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BIOGRAPHICAL SOUVENIR OF BUFFALO COUNTY to Buffalo county, Nebr., in 1873, settling on section 30, Odessa township.
In the winter of the same year, while camping on his claim, he experienced a terrible storm, in which hundreds of cattle and two persons near Gibbon were frozen; but Mr. Waters, only sheltered by his wagon, escaped unharmed. Mr. Waters' next encounter was with the grasshopper plague. In this he shared the common fate, losing his crops for three years, but since that time has had good crops. In 1870 Mr. Waters was married in Scotland county, Mo., to Miss Jane Hage, a native of West Virginia. To them have been born eight children -- Ida, Thomas A., Mabel, Roy, Cecelia, Mary, Hugh and Gracie.
ADAM WILLIAMS is a son of Frederick and Catherine (Mown) Williams, the former a native of the good, old, historic, Keystone State, Pennsylvania, the latter a native of Stark county, Ohio. Frederick, the father, migrated to Crawford county, Ohio ; from there he went to California in 1851,engaged in mining, and continued in that business till death, which occurred in 1861. Politically, he was a whig. Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Williams were married in Stark county, Ohio, in 1824. To them were born seven children, viz. -- Johnny, died in infancy; Rebecca, living in Grant county, Nebr.; Willie, died in infancy; Sarah, living in Hancock county, Ohio; Thomas, served three years in the war and lost his health, unfitting him for active business; and is now living in Washington, Adam and another.
Adam, the subject of this notice, is a highly respected and prosperous farmer in Riverdale township, Buffalo county. He was born in Crawford county, Ohio, in 1837. He there remained till he came to Nebraska, in 1873, settling on section 6, township 9, range 16. In 1874, 1875 and 1876 he experienced the common fate of the Nebraskans, losing his entire crops, excepting wheat; but, not despairing and hoping for better times for Nebraska, he remained, and now has a competency for himself in declining age. Mr. Williams was married, in 1860, to Miss Anna Ditty, born in Crawford county, Ohio, in 1842. She is the daughter of Amos and Sarah (Lenker) Ditty, natives of Ohio. To Mr. and Mrs. Williams have been born seven children, viz. -- Willie, who was scalded to death in 1862; Charlie, who was born June 14,1865, and died May 30, 1870; George Franklin; Freddie; Eva; Eddie and James Garfield. Mr. and Mrs. Williams are both members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and their home life and reputation accord with their profession.
DAVID C. HOSTETTER was born in Lebanon county, Pa., in 1843. His father, Abraham Hostetter, was a native of Pennsylvania. In 1852 they moved to West Lebanon, Wayne county, Ohio, and there purchased a farm on which they resided but eight months, then returning to Lebanon county, Pa. Mr. Hostetter was alternately engaged in farming and mercantile business. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hostetter
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were active and consistent members of the Lutheran church for a number of years. Politically, Mr. Hostetter was a supporter of the republican ticket, and was a member of the Odd Fellows order for years. To Mr. and Mrs. Hostetter were born eight children -- Mary, Edwin, David O., Kate, Henry (dead), Lena, Christina, and Jacob (dead). All, excepting Mary (who lives in Wayne county, Ohio), and David G. still remain in Lebanon county, Pa.
David C., the subject of this biographical notice, began life for himself in 1863, by first evincing possession of that God-given element of true manhood -- patriotism -- enlisting in the service of his country and enduring the hardships of war for three years. He offered this service as a willing tribute, without now asking compensation for his patriotism. After being mustered out of the service, he located in Missouri, and there followed his trade, "stove molder," for seven years; then moved to Nebraska, settling in Kearney in 1873. He did not predict, then, the Kearney of to-day, there being about two hundred inhabitants. He first found employment with A. S. Webb in the hardware and implement business, and remained with him two years; then worked on the transfer eighteen months, at the expiration of which time he again engaged with Mr. Webb, remaining nine years. He then settled on the farm on which he now resides, which is nicely located and well improved. He is a republican in politics. Mr. Hostetter led Miss Lautz, a native of Lebanon county, Pa., to the altar in 1864. Mrs. Hostetter has proven herself a valuable helpmeet, rejoicing with him in prosperity and sharing with him the responsibility in adversity. She has for years been a member of the M. E. church. To Mr. and Mrs. Hostetter have been born four children -- Eliza S. (Mrs. Feather), Henrietta A. (Mrs. Lautz), Edwin H., at home, and Bernice B., at home.
