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BIOGRAPHICAL SOUVENIR OF BUFFALO COUNTY Leonard P. Woodworth is the fourth of eleven children - Julia, Mary, Sarah, L. P., Rosanna, Levi, William, Cornelia, Susan, an infant that died unnamed, and Carrie.
The Doctor educated himself, and has done for himself since he was twelve years old. He attended Delton academy at Delton, Wis., and began reading medicine, in 1860, with Dr. G. W. Jenkins, but at the first call to arms entered the Union army in 1861, entering Company E, Twelfth Wisconsin infantry, as a private. He was immediately detailed as a hospital steward, and served as such for three years. He first went to Weston. Mo., and then to Kansas City, Mo., having been ordered to New Mexico but got only as far as Fort Riley, Kas., when he was ordered back to Columbus, Ky. He was in the Kentucky and Tennessee campaigns of that date, then the Vicksburg campaign, then the Meridian campaign, and afterwards on the "March to the Sea." Later he was commissioned second lieutenant of the regular army, on duty with the Sixty-fourth colored infantry, and was president of the commission appointed to investigate the claim of Joe Davis for damages for property destroyed; and still later was provost marshal of the district of Yazoo, and located at Yazoo, Miss. He remained at Yazoo till March 13, 1866, and was then mustered out. Returned to Wisconsin, he opened a drug store at Necedah, Juneau county, where he also practiced medicine for two years. He then attended lectures at the Rush Medical college at Chicago, from which he graduated in 1870, taking a special course on diseases of the eye and ear. Returning to Necedah he resumed practice and the drug business and continued at these till 1880, when he went to Milford, Ill., and engaged in the practice of medicine, in that place, in connection with Dr. J. C. Rickey, remaining there till 1883, when he came to Kearney, where he has since resided. He practiced alone after locating in Kearney, till 1887, when he admitted Dr. B. F. Jones to a partnership, the firm becoming Woodworth & Jones, and so continuing.
Dr. Woodworth owns about sixteen hundred acres or land in Buffalo county, has farming carried on extensively, and owns a number of fine horses and fine cattle - some thoroughbreds.
Dr. Woodworth, while still in the army and while at home on a brief furlough, was married January 5, 1865, to Miss Maggie A. Darling, but the honey-moon lasted only two short weeks when the groom, in obedience to the stern demands of military discipline, returned to the front to resume his duties in behalf of this struggling country, while the bride betook herself again to the class-room to prosecute with undiminished faithfulness and vigor her dally labor of love and kindness. They were re-united after four months, and since have borne each other the cherished companionship which they sought with each other's hand, and have realized in a large measure the fervent hopes and happy expectations promised them as the full fruition of their wedded life. Mrs. Woodworth is a lady of culture and refinement, being a graduate of Bunson Institute of Point Bluff, Wis., and keeping up even in her maturer years an interest in the studies of youth. At the time of her marriage she and her sister had charge of the Delton academy, at Delton, Wis., which school reached a high rank, under her able management, among
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the educational institutions of the state. Two children born to Dr. and Mrs. Woodworth are now living, a son and daughter - Herbert L. and Emma L.
Dr. Woodworth has always exhibited great zeal and interest in matters pertaining to his profession and he has, whenever opportunity offered, allied himself with all associations seeking the promotion of the good of the profession, and to help to the extent of his means and ability all purposes of that nature.
While a resident of Wisconsin and Illinois he was an active member of the county and state medical societies where he resided, and took an active part in the workings of these societies. He is and has been for years, a member of the Masonic order, having taken all the degrees up to and including that of Knight Templar, being a member also of the Mystic Shrine. He, his wife and children are members of the Methodist church and give liberally to charity. In personal appearance Dr. Woodworth, while small of stature, is large of head and pleasing in address, being generous of heart, with a kindly face, and a voice which has been attuned in tenderness to the many varying forms of sorrow which he has witnessed in his ministrations among the afflicted. Unlike many of his professional brethren he does not believe in the all curing power of drugs, but believes in carrying common sense into the sick room and making use of many of the so called simple remedies. Ever bearing with him an air of cheerfulness he inspires hope and confidence in his patients, and to the weak and despondent he prescribes liberally of the "medicine of mirth." Yet withal is he positive, requiring the strictest compliance with his orders and instructions, and that done he holds himself responsible for the rest, so far at ]east as an honest conscientious physician who knows the limits of his profession and the bounds of his own knowledge and skill - can hold himself responsible for final results.
