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SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA.

fine stock as will be found anywhere in the country. Three and a half miles east of Beatrice Mr. Kimball has fifty acres of land, where he is making a specialty of raising fine hogs.

Mr. Kimball was married October 24, 1864, to Miss Emma L. Kimball, of Quincy, Illnois, daughter of Rev. Milton Kimball, a Presbyterian minister of Illinois. They have an only child, Frank J. Kimball, who is married and living in Omaha, Nebraska, where he is proprietor of the Kimball Laundry. He first engaged in the laundry business in Beatrice, when a mere youth, and established the business at this place that his father now has charge of.

Mrs. Kimball is a member of the Presbyterian church, the faith in which she was reared. Politically Mr. Kimball is a Republican, always taking a commendable interest in public affairs, but never seeking official honors.

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SAMUEL KINNEY.

Samuel A. Kinney, proprietor of "Wolf Valley Stock Farm" in Gage county, Nebraska, is one of the prominent farmers of the county. Mr. Kinney was born in Richardson county, Nebraska, January 2, 1861, and is descended from English ancestry. His father, David Kinney, first saw the light of day on the shores of Lake Champlain, in northern Vermont, he being a son of Hammond Kinney, whose father was an Englishman who came to this country before the Revolutionary war and in that war fought for the independence of the American colonies. Hammond Kinney died at the age of eighty-five years. His wife, nee Lucretria Edson, was a native of Vermont. Their son David grew up in the Green Mountain state and there learned the carpenter's trade. When a young man he came west, first to Wisconsin, then to Illinois,

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next to Leavenworth, Kansas, and finally to Richardson county, Nebraska. Here he met and married Miss Malinda Stumbo, a native of eastern Ohio, and a member of a German family, her father being John Stumbo, one of the first settlers of Richardson county. Mr. David Kinney built the first mill in this county, for his father-in-law. He died here in 1891, at the age of fifty-six years. He was politically a Republican and his religious creed was that of the Evangelical church, in which he was a deacon. His widow is still living, now a resident of Blue Springs, Nebraska. They had a family of six children, namely: Samuel A., Frank Edson, Dora, Henry B., William and Viva.

Samuel Kinney was reared on a farm and received a liberal schooling at White Cloud and Manhattan, Kansas, and was a successful teacher for nine years in Kansas and Nebraska. Since leaving the schoolroom he has given his whole attention to farming and stockraising. He owns Wolf Valley Farm, which comprises eight hundred acres and, he has a good residence and one of the finest barns in Gage county. This barn is seventy-four by forty-four feet in dimensions, has a large basement built of rock, with all modern improvements and is especially fitted for dairy business, having room for twenty-five cows.

Mr. Kinney was married December 25, 1883, to Julia Smead, who was previous to her marriage a popular and successful teacher. Her father, O. E. Smead, came to Nebraska from New York, and is now a resident of Kearney, this state. He is a veteran of the Civil war. Her mother, whose maiden name was Mary Hitchock, was born in Ohio. In the Smead family were five children, of whom Mrs. Kinney is the oldest, the others being Anna, Arthur, Eugene, and Alvin. Mr. and Mrs. Kinney have had seven children, viz.: Loyette, Earl D., Edith O., Floyd, Ruth and Glenn. The last named died at the age of

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five years. Like his father before him, Mr. Kinney is a Republican voter.

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ROSS W. NELSON.

Occupying a representative position among the leading, and successful business men of Pawnee county, Nebraska, is Ross W. Nelson, the grain and coal dealer in Bookwalter.

Mr. Nelson was born in Van Buren county, Iowa, September 24, 1866. Hugh Nelson, his father, a native of Ohio, was born near Savannah, July 2, 1830, and died in Van Buren county, Iowa, June 12, 1900. William Nelson, the grandfather, was also an Ohio man and was engaged in farming there for many years. He traded a forty-acre farm in that state for three hundred acres of raw prairie land in Van Buren county, Iowa, in 1845, and this land is still held by members of the family. He lost two sons and three daughters in childhood, and reared three sons, John, William and Hugh.

Mr. Nelson's mother is still living and is now seventy-two years of age. She was before her marriage Miss Hannah Coulter, and was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1832, daughter of William Coulter, a farmer who came west in 1845. In 1864 she was united in marriage to Hugh Nelson, and their children are Ross W. and his two brothers, William E. and Clyde H., who are engaged in farming in Iowa.

Ross W. Nelson was reared to farm life and had the advantage of a common school education only. He remained a member of the home circle until his twenty-second year, after which he engaged in farming with an uncle in western Iowa. He came to Pawnee county, Nebraska, fourteen years ago, in 1889, and was a wage worker on farms here

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© 1999, Lori L. Laird, NEGenWeb Project