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BIOGRAPHICAL SOUVENIR OF BUFFALO COUNTY E. W. BURKS, a prominent citizen of Buffalo county, was born in Hendricks county, Ind., August 14, 1841. His father, John D. Burks, was a Kentuckian by birth, but emigrated to Indiana, where he resided for several years. In 1856 he removed to Davis county, Iowa, where, for a time he became interested in agricultural pursuits. In 1865 he engaged in the mercantile business at Drakesville, which he continued for twenty years, eighteen of which he was postmaster of that town. When he finally resigned he was requested to name his successor, and did so. He served as commissioner of Hendricks county, Ind., for two terms, and held various other local offices during his lifetime. He was a prominent and influential man and enjoyed the entire confidence of all his fellow-citizens.
E. W. Burks, the subject of this sketch, was reared on his father's farm and enjoyed no special educational advantages other than those afforded by the common schools of the day. In September, 1861, while yet a boy, he enlisted in the Third Iowa regiment of cavalry and rendered nearly four years of honorable service to his country. His first experience in battle was at Pea Ridge, Ark. He also participated in the terrible siege of Vicksburg, and marched under Generals Steele and Banks in the Red river expedition. He was a prisoner for eighteen months, during which time he was taken from place to place, and even taken down to Homestead, Tex., where the yellow fever was raging at the time. He had no clothing to speak of, no medicine, no shelter. His food for a while consisted solely of corn, ground, cob and all, and three-quarters of a pound of Texas beef. He was always promptly on hand, ready to perform any duty, no matter how arduous. During his service for two years and a half he never missed a single day from active duty. During the third year an order was made to record the daily deportment of each soldier. When the first report of his company was made he was one of the two that received a furlough for meritorious conduct. He did not accept it, however, but gave it to a comrade who had a sick wife at home. He went through the conflict without a scratch, but had thirteen bullet holes in his clothes. His discharge dates from February 1, 1865.
During his long term of imprisonment his eye-sight became seriously affected, and, acting upon the advice of physicians, after he returned home, he engaged in farming. He came to Buffalo county, Nebr., in April, 1884, and immediately occupied a quarter section of land he had previously purchased, in what has since been called Harrison township. Mr. Burks petitioned the board of supervisors in June, 1888, for the separate organization of the township of Harrison. The petition was passed upon favorably and Mr. Burks was appointed supervisor. He has also served two terms as justice of the peace for Armada township.
He was married, December 27, 1866, to Miss Mary N. Quigley, daughter of George and Sarah (Pifer) Quigley. She was born in Ohio, August 8, 1845. They have ten children, named - Fannie E., Sarah A., Ella, Melvin, Walter, Frank, Agnes, Clyde (deceased), Thomas (deceased) and Ralph. Mr. Burks is granting his children all the educational advantages within his power and some of his daughters are now
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successful teachers. He is a reading and thinking man; he thinks and acts for himself, leaving others to do the same. He is a stanch republican and is recognized as one of the leaders of his party in the county.
STEPHEN S. HILL. This gentleman is one of the few remaining settlers who came to Buffalo county in 1872, and braved the storms, droughts and grasshopper raids of those early days. He is a native of New England and was born at Sharon, Vt, February 21,1822. His parents were Benjamin and Sarah (Scales) Hill. The former was a native of Massachusetts, born in the year 1789; the latter was a native of New Hampshire and born in 1779. He has little recollection of his ancestry back of this, farther than that one Ickaber Hill, his paternal grandfather, was a native of Massachusetts and a farmer by occupation.
Stephen S. Hill resided in Vermont State until 1872, during which time he engaged in farming, buying and selling cattle, and the practice of veterinary surgery. In 1872, although fifty years of age, he decided to emigrate West, and acting upon this decision he came to Buffalo county in the fall of 1872 and preempted a quarter section in Riverdale township, nine miles northwest of Kearney. The country was new and settlers were few and far between. A few native Indians still remained and an occasional buffalo was to be seen grazing on the plains. Deer and antelope roamed at will and furnished the principal meat for the few settlers at that time. Mr. Hill frequently saw as high as fifty antelope grazing in a single bunch. April 15, 1873, occurred the worst wind, sleet and snow storm that this section of Nebraska had experienced within the memory of the oldest settlers. The storm began on Sunday and for three days the wind and sleet came with such terrific force as to render it unsafe for anyone to leave his door. So fierce was the storm that Mrs. Hill was obliged to tie the clothes-line about her husband in order that he might find his way back to the house when he went to the wood-pile, which was distant only thirty feet, for an armful of wood. A great many head of stock perished during this storm. One of Mr. Hill's neighbors was only able to save three out of thirty- six head of cattle.
