My Genealogy Hound

ALBERT FELLOWS is a prosperous farmer in Grant township, and one of the first settlers of Buffalo county. He was born April 6, 1840, at Cambria, Niagara county, N. Y. His father, William L. Fellows, a wheelwright, was a native of Conneticut. His mother, Polly (Higby) Fellows, was a native of New York State, and was born in the year 1826. There were five children, four boys and one girl, in the paternal family, of which Albert is the third. Albert resided at home the greater part of his time until twenty-one and was engaged in farming and attending the neighboring school. In 1861 he emigrated West and located at Pontiac, Livingston county, Ill., where soon after he responded to his country’s call and enlisted August 28, 1861, in Company C, Thirty-ninth Illinois regiment. The first battle in which he participated was in the Shenandoah valley, with Gen. Shields in command on the Union side and Gen. Jackson on the rebel side. The rebel forces were not only treated to a severe whipping but were routed and driven in hot haste down the valley. The next battle in which he took an active part was fought at Port Royal, after which his regiment was ordered to Harrison’s landing and finally to South Carolina. He was through the siege of Ft. Wagner and participated next in the battle at Chapin’s farm and a little later in the battle of Bermuda Hundred, at which he was captured May 16, 1864, and taken to Petersburgh, where he was confined for two weeks and then transferred to Andersonville prison, where he remained from June 1st to September 19th, and was then taken to Charleston, kept two weeks and finally taken one hundred miles north to what was known as the Florence stockade, where he remained until December 10th, and was paroled. Out of eleven men captured from his company at the same time and confined in Andersonville, only five lived to get out. There were thirty-five thousand prisoners confined in Andersonville at the time he was there, and the story of his experience and what he there witnessed is heart-rending in the extreme. After being paroled, he went to Annapolis, Md., received a thirty-day furlough, came home and returned again, shortly after which, February 19, 1865, he was mustered out. Although in his three and one-half years of experience in the war, he was never wounded, he had his gun shot from his hands at one time and two bullet holes put through his clothes at another. After being discharged he returned to Pontiac, Ill., and followed farming for four years, after which he moved to Tazewell county, Ill., where he farmed for two years, and in April, 1872, emigrated West and located in Buffalo county, Nebr. He took up a homestead six miles west of Kearney in Odessa township. There were but few settlers in this section of the state at that time, and wild game, deer, antelope, elk, etc., were quite plentiful, and buffalo were not infrequently killed. There were many Indians along the Platte river and for the first two years proved very troublesome. One afternoon, when Mr. Fellows was away from home, and a neighbor woman was staying with Mrs. Fellows, a band of eighteen Indians stopped at the house and made threatening demands, whereupon the two women fired several loads from the barrels of a couple shot guns at them, and the Indians fled at full speed, hallooing, “brave squaws.” In the grasshopper times, 1874-76, Mr. Fellows lost all his crops and was compelled to haul corn from Red Cloud, Kans., a distance of ninety miles. He finally sold his claim for $350 and later bought the claim on which he now resides in the Wood River valley. He was burned out at one time and had nothing left but his team, wagon and some household goods. He was married, September 14, 1865, to Margaret Haines, who was born June 17, 1845, and is a native of Illinois. Their union has resulted in the birth of eleven children, as follows — Harriet E., August 10, 1867; William L., June 11, 1869; Emma J., May 9, 1871; John F., September 8, 1872; Alberta, July 7, 1874; Francis M., July 22, 1876; Albert, June 24, 1878; Guy, August 24, 1880; Lee, January 28, 1883; Grace, April 17, 1885; Jessie, March 5, 1888. In political matters Mr. Fellows is a democrat.