THOMAS J. PECK. One of the oldest settlers of Platte township, Buffalo county, as well as one of the most prosperous citizens of the community where he lives, is Thomas J. Peck, the subject of this biographical notice. Mr. Peck has been a resident of the locality where he now resides for about seventeen years, coming to Nebraska in December, 1873, and settling first in Hall county, where he remained three years, moving thence across the line into Buffalo county, living there since. He came front Iowa to Nebraska, but is a native of Pennsylvania. He was born in Chester county, near the city of Philadelphia, and comes of old Pennsylvania ancestry, his parents and his grandparents being residents from time immemorial of the "Key stone State." His father, John Peck, was born, reared and passed his entire life in Chester county, being a farmer and following the peaceful pursuits of agriculture up to the close of an industrious, well spent life, dying in 1864 at the age of forty-five. His mother, Margaret Taylor, who was a native also of Chester county, passed all her years near the place of her nativity, dying in July, 1886, well advanced in years. Only two children were born to John and Margaret (Taylor) Peck, both boys, they being now residents of Platte
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township, Buffalo county, this state, the elder, Thomas J., the subject of this sketch, ,and the younger Samuel E. T.
Thomas J. was born in July, 1843, and reared near his birth-place, not far front Philadelphia. He grew up as most farm boys do, receiving a fair common-school education and being trained to the habits of industry and usefulness common to farm life. In June, 1861, not yet having attained his eighteenth year, he entered the Union army, enlisting in Company K, fourth Pennsylvania reserves, and, his regiment being assigned to the Army of the Potomac, he served in that command for twenty-two months. Enlisting under age, his mother had him taken out of the service at the end of that time under habeas corpus proceedings, and he was kept at home until 1864, when, in February of that year, he again entered the army, enlisting in Company K, Eighth Pennsylvania cavalry, and served till after the surrender, being mustered out and discharged at Richmond, Va., August 11, 1865. During his term of service the last time, he was under Gen. P. H. Sheridan and was in the saddle continuously from the time he entered the service till the close of the war.
Returning to Pennsylvania he remained there a short time and then filled with a growing desire to see the great West and find some suitable location, where he could settle down and grow up with his surroundings, he emigrated to Iowa in 1866, where he settled, married and resided till 1873, coming thence in December of that year as above noted, to Hall county, this state. He settled in Hall county, near the corners of the four counties of Hall, Adams, Kearney and Buffalo, taking a soldier's homestead. Three years later he bought a relinquishment on the southeast quarter of section 36, just across the line in Buffalo county, on which he filed a pre-emption claim, settled, and has since resided there. Taking this claim when it was almost all raw land, he has, by great industry and unremitting attention to all the details of the farm, made of it one of the best improved and most pleasant places in his township, having one hundred acres of it under plow, handsome groves and large and comfortable buildings, residence and barn. The secret of his success has been in his hard, persistent labor, his strict economy and his judicious management. He is regarded as one of the best farmers of his locality and as a business man of sound sense and discriminating judgment.
Mr. Peck married June 10, 1867 - the lady whom he selected to share his life's fortunes being Miss Mary E. Elter, then of Iowa, but a native of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Peck's father, Nicholas Elter, was a native of France and was reared in his native country to the age of eighteen, coming thence to America and settling in Pennsylvania, where he married, and after a residence there of some years moved to Iowa, and there died in August, 1887, at the age of sixty-five. Mrs. Peck's mother, Julia Elter, was born in Tioga county, Penn., and is still living, being a resident of Iowa. Of the eleven children in the family to which Mrs. Peck belonged, six are now living, being married and settled off in life. The eldest, John B., was killed in the late war at the battle of Peach Orchard, Va., he being a member of the Eighth Pennsylvania cavalry; Charles died young, and the others are - Sarah,
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William, Charlotte (deceased), Emma, Minerva, Hattie, George and Susan. Mrs. Peck is the third of the family and the eldest girl.
In politics Mr. Peck is a democrat and comes of a line of ancestors who drew their political faith from the teachings of Jefferson and Jackson, and is a stanch supporter of the doctrines and methods of his party. And he is withal an intelligent, hospitable, pleasant gentleman.
