My Genealogy Hound

HON. R. R. GREER. Among the early settlers of the city of Kearney, and a man who has been prominently identified with the best business interests of the Midway city, as well as those of his adopted county and state, is Hon. R. R. Greer, more generally and familiarly known as “Bob” Greer, a biographical notice of whom here follows. Mr. Greer is of Irish-American origin and in his make-up he presents a happy blending of the chief traits of the two people from whom he is descended. His father, James L. Greer, was a native of Ireland and was brought to this country by his parents when a child. He was reared mainly in Pittsburgh, Pa., where his parents settled, immigrating West at the age of nineteen and locating in Schuyler county, Ill. There he met and married Miss Nancy Wilson, a Kentucky-born lady, whose parents, Elijah and Martha Wilson, had immigrated some years before from Kentucky into the Illinois territory when that country was thrown open to settlement and had cast their fortunes on the then frontier, in what is now Schuyler county. Settling down to the peaceful pursuits of agriculture in the county of their adoption, James L. and Nancy Greer are living, engrossed in their personal and domestic affairs. They are both zealous members of the Methodist church and take an active interest in all church work, being generous contributors also to all charitable purposes. They reared a family of six children, four boys and two girls, as follows — Emma, Robert R., George, Charles, Hattie and Moulton. The second of these and the eldest son, Robert R., the subject of this notice, was born and reared in Schuyler county, Ill., having been brought up on his father’s farm and following agricultural pursuits during his earlier years. Quitting the farm on reaching his majority, he began life for himself as a clerk in a mercantile establishment at Rushville, Ill., following clerical pursuits there and in that vicinity for some years. Coming West then, he lived awhile at Peru, Nebr., and afterwards in Holt county, Mo., and finally in the spring of 1873 he came to Buffalo county, this state, and located in Kearney, which was just starting, having hardly then reached the dignity of a cross roads village. Mr. Greer engaged at once in the mercantile business, becoming one of Kearney’s first merchants, as he afterwards became one of the most successful ones. He was engaged in business for more than sixteen years, and it is no exaggeration to say that he sold, during that time, many a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of goods, having a trade extending not only throughout all Buffalo county, but into the southwestern counties across the Platte river and into the northwestern counties among the ranchmen along several forks of the Loup and Dismal and beyond that. Of course he made money — with the early opportunities he enjoyed and his attentive business habits and methods, he could not do otherwise. Like a prudent man, he invested his means as they accumulated beyond his business acquirements, in real estate in Kearney and Buffalo county, and with the gradual improvement of the county and the consequent rise in values these investments brought him good returns. Closing out his mercantile affairs in July, 1889, he has since given his time and attention to his investments and to duties of a public nature, in connection with offices with which he has been honored. Mr. Greer has been identified with the growth and development of Kearney and Buffalo county since the day he cast his fortunes with them, and he has taken an active and, in some instances, a conspicuous, part in different enterprises which have been set on foot for the betterment of the material and social condition of his community. He has kept up his interest in agriculture and has been the able champion of the farmers’ rights and privileges in this state.

He is now president of the Nebraska State Fair Association and has done much valuable work for the agricultural, horticultural, live stock and dairying interests of the state. Mr. Greer visits other states, attends fairs and stock shows and gathers information, which he lays before the public, from time to time, in the shape of annual reports, and thus carries theory and practice along hand in hand and gets at the same time the benefit of the experience of others engaged by similar lines of endeavor. Mr. Greer is often called in consultation with Gov. Thayer.

Personally, Mr. Greer is popular, being well and favorably known by all the old settlers with whom he had dealings in the early days. He is wide awake and progressive in his views, and welcomes all new-comes and encourages the bringing of capital and new industries. He is, in short, a thorough-going man of affairs. Polite, genial and affable — one whom it is a pleasure to meet either in business or social relation, and of whose personality even the casual acquaintance retains a distinct and happy remembrance.

Mr. Greer was united in marriage to Miss Susie Peter in 1873, a very lovely lady of Rushville, Ill. Mrs. Greer is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.