JOHN SWENSON. Very few of those who came to Buffalo county in the early "seventies" and homesteaded claims have had such marvelous success as this gentleman. He was born in Sweden, December 15, 1840, and is one of nine children born to Swen and Christena Swenson, both of whom are natives of Sweden, the former having been born in 1811 and the latter in the year 1807. John, our subject proper, resided at home, in Sweden, until eighteen years of age, during which time he attended school and clerked in a hardware store, and then went to Norway and engaged in merchandising, which he followed for three years. He came to this country in 1861, landing in Chicago July 4th. He engaged employment on a boat on Lake Michigan, and worked as a sailor for a short time, and then, true to the country to which he had sworn allegiance, he responded to its call, and enlisted in Company D, Fifty-second Illinois regiment. He participated in the battles of Atlanta, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, siege of Corinth, and was with General Sherman on his campaign from Resaca to Atlanta. He was wounded twice -- once in the back at Shiloh, and in the arm at Corinth, on account of which his arm was amputated. He was dis-
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charged, July 12, 1865, and receives a pension from the government of $45 per month.
After the war, he went to Batavia, Ill., and for one year was engaged in clerking in a clothing store, after which he entered the Soldiers' college at Fulton, Ill., remaining there five years, and graduating in 1871, receiving the degree of P. S. The following year he taught school in Clinton county, Iowa, and in April of 1873 came West to Nebraska, and located in Buffalo county. He entered a quarter section twelve miles north of Kearney, in Divide township, and engaged in raising sheep. In 1874, he was elected superintendent of county schools, which office he held for two consecutive terms. He made some efforts at farming, which, on account of drought and grasshoppers, was practically fruitless up to 1877, after which he raised good crops. In 1879, he moved to Sartoria, in the northern part of the county, and bought up considerable railroad land beside pre-empting a quarter section. He now owns fifteen hundred acres of fine land, the greater part of the little town of Sartoria, and operates two stores of general merchandise, besides dealing largely in cattle and sheep. Few, if any, of those who came to this county in its early days, with practically nothing to begin with, have amassed such a fortune, and surely none are held in greater esteem by their neighbors and acquaintances than humble John Swenson.
Mr. Swenson was married, January 11, 1875, to Eva J. Thornton, who was born June 5, 1855, and is the daughter of Samuel and Sarah Thornton, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. Their union has resulted in the birth of no children. They are both members of the Lutheran church. Mr. Swenson affiliates with the republican party.
