279
BIOGRAPHICAL SOUVENIR OF BUFFALO COUNTY 1875, became a bright, loving dutiful boy, who died April 7 1884, bitterly mourned by broken-hearted parents and a large circle of friends; Ralph Elmo was born July 1, 1887, is still living, and is a bright, promising child, full of life and energy; and third, a daughter, born July 29, 1890, who is named Lois Be, a healthy and apparently promising child. Mr. Cunningham has truly had a helpmeet in his estimable wife, who is noted for her energy, economy, tact, skill and christian integrity. The couple are highly esteemed and respected in their community.
HIRAM HULL. The subject of this sketch is one of the oldest and most highly esteemed citizens of Kearney, Buffalo county, and a man who has a history, ancestral and personal, well worthy of preservation in a memorial record like this.
Mr. Hull's stock is of English origin, his ancestors having removed from England to New England some time in the Seventeenth Century, and among the early colonial settlers, were people of honorable distinction in church, state and military matters, as well as in framing the great fundamental laws for the republic when it was in its infancy.
His father, Joel Hull, was born near Boston, Mass., and near the birth-place of our American independence, in 1776. He grew up in his native place, and, after receiving a collegiate education, began life as a merchant and afterwards moved into New York State, where he spent several years, and in the year 1816 moved into the State of Ohio, settling in Meigs county, where he entered upon the peaceful pursuit of agriculture and died in 1827. His wife was Mary Wallace, a native of the town of Bennington, Vt., was born in 1779, and died in Adams county, Ill., in 1859. She was a devoted member of the Free Will Baptist church, a strong believer in saving faith, and led a life consistent with her belief.
The subject of this sketch is the youngest of a family of ten children born to Joel and Mary (Wallace) Hull. He was born in Utica, N.Y., September 30, 1812. He was reared in Meigs county, Ohio, whither his parents had moved when he was young, and there spent his life until the year 1852. He began the active pursuits of life as a farmer, but in the year 1831 moved from his farm to the town of Chester, Ohio, and there engaged in the several ocupations of merchandising, tanning and building boats - active, enterprising and successful in everything he undertook.
In 1852, for the better advantages of educating his children he moved to Delaware, Ohio, where he was enabled to graduate his two sons and three daughters in the Ohio Wesleyan University and the Female College there located; and there resided until the year 1872, when he removed to the State of Nebraska.
He stopped at Lincoln a few months, then settled at Lowell, in Kearney county on the thirtieth of June, 1872, where he resided for two years and then moved to the city of Kearney, where he has continuously resided since September, 1874. He entered into the mercantile business exten-
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sively at Lowell, and continued in that pursuit the first two years after arriving at Kearney, when he closed the business and soon after commenced the real estate and brokerage business, at which he has been more or less actively engaged since.
Mr. Hull has made a wise use of his opportunities, investing considerably in real estate at an early day in Kearney, on which he has realized handsomely. He has never been a speculator, being content with the returns brought him by the gradual rise in values incident to the settling up and improvement of the town surrounding country, and he has been willing to help, and has helped, in bringing about this state of improvement, lending his aid and influence towards inducing immigration, and giving cheerfully of his means to those enterprises of a public nature which have sought favor in his community. Mr. Hull married November 10, 1830; the lady whom he chose to share his life's fortunes being Miss Luna Bosworth of Meigs county, Ohio. Mrs. Hull was born May 30, 1812, at Whitehall, N. Y., and is a daughter of Hezekiah and Huldah (Pearce) Bosworth.
Her father was a native of England and her mother of New York State. Her father died in Meigs county, Ohio, February 23. 1859 aged eighty-nine years. His occupations of life were teaching school and farming, and throughout was a man of quiet tastes, studious habits, and exceptionally temperate and systematic in all things.
Her mother died in the same county February 23, 1863, aged eighty eight years, a pious, good woman, she and her husband having been almost life-long members of the church, having services of the pioneer Methodist preachers in their own house many years after they settled in Ohio.
Mrs. Hull's ancestors all lived to remarkable ages: her grandfather Pearce dying in his seventy-ninth year, her grandmother at one hundred and four, and her maternal great-grandfather in his one hundred and sixteenth year.
