He moved his family to Greenup, Ky., and he secured employment on a flatboat, on the Ohio river, which he followed for twenty-five years, moving his family, in the meantime to Ironton. Ohio, and thence to Portsmouth, Scioto county, Ohio, where he enlisted in the three months' call, April 21, 1801. Mr. Thomas was one of the first to respond to his country's call when the rebellion broke out, enlisting in Company D, Twenty second regiment Ohio volunteer infantry, and was made second lieutenant, April 18, 1862. He was transferred to the Thirteenth Missouri regiment, in September, 1861, and sent to protect St. Louis. He continued with this regiment one year, participating in battles at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, siege of Corinth and Inka. He was then transferred to his former regiment, with which he participated in the battle of Corinth, siege of Vicksburg and the engagement at Little Rock, Ark. He was in command of his company at Iuka, and at both the siege and battle of Corinth. At the battle of Shiloh, a shot in the right leg inflicted a severe flesh wound; he also had five bullet-holes put through his blouse, and his gun-stock shot off in the same battle. While on picket duty at Trenton, Tenn., in the fall of 1862, he had two bullet-holes put through his overcoat. He veteranized in the Fifth United States volunteers, First army corp, and was mustered out of service March 25, 1866, having served his country faithfully for five years, lacking but a few days.
He emigrated West, and landed in Buffalo county, Nebr., October 18, 1873, and filed claim on a quarter-section in Divide township, on which he erected a frame shanty, twelve by twenty feet. In those days, that portion of the country was very sparsely settled, and wild game (deer, elk, antelope and some buffalo) was quite plentiful. There were a few Pawnee Indians along the Platte and Wood rivers. For the first three years, crops, on account of droughts and grasshoppers, were almost a total failure; but since 1877, with the exception of 1880, Mr. Thomas has had fine crops.
He was married in Cabell county, Va., February 9, 1851, to Eliza Smith, who was born at Newport, Ky., March 15,1838, and is the fourth of seven children born to Andrew and Mary Smith. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas has resulted in the birth of seven children, as follows - Charles T., born November 9, 1851; Mary S., born September 2, 1854; George E. born September 2, 1957; Ida L., born February 9, 1860; Emma, born June 3, 1867; R. Esworth, born November 2, 1869, and John W., born July 22, 1872. In political matters, Mr. Thomas is a republican.
JOHN HARSE is the oldest pioneer settler in Harrison township, Buffalo county, Nebr. He is a native of England and the date of his birth is October 17, 1852. His father lived and died in England and was a stock-raiser of considerable note. John Harse frequently had pictured to his youthful fancy glowing accounts of the new world, and he longed to visit the land of freedom and promise. Accordingly, at the age of
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twenty, he bade old England farewell and set sail for America, and early in the year of 1871 he landed on the shores of the Western continent. He was convinced on the start that the West was the place for him, and with this settled conviction in mind he made his way westward as far as Iowa, where he stopped for a short time, but in the spring of 1872 he turned up in Polk county, Nebr., where he followed farming and stock raising for six years. In the fall of 1879 he came still farther west and took a homestead on the Loup river near the northwest corner of Buffalo county. There was no settlement in this section at that time, and vast herd of cattle roamed at will over the country for miles around. Wild game was plenty and Pawnee Indians frequently tramped up and down the Loup river on their hunting expeditions. He built a small sod house, which afforded him protection for two years, when he replaced it with a substantial hewed-log house, tbere being excellent timber then along the sandy banks of the Loup. The country along the Loup river afforded excellent grazing, and ranches were numerous. The surrounding territory was literally covered with cattle and the semi annual "round-ups" were events of considerable interest.
He was married May 1, 188I, to Miss Abbie J. Cassel. daughter of Joseph W. and Mary (White) Cassel. She was born m Clayton county, Iowa, and came with her parents to Buffalo county, Nebr., in an early day. They have three children - James W., Ethel E., and Howard. Mr. Harse has a splendid farm containing four hundred and eighty acres, two hundred of which are under cultivation. He is now serving his second term as supervisor of Harrison township, is a stanch republican and one of the prominent and substantial men of Buffalo county.
MORRISON A. BENTLEY, one of the highly respected citizens of Buffalo county, was horn in Brown county, Ohio, October 6, 1831. His parents were natives of Ohio, and were married November l6, 1830. They had two children, Morrison A. and Martin C. The senior Bentley was a merchant at Georgetown, Ohio, in an early day, and went to Philadelphia and New York city by stage, once a year, to purchase goods, there being no railroads in those days. These long journeys by stage were made at a great risk of life and property. The route was through the Alleghany mountains, and passengers were often held up by robbers. Mr. Bentley sometimes returned from these long, perilous trips with his clothes perforated with bullet holes, and it was his custom always to arrange his business affairs before starting, just as though he never expected to return home alive. In 1846, he engaged in the manufacture of iron (pig metal) in Gallia and Madison counties, Ohio. In a short time he gained, by honesty, perseverance and energy, a competency sufficient to enable him to retire from active business. For nearly forty years he has resided in Portsmouth, Ohio, enjoying the reward of his youthful labors, living in comfort and affluence, esteemed by all who know him.
