My Genealogy Hound

HORATIO H. WALDO was born January 20, 1833, and is a son of David and Theoda (Haskill) Waldo. His parents came to Nebraska in 1875, where they resided until they died. The father died on November 14, 1879, and the mother eight years later. There was just eight years difference in their ages and they both died at the same age. They were noted for their many charities and other christian graces. The father was particularly noted for his honesty and integrity in business and his motto always was — “Do as you would be done by.” Our subject is the fourth child in a family of eight children, named as follows — Catharine, wife of John Vanhorn of Polk county, Nebr.; Sallie, wife of Robert Eaton, of Franklin county, Nebr.; Oscar L.; Horatio H., our subject; Annie, wife of Eugene Wheeler; Chauncey H., who was a member of Company E, Fifth Iowa cavalry and died in Omaha, Nebr., from disease contracted while in the war; Helen M., wife of Hiram P. Edwards, of Ogle, Ill.; Abbie M., wife of Henry M. Warriner, of Bloomington, Nebr.

H. H. Waldo was educated in the common schools until he reached the twentieth year of his age, when he began life for himself by engaging in farming. He continued farming until he made a contract with the government to carry the mail. In 1861, he enlisted in Company E, Fifth Iowa cavalry, and was engaged in the battles of Fort Donelson, Nashville and Franklin, Tenn. While in the service he never shrank from those dangerous and hazardous duties peculiar to the cavalry service. At one time he was out with a squad of a dozen cavalry men, when they were surrounded by many times their number of the enemy, but by courage and determination they bravely cut their way through, and thereby escaped capture. In 1864, while in an engagement near Duck river, he received a wound on the cheek, and, having noticed the man who shot him, he returned fire and killed him.

He was honorably discharged June 27, 1865, at Nashville, Tenn. He still suffers from disease contracted from exposure during the war, and will never be a well man again.

In 1867, he chose for a sharer of his fortunes Miss Mary Prince, of Virginia. By this union one child, named Annie Blanche, was born. His wife died, May 10, 1871, in Wyoming, Jones county, Iowa, and is buried there. She was a strict member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was noted for her many charities and christian deeds.

In 1875, he married Arabella Lyness, a daughter of Joseph Lyness, of Jackson, Iowa. To this union three children have been born, namely — Caroline Nebraska, who died at the age of thirteen months in Polk county, Nebr., and is buried there; Charles A. and Clarence H.

Mr. Waldo has been in the livery business for seventeen years. In 1885, he moved to Franklin, bringing with him a fine lot of stock, and opened a livery, in which business he has been very successful. He is a “hustler” for business and is known by every traveling man who comes to Franklin and is liked by all of them. He has never been known to “gouge” a man, and he has adopted and follows his father’s motto, “Do as you would be done by.” He is a member of I. O. O. F. and G. A. R. Post. He and his wife attend the M. E. church.