Mr. and Mrs. Hull have had born to them a family of ten children, of whom there are now living five - Joel, the eldest, born November 23, 1831, a sketch of whom appears in this volume as one of the representative men of Minden, Kearney county; Wyman, born March 27, 1835; Catharine (now wife of Wm. K. Goddard, residing in Dane county, Wis.), born January 8, 1837; Helen, born May 27, 1840, now wife of Wm. L. Kidd, of Oakland, California; and Marinda, born March 2, 1842, now wife of S. W. Switzer, of San Diego, California.
Mr. and Mrs. Hull have been zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church for many years, having united in 1831, and ever since have been active and efficient workers in that church and all its benevolent associations.
Mr. Hull never aspired to political honors, but has taken a keen interest in general politics and is a man of wide range of information on political and historical topics. In early life he was an old line whig and a stanch supporter of the doctrines of that party Upon the formation of the republican party he became one of its organizers and has steadfastly adhered to the platform adopted by its founders - Protection - Loyalty - and Liberty. He voted for the elder General Harrison -the hero of Tippecanoe - and also
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for the younger Harrison, the present chief executive. Mr. and Mrs. Hull have ever been strict temperance people and have always been active workers in the cause of temperance. Mrs. Hull joined the Good Templars nearly forty years ago and has constantly been found in the front in all the efforts made for the deliverance of her community in which she resided from the curse of rum; associating herself for that purpose with several orders and societies. She is, and has been since its formation, a hearty worker in the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
Though, for several years in feeble health and almost an invalid, she has never failed when called upon to aid any and all endeavors for the salvation of souls from sin and from intemperance to the utmost of her ablity, and many there are to rise up and call her blessed. ú
LYMAN M. BRIGHAM. Among those who came to Buffalo county in the early "seventies" and passed through the historic hard times, and who has since accumulated, slowly and honorably, an ample fortune, thus crowning a youth of labor with an age of ease, may be mentioned Lyman M. Brigham, the subject of this biographical memoir. He is a native of New York, having been born in Wyoming county, that state, December 27, 1832. His father, Jabez Brigham, a farmer by occupation, was a native of Massachusetts. His mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Hart, was also a native of Massachusetts. These were the parents of nine children, of whom the subject of this notice is the youngest. Lyman M. Brigham, in his earlier days, attended the district schools, helped his mother on the farm and entered upon an apprenticeship at the blacksmith trade at the age of seventeen years. He adopted blacksmithing as a pursuit and followed it for twenty years. He started West in the summer of 1874 and got as far as Omaha, when he ran out of money. Being a man of indomitable will, his plans were not to be frustrated by this, and he and his son walked the remainder of the way to Kearney, for which place he had started, a distance of two hundred miles. He took a homestead on the old Fort Kearney military reservation, there located and began farming with a yoke of four-year old oxen, at the same time opening a blacksmith shop in Kearney, riding back and forth daily from his claim to town. The first year he broke out thirty acres of sod and put it in corn, and also rented sixty acres of old ground, which he planted to corn, wheat and oats. That year the drouth (sic) and grasshoppers destroyed his entire crop except twenty-seven bushels of potatoes, which be raised on two town lots. He was forced to boil grass for his two remaining pigs, while he "hustled up" something to keep soul and body together for himself as best he could. This year's experience served to nerve him for the contest the following year. He had a brother living in Polk county, this state, from whom he had arranged to borrow his next year's seed wheat and corn. His stock in store at this time consisted of his yoke of oxen, a lumber wagon and twenty-five cents in money. Giving his wife ten cents of the money with which
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to supply the family's wants, and taking the other fifteen cents, he started with his team for Polk county, a distance of one hundred miles. When below Grand Island, and about half way on his journey, he ran out of hay, but secured some from a farmer who, on learning that he had only fifteen cents, refused to accept pay. He completed his journey in five days, sleeping in haystacks over nights. But worse trials awaited him. On his way back his wagon broke down. There were no shops at hand, and he had nothing to pay for the mending of it if there had been. Still, he was equal to the occasion. He was near the Union Pacific railroad, and as soon as night came on he "borrowed" a tie from the road, and with the aid of a farmer's ax he hewed out an axle, fixed up the wreck, and started once more on his homeward journey. He got back after an absence of nearly two weeks, and with renewed energy and determination began again to settle the bread and butter problem in the uncertain state of agriculture at that date in Nebraska. Many were the hardships and privations which he underwent; but, like most of the old settlers who stood steadfastly by their choice, he at last succeeded, and today he is one of the well-fixed farmers in Buffalo county. He owns eight hundred acres of valuable land in the county, and a large amount of property in the city of Kearney. It all represents his own toil, pluck and endurance. In 1877, Mr. Brigham raised and marketed seventeen thousand bushels of grain. This will give an idea of the rapidity of his growth as a farmer. In March, 1888, he left his farm and moved into Kearney, where he now resides.