PHILETUS PIERCE is a native of Illinois, born at Springfield, November 5, 1827, and is one of five children born to Lanson and Mary Pierce, both of whom are natives of New York State. His father and mother emigrated West in an early day, locating in Illinois, or what was then known as the Western frontier. His father followed farming, and was a sawyer by trade. Philetus lived in Illinois until nineteen years of age, during which time he attended school and labored on the farm. In 1846 he went to Iowa county, Wis., where he resided for ten years and was engaged in mining lead. He next moved to Dubuque, Iowa, where he engaged in mining for four and one-half years. He then moved to Clayton county, Iowa, and farmed one year, after which he moved to Buchanan county, same state, and followed farming for two years. He afterwards located in Harrison county, Iowa, and for a period of fifteen years was engaged in the lumber and the business, and also farmed a portion of the time. From there, in July, 1878, he started West, with a view of looking up a suitable location and taking up a government claim. For two months he traversed Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming, and finally decided to locate in Buffalo county, Nebr. He accordingly filed a claim on his present land in Sartoria township. In those days that section of the county was scarcely settled at all, and Mr. Pierce's
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nearest neighbor was four miles distant. In those times money was a scarce article and, in order to get some with which to purchase flour and clothing, Mr. Pierce trapped beaver and hauled cotton-wood bark to Kearney, a distance of thirty-five miles, and sold it at one dollar per load. There were plenty of deer, elk and antelope only a few miles away, and he reports having killed a fine large buck near his place with a load of fine bird-shot. Mr. Pierce took, in addition to his homestead, a timber claim, and now has three hundred and twenty acres, most of which is well improved. He lives in a commodious frame house, and his surroundings in general speak well for his prosperity since coming to this county. He was married in January, 1850, to Louisa Noyes, who was born May 13, 1832, and is one in a family of ten children born to Harman and Mary (Harrison) Noyes. The former was a native of New Hampshire, and was born in the year 1800; the latter, a native of New York State, born in 1798.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. Pierce has been blessed with the birth of fifteen children, as follows - Ira N., September 7, 1851; Harman L., December 8, 1852; Mary E., March 5, 1854; Abiatha R., May 13, 1855; Maria L., November 13, 1856; Percie A., February 5, 1859; Emma A., November 5, 1861; Eva B., August 12, 1863; Chester S., March 6, 1865 ; Lillie M., March 17, 1866; Albert P., March 27, 1869; Laura M., January 23, 1872; Reuben W., April 11, 1874; Minnie V., August 23, 1876; Ella M., August 3, 1879.
In political matters Mr. Pierce is a stanch republican.
HENRY PETERS is one of the earliest settlers in the Loup valley and one of the best known farmers in Buffalo county. He is a native of Germany, and was born October 21, 1833. His father, Henry Peters, Sr., a farmer by occupation, was a native of Germany, born in the year 1797. His mother, Catherina (Meumen) Peters, was also a native of Germany and was born in 1796. There were five children -- three girls and two boys-in the father's family, of which Henry is the youngest. Henry lived in the old country until twenty-seven years old and was engaged in farming. In 1861 he came to this country and located at Connville, Ill., where he resided seven years and was employed part of the time as a common laborer and part of the time at farming. In 1868, he emigrated West and located in Cass county, Nebr., at first renting a farm and afterwards leasing school lands. He came to Buffalo county in the spring of 1875, and bought the claim on which he now resides, which he afterwards pre-empted. In those days the country in that section was wild and barren and very sparsely settled. Deer and antelope roamed through the valley in abundance, and elk, while not plentiful at that time, were frequently seen near his place. His nearest neighbor, in 1875, was three miles distant. He put out a small crop the first year and harvested from five acres of corn an average of eighty bushels to the acre. The following year his crops were entirely destroyed by the grasshoppers, and he was left in almost destitute circumstances The grasshoppers ate holes through the blankets which were spread over vegetables and ate the cabbage roots in the
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ground. That summer and fall he earned money, with which to keep the family during the winter, by hauling a load in a provision train to the Black Hills country. In 1879, he had twenty-five acres of wheat, thirty acres of corn and twenty-one thousand young, growing trees destroyed by a severe hail storm. The hail stones were so large as to knock the horns off the sheep, break window-glass, etc. With few exceptions, he has had good crops. Mr. Peters was married March 27, 1859, to Tolcke C. Dires, who was born in Germany, January 15, 1836, and is the youngest in a family of three children born to John and Sofiah Dires, both of whom are natives of Germany. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Peters, as follows -- Riche, John, Fred, Benjamin, Riche 2d., Henry, Louis and William.
Mr. and Mrs. Peters are both active members of the Lutheran church. Mr. Peters is a republican.
JOHANN YELINCK was born in June, 1845, in Budweiser, Bohemia, and came to Schneider township, Buffalo county, Nebr., directly from his native land, July 28,1887, and here he has ever since been engaged prosperously in farming. Mr. Yelinck was married June 23,1870, to Johanna Julsen, who has borne eight children, viz. -- John, Karl, Mary, Heinrich, Franck, Laurence, Conrad and Anastasia. The family are devout members of the Catholic church and are pursuing peaceful, industrious and prosperous lives. Joseph Yelinck, father of Johann, was born in Heimath, Budweiser, Bohemia, March 19, 1823; was a farmer, died in March, 1875, in the Roman Catholic faith. The mother of Johann Yelinck bore the maiden name of Theresa Keiser.