In 1873 the crops, on account of excessive drought, were almost a total failure. From ten acres of sod-corn Mr. Hill harvested but thirty bushels of grain. In 1874 the grasshoppers came and destroyed nearly everything. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon of August 8th, when Mr. Hill heard a noise like the distant rumbling of a train of cars and noticed a dark object rising like a thunder-cloud in the distant northwest. His curiosity, which was aroused, was soon satisfied. It was the grasshoppers. They fell like lava thrown from the crater of old Vesuvius, and in less than two hours, destroyed everything green on his place. This so discouraged Mr. Hill that he sold his quarter section of land that fall for $150. This money, a team, one cow and a hog, were all of his worldy possessions left at that time. Those were discouraging
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times and many settlers left the country. There was no corn in the county and Mr. Hill, Samuel Thornton and some others, hauled corn from Kansas, a distance of thirty miles. In 1875 he homesteaded a quarter section and began farming again. For several years thereafter he had about the same experience with drought and grasshoppers as before, but after 1877, had good average crops. In 1882 his wheat yielded twenty-five bushels to the acre, oats thirty-five bushels to the acre, and he raised five hundred and fifty bushels of rye from twenty-five acres.
In March, 1883, he retired from farming and moved to Kearney, where he now resides. He keeps a barn and practices veterinary surgery, having followed this profession for over forty years. He has treated over five hundred sick horses and has never lost a case of colic.
Mr. Hill has been married twice. He was first married, September 5, 1840, to Adaline Hicks, by whom he had three children. He married Martha Dockrel, his present wife, October 23, 1870.
In religious belief, Mr. Hill is a Universalist. Politically, he is a democrat, having voted for every democratic nominee for president from Buchanan down, with the exception of Horace Greeley.
STANLEY THOMPSON, attorney-at-law, member of the Buffalo county bar, was born at Hempstead, Tex., March 31,1856. He comes of Southern ancestors, and is connected by kinship with two of the best families in the South - the Thompsons and McAfees of Kentucky. His father, Dr. James N. Thompson, born in Kentucky, reared in Missouri, educated in New York and Paris, France, married Elizabeth McAfee, a Kentucky-born and Missouri-reared lady, and settled to the practice of his profession in Hempstead, Tex.; where unhappily he died just as he was reaching the full tide of a successful professional career, leaving a wife and two children - daughter and son-surviving him. The wife followed him, only two years later, to another world; and the son, Stanley, the subject of this notice - then a lad about nine years of age - was taken into the family of his sister, Mrs. James Ellison, at Kirksville, Mo., to be reared. His sister not long afterwards died, leaving him to the guardianship of her husband. He was reared in the family of his brother-in-law, and in that of his uncle, John Thompson, was educated at the Northeast Missouri Normal school at Kirksville, read law and was admitted to the bar in September, 1878. Coming West, he located at Sydney, Cheyenne county, Nebr., where he resided till June, 1887, when he moved to Kearney, entering on the practice of his profession there, where he has since continued. Mr. Thompson's career as a lawyer is yet before him; his fortunes are to be made. If it be proper in a sketch like this to predict what those fortunes will be, we predict they will be good. He is a man of clear head, sound sense and proper industry; and has brought to the discharge of his duties as a lawyer, a thoroughness of preparation not often met with in young men, even among those supposed to be "learned in the law." His early opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of his profession, both theoretical and practical, were good: having been
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reared under the roof and had his studies directed under the personal supervision of one of the best lawyers in western Missouri, his brother-in-law, Judge James Ellison, now appellate judge of the Western district of Missouri. He availed himself of these opportunities and acquired not only much valuable knowledge, but what is of more importance - the habits of a lawyer: that rare combination of student and man of affairs. Mr. Thompson is ambitious - not for public position, but to succeed, to be a lawyer, in the truest and best sense of the word, and we predict he will be.
JEREMIAH KARN is one of the well known men of Buffalo county, and was born near Massillon, Ohio, November 22, 1833.