It must not be supposed that Mr. Brigham has made his way to the position of comfort and ease that he now occupies unaided and alone. He has been materially assisted in his labors by a most excellent wife. He married, January 13, 1853, the lady whom he selected for a life companion being Miss Catherine Brigham, a daughter of Henry and Sarah (Eggleston) Brigham, both natives of Massachusetts, the father having been born in the year 1800 and the mother in 1804. Mrs. Brigham is the third of a family of six children born to her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Brigham have had born to them a family of four children, three girls and one boy, as follows - Emery (now deceased), born October 11, 1854; Luella (now also deceased), born March 7, 1858; Ferado, born April 7, 1860, and Pearl, born August 13, 1870.
AMOS H. EDWARDS was born in Mt. Holly, Rutland county, Vt., January 29, 1817, and is a son of Frederick Augustus and Polly (Barker) Edwards.
Frederick Augustus Edwards was born in Temple, N. H., July 27, 1791, married in 1814 and emigrated to Mt. Holly, Vt., where he engaged first in teaching, afterwards in farming, and then in cabinet making - following these several pursuits through life. He died in Chester, Vt., in 1842. He was a zealous member of, and deacon in, the Baptist church till his death. He took a decided interest in his church, was prominent in religious affairs throughout his state, and was a
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man of the most benevolent impulses and spent most of his time administering to the wants of the sick and afflicted. Mr. Edwards' paternal grandfather was Ebenezer Edwards, a native of England, who immigrated to America in early life. He engaged in the mercantile business at Temple, N. H., and amassed considerable wealth, which, however, he lost through the mismanagement of others, principally by the failure of the Amherst bank, in which he had deposited $50,000. He died about the year 1825. Mr. Edwards' mother, Polly Barker, born January 4. 1793, was also a native of Temple, N. H., and was a daughter of Theodore Barker.
Amos H. Edwards began life for himself about the age of eighteen, his father giving him his time at that date. He attended the common schools in his youth, but in the fall of 1835, he attended Black River academy at Ludlow, Vt. He began teaching in the fall of 1835, teaching his first school at Mt. Holly, Vt., in the very building where his father had taught his first school many years before. In the spring of 1836 he attended an academy at Chester, Vt., where he received the principal part of his education. He has taught school every year since, except one, till 1890, having taught in all one hundred and thirty-five terms. He emigrated from Vermont in the spring of 1838 to Pennsylvania and taught school there one year. He then went to Ohio where he taught several years, in the meantime teaching several terms in Kentucky, and moving later to Wisconsin, in 1850, where he taught for twenty-five years. He came to Buffalo county, this state, in the spring of 1876, and located on a farm six and a half miles northeast of Kearney, where he lived until January, 1888, moving into the city of Kearney at that time. He has been steadily engaged in teaching since coming to Buffalo county and he is well and favorably known in many localities throughout the county as an able instructor. He has belonged to several secret societies in his life, among them a number of temperance organizations. He is a man of warm nature and the most generous impulses, and he has devoted the greater part of a long life to the good of his fellow-man. He is always punctual to the minute and desires strict punctuality in others. His organ of philoprogenitiveness is very fully developed.
Mr. Edwards married, August 1, 1843, Miss Eliza C. Grant, of Greenfield, N. H. She is a daughter of John and Sallie (Taylor) Grant. Her father, John Grant, was born in Greenfield, N. H., and was a farmer by occupation, an upright, industrious and useful citizen. He was a life-long member of the Presbyterian church, and died in the faith by which he had lived, passing away in 1852. His wife was a native of the same state, a member of the same church, and died in 1882.
To Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have been born a family of eight children, as follows - Altaire H. born August 7, 1844 (died in the Union army during the late war); Charles P., born January 23, 1847; Alphonso C., born June 10, 1851; Ella C., born March 25, 1853; Eo R., born July 23, 1855; Eddie S., born October 29 1856; Bert E., born February 18, 1860, and Ivers C., born April 25, 1863.
