My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL McNEES, farmer of Reuben township, Harlan county, Nebr., is a native of Indiana, and was born in 1831. His father, Jehu McNees, was born in Maryland in 1794, and from that state went to Tennessee; thence he moved to Indiana, and in 1854 to Warren county, Iowa. He was a farmer by occupation, and a successful one. He served in the War of 1812, and was truly a patriotic American. In politics he was first a whig, but later became a republican. He died in Iowa, a consistent member of the Christian church. His wife, Mary (Yeckley) McNees, whom he married in 1815, was also a native of Maryland, and was born in 1797. To these parents were born six children, as follows — Mrs. Sallie Puckett (deceased), Mrs. Lucinda Greenway, Mrs. Susan Huffman, Mrs. Marion Huffman (deceased), Samuel, the subject of this sketch, and Andrew, who died young.

Samuel McNees went toWarren county, Iowa, with his father in 1851, and from that time dates his business life. In 1862, he enlisted in Company B, Thirty-fourth Iowa infantry, in which he served until the close of the war, when he was mustered out at Chicago, in 1865. He then returned to Iowa, where he was engaged in farming until 1872, when he came to Nebraska. At that time the country was a wild and desolate waste, and buffalo and antelope roamed the prairie in unmolested freedom. The fortune of Mr. McNees, on coming here, consisted of four teams and a wagon and $400 to $500 in cash; he is now the possessor of a half section of land, two hundred acres of which are in a fine state of cultivation. The family, however, own eight hundred and eighty acres, Mr. McNees having been the chief agent in securing this large property.

Mr. McNees has been an extensive traveler and has visited twenty-three states, and there is nothing he enjoys more than an occasional excursion. In politics, he is an active republican, and has served as county supervisor three terms and as assessor one term; he has also been a member of the school board ten years. His religious faith is that of the United Brethren.

The marriage of Mr. McNees took place in 1853, to Miss Phebe Right, a native of Indiana, born in 1834. To this union have been born eight children, namely — William, in Harlan county; Susan, wife of Rev. Pohemus, a United Brethren minister; Mrs. Tulley, wife of a farmer and stock raiser in Oregon; Mrs. Mary Yapp, in Franklin county, Nebr.; Mrs. Ann Jane Melton, in Lincoln county, Nebr.; George, in Oregon; John and Florence, at home.

Mr. McNees was a natural-born hunter, and has roamed the plains and mountains from the eastern line of Indiana to the Pacific coast, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northern lakes, and has killed all kinds of game that abound in those regions, both small and great, from the black squirrel of Indiana up to the buffalo of the plains and the grizzly of the mountains; he has slept out in the open air half the time since 1862. He is now sixty years old and would walk two hundred miles to get a single shot at a buffalo or a grizzly. He loves nature more than art, and his delight is to get where man has not despoiled the work of nature.