His father, Samuel Karn, is a native of Lancaster county, Pa., and has been a German Baptist preacher for many years. He moved to Ohio soon after marriage, but in 1856 settled in Wabash county, Ind. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Liza Moler, died in 1863. She was a devoted companion to her husband and an earnest Christian woman.
Young Karn was reared on his father's farm until he reached his majority. He was married May 22, 1856, to Elizabeth Fulgroad, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Page) Fulgroad, both of whom are natives of Pennsylvania.
After marriage, Mr. Karn devoted ten years exclusively to agricultural pursuits. He then entered the employ of the Phoenix Lightning Rod Company of La Porte, Ind., and acted as their trusted agent for nine years, and then embarked in the business himself. He emigrated to Kearney, Nebr., in 1879 and three years afterwards took a homestead in Thornton township, where he remained five years and then returned to Kearney. About one year ago he moved on another farm near Armada, where he now resides. He is the father of seven children, namely - Armega, John W., Samuel H., Charles J., James and Jessie (twins) and Tommie.
Mr. Karn now owns three tracts of land, four hundred acres in all, and is energetically engaged in improving the same. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., believes in the principles of the republican party and has many friends throughout the country.
J. W. LELAND is one of Kearney's oldest and most highly respected citizens. He is a native of the town of Grafton, Worcester county, Mass., and come of "old Bay State" stock. His father was Luke Leland, a native also of the town of Grafton, an industrious, useful and highly honored citizen of that place, representing for several years his native county of Worcester in the state legislature. Mr. Leland's paternal grandfather, Elijah, and great-grandfather, Phineas, were also born, reared and passed their lives in Grafton, Worcester county, the former representing his county in the state legislature. The mother of J. W. Leland was Sarah Mellen, born in Middlesex county, Mass., July 24, 1792, and was a daughter of John and Mary (Bullard) Mellen, both natives of Middlesex county,
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Mr. Leland traces his ancestry on this side of his house back to the first families of Middlesex county, being respectable, well-to-do people; his maternal grandfather Mellen having represented his county many years in the state legislature. His ancestors were all people of strong religious convictions and all stanch members of some religious denomination, mostly Baptists.
Three children were born to Luke and Sarah (Mellen) Leland - Joseph Warren, Sarah M. and Luke. The youngest two are now dead. The eldest, the subject of this notice, was born June 14, 1816. He was reared in his native place, received a good common-school training, and began life as a school teacher. He afterwards engaged in manufacturing and then mercantile trade, and has, in the course of a long and active life, followed many pursuits. He lived in Chicago some years, and while a resident of that place, in 1871, lost the bulk of his life's earnings by fire. With characteristic energy and determination, he came West after meeting with this misfortune, for the purpose of starting life anew, and settled, in 1872, in Kearney, Nebr. He has been a resident of Kearney since and has profited well by his residence there. He has been identified with the best interests of his adopted home since casting his lot there, and has always possessed an abiding confidence in the future greatness of the town. He took the census of Kearney in 1873, when the population numbered only 245. He took the census the following year also, when the population had increased to 775. He has seen the place grow and develop from a straggling railway station to a city of the first importance, and in the making it what it is he has borne the full part of an energetic, public-spirited citizen.
Mr. Leland has been thrice married and has reared a large and interesting family of children. He was married first in 1839, his wife being Miss C. A. Slocum, daughter of John W. Slocum, of Grafton, Worcester county, Mass. This lady died in 1858, leaving four children - Charles Henry, Fannie, William E. and Lucinda. He next married in May, 1872, Miss L. A. Bostwick. This lady died August 20, 1874, leaving no children. He then married Miss Samantha D. Houghton, his present wife.
At the age of thirteen Mr. Leland signed the temperance pledge, and he has led a strictly temperate life since, never having violated this pledge. He joined the Masonic order in 1841 and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1846, and he has been a zealous worker in each since. He is a man of good intelligence, possessing a large fund of general information, and an interested spectator in all events of public note. He possesses a clear judgment and discriminating views. He has never sought public position, although well qualified to fill any position to which he might aspire.