Mr. Edwards, in addition to the positions he has held in connection with his school work, has also held a number of
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local offices, such as any good citizen might be expected to fill when called on for that purpose. In politics he is a prohibitionist, and an able exponent of the principles of his party. He has been a contributor to a number of journals on the subject of prohibition, and his writings under the nom de plume of Charles Chester, are widely read and highly appreciated and unquestionably have done much good for the cause of temperance. He has also written a great deal of poetry, and some of his contributions to the press have become very popular. He is the author of the longest poem ever written by an American, which is entitled "The Great Rebellion."
Mr. Edwards is a pleasant, genial gentleman, a finished scholar and a man of sound heart. He makes a lasting impression even on casual acquaintances, and those who meet him which that there were more men in the world like him.
C. G. OSTERHEIL (deceased) was born February 28, 1814, and reared in the town of Zittau, Saxony, and is a descendant of German parentage. He was educated in the best schools of his native country, and began life as a teacher, becoming a director of learning in the Royal school at Crimea, Russia. In 1862 he emigrated to the United States, and settled in Lafayette county, Mo. Having previously prepared himself for the ministry, and having done considerable church work, he went actively to preaching on locating in Missouri, and continued at it there for a period of five years, moving, in 1867, to Des Moines, Iowa. There he engaged in the drug business. Three years later he lost all he had by tire, and, moving to Omaha, he became a teacher of languages, giving instructions especially in his native tongue. He also practiced medicine among his countrymen. He moved to Buffalo county, this state, in 1871, and took a homestead, locating on it and retiring at that date from all active pursuits. May 20, l888, he died, well advanced in years, after an active, industrious and useful life. He was a lifelong member of the Lutheran church, and a man of very charitable impulses. His wife, E. L. Osterheil, who survived him, is a native of Switzerland, and was born June 11, 1837. She received a thorough collegiate training when young, finishing with a special course in French, the teaching of which she adopted as a profession. She began teaching in her native country, but a few years later, 1865, came to America, accepting a position as private teacher in her brother's family in Chicago. She filled this position till 1867, marrying April 2, that year. Joining her life's fortunes with Carl Gotthelf Osterheil, she bore him the cherished companionship which he sought with her hand, accompanying him to the place of his last residence in Buffalo county, this state, she being now a resident of the city of Kearney. She is a lady of many excellent qualities of head and heart. She has only one child, a daughter, Olga Alexaandria, now grown and married.
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Photo of R. H. Eaton RICE H. EATON. The personal history of most men partakes of a sameness, but the biographer finds an inspiration in the story, simple and true, of some lives, and the narrative charms the reader. Such a career is the embodiment of higher and nobler principles of human nature, a life ideal because unique, an existence whose individuality is blended and lost in a natural effort to live and die without hope of reward or fear of punishment - a life of supreme unselfishness.
Mr. Eaton was born in Rochester, N. Y., December 8, 1838, and received a common and high-school education. His parents were Joel and Sarah (Sibley) Eaton, the former a native of Vermont, and the latter of Massachusetts. By profession and training he is a printer and journalist, having begun at the "case" and working himself up. While yet very young he served an apprenticeship in the book and job office of William Hughes, of Rochester, and having learned all the arts of his trade, "stick" in hand, he began that nomadic life for which devotees of the "black art" are famous. But travel to his keen, observant mind was more than mere pastime. An experience and knowledge thus acquired have served him to a good purpose in a profession upon which his labors have reflected honor and credit. The greater part of his early professional life was spent in the South, where his opportunities of studying the slave question were the best and most satisfactory, but his observation was terminated by the firing upon Ft. Sumter. Finding himself in a country the inhabitants of which held opinions on the momentous issue of the hour diametrically and uncomfortably opposed to his own, he quietly returned to his native state to take up arms in defense of his flag. He enlisted in June. 1862, in the Sixth company of the First New York sharp shooters, and served in the army of the Potomac. He saw considerable service, participating in the battles of Gettysburg, Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania and the assault on Petersburg, where he was wounded in the left leg, necessitating his discharge from the service in 1864, when he returned to Rochester. He resumed his trade, working on the daily papers of his native city a short time, when he emigrated to Iowa, where he and his brother, Webster Eaton, started the Fremont Tribune, a weekly paper. They sold the paper, however, and removed to Shelby county, Iowa, where he founded the Shelby County Record, which he published about one year, when his wife died. Soon after this sad event be returned to Rochester, N. Y., working on the Democrat and Chronical till May, 1873, when again he set his face westward, locating at Kearney, Nebr., where his brother, Webster Eaton had established the Central Nebraska Press, the first paper printed and published in Kearney. He had editorial charge and the general management of the Press till he sold it to W. C. Holden in 1879 to accept a position in the United States railway mail service, which he held till 1883, when he retired. Moving to his farm four miles east of Kearney he spent five years of a hitherto active life in the peaceful quiet of a granger. His previous experience had not to a remarkable degree fitted him for the vocation of a farmer and his career as such was accordingly not a successful one. He afterwards declared that if the
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cost of production is the standard of value of an article, he produced a very high grade of farm products. Nature and education had done nothing in fitting him for farm life, so in the fall of 1888 he resumed his profession. With Mr. M. A. Brown and others he organized the Hub Printing Company, of which he is the president, and in 1889 was appointed postmaster at Kearney.