JAMES F. LIPPINCOTT is a Pennsylvanian by birth and a descendant of old Pennsylvania stock. His father, John Lippincott, and his mother, Mary Dillon, were both born and reared in the "Keystone State," the father in Delaware county and the mother in Adams county. The father was a shoemaker by trade and followed that nearly all his life, passing most of his years in his native state, dying, however, in Ohio in 1876, after having attained his fifty-second year. He was a quiet, industrious, useful citizen, a man of plain tastes, systematic habits and pleasant, genial disposition. Mr. Lippincott's mother, Mary Dillon, was a daughter of Andrew Dillon, and an industrious, frugal housewife, and a dutiful and affectionate mother, who bore her husband the cherished companionship which he sought with her hand through the many years of their wedded life. She died in 1862 at the age of thirty-eight. Thirteen children were born to these, only five of whom, however, reached maturity; these being - James F., John F., Jeremiah F., William B. and Mary. These are still living. The first is the subject of this sketch. John F. is a resident of Fillmore county, this state, Jeremiah F. and William B. are residents of Hall county, this state, while the sister, now wife of Samuel Robaugh, lives hi Altoona, Pa.
Our subject, James F., was born in Adams county, Pa., 1846. The first event of importance in his life, as it was the first of any moment in the lives of hundreds of others of his age, was his enlistment in the Union army. He entered the service September 7, 1861, enlisting in Company F, Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania volunteer infantry. The organization of his regiment having been completed the following October, it moved at once to Louisville. Ky., joined Buell's army and saw its first active service at Pittsburg Landing, helping to save the day to the Union cause at that place. His regiment served afterwards in the campaign into Kentucky and in the Atlanta campaign and was with Thomas on his return into Tennessee in pursuit of Hood, as far as Nashville. At this point Mr. Lippincott was taken sick with the small-pox and disabled from service till April, 1865. He then joined his command, which was at that time at Nashville, and went with it to Texas, where it was stationed as an army of occupation till December, 1865. Returning thence to Pennsylvania it was mustered out at Philadelphia January 19, 1886. (sic) He served as a private from the date of his enlistment till mustered out, was never wounded, but was once cap-
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tured and got some taste of prison life, having been taken prisoner at the battle of Stone river and confined for ninety days in "Libby." At the close of the war, Mr. Lippincott returned home and settled down to the peaceful pursuits of life, marrying in March, 1867, and engaging in farming. He came to Nebraska in the spring of 1878 and settled in Fillmore county, in June that year. He lived there till October, 1883, and moved then to Buffalo county, locating on Elm Island, in Platte township, where he has since resided. He has been steadily engaged in farming and has succeeded far beyond the average. He owns land in Adams, Hall, Buffalo and Gosper counties, a large part of which he has under cultivation and most of which is yielding him a revenue in some shape. His home place in Buffalo county is one of the best farms on Elm island, well improved and well supplied with comfortable buildings, ornamented with groves and stocked up to its capacity with good graded stock.
Mr. Lippincott has quite a family growing up around him, for whom he is providing with that care and thoughtful solicitude characteristic of him. He married, as noted above, in 1867, the lady whom he selected for a life companion being Miss Jane S. Vance, a daughter of Captain David Vance, of Loudon, Franklin county, Pa., Mrs Lippincott and her parents both being natives of that place. She is one of a family of ten children, as follows - Winfield S. and John W., both of Loudon, Franklin county; George E., a conductor on the Pennsylvania Central railroad, he being the one who ran the express train out of Johnstown during the late flood; Jane, Mrs. Lippincott; James W., of Winfield, Kans.; Ann Rebecca, wife of George Mullom, of Chambersburg, Pa., and Catherine Abigail, still with her father at Loudon, Franklin county. Margaret and David are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Lippincott are the parents of seven children - John David, Mary Catherine, now wife of George W. Walverton; James William, Charles R., Abbie Jane, Ethel Alma and Kimber Augustus.
In politics Mr. Lippincott is a republican and is a stanch supporter of the principles and methods of his party. His first vote was east for Grant in 1868, and he has supported his party's ticket in each presidential election since, as well as in state and local elections. He has never aspired to public office himself, finding much more pleasant and remunerative employment in the pursuit of his own affairs. He is a man who is well informed on matters of general concern and takes much interest in them. He has pronounced views, and when occasion demands does not hesitate to speak them, and he is one of as kind, accommodating and hospitable gentlemen as can be found in Buffalo county.