FREDERICK LEBHART, a representative young business man of Kearney, Buffalo county, is a native of Wurtemburg, Germany, and was born December 31, 1855. He is a son of Christian and Barbara (Straehle) Lebhart, natives of the same place, who lived and died in the old country. His
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father was born July 1, 1813, and died April 2, 1886. He was a wine-maker, an upright, industrious, useful citizen, and a zealous member of the Lutheran church, having been for twenty-four years a ruling elder in the local church where he worshiped. Mr. Lebhart's paternal grandfather, Frederick Christian Lebhart, a native also of Wurtemburg, was a winemaker; served in the Russian war of 1812-15, and was taken prisoner in that war, but afterwards released and returned to his native country, where he passed his remaining years in the peaceful pursuit of his calling. Mr. Lebhart's grandfather Straehle also served in the Russian war of 1812-15, and was wounded near Moscow, in April, 1813, losing his left lower limb; but he survived many years to tell to his descendants the thrilling story of the burning of Moscow and the famous retreat.
The subject of this sketch was reared in his native country, coming to the United Slates in 1880. He made his first stop at Mason City, W. Va., and found his first employment, as a salt-maker, at that place. A year later he went to Toledo, Ohio, where he secured a position in the piano and organ factory of Whitney & Courrier, remaining with them a year. He then went to Peru, Ind., and lived there a short time, and in 1882 came to Nebraska and settled at Kearney. He has been variously engaged since settling in Kearney, mostly in the hotel and liquor business. He began as clerk, but by saving his means he was enabled, on May 1, 1888, to engage in business on his own account, opening a saloon at that date, at which he has since continued. He is succeeding beyond the average, and has a large circle of friends. He keeps an orderly house, and gives his time and attention strictly to his business. He is pleasant, accommodating, and observes and insists on a strict observance of all of the social amenities that should obtain among gentlemen.
Mr. Lebhart married, May 31, 1886, Miss Catherine Roeck, of Kearney, and this union has been blessed with three children, born as follows - Minnie, born May 14, 1887; Annie, January 4, 1888, and Louisa, August 4, 1889.
Having been reared in the Lutheran church, Mr. Lebhart naturally leans towards that faith, and he has been very liberal in his donations to that church. He is kind and charitable and gives freely to all benevolent purposes.
COSMO S. HILL, the subject of this biographical memoir, is a prosperous farmer in Riverdale township, and one of the very earliest settlers of Buffalo county. He is a native of the State of Vermont, and was born September 5, 1848. His father, Stephen S. Hill, also a native of Vermont, was born at Sharon, February 21, 1822, and is still living at the ripe old age of three-score and eight years, a resident of Kearney, having emigrated West and located in this county in the fall of 1872. He was married to Adaline Hicks, the mother of our subject, September 5, 1840. The mother was a native of Vermont, born August 19, 1805. To them were born three children - Cosmo S. (our subject), Francela and Rosa. The paternal grandfather, Benjamin
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Hill, was a native of Massachusetts, born in the year 1789. He was by occupation a farmer. The paternal grandmother, Sarah (Scales) Hill, was a native of New Hampshire, born in 1779. The paternal great grandfather, Ickaber Hill, was a native of Massachusetts, but beyond this fact little or nothing is known. Cosmo S., our subject, resided in Vermont until twenty-one years of age, engaged part of the time on a farm and part of the time as sales clerk in a wholesale shoe store at Saysville, Vt.; attaining his majority he emigrated West in 1869, locating at Princeton, Ill., where for two years he was engaged in a livery barn. He moved, in 1871, to Palatine, Ill., where for one year he worked in a harness shop, and then returned to Vermont ; remaining there one year, be finally decided to seek his fortune in the far West. Acting upon this decision he came to Buffalo county in May, 1873. He pre-empted the quarter section in the Wood River valley, in which he now resides. The country was sparsely settled at that time and looked wild and barren. An occasional Indian strolled by his door, stopping long enough to beg a mouthful of food, but never molesting or offering to harm his family. There were a few buffalo, plenty of antelope and deer, and an occasional elk to be seen. For the first five years he had a hard struggle for existence. The drought and grasshoppers destroyed his crops to such an extent that he hardly got back the seed that he sowed. In the summer of 1876 he met with the same result.
During the first five years, when crops were a failure, Mr. Hill cut wood on government land and hauled it to Kearney, disposing of it at a nominal sum, and thus keeping the wolf from his door. He was united in marriage, October 3,1872, to Mary (Higby) Hill, a native of Vermont, born August 26, 1846. To them have been born three children - Earnest, Rolla and Earl.
Mr. Hill is a firm believer in the principles of the democratic party.