The marriage of Mr. Eaton took place in September, 1864, to Miss Matilda Aiten, who was also a native of Rochester, N. Y. She died in Harlan, Iowa, in February, 1871, leaving a son Joel, the fruit of this short but happy union. Mr. Eaton was next married, in the fall of 1872, to Miss Jane McMillen, a native of Canada.
Mr. Eaton is a hard student, and the well-used volumes of his library are the companions of his leisure moments. He is possessed of a very fine memory, and a cursory glance at the page is all that is necessary to reveal to him its contents. He is a student of "index learning," but the grasp of a fine mind furnishes the details. Fond of the writings of the best English novelists of the early days he keeps posted not only in them, but also on current literature. His literary tastes, personal experiences and the originality of a mature intellect, have made him a ready, versatile, apt writer. As a journalist he occupies a front rank. A clear, logical reasoner, concise writer and satirist, his retirement from the field of journalism is to be regretted. He looks upon the bright side of life and was the pioneer journalist of the mid-West to give this spirit a living expression. The graver matter of life he tempered with the sunshine of the tender, but humorous disposition, and the same spirit that has made his writings so popular he displays in his private life.
Loyal to his friends, uncompromising toward his foes, he is a man at once beloved and disliked. But his sword is sheathed in the presence of a fallen enemy. The poor and oppressed are his friends because he is theirs. The earnings of a long and busy life have gone to alleviate the sufferings and wants of his less fortunate fellow-men. His big hearted generosity is not confined to the extent of his purse, for he practices a broader charity than mere giving. Sympathy and liberality of thought, charity for the opinion of others, are admirable characteristics of the man. In religion no dogmas or creeds confine or obscure his unselfish acts. He devotes his means and opportunities toward making the world better for living in it. In public life he is liberal and enterprising; in private he is devoted to his family, loyal to his friends, doing all the good he can.
WILLIAM ELLSWORTH SMYTHE was born in Worcester, Mass., December 24, 1861. His family, on both sides, had resided in New England from the time of its earliest settlement, his first American ancestor being Edward Winslow, one of the "Mayflower's" passengers and an early governor of Plymouth Colony. Another ancestor, Thomas Starr, was a leader of the famous "Boston Tea Party," who first resented the tyranny of Great Britain. His paternal grandfather rendered notable service in the navy during the war of 1812.
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The father of William E. Smythe, a man widely known throughout New England as a successful manufacturer and a prominent figure in the religious and political movements of his time, selected journalism as the profession for his son before he had finished his course in the grammar school of Worcester. Consulting his friend, the late Delano A. Goddard - the memorable editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser - he was advised not to send the boy to college, but to "put his nose to the grindstone"; get him a place as 'devil' in a country printing office; hand him a copy of James Parton's 'Life of Horace Greeley'; tell him to study politics and American history, and if he has the making of an editor that course will develop it." The father's plan had been a course at Harvard, but he followed the advice of the great Boston journalist. The boy became "devil" in the office of the Southbridge, Mass., Journal, worked at all sorts of hard labor from daylight to dark, read history and biography half the night, wrote Southbridge letters for the Worcester Gazette, Worcester letters for the Southbridge Journal, and filled in spare moments by reporting sermons and dog fights, weddings and funerals, for the county weekly on which he was employed, all for the munificent stipend of $2.50 per week. At the end of his first year's apprenticeship he was the proud wearer of the title, "assistant editor of the Southbridge Journal." At the suggestion of Mr. Goddard he was appointed local reporter for the Morning Gazette of Haverhill, Mass. At the age of seventeen he was made its night editor. After two years' of night work his health gave way, and he became editor of the Medford, Mass., Mercury. At that time he enjoyed the distinction of being the youngest professional editor in Massachusetts. He was then nineteen. At twenty-one he was the editor of the Lynn Saturday Union. In the same year he delivered the Memorial day oration at Swampscott, Mass., and appeared as a republican stump speaker in the Butler-Robinson campaign. In the same year also he became editor of the Brockton Daily Gazette and staff correspondent of the Boston Herald. Later he gave his whole time to the Herald, handling its Old Colony district and its political news columns.
