My Genealogy Hound

ABRAM STEDWELL. This gentleman is an earlier settler of Buffalo county. He was born in Cuyahoga county, N. Y., September 25, 1826. His father, Abraham Stedwell, a wheelwright by occupation, was a native of Connecticut, born about 1781. His mother, Rebecca (Sheffield) Stedwell, was a native of New York state and was born about 1771. Abram, the subject of this biography, moved with his father’s family, at the age of three years, to Huron county, Ohio, where he attended school until twelve years of age, when his father moved to Hancock county, Ill. Here he lived about ten years and then moved to Lee county, Iowa, where for two years he engaged in farming, after which he moved to Peoria, Ill., and worked at the carpenter trade. He resided in Peoria and Peoria county about six years, and then moved to Knox county, Ill., and a little later to Mason county, where he resided six years, and in 1860 moved to Henry county, Iowa, where for fifteen years he engaged in farming. He enlisted February 28, 1862, in Company C, Fourth Iowa cavalry, but, before active service was reached, contracted lung fever and was left March 10, 1862, in the hospital at Rolla, Mo., where he was confined until January 1, 1863, when he reported to his regiment, but, being still unable for duty, was sent to the hospital at Helena, Ark., where he remained until July, 1863, when he was transferred to the Marine hospital at St. Louis, Mo. He reported to his regiment in the rear of Vicksburg, in November, 1863, at which place he re-enlisted. He was in active service from that time till the close of the war, with General Sherman in what is known as his Meridian Raid. With Grierson, from Memphis to Vicksburg, and with Wilson in his last raid through Alabama and Georgia. He was discharged August 25, 1865, at Davenport, Iowa. He emigrated west in the spring of 1875 and stopped in Gage county, Nebr., where he put out crops which were nearly all destroyed by the grasshoppers. In November of the same year he came to Buffalo county and the next spring pre-empted the northwest quarter of section 12, township 10, range 16, which he afterwards entered as a homestead and still owns. When he landed here his entire worldly possessions consisted of $20 in money, one span of small mules, a wagon, one cow, and a dwarf mule. He spent $15 of his money in fixing up a house in which to spend the winter, and the following spring borrowed seven bushels of wheat, which he sowed. The drought and grasshoppers proved so ruinous that year that he harvested only three bushels of wheat from the seven which he had sown in the spring. His family was reduced to such straightened circumstances that his wife took in washing, and with the money thus earned purchased potatoes at five cents per bushel, while he hauled wood from government lands on the Loup river to Kearney, which required two days’ time for each load, and received from $2 to $5 per load for his wood. In this manner they managed to live. He rented a set of blacksmith’s tools from a neighbor, giving him one-half of the earnings, and at odd intervals managed to make something at this employment, and finally, when the neighbor, scared out by the grasshoppers, traded his wagon for the tools, and ran the shop for twelve years in connection with the farm. After that year he raised good crops, and in February, 1889, moved into Kearney, where he built three houses and has considerable property. He was married March 8, 1853, to Sarah M. Holmes, daughter of Henry G. and Keturah (Yaw) Holmes, both natives of New York state; the former, a farmer by occupation, was born July 16, 1806; the latter was born November 2, 1804. Her father, Henry G. Holmes, went to California in 1849 and on his return trip was registered for passage on a steamboat, but was never heard from afterwards. It is supposed that the steamer was wrecked and he perished. Mr. and Mrs. Stedwell have had no children, but have raised several. They are both active members of the Christian church, and politically Mr. Stedwell is Independent. He was elected, in the fall of 1882, by the Farmer’s alliance of the county, as representative in the state legislature, and served one term of two years in that capacity. He has held various other minor offices, such as justice of the peace which office he held eight years, town clerk and assessor.