SYLVESTER WEIBEL is a native of the city of Hohenems, Austria, and is a son of Charles and Marie Weibel, natives also of Austria, who lived and died in that country. He was born December 31, 1832, and, being left an orphan at the age of seven, grew up in the place of his birth, among family friends and acquaintances. Although reard (sic) in a country noted for its educational advantages, his early training was none too thorough, even under the compulsory system. He had to work for his living, earning it as best he could, and there was but little time at his disposal for going to school. As he grew up he heard frequently of America, and he determined on reaching his majority to come to this country. He immigrated in 1854, landing at New York June 21, that year. The first few years he spent in this country he drifted about a good deal, trying his fortunes in various localities, east, west and south, and at various pursuits. He lived awhile in Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee, Indiana and Illinois, and followed successively logging, steam-boating, hostlering, butchering and merchandising. During this time
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also he served for a while in the Confederate army, enlisting in the service in 1861, at Memphis, Tenn. He was in the battles at Belmont, Shiloh and Perryville, Ky., being captured in the latter engagement and after a short term of imprisonment released, and sent across the lines into Indiana, not entering the service again.
Mr. Weibel came to Nebraska in the spring of 1872, stopping first at Lincoln and afterwards going to Butler county and then to Kearney county, settling at Lowell, then the county seat. A year later he started a brick-yard at Kearney, and then a saloon at Lowell. He continued at Lowell till 1875, when he took up his permanent residence at Kearney and has lived there since. For a number of years he was engaged in the liquor business in Kearney, giving it up, in fact, only recently. He has made a great deal of money, and by making a wise investment of this means he has become quite wealthy. He is recognized as one of the heaviest capitalists of the city of Kearney, and has been and is now connected with a number of the leading business enterprises of the place. He is one of the largest stock holders in the Kearney National Bank and is a member of its board of directors. He is a public-spirited, liberal-hearted man, and assists all enterprises of a public nature, and is willing at all times to give encouragement to any deserving person. Having come up from the common walks of life himself, and spent the most of his years at hard toil as a common laborer, he is thoroughly in sympathy with the common people and gives generously of his means to any industry that will give them employment and support, and he contributes liberally also to charity. He is a plain, unassuming, modest man who, having made all he has, fortunately has the wisdom to know how to use it. Having retired from active pursuits he is now devoting his time to his investments and doing what good he can as an humble citizen, with the means which have come into his possession.
CHARLES A. WILLIS was born in Auburn, N. Y., in 1855. His father is C. W. S. Willis, also a native of Auburn, N. Y., born in 1822. He remained there till 1844, then moved to Oak Grove, Wis., there settling upon government land, which he held till 1858. He then returned to New York State, to East Bloomfield; thence moved to Auburn, and there remained for three years. In 1878 he came to Nebraska, settling in Kearney.
Mr. Willis is a skilled mechanic, and before retiring from active business he was a building contractor. The fact that he is a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church of Kearney, attests the esteem in which he is held by the community. He was married to Miss Amanda Smith, a native of New York, born in 1824. She was also an active member in the Presbyterian church, previous to her declining health. Their union was blest with two children, viz. - C. A. (our subject) and Ella (Mrs. Quinley), who lives in Kearney. Chas. A. Willis, the subject of this biographical notice, was engaged for several years with his father in the mercantile business, in Auburn, N. Y.; but, being seized by a violent desire to go West, he
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urged his father to sell out and come to Nebraska, which course has yielded them a very handsome profit. Charles A. now owns a very nicely located and well improved farm, of three hundred and sixty acres, well stocked and supplied with all necessary accoutrements, and the father owns a quarter section of good land and property in Kearney. In 1882, Charles A. Willis was married to Miss Phebe L. Thomas, a native of New York, born in 1855 - Rev. R. Spencer performing the ceremony. She was educated at Stamford Seminary, and for several years taught in the public schools of her county.
Mr. and Mrs. Willis are members of the Presbyterian church.
Mr. Willis is a republican in politics, and has been assessor of Logan township for two years.
WILLIAM H. AUSTIN, a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1859, is the son of Lloyd Austin, born in Pennsylvania in 1824. Lloyd, the father, migrated to Nebraska in 1881, settling in Wallace, Lincoln county. He was a mason by trade, and is quite energetic and prosperous. He is allied to the democratic party in politics, and has been connected with the Methodist Episcopal church for a number of years, and although not demonstrative in his profession of religion, he is considered a good quiet Christian man. He was married, in 1844, to Miss Matilda Keller, a native of Pennsylvania, and born in 1826. To them have been born the following - Hattie (deceased); Mary, born 1847, died 1881; John, born 1849, died 1879 ; Julia (deceased); Anna (Mrs. Keene), lives in Pennsylvania; Edwin, lives in Lincoln county, Nebr.; Ida, lives in Pennsylvania; William H., Rosa (Mrs. Toby), lives in Steuben county, N. Y.
