nell was a native of Pennsylvania, and was there reared and married. He moved from his native state to Ohio early in the present century, and became a pioneer of Belmont County. He lived there until about 1816, and then cast in his lot with the early settlers of Harrison County, in the same state. He bought a farm there, and was successfully, in agriculture until his death. The maiden name of his wife, the mother of our subject, was Prudence Coleman. Site was, it is thought, a native of Virginia, and died on the home farm in Ohio.
   The subject of this sketch was reared in the pioneer home of his parents in Harrison County, and after his marriage he bought a farm near his father's homestead. and lived there for many years. At length he sold his place there and moved to Indiana, settling near Peru in Miami County, where he bought a farm of 160 acres. In 1864 he traded for the land that he now owns and a tract in Kan. The latter he has sold. In the fall of that year he bought a stock of general merchandise in Chicago and, accompanied by his family, started west to find a suitable location to open a store, going by way of the railway to St. Joseph, Mo., then the western terminus of the railway, and from there proceeding on a steamer to Omaha. He did not consider the opening there favorable, so he returned to Atchison County, Mo., where he opened a general store. During that winter he sold his goods, and in the spring returned to Indiana and bought a hotel at Greencastle, which he managed until the following spring. He then sold out and returned to Miami County, and rented land until 1869. In the fall of that year he removed with his family to Nebraska to locate on his land, coming with teams. His land was at that time in a wild state, not a sod having been turned by the plowshare, and there being no buildings thereon, he rented a cabin near by in which his family spent the winter. During that season he was busily employed in erecting a commodious and comfortable hewed log house, into which his family moved in the spring of 1870, and in that year he made the first improvements on his land, which he has since brought into a high state of cultivation.
   The beloved wife of our subject, who so faithfully aided him in his early struggles, departed this life at their home in Indiana, May 5, 1864, leaving behind her a pleasant memory of a life well spent, and full of all things that go to make a good woman. Her maiden name was Rachel Hooper, and she was born in Harrison County, Ohio, Oct. 29, 1819. Mr. McConnell has seven children living--Robert J., Mary E., John, Nancy, Joseph, Wilson and Rachel. All the sons have been married. The father of Mrs. McConnell was Jesse Hooper, a farmer and a tanner, who carried on both occupations in Miami County, and died there.
   Mr, McConnell is a good citizen, a man of stable. character and steady habits, who is thoughtful and kind in his family relations. and whose neighbors always find him obliging and helpful, so that he fully deserves the high esteem and consideration in which he is held by all. In politics he is a Democrat.

ENJAMIN D. TAIT, a prominent resident of Nebraska City Precinct, is a wide-awake, intelligent man, of fine business ability, and of sound principles and good habits. He personally superintends his farming, stock-raising and fruit-growing interests, and derives from them a substantial income. The father of our subject, James Nelson Tait, was a pioneer of Nebraska, and an early settler of Nebraska City, with whose commercial interests he was prominently identified for several years.
   Our subject is a native of Clermont County, Ohio, his birth occurring there Jan. 31, 1844. His father was James N. Tait, who was born in Springfield, Mass., Dec. 19, 1816. His father, Joseph D., was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and at the age of fourteen he entered the English Army as a drummer boy, and came to America with his regiment during the War of 1812, and was present at the battle of Lundy's Lane. After peace was declared he settled in Massachusetts, and there married a Miss Holten, of New England birth. He subsequently moved from Massachusetts to New York, and plied his trades of stonemason and plasterer in Oswego

County, where he resided until his death. After making his home in this country he was always a loyal citizen, and during the late war enlisted as drum major, but the infirmities of age incapacitated him for the position, and he was soon discharged and lived but a short time. His wife survived him a number of years.
   The father of our subject, whose portrait we give on an accompanying page, was but a boy when his parents moved from Massachusetts to New York, and there he grew to manhood. He remained in the parental home until he was nineteen, and then started out to seek his own living, traveling quite extensively, and doing odd jobs of work at anything that would pay. He finally settled down near Batavia, Ohio, and was for some time engaged as a clerk, until he learned the trade of a miller, and he then operated a mill for the same man for whom he had been clerking. After marriage he established himself in the mercantile business in Clermont County, Ohio, and from there he went to Marathon, where he carried on the same business until 1858. In that year he wound up his affairs in Ohio, and came to the Territory of Nebraska, by way of the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, landing in Nebraska City on the 1st of May. He went to Nemaha County, and there made a claim, on which he built at small frame structure in which to live, broke a few acres of his land and raised a crop. Wild animals, such as deer, prairie chickens, wolves, etc., were very plentiful then, and the deer destroyed his sweet corn.
   In the fall of the year, after he had proved up on his land, Mr. Tait moved to Nebraska City and entered into the mercantile business. There were no railways nearer than Eastern Iowa at that time, and all transportation was done with teams or on the waters of the Missouri River, where steamboats were constantly plying. Mr. Tait kept a general store with Talbert Ashton, under the firm name of Ashton & Tait. They were appointed agents for the different steamboat lines, leased the levee from the city, and had to collect wharfage and keep it in repair. This was for some time the headquarters of the freighters, who were engaged in teaming supplies across the plains to the different military posts and mining camps, and large amounts of freight were received and forwarded by the firm. Mr. Tait and his partner continued in the mercantile business together until 1865, and as agents of the steamboats until 1868, when they dissolved partnership, and Mr. Tait retained the agency until his death, May 1, 1869, caused by accidentally walking off a high bank in the night, and sustaining injuries from which he died in a few hours. Nebraska City thus lost an energetic, enterprising citizen, one who had done much to extend its commercial interests.
   Mr. Tait and his wife were the parents of three children--Benjamin D., Joseph E. and Mary E. Joseph was born Feb. 17, 1847, and died Oct. 30, 1865; Mary married David W. Ferry, and resides in Nemaha County. The maiden name of the mother of our subject was Rachel Cramer, and she was born in Brown County, Ohio, Jan. 2, 1823. Her father, Benjamin D. Cramer, was born in Monmonth County, N. J., Oct. 16, 1799. a son of Samuel and Rachel (Doughty) Cramer, the former supposed to have been a native of New Jersey, and the latter of New Goshen, Orange Co., N. Y. In 1816 his parents removed to Ohio, going with wagons to Pittsburg, and thence on flatboats down the Ohio to their destination. Mr. Cramer bought a tract of timber land in Brown County, and there engaged in farming until his death. Mrs. Tait's father, grandfather of our subject, was but a youth of seventeen years when his parents moved to Ohio in January, 1817. He inherited a part of the old homestead after his father's' death, and bought another place near by, and resided there some years. About 1852 he broke up housekeeping to make his home with his children, and in 1862 came to Nebraska to spend his last years with Mrs. Tait. The maiden name of his wife was Calista Granger, and she was born in Seneca County, N. Y., a daughter of Ephraim and Dorothy (Lampkin) Granger. She died at the old homestead in Brown County, Ohio.
   Benjamin Tait, of this sketch, was a lad of fourteen years when he came to Nebraska with his parents, and he remembers well the incidents of pioneer life here. He had gained the foundation of a sound, practical education in the Ohio public schools after a course in the city schools here, In 1867 was sent to Poughkepsie, N. Y., to attend Eastman's