CHARLES EDWARD GRESHAM was born in Woodford county, Ill., February 11, 1856. He is the son of Archibald Gresham, a native of Virginia and a very prosperous farmer, his prosperity being traceable to
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hard work and good management. Archibald was an active member of the Baptist church, but later identified himself with the Christian church, of which he was a ruling elder at the time of his death. He was much esteemed for his excellent christian character and the poor and needy always found in Mr. Gresham, a good friend. Mr. Gresham was born in 1808, and from Virginia moved to Christian county, Ky., and thence to Woodford county, Ill., where he remained until death. At the time of his death he left a farm of two hundred acres, well improved and stocked. In 1833 he was married to Susan Boyd, a native of Kentucky. Like her husband she was an active member of the Baptist church but later joined the Christian church. She was considered a very exemplary and consistent christian woman, and died in 1880 at the advanced age of sixty-eight. By this marriage twelve children were born, viz. - George, farming in Missouri; Mary, (Mrs. Bayston) in Illinois; Susan, in Missouri with George; John W., who served three years in the war, but now is in Kentucky; Olive, in Illinois with James; Robert, in Illinois; Louise (Mrs. Ayers), deceased, in Illinois; Richard C., in Illinois on the old homestead; Jennie V. (deceased); C. E.; Lucy A. (Mrs. Irvin), in Bloomington, Ill.
C. E. Gresham came to Nebraska in 1884 with about $1,100, and now owns a well improved farm of two hundred and forty acres and well stocked. He makes a speciality of fine houses and hogs. He is a member of the Christian church. He was married, in 1879, to Miss Alice E. Spencer, a native of Illinois, and born March 30, 1858. For years she was an active and faithful worker of the Christian church. She was married at the home of her father. Rev. Harney officiating. She is the mother of three children, viz. - Etta, born November 28, 1879; Minnie, born July 7, 1884, and Ollie, born March 15, 1888.
EMORY PECK, a gentleman of literary and social culture, is of Puritan ancestry, his progenitors having come over in the "Mayflower." Luther Peck, the paternal a native Connecticut, and died in 1846, at a good old age. He was the parent of five sons, all of whom entered the Methodist ministry, and Jesse T. rose to the distinction of bishop, and was one of the founders of Syracuse University, donating to the institution at one time $50,000. A biographical sketch of Jesse T. and George Peck is given in the People's Encyclopedia. Andrew Peck, the subject's father, was born in New York in 1800. He was, in the most liberal sense, a self-made man, acquiring sufficient preparation, by the utmost diligence and economy of time, to enter the ministry at the age of twenty. For thirty years he continued in the active ministry, and was for years presiding elder in the Oneida, now the Central New York, conference. He was superannuated in 1850, but continued a member of the conference till death, which occurred in 1887. Politically, Mr. Peck was a republican, until a few years before his death, when he gave his support to the prohibition cause. In 1830, he married Miss Electa Gun, a native of New York, who was the mother of the subject
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of this sketch. She was a zealous co-laborer with her husband in christian work, being, with him, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. To Mr. and Mrs. Peck were born four children - Mary S. (deceased), Emory, William G. (who enlisted in the war under Sheridan, in 1864 and was killed in the Valley of Virginia), and Elbert A., who is now, and has been for nineteen years, a member of the Central New York conference.
Emory, the subject of this biography, was born in Hamilton, Madison county, N. Y., in 1836. Having taken a course in Oneida seminary, he, at the age of eighteen, migrated to Portage, Wis., and there engaged in teaching. From there he removed to Winnebago county, same state, and there taught and farmed alternately for five years. He next moved to Livingston county, Mo., and there taught for one year. He then took the principalship of the public schools of Clarinda, Iowa, and remained there until 1861, when he enlisted in the Union army, First regiment Nebraska volunteer infantry. He was soon after commissioned first lieutenant of his company, and was in the engagements of Fort Donelson, Shiloh and others. He re-enlisted in the same regiment as veteran and was placed in the recruiting service, with headquarters at Brownville, Nebr. There he resigned and engaged in farming. In 1868 he moved to Bates county, Mo., and followed farming for eight years, and from there came to Nebraska, settling in Buffalo county, on a homestead and engaged in farming. Mr. Peck was elected two successive terms to the office of county clerk and has also served as county supervisor. He is now residing on his ranch, of about six hundred acres in Odessa township. Whatever success he has gained is due to attention to business and correct habits. Socially, Mr. Peck gives evidence of that magnanimity of soul which is characteristic of his lineage. He is a supporter of the republican ticket and an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1859 he was married to Miss Mary F. Burin, who was born in New York city, in 1842. To them eight children have been born, and five are now living.
