My Genealogy Hound

JOHN F. YOUNG is one of the earliest settlers of Buffalo county, and a man much respected for his honorable and upright course in life. He was born in Union county, Ill., May 20, 1843. His father, Alexander Young, a farmer by occupation, was a native of Kentucky, and was born April 30, 1803. He died in 1844 at the age of forty-one years. His mother, Margaret (Wilgus) Young, is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born October 2, 1809. She is still living, hale and hearty, at eighty years of age. There were eight children in the father’s family, as follows — Elizabeth, Sarah A., Hester, Eliot, Nancy, Julia, Mary and John F. The father died when John F., whose name appears at the head of this sketch, was a mere babe, and when two years old his mother moved to Logan county, Ohio, and in this and Union county John F. spent his boyhood days. He attended the neighboring school and labored on the farm until the war broke out, when he was one of the first to respond to his country’s call, enlisting April 25, 1861, in Company F, Eighth Indiana infantrv. He went with his regiment to West Virginia, where, under Gen. Rosecrans, he participated in the battle of Rich Mountain. At the expiration of his time he was discharged August 6, 1861, at Indianapolis. He next enlisted, September 28, 1861, at Columbus, Ohio, in Company K, First Ohio cavalry, and was in Gen. Thomas’ division until the re-organization of the cavalry into brigades in the fall of 1862, after which he was in the Army of the Cumberland. April 15, 1862, he was taken sick with the typhoid fever at Pittsburgh landing, and was sent to Camp Dennison hospital. Later, he obtained a thirty-day furlough, and returned home. Joining his regiment the latter part of July, he participated in an engagement at Tallahoma, Tenn., and the battle of Chickamauga in September, at which battle he was wounded in the left forearm and sent to the Cumberland hospital at Nashville, where he remained one month and was transferred to the hospital at Covington, Ky., where he was confined until the latter part of February following, when he returned to Nashville and re-enlisted as a veteran, March 11, 1864, in the same company and regiment. Altogether, he participated in battles and skirmishes at Calhoun, Tenn.; Decatur, Ala.; Moulton, Ala.; Kennesaw Mountain, Noonday Creek, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Jonesborough, Lovejoy Station, Rome, Dalton and Jasper, Ga.; Ebenezer Church, Ala.; Selma, Ala., Columbus and Alpine, Ga.; Liberty, Perryville and Franklin, Ky., and Dobson’s Ford. Mr. Young was one of a small company of men under Captain Joseph A. O. Yoeman, who, disguised in rebel uniform, was sent from Macon, Ga., in search of, and assisted in the capture of, Jefferson Davis. They were twice taken prisoners by the Union forces but were released on producing papers showing their identity. Mr. Young, for his individual service in the capture of Jeff. Davis, received a special bounty from the government of $329.00. He was discharged at Hilton Head, S. C., September 13, 1865, and now gets a pension of $2.00 per month for disabilities incurred in the war.

He moved, in November, 1866, to Philadelphia, Pa., where he labored in the lumber industry for three years, after which he returned to Ohio, and in Madison and Union counties was engaged in farming until 1873. In May, 1873, he emigrated west and located in Buffalo county, Nebr., taking a claim in section 22, township 10, range 16. In those days that section of the country was very sparsely settled and wild game was plentiful. Mr. Young reports having frequently shot elk, antelope and deer. There were very few buffalo remaining, but now and then one was to be seen. In 1873 he had out ten acres of sod-corn, but, on account of extreme drought, got but little for his labor. In 1874 he broke up more land and put out more crops, but, the grasshoppers coming that year, he harvested only a few bushels of wheat. He lost in like manner his corn in 1875. In 1876 he put out larger crops than ever, but that year the grasshoppers destroyed every growing thing, and even ate the dry bark from off his bean poles. From seventy acres of wheat, that year, he harvested but thirty-three bushels. The suffering and privation his family had to endure can better be imagined than described. The three following years brought good crops. In 1880, he moved back to Ohio, locating at Marion, where, for six years, he had a fruit and confectionery store. In 1886, he returned to Buffalo county, Nebr., and has since been engaged in farming.

He was married April 2, 1864, to Sarah E. King, who was born June 16, 1848, and is the adopted daughter of William and Elizabeth (Kimsey) King; the former was born June 15, 1797, and the latter, June 26, 1797. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Young has been blessed with the birth of eight children, as follows — Anna E., born October 20, 1866; Eliot (deceased), born July 26, 1869; Margaret, born November 8, 1870; Joanna (deceased) born February 11, 1873; Nellie C., born August 20, 1875; William R., born July 11, 1877; Bessie M., born June 25, 1881, and John M., born April 7, 1883.

Mr. and Mrs. Young are both active members of the Methodist Episcopal church and have so reared their children in that belief that their home is one which may truly be characterized a model home.