JAMES M. DEVALL is a native of Preston county, West Virginia, and was born February 20, 1821. Mr. Devall spent the early part of his life in Virginia and enlisted in the Union army from that state, on the fifth of October, 1861. He joined the Sixth West Virginia regiment of infantry and saw his first service at the battle of Cedar creek. He chased Morgan along the Ohio river, when that noted rebel raider was playing havoc in Ohio. He was captured near Oakland, Md., while on the Jones raid in that state. He fell into the hands of the men who were his neighbors in West Virginia, and was paroled in the field and sent home for ten days. He returned to Wheeling, when his regiment was soon ordered down on the Potomac river. He participated in the engagement at Antietam and was for some time afterwards put on guard duty on the B. & O. R. R. He spent one month in hospital and was discharged at Oakland on the nineteenth day of December, 1864.
Mr. Devall came to Buffalo county, Nebr., on the twenty-eighth day of March, 1874, and filed on a homestead on section 4, in Sharon township. He was among the very first settlers in that section of the county and has endured some of the vicissitudes of a pioneer life. The grasshop-
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pers took all he raised for three years in succession, but he never gave up. He still had faith in the ultimate development ofthe country, and, though disheartened by loss of crop, he never gave up.
Mr. Devall was married in 1882 to Mary M. Kirkpatrick, a soldier's widow from his native county. To this union has been born one child, Abigah L. He has filled the office of justice of the peace, but has never been an aspirant for political favors. In politics he is independent and will not allow himself to be dictated to by any party or faction. He has 210 acres of good land, 160 of which are under good cultivation.
Mr. Devall suffered untold exposures during his service in the army, from the effects of which he is now almost totally blind. He is an intelligent man and talks fluently upon any of the leading questions of the day.
WILLIAM R. WHEELER, one of the early settlers of Buffalo county, was born in London, England, March 16, 1846, and is the son of William D. H. and Jane (Hazel)Wheeler. He was brought to the United States by his parents, who located at St. Louis, Mo., in 1847, where they lived for several years. They subsequently located at Alton, Ill., where the father followed his trade as a machinist. He was an industrious, hard-working man; he died in 1880.
The educational advantages of William E. Wheeler were somewhat limited. He attended the common schools until about fifteen years of age, when he entered Scleartloff college, at Alton, Ill., one of the oldest institutions of learning in the state. He gave close application to his studies here for nearly two years.
In June, 1864, Mr. Wheeler enlisted in the One Hundred and Forty-fourth Illinois regiment, and determined to help put down the cruel rebellion. His regiment was sent up and down the Mississippi river twice and participated in a part of the famous Red river expedition. Mr. Wheeler was an active participant in the battle at Vicksburg and afterwards was sent to Alton, Ill., to guard prisoners. He was corporal of the six men detailed to take the rebel general, Marmaduke, from the boat to the prison. Gen. Marmaduke afterwards became governor of Missouri. Mr. Wheeler was mustered out at Camp Butler, on the twenty-third day of July, 1865.
He returned to his home in Illinois and decided to adopt farming as his vocation through life. This he has followed more or less of the time since, but prior to this resolution he followed railroading about two years. He accepted a position as brakeman on the Rock Island & St. Louis railroad and was soon afterwards promoted to conductor. His promotion was in recognition of his efforts in preventing a terrible wreck by flagging a train in time to prevent it from plunging into an obstruction on the track.