William H. Austin, the subject of this sketch, is a hard working, prosperous farmer of Logan township, Buffalo county. He emigrated from Pennsylvania to Nebraska in 1879, first locating in Elm Creek; after a few years he took up a homestead of one-fourth of section 28, township 10, range 18 west. Mr. Austin began life for himself when twenty years of age, with no capital; he now has 240 acres of well improved land, well stocked. In 1884 he was married to Samantha Baley, a native of Ohio - Mr. Frank Hull, county judge, officiating. She is a daughter of William and Mary (Stevens) Baley, natives of Ohio. Their marriage has been blessed with three children, viz. - Carl, born April 21, 1885 ; Perry, born February 23, 1887, and Emory, born May 23, 1889. Politically, Mr. Austin is a republican, and at various times he has held different township offices.
H. H. BOWIE, one of the largest land-owners and stock-raisers of Buffalo county, is the son of George and Kate (Ross) Bowie, natives of Scotland. George Bowie was born in 1809, and emigrated to America in 1834, settling in New York City. He was married to Miss Kate Ross, in Scotland, in 1830. To them have been born nine children, viz. - Alexander, lives in Ontario;
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George; M. G.; William (deceased); John (deceased); Charles, lives in Buffalo county; Delia (deceased); James (deceased), and H. H., the subject of this biographical notice, who is a native of New York City, born in 1851. At the age of nineteen, being a boy with a man's head, he was able to take the position as foreman for Campbell, the contractor of the Hudson tunnel; he remained with him for two or three years and then took a contract for the construction of 2,000 feet of it himself. Mr. Bowie came to Buffalo county, Nebr., in 1880, settling in Logan township, where he now resides, owning four and a half sections of land, and in the winter of 1889-90 fed about one thousand head of cattle. Mr. Bowie is to Logan township what a town of four or five hundred is to surrounding country. He buys annually about one hundred thousand bushels of grain, always paying above market price. Although Mr. Bowie is managing a business of such proportions, he at all times treats a person with the utmost cordiality and considers it a privilege to extend a favor. In 1878 he was married to Miss Deveraux, who is a native of Boston, born in 1860. She was the daughter of Walter and Margarette (Smith) Deveraux, the former a native of England, who came to America when young; the latter was a native of Boston, Mr. and Mrs. Deveraux both departed this life in 1878. They were strict adherents to the Episcopal church. To Mr. and Mrs. Bowie two children have been born. viz. - Henry Y., born September 12, 1881, died August, 1882, and Edith Gracie, born October 29, 1889. Mr. Bowie is a republican in politics and has been county supervisor for five successive years.
RICHARD F. WATERS is a son of Allen and Frances (Foster) Waters, the former of whom was a native of Pennsylvania. He was a devoted member and liberal supporter of the Presbyterian church, and he enjoyed the reputation of being a good, honest, Christian man, and was not conscious of having an enemy. In politics he was a whig. Mrs. Waters was a native of Ireland, and came to America in 1828, settling first in Ohio. Mrs. Waters was also a member of the Presbyterian church, and was looked upon as a kind, consistent, Christian lady. In 1889 Mrs. Waters departed this life, entitled to the plundit, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
Mr. and Mrs. Waters' union was blessed with seven children - Catherine, Mary Ann, Elizabeth, Joseph A., Richard F., Margarette and Andrew.
Richard F., the subject of this sketch, was one of the pioneers of Buffalo county, and, while he has not distinguished himself in any public capacity, he has distinguished himself as an honest, straightforward, reliable man, always encouraging anything that is in the interest of the county. He was born in Ohio, in 1849. His school advantages were meager, being chiefly tutored by that stern teacher - Experience - which, no doubt, was a principal factor in making Mr. Waters the cautious, frugal, thrifty man that he is.
In 1864 he enlisted as a one-hundred-day man in the One Hundred and Forty-third Ohio infantry, under General Butler, and was in the engagement at Petersburgh. He was mustered out at Camp Chase, Ohio, the same year. In 1866 he moved to Scotland county, Mo., and there engaged in farming. From there he came
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