Morrison A. Bently, in the fall of 1849, entered Alleghany college, at Meadville,
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Pa., and was an industrious and deserving student, until failing health compelled him to relinquish the thought of graduating. He left college to accept the position of book-keeper for the firm of Bentley, Campbell & Co. Finding office work detrimental to his health he was given the position of general manager, which business required him much of his time to be in the open air. About this time, Mr. Bentley bought an interest in the iron works in which he was employed (his father retiring from active business) and the name of the firm (Bentley, Campbell & Co.) remained unchanged.
In 1862, he, with two other gentlemen, bought another iron furnace in Hocking county, Ohio, under the name of M. A. Bentley & Co., which he financiered successfully until after the close of the war, when again failing health and the protracted and almost fatal illness of his wife caused him to sell out his interests in Ohio and engage in agricultural pursuits in Iowa.
Morrison A. Bentley was married February 14,1856, to Elizabeth H. Davis, of Portsmouth, Ohio. She was born February 14,1837, and educated at the seminary in Steubenville, Ohio. She graduated from that school in 1854, when she was seventeen. The parents, James W. and Amanda Baldwin Davis, were born in Pittsburgh, Pa. Her father was for many years largely interested in the steamboat and iron business, and was one of the pioneers of Portsmouth, Ohio, where he lived many years, but subsequently became a resident of Des Moines, Iowa, where he died December 12, 1869. He was a man who commanded the respect of all who knew him.
Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bentley, all of whom are now living. Mr. Bentley has given his children every opportunity within his power to obtain a good education. His two eldest daughters are graduates from the high school and Callanan college, of Des Moines, Iowa. These young ladies came to Nebraska soon after graduating, and took advantage of Uncle Sam's offer to pre-empt homestead and timber claim land, teaching country schools "while holding down their claims." They have been successful both as teachers and land claimers, having grit enough to prove up both on pre-emption and homestead. Their brother, too, took claims and is now a prosperous farmer. It required a great deal of "grit, grace and gumption" for these three young people to hold on to their claims, as there were many hardships and discouragements in the way; but they held on and came off victors in the strife, and are peaceable, honest possessors of the land.
In the beginning of the late war, Mr. Bentley, then in his young manhood, offered his services to his country, but was rejected on account of physical disability. He, however, showed his great interest in the cause by hiring a man to go in his stead. Both he and his wife took an active part in promoting the welfare of "the soldier boys." He assisted the government in organizing troops in southern Ohio, and one company went out from his own works, commanded by his foreman. Regardless of his own interests, he did all in his power to encourage volunteers. He was one of many who suffered loss by Morgan's raid in that state. Mr. Bentley is a quiet, unassuming man, and during his residence in this county has won the
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respect of all who know him. Although no politician, he is a firm believer in the principles of the republican party. In 1881 Mr. Bentley moved to Beaver city, Nebr., but in a few months located on the banks of the Loup river, where the family possess about seventeen hundred acres of land. He was instrumental in organizing the first school district in the township, and aided in building the first schoolhouse. The country was then very sparsely settled, and the family realize very many changes since their settlement on the Loup.