It was at this time that Mr. Smythe made the mistake of abandoning what he could do well to attempt what other men could do better. Without capital or financial backing, he entered upon the business of book-publishing. His first venture was an elaborate subscription book, "A History of the Labor Movement," edited by Geo. E. McNeill, and containing contributions by many eminent economists and labor leaders. It received wide attention, and had a sale of over ten thousand copies, but the profits did not equal the large cost of its publication and sale. Still persistent, the young publisher engaged Senator Henry W. Blair, of New Hampshire, to write "A History of the Temperance Movement." About the same time be also brought out a novel, "Uncle Tom's Tenement" by Alice Wellington Rollins; also, "The Statician at Work." by Chas. F. Pidgin, and had several other works in hand. From first to last the business was an unequal straggle, in which ambitious energy ran a race against financial obligation. The end was failure, and on a day in October, 1888, William E. Smythe
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faced his creditors and told them he could maintain the struggle no longer. He went through insolvency, received his discharge and came West to begin again.
The people of Kearney had raised a subsidy, in cash and lots, for a daily newspaper which should contain the Associated Press dispatches and be a paper of some metropolitan pretension. H. D. Watson accepted the subsidy and appointed William E. Smythe to edit the paper. With him were associated Will Hall Poore and Charles S. Brainard, who had served with him on the staff of the Boston Globe and Herald. The Kearney Enterprise was from its very first issue a notable newspaper. It soon took rank among the leading newspapers of the West, and has always been widely quoted throughout the country its an exponent of Western opinion. The humor of "G. O. West" (Mr. Poore) ran through the press of this and foreign countries side by side with that of the Detroit Free Press, Terre Haute Express and other newspapers with well-known funny columns. The Enterprise has also become a factor in politics, and ranks in that respect next to the Omaha and Lincoln dailies. Mr. Smythe became owner of the Enterprise June 24, 1889, having L. R. Britton and W. H. Poore associated with him as partners. They sold the plant and property to the Kearney Enterprise Company in July, 1890.
Mr. Smythe has recently accepted the position of chief editor, under M. Rosewater, of the Omaha Bee, and assumes the duties of the new position on October 1, 1890. This is, perhaps, the most influential position that Western journalism has to offer, and his friends predict for him a career of usefulness and distinction.
PATRICK WALSH. It is impossible to write of the early settlement of Buffalo county without making frequent and prominent mention of the name of Patrick Walsh. The name is thoroughly familiar to all of the older settlers of the county and the public records of an earlier date display it upon almost every page. Broadly speaking, Mr. Walsh's public record constitutes the first chapters of the county's history, since the county had but little history during the first years of its existence as a county organization outside of what he made for it or was largely instrumental in making. Mr. Walsh is an ex-soldier of the United States army, and to his connection with the army is probably due the fact that he became a citizen of Nebraska and a pioneer settler of Buffalo county. This article may begin, therefore, with the statement that Patrick Walsh, father of the town of Shelton and the man who bore the chief part in organizing Buffalo county, first set foot on Nebraska soil in the spring of 1864, coming hither as a member of Company D. Fifth United States volunteer infantry. He enlisted in the service in March, 1864, near Alton, Ill;, and after a short stay at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., was ordered with his company as part of a military escort to guard an overland train from Niobrara, Nebr., to Virginia City, Mont., the purpose of which expedition was to establish a feasible route between these two points to accommodate the large immigration then making towards the great Northwest. The prospect being abandoned on account of its impracticability, the expedition broke up on the Powder river in southeast Montana, and Mr. Walsh's company
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