Mr. Weeeler is one of the first settlers of Buffalo county, having come here from Illinois on the twenty-sixth day of March, 1873. He came with the express purpose of making his home here and to that end took a homestead on section 30 in Valley township. Of course the country was
502BIOGRAPHICAL SOUVENIR OF BUFFALO COUNTY
new and settlers few and far between. The broad prairie was well stocked with wild game, such as antelope, deer, and occasionally a buffalo was visible. Mr. Wheeler and Mr. S. C. Ayers killed the last wild buffalo ever seen in the county. Indians were by no means scarce in the days of 1873. It was not an uncommon thing to see five hundred Indians at a time strolling over this part of the country. Mr. Wheeler was not absent from home when the grasshoppers paid their long-to-be-remembered visit to this section of the county. They feasted sumptuously on his promising fields of corn for three years in succession. They boarded with the farmers of Buffalo county as long as the green corn lasted and then they moved on.
The marriage of Mr. Wheeler to Miss Etta M. George was celebrated on the sixteenth day of January, 1874. Mrs. Wheeler was born in Massachusetts, April 14, 1855, and is the daughter of Truman Q. and Abbie M. (Gilfast) George. The former is a native of New Hampshire and the latter of Massachusetts. The children in the Wheeler family number five and are as follows -- Hasell, born October 6, 1876; Thyra, born June 7, 1879; Ethel, born November 13, 1882; Viola, born March 24, 1885 and Chester, born March 7, 1890.
Mr. Wheeler has taken considerable interest of late years in the cultivation of various kinds of vegetables and in this particular is one of the most successful men in the county. During the year 1889, he raised and marketed one thousand four hundred bushels of tomatoes, one hundred and eighty-four bushels of small pickles, sixty bushels of onions for which he received $4 per bushel, and seventeen thousand five hundred heads of cabbage. No man thus far in the county has anywhere near equaled this enormous crop of vegetables.
Mr. Wheeler has never specially undertaken to learn any trade, but he possesses rare mechanical talent and is handy at most anything he goes at. Several fine specimens of furniture in his house attest his rare genius in this particular.
SOLOMON F. HENNINGER, a prominent and influential farmer of Sharon township, Buffalo county, is a native of Trumbull county, Ohio, and was born January 3, 1833. He comes of Pennsylvanian parentage, his father, Solomon Henninger, and his mother, Catherine Lawrence, both being natives of the "Keystone State." They were married in their native state and moved West in 1830, settling in Trumbull county, Ohio, where they afterwards lived and died, both passing away in the year 1864, the father at the age of sixty-four and the mother at the age of sixty-three. They spent their entire lives on the farm, engaged in the peaceful pursuit of agriculture. They were among the early settlers of the locality where they lived and saw much of the hardships as well as many of the pleasures of pioneer life. They belonged to the industrious, thrifty, sturdy class of people by whom the middle states were mainly settled, and they exemplified in their lives many of the best qualities of the race, that race peculiar to the American frontier. Carrying the Bible in one hand and the ax in the other, they sub- Page 503 dued the savagery of nature and made the waste places blossom with the best fruits of an advanced civilization. Solomon and Catherine Henninger were devout members of the Lutheran church and died strong in the faith by which they had lived. They left a family of seven children, of whom the subject of this notice is the third, the others being Christopher, Priscilla, William, Nathan, who was killed at the battle of Atlanta, in the Union army, July 22, 1864, Polly and Jacob.