ABRAM STEDWELL. This gentleman is an earlier settler of Buffalo county. He was born in Cuyahoga county, N. Y., September 25, 1826. His father, Abraham Stedwell, a wheelwright by occupation, was a native of Connecticut, born about 1781. His mother, Rebecca (Sheffield) Stedwell, was a native of New York state and was born about 1771. Abram, the subject of this biography, moved with his father's family, at the age of three years, to Huron county, Ohio, where he attended school until twelve years of age, when his father moved to Hancock county, Ill. Here he lived about ten years and then moved to Lee county, Iowa, where for two years he engaged in farming, after which he moved to Peoria, Ill., and worked at the carpenter trade. He resided in Peoria and Peoria county about six years, and then moved to Knox county, Ill., and a little later to Mason county, where he resided six years, and in 1860 moved to Henry county, Iowa, where for fifteen years he engaged in farming. He enlisted February 28, 1862, in Company C, Fourth Iowa cavalry, but, before active service was reached, contracted lung fever and was left March 10, 1862, in the hospital at Rolla, Mo., where he was confined until January 1, 1863, when he reported to his regiment, but, being still unable for duty, was sent to the hospital at Helena, Ark., where he remained until July, 1863, when he was transferred to the Marine hospital at St. Louls, Mo. He reported to his regiment in the rear of Vicksburg, in November, 1863, at which place he re-enlisted. He was in active service from that time till the close of the war, with General Sherman in what is known as his Meridian Raid. With Grierson, from Memphis to Vicksburg, and with Wilson in his last raid through Alabama and Georgia. He was discharged August 25, 1865, at Davenport, Iowa. He emigrated west in the spring of 1875 and stopped in Gage county, Nebr., where he put out crops which were nearly all destroyed by the grasshoppers. In November of the same year he came to Buffalo county and the next spring pre-empted the northwest quarter of section 12, township 10, range 16, which he afterwards entered as a homestead and still owns. When he landed here his entire worldly possessions consisted of $90 in money, one span of small mules, a wagon, one cow, and a dwarf mule. He spent $15 of his money in fixing up a house in which to spend the winter, and the following spring borrowed seven bushels of wheat, which he sowed. The drought and grasshoppers proved so ruinous that year that he harvested only three bushels of wheat from the seven which he had sown in the spring. His family was reduced to such straightened
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circumstances that his wife took in washing, and with the money thus earned purchased potatoes at five cents per bushel, while he hauled wood from government lands on the Loup river to Kearney, which required two days' time for each load, and received from $2 to $5 per load for his wood. In this manner they managed to live. He rented a set of blacksmith's tools from a neighbor, giving him one half of the earnings, and at odd intervals managed to make something at this employment, and finally, when the neighbor, scared out by the grasshoppers, traded his wagon for the tools, and ran the shop for twelve years in connection with the farm. After that year he raised good crops, and in February, 1889, moved into Kearney, where he built three houses and has considerable property, He was married March 8, 1853, to Sarah M. Holmes, daughter of Henry G. and Keturah (Yaw) Holmes, both natives of New York state; the former, a farmer by occupation, was born July 16, 1806; the latter was born November 2, 1804. Her father, Henry G. Holmes, went to California in 1849 and on his return trip was registered for passage on a steamboat, but was never heard from afterwards. It is supposed that the steamer was wrecked and he perished. Mr. and Mrs. Sledwell have had no children but have raised several. They are both active members of the Christian church, and politically Mr. Stedwell is Independent. He was elected, in the fall of 1882, by the Farmer's alliance of the county, as representative in the state legislature and served one term of two years in that capacity. He has held various other minor offices, such as justice of the peace which office he held eight years, town clerk and assessor.
Photo of D. B. Clark DAVID B. CLARK, a son of Thomas L. and Mary (Blakely) Clark, is a native of Kortright, Delaware county, N. Y., and a descendant of old York State ancestors. His father was a plain, industrious, useful citizen, a man of quiet habits and domestic tastes, a lifelong member of the United Presbyterian church, and not only a stanch defender of the faith but a great worker in the cause of christianity, possessing the the (sic) most benevolent impulses and kindly feeling towards all his race. Mr. Clark's mother was also a devoted christian and led an active and laborious life, devoting all the energies of her noble christian character to the good of her kind. Both of these are now dead and have gone to receive their reward. They were the parents of seven children, viz. - David B., Margery, Mary E., Thomas H., John N., and Margaret J.
The eldest, the subject of this notice, was reared in his native place in New York, received a good common and high school training, finishing with a commercial course in the Eastman business college at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. after which he engaged in the earnest duties of a teacher. He entered the Union army in 1864 while yet young, enlisting in Company I, One Hundred and Forty-fourth New York infantry, and served along the South Carolina coast, taking part in the battle at St. John's Island, James Island, siege of Wagner, Deveaux Neck, and Honey hill. He left the service before the expiration of his term of enlistment on account of disease contracted and returned home, and after recovering his health came West in 1867 and located at Omaha, this state. He
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taught penmanship there for some time, coming in 1872 to Kearney. Here he took a position as bookkeeper in Dake's bank at that date, which he held for some time. He was also elected police judge of the town of Kearney and justice of the peace for Kearney precinct, which offices be held during the famous cow-boy times and dealt out even-handed justice.
Mr. Clark's life during those years was not without its interesting episodes nor was it always free from danger. He discharged his duties, however, without fear or favor and left the positions to which he had been called bearing with him the highest respect as well as the genuine gratitude of his fellow-citizens. Engaging later in sign writing and artistic painting, he did a thriving business for some years the rapid improvement of the town and the erection of many buildings affording him plenty of work. Like a prudent man he saved his earnings and judiciously invested them in real estate in Kearney. The rise in values made his investments profitable and he has realized handsomely on all of them. He has large real estate interests in Kearney even now, and is constantly buying and selling. Much of his property he has improved, adding to the substantial growth and development of his adopted town and to the comfort and conveniences of home seekers.