L. R. MORE, a native of Delaware county, N. Y., was born in 1839, and is the son of Edward H. and Polly Ann (Moffatt) More, prominent and thrifty people of their locality and both active and consistent members or the Methodist Episcopal church. In politics, Edward H. More was an enthusiastic supporter of the republican platform. He was nominated, in 1867, for representative of Delaware county, but died the day following the convention. Mr. and Mrs. More were parents of six children, viz. - Francis, who died when two years old; Albert, who were born in 1837, in Delaware county, N. Y. and served seven months in the war of the Rebellion, but was discharged for rheumatism contracted before service. He, after several years' residence in New York, Virginia and New Jersey, moved to Nebraska, settling in Odessa township, Buffalo county. In 1866, he was united in marriage to Miss Caroline Brewster, a native of New York, who died in 1870. Mr. More next married Miss Martha Reed, a native of Illinois, in
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1886. L. R. More, our subject, was the third in order of birth, and of the remaining three children, Mary is deceased; Samuel, who served in the war, first as a private in the Fourth New York heavy artillery, and afterwards as lieutenant and acting captain of a mortar battery before Petersburg, is now residing near Moresville, N. Y., and George, the youngest, is still living on the old homestead.
The subject's paternal grandfather, Alexander More, came from the highlands of Scotland and settled in Hobart, Delaware county, N. Y., just before the Cherry Valley massacre, instigated by Brandt. Being warned by friendly Indians, he took what household effects he could on one horse, his wife taking her two children in baskets, one on each side on another horse. Thus they journeyed to Catskill, on the Hudson river. On the journey, one of the children, Alexander More, our subject's grandfather, fell out of the basket into a miry place and nearly drowned. He afterwards settled near where Moresville now stands. The paternal great-grandfather's family consisted of five boys - Alexander, James, John T. David and Edward. The subject's grandfather, Alexander More, married Nancy Harlow, of Roxbury county, Delaware county, N. Y., by whom he had twelve childern, viz. - John H., Thomas, Daniel, Joseph H., Edward H. (the subject's father), Robert H., James, William W., Betsey, Abbie, Gitty and Mary (the mother of Jay Gould, the railroad king). W.W. is the youngest and only survivor of the family.
L. R. More, the subject of this sketch, was born September 22, 1839, in Roxbury, Delaware county, N, Y. He moved to Chicago in the fall of 1855, thence to Newaygo, Mich., where he was employed in a saw-mill. He there contracted fever and ague, which caused him to return to the old homestead. He later returned to Chicago, where for a time he acted as salesman for a business firm, after which he entered into partnership with Duncan Sinclair, in the lumber and planing-mill business, Mr. More acting as traveling salesman, and Sinclair conducting the business at home. By fair dealing and close attention to business, in about three years he accumulated the sum of $25,000.
His health failing, he sold out to Sinclair and came West to Kearney Junction, Nebr., in 1871. He established the first lumber yard and built the first brick store, the upper story being the only opera house in town. He also established the first bank, in 1879, known as More's bank. He owned the first hotel, known as the Grand Central, also was partner of John Seaman, one of the first wheat buyers in Kearney. He also speculated in broom corn. He bought and enlarged the first grist-mill on the present site of the Kearney Mill and Elevator Co. 's mill, and was the sole agent of the celebrated Rock Spring coal from 1876 to 1885. Mr. More also owned a considerable amount of real estate, and was always one of the first to assist in any enterprise that pertained to the welfare of Kearney. In 1873, Mr. More was appointed Captain of the "Kearney Guards" by Governor Furnas. Under his leadership the cowboys "reign of terror" came to an end, they losing two of their number in a running battle. In the year 1884, he sold out what was known as More's bank, now the Kearney National, and the brick store
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adjacent for $22,000, he taking $13,000 stock in the bank, and also becoming its first president. In 1885, on account of failing health, Mr. More started for Florida stopping at Hot Springs, Ark., where, against the advice of his physicians, he took a sulphur bath, from which he contracted a severe cold that settled on his lungs and soon resulted in his death. He was buried beside his father, in Moresville Delaware county, N. Y.
L. R. More came to Kearney when it contained but three buildings, and by aiding the then infant town and the homesteaders in securing the passage of the herd law, in more senses than one may he be called the patriarch of Kearney.
