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Below is a family biography included