Solomon F. Henninger was reared on his father's farm in Trumbull county, Ohio, and received an ordinary common- school education, such as could be obtained in his day from the district schools where he grew up. Having something of a mechanical turn of mind and his father being able to spare his services from the farm, young Henninger, while yet a lad, took it into his head to learn the miller's trade, a thing which he successfully accomplished and afterwards devoted himself to the calling for some years. In 1855 he married Miss Barbara A. Coffman, a daughter of Isaac Coffman, then of Trumbull county, Ohio, but formerly of Pennsylvania. In the summer of 1861, when the clouds of the Civil war had fully burst upon his unhappy country and calls were being made for volunteers to defend the Union, Mr. Henninger, with a cheerfulness and alacrity born of the patriotism in him, responded promptly to the call and enlisted in Company H, Twentieth Ohio infantry. The organization of his regiment having been completed in Sept., 1861, it moved at once to the front and began active service. Mr. Henninger was with it from that time on till the surrender. He participated in the Vicksburg campaign, his regiment being one of four that sustained the heaviest losses at Raymond, Miss., losing at that place in killed and wounded sixty-eight men. It was also in the Atlanta campaign and sustained heavy losses in the assault on Kenesaw and in the attack on Atlanta; its casualties in these two engagements in killed and wounded being two hundred and twenty-seven. Mr. Henninger was in the service till the surrender, being mustered out at Camp Dennison, Ohio, in September, 1865. Returning to Trumbull county, he purchased a farm of forty acres and settled down to the peaceful pursuits of life, which he followed as zealously and with as much success as attended his military career. With an increasing family growing up around him, he decided, in 1872, to move West, where land was more plentiful and opportunities for giving his children a fair start were better, and in the spring of that year he came to Nebraska and settled in Buffalo county, in what is now Sharon township, taking a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, where he has since lived. From a modest, not to say humble, beginning he has grown to be one of the most prosperous farmers in the locality where he lives, owning a tract of five hundred and sixty acres of land, most of which he has purchased with means accumulated since settling in the county. He has his land in a good state of cultivation, making it all yield him a revenue in some shape. He has stuck steadily to farming, allowing no interests of a conflicting nature to interfere with the prosecution of his chosen calling. It could not happen, however, that a man of his extensive interests and well known business qualifications should not be called on
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to fill some positions of trust in connection with the administration of local affairs. He has served his township two years as assessor and is now serving as township supervisor. In politics he is a democrat, and, his township being largely republican, it is needless to add that the positions he has filled he has been called to because of his recognized fitness for them and not through political favors. He made the canvass a few years for the legislature, running on the democratic ticket, and was beaten by only about eighty votes in the county, as largely republican as Buffalo county is.
Being an old soldier, Mr. Henninger affiliates with the G. A. R. boys, being a member of Joe Hooker Post at Shelton. As a citizen he is popular with everybody. He weighs over two hundred pounds and is as kind-hearted, jolly, good-natured a man as lives within the borders of Buffalo county. He has an interesting family of children growing up around him, some of whom are married. In these and his pleasant home he naturally finds much of the pleasure of this life. His children, in the order of their ages, are Annie Mariah, now wife of Walter J. Steven, a sketch of whom appears in this work; Stephen, A. D., Monroe, Isaac, Minerva and Cora.
T. D. THATCHER, one of the earliest settlers of Sharon township, Buffalo county, and a man who has been actively identified with the best interests of his locality, is T. D. Thatcher, the subject of this brief biographical notice. Mr. Thatcher came to Buffalo county in 1871, taking a homestead of eighty acres at that date in Sharon township, where he settled and where he has since lived. He had then just turned into his twenty-first year, was newly married and came West in pursuance of the farmer-editor's advice "to grow up with the country." He came direct from his native place in Medina county, Ohio, where he was born March 2, 1850, and where he grew up to maturity and resided till moving West. Having had the misfortune to lose his father when he was hardly two years of age, and being one of a large family of children, Mr. Thatcher was, in a measure, in youth, his own preceptor, guardian and counselor, and has made his way almost entirely alone in the world. What education he received he obtained mainly in contact with the practical affairs of life, supplementing this with a meager common-school training, such as could be had by irregular attendance at the district schools during the winter months. He was brought up partly on the farm, partly at the dairy business, being chiefly engaged in cheese making, following this as a pursuit after growing up until moving West in 1871. The close application and exacting duties of his position in the latter business broke down his health, and it was partly also to regain this that he left Ohio and moved to Nebraska. He has been steadily engaged in farming since settling in Buffalo county and has succeeded far beyond the average in his chosen calling. To his original homestead of eighty acres he has added by purchase from time to time, until now he owns 240 acres, all of which he has under cultivation and yielding him a revenue in some shape. He is one of the wide-awake, progressive and successful farmers of the Wood River valley in