Mr. More was a very popular man and had endeared himself to many by his kindness and generosity. In politics he was a republican, and at one time received the nomination for state senator, but was defeated by A. H. Connor, nominee of a coalition of women's rights, anti-monopolists, democrats and others.
Photo of Henry Fieldgrove HON. HENRY FIELDGROVE, prominent citizen and old settler of Buffalo county, is a native of Hanover, Germany, and was born December 17, 1831. He comes of German ancestry from time immemorial, his parents, Julius and Wilhemina (Sherman) Fieldgrove, being natives also of Hanover, where they always lived, and where they died, both dying in 1886 - the father at the age of eighty-five and the mother at the age of seventy. These were the parents of six children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the eldest, the others being Gottleib (sic), Charles, Louis, Frederick and Dora. The only one of these who ever became a resident of the United States is Henry, our subject. He came to America in 1854, stopping in Clarion county, Penn. Remaining there only about a year, he went to Lawrence county, the same state, where, in 1857, he married, a Lawrence county lady, Miss Maggie A. Myers, a native of Pennsylvania, of German extraction. Mr. Fieldgrove then began the real duties of life. He set about to solve the bread and butter problem in earnest. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might," became a living principle with him, and he carried it out to the letter, possibly more in things material than spiritual. He worked at farming, mining, saw-milling, engineering, and, in fact, anything else that came to him in which there was an honest dollar. He saved some means from his earnings, and being desirous of securing for himself a home, and settling his growing family down in life, where he could do more for them than he could hope to do in the more thickly settled communities of the East, he came West in 1871, and settled in Buffalo county, this state, where he now lives. He took a homestead at that date, filing on a claim of one hundred and sixty acres, lying on Wood river, about a mile north of the town of Shelton. There he located, and has since lived. He has been steadily engaged in farming and stock raising, and it is doing no violence to truth nor speaking flatterly of him to say that he has succeeded far beyond the average of Buffalo county farmers. He has added to
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his original homestead by purchase until he now owns a tract of four hundred acres in one body, lying in the famous Wood River valley, near the corporate limits of the town of Shelton, all of which he has in a splendid state of cultivation, and which, under his judicious management, yield him a handsome revenue in some shape. Besides this he also owns two hundred and forty acres in Snider (sic) township, nine miles north of his home place. He has extensive stock interests and is a good all round farmer. His chief pursuits have been agricultural, he never having allowed anything of a conflicting nature to interfere with these. He has, however, been called on to fill a number of local offices, and has probably done more gratuitous work of an official and a semi official nature than any other man in the eastern part of Buffalo county. In 1871, shortly after locating in the county, he was elected road supervisor of his district, and discharged the onerous and unremunerative duties of that position for nine years.
Following that and during part of that time, he was deputy sheriff for the eastern part of the county. He has been a member of the school board of his district for several years. He was chairman of the county board of supervisors for two years and is now serving his precinct as justice of the peace and his county as representative, having been elected to the latter position in November, 1888, and to the former in November, 1889. During the last term of the legislature, in addition to the part he took in the general legislation before the house, he was a member of the following committees, and did special duty in connection therewith: Public lands and buildings, county boundaries, county seats and township organization, privileges and elections and fees and salaries. While not conspicuous he was nevertheless active and useful, discharging his duties with zeal and fidelity, winning the favor of his co-workers and approval of his constituents. Mr. Fieldgrove is a public-spirited man, progressive in his views, a man of sound intelligence and discriminating judgment. He is more than a good farmer; he is a clear level-headed business man. His opinion is sought by his friends and neighbors on many matters outside of those with which he is daily engrossed, and his influence and favor are courted by many who prize his good will. In politics he is a republican and votes the straight republican ticket. He is a zealous member of the Masonic fraternity, and his feelings of fellowship towards his race and his good will towards his kind take largely the practical turn inculcated by this oldest and most benevolent of all the beneficial orders. He and his excellent wife, who has borne him for more than a third of a century the cherished companionship which he sought with her hand, are both active and efficient members of the Presbyterian church. They have reared to maturity a family of eight children, some of whom are now married, and are themselves heads of families. Their children's names in the order of their ages are as follows -- Dora, Rachel, Mary, William H., Charles, Maggie, John, and Jennie.
In personal appearance Mr. Fieldgrove is large of frame and hearty in manner. He has a kindly face and a warm, generous nature. He is genial and companionable, a steadfast friend, a pleasant acquaintance and an affable gentleman.
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