In 1874 he married Miss Mary J. Rowland, daughter of James S. and Margaret Rowland of New York. Mrs. Clark is a sister of the Rev. Samuel Rowland, a distinguished Presbyterian divine of Clinton, N.J. Mrs. Clark is herself a lady of culture and refinement and presides with becoming ease, grace and dignity over her elegant home. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have a large circle of friends who find an ever welcome place at their fireside and in whose society they find much of the pleasure of this life. Their pleasant dwelling, erected recently at a cost of $6,000, is one of the handsomest in the city of Kearney. It is splendidly furnished, complete in its appointments, and adorned with tastily wrought work of art. It is an asylum of happiness, where the stranger and friend are alike welcome.
L. B. CUNNINGHAM. The father of the subject of this sketch was Samuel J. Cunningham, born in Virginia December 5, 1792, and his father a native of the same state, his name also being Samuel. Samuel Cunningham, Sr., removed to Georgia in 1795, thence to Maury county, Tenn. (about 1820) where he died some years later. Samuel J. was married to Miss Dovey Stinson, a native of North Carolina, September 20, 1827. Eleven children were the fruits of this union, five daughters and six sons. The mother died December 19, 1849, and with two daughters and one son are buried upon the old farm near Cornersville, Tenn.
The subject of this sketch, whose full name in (sic) Lyman Beecher Cunningham, named for Dr. Lyman Beecher, was born in Giles county, Tenn., September 3, 1844. In April, 1853, his father removed to West Grove, Davis county, Iowa where he died in July, 1879, in his eighty sixth year. The father was a successful farmer and miller, and also mastered several
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trades, among which were those of black-smithing and cabinet or furniture-making. The family now have articles of furniture made by him sixty years ago. He was a Presbyterian in religion, having been an elder in the church from early manhood till death. In politics he was a whig and republican.
Lyman B. followed the usual duties of a farmer boy in summer and attended school in winter until December 25, 1863, when he enlisted in Company A., Third Iowa cavalry, to serve in defense of the Union and against those of his native South arrayed for its destruction. He was anti slavery and in favor of his native state remaining in the Union. He participated in the various battles in which his regiment was engaged, a regiment second to none for gallantry, and served with credit to himself and country until mustered out at Atlanta, Ga., August 9, 1865; he was discharged August 19th at Davenport, Iowa, reaching home August 21st. He lost two brothers in defense of the Union, Cyrenius T. and Orosius A., the former a member or Company A, Third Iowa cavalry, who received a wound in the neck at the battle of Pea Ridge, Ark., in March, 1869, which caused his death February 7, 1866, and the latter a member of Company B, Thirtieth Iowa infantry, who died of sickness at Memphis, Tenn., October 22, 1863.
Our subject entered school at the Wesleyan University at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, in the spring of 1866, graduating from that institution in June, 1870. He taught school one year at West Grove, Iowa, and one year at Unionville, Iowa, and in August, 1872, removed to the new village of Kearney Junction - now Kearney, Nebr. - where he, in connection with Mandel & Clapp, began the publication of the Kearney Junction Times. This paper is now developed into the Buffalo county Journal and the Kearney Daily Journal, of which Mr. Cunningham was sole proprietor until a stock company was organized June 15. 1890. He also took a soldier's homestead and has improved this and also another farm in the vicinity of Kearney. He took an active part in the upbuilding of Kearney, being ever alive to its interests and ever working for its advancement. He was a charter member of the Presbyterian church in which he is still active. His paper is known as a stanch advocate of republican principles, temperance and sobriety good morals, decency and justice, and is ever known as a clean sheet to enter the family circle. It is independent and fearless and a bitter opposer of anything akin to deception, fraud, folly and pretension. Wherever read it is known as a reliable newspaper, the farmers having long since learned to obtain the facts, as well as could be ascertained, from that journal. Although it is uphill business conducting a newspaper in a new country, yet by economy and frugality, and by the aid of his excellent wife, he has been enabled to accumulate property to the amount of several thousand dollars. September 3, 1874, he was married to Miss Mary E. Clapp, a lady of excellent qualities of mind and heart, a graduate of the Ladies' Seminary of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and a daughter of William D. and Elizabeth Clapp, natives of North Carolina and Indiana, the daughter having been born to them November 1, 1851. Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham have been blessed with but three children - Carl Shannon, born in
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