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Buffalo county, noted as it is for its enterprising, substantial, well-to-do citizens. He is also a stock-holder and member of the board of directors of the Shelton State Bank, which institution he assisted in organizing, and with the affairs of which he has been actively identified since. Mr. Thatcher has never suffered the buzzing of the bee for public office to interfere with his private pursuits or disturb the serenity of his mind. He has found his chief enjoyments, as well as his highest reward, in attending strictly to his own business. He has a pleasant home and an interesting family, to which he gives his time and which yield him in return for his care and thoughtful solicitude in their, behalf that highest form of earthly happiness, peace and contentment, garnished with those delightful home loves and fire-side attachments, which neither wealth can buy nor position give. Mr. Thatcher was married in 1870, the lady whom he selected for a life companion being Miss Flora M. Blanchard, a daughter of William M. Blanchard, of Medina county, Ohio. Four children have graced this union, all girls, the eldest of whom is now dead -- Emma H., Angie, Lora and Hazel. Mr. Thatcher's father, as already stated, died when he was young. His christian name was Buckley and he was a native of New York; married and came West, settling in Medina county, Ohio, where he followed the peaceful pursuit of agriculture till his death, which took place in 1852 and was caused by a railroad collision. Mr. Thatcher's mother, Emerancy Culver, was also a New Yorker by birth, and following the fortunes of her husband to the West, she discharged her duties of wife during his life and a mother before and after his death, in a way becoming her sex, rearing to maturity a family of nine children, to whom she gave up to her latest hour wholesome advice, and enforced this with an example in her own person of a pious, Christian mother, having been a life-long member of the Congregational church. She died in 1886, at the age of seventy-seven. The children who survived her were Roland C., Gilbert J., Melvina, Georgia, Mattie, Sarah, Abbie, Charles P. and Timothy D., the last mentioned being our subject. Mr. Thatcher and his excellent wife are members of the Presbyterian church and generous contributors to benevolent and charitable work.
GEORGE MILLER, one of the most prosperous farmers of Buffalo county, is the son of William and Fannie (Hicks) Miller. The former was a native of Delaware county, N. Y.; from there he emigrated to Perue, hence to Iowa, and from there to Missouri. In 1861 he returned to Iowa, where he still resides. In politics he is a democrat. He was married to Miss Fannie Hicks, a native of New York State, in 18-. They were both active and zealous workers in the M. E. church.
To Mr. and Mrs. Miller were born twelve children, viz. -- Charles, George, Calvin, Lynas (dead), Mary Catharine, William, Josephine, Willis, Miles, Martha, Lizzie and Samuel.
George, the subject of this biographical notice, was born in New York in 1841. With his parents he moved to Pennsylvania and thence to Missouri. He then began
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life for himself, first going to Kansas. He there began freighting across the plains, making his first trip to Mexico, next to Colorado, and then to Wyoming, where he remained four years; he then returned to his old home in Iowa, and thence came to Nebraska, first locating in Omaha, then came to Buffalo county in 1871, where he has since remained. Mr. Miller has met with very marked success, which is due to hard work, good management and economy. He now ranks as one of the most prosperous farmers of Buffalo county, owning at present over one thousand acres of land and feeding 150 head of cattle and 50 horses, this being but a part of his present possessions.
While Mr. Miller has made a financial success, he has made a success which is more enduring, in securing for himself a reputation for being of irreproachable character, in all things doing unto others as he would wish to be done by. In 1872 he was married at Anamosa, Jones county, Ia., to Miss Angeline B. Cohorn, -- Rev. Lease officiating. Mrs. Miller is a native of Iowa, born in 1849. Being a lady of keen insight and good judgment, she has proven herself to be a valuable helpmate to Mr. Miller. To them have been born eight children, viz. -- Alma, Alva Howard, Henry Augustus (dead), Arthur C., Bertie, George E., Dolly (died in infancy) and Kattie Blanche. Politically, Mr. M. is a democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have been members and liberal supporters of the Methodist Episcopal church for a number of years.
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