My Genealogy Hound

A. EDDY, an old settler of Gibbon township, Buffalo county, a prominent and successful farmer, and as kind-hearted a christian gentleman as lives in the State of Nebraska, is A. Eddy, the subject of this short biography. Mr. Eddy has been a resident of the locality where he lives since May, 1874, and he has been identified with the best material, social and moral interests of that locality since settling there. He is well known throughout the county, and those who know him never mention his name but to speak his praise.

Mr. Eddy is a native of Wyoming county, N. Y., and comes of two of the early settled families of western York state. His father, John Eddy, was born in Rhode Island, December 9, 1795, and was taken to western New York by his parents when a lad, settling in Genesee county, where, December 17, 1817, he married Caroline Ward, and there subsequently lived and died. He was a farmer, a man of plain tastes, settled habits and uneventful life. He died, February 14, 1881, after a long life of great activity and usefulness. His wife, mother of our subject, was born January 6, 1799, and died October 29, 1881, after a life of pious, christian endeavor.

In the family to which Mr. Eddy belongs there were eleven children, as follows: Alfred, born November 2, 1818, married February 21, 1843, died October 2, 1887; Lydia, born May 20, 1820, married to Lewis W. Gill, October 7, 1841; Laura, born February 1, 1822, married to George Nichols February 6, 1851; Asahel, subject of this sketch, born October 2, 1823, and married January 1, 1845; Parthena, born September 27, 1825, and married September 28, 1842, to Joseph Dickerson; Edwin, born March 30, 1829, and married March 10, 1850; James, born May 30, 1832, and married February 19, 1857; Caroline, born June 13, 1834, and married May 14, 1856, to Elliott Barber; John, Jr., born October 7, 1836, married March 23, 1859, and killed May 31, 1862, at the battle of Fair Oaks, Va.; Rachel, born January 22, 1840, and married, January 6, 1861, to Abram Thompson; and Spaulding, born January 5, 1843, and died July 25, 1843.

The subject of this sketch was reared mainly in his native county, passing his maturer years in the county of Wyoming. He was brought up on his father’s farm, receiving as good common-school training as could be had in the public schools of those days, and being brought up to the habits of industry and usefulness common to farm life. January 1, 1845, he married a neighbor girl, Sarah Cook, a daughter of Samuel and Chloe (Warner) Cook, early settlers in western New York. Mrs. Eddy, born August 10, 1825, is a native of Vermont, as were also her parents, but was reared in York state. Her father and mother died in Buffalo in 1831, during the great cholera scourge. Mr. Eddy settled down to the pursuit of agriculture after marriage, and followed it successfully a short time in Wyoming county, but moved West, without any family, and settled in McHenry county, Ill. He was residing there when the trouble came on that resulted in the great Civil war, and like the patriot he was, when the call was made for volunteers to defend the Union, he shouldered his musket and went to the front, enlisting August, 1862, in Company E, Ninety-fifth Illinois volunteer infantry. He served with the army in the West and took part in the Vicksburg campaign, being present at the engagements at and around Vicksburg, continuing actively on the front for one year, when, on account of failure of health, he was compelled to take a place as prison guard, in which capacity he served till the end of the war, at Rock Island, Ill.

Returning to Illinois he resided there, engaged in farming, till the spring of 1874, when his mind once more turned towards the great West and he decided to take up his abode on the rich prairies west of the Missouri river. He landed at Gibbon, Buffalo county, May 1st, that year. He at once purchased a place, buying the historic tract of land known as “Boyd’s Ranch,” lying about a mile west of Gibbon on Wood river, and there located and has since resided there. Mr. Eddy has bought and sold several tracts of land since he made this purchase, owning now as much as four hundred acres in Buffalo county. He has been steadily engaged in farming and stock-raising, at which he has been successful far beyond the average old settler. His home place is one of the most desirable places in the famous Wood River valley, noted as that valley is for its many fine farms. He has his entire farm under cultivation and it yields him an abundance of Nebraska’s sovereign products, corn and hay. It has an abundance of native timber, and, lying on the banks of Wood river, it is furnished with an ample sufficiency of flowing water. It is in as moral a community as there is in Buffalo county; being only one mile from the town of Gibbon it has all needful market, school, church and social advantages.

Mr. Eddy is the father of nine children, eight of whom, four boys and four girls, are living and married. These are Amanda C, born July 13, 1847, and married October 2, 1866, to A. Watenpaugh; Spaulding, born November 14, 1849, and married August 9, 1871, to Amanda E. Norton; Henry A., born February 14, 1852, and married March 9, 1887, to Rebecca Peoples; Laura Belle, born June 17, 1854, and married July 2, 1873, to L. S. Buck; Caroline E., born April 15, 1857, and married July 26, 1875, to E. B. Dunkin; George A., born August 2, 1859, and married November 21, 1881, to Martha Trout; Frank D., born December 2, 1861, married January 2, 1887, to Mary E. Hays; Mary R., born October 27, 1866, and married May 10, 1887, to Bailey E. Vesey. Mr. and Mrs. Eddy’s first child, a son born February 1, 1846, died in infancy.

In politics Mr. Eddy was reared a democrat and voted the democratic ticket up to the war. He then affiliated with the republican party and for many years voted that ticket straight through on all national and state issues. Of late years, however, he has been an independent republican with decided convictions on the prohibition of the drink traffic. He possesses strong temperance views and is outspoken in his opinion on temperance issues. He is active in his efforts towards temperance reform, and now has enlisted in the great uprising of the farmers to free us from the corporate rule into which the old parties political have fallen and which legislate for the few at the expense of the many.

Mr. and Mrs. Eddy are both members of the Baptist church, having belonged to that church for many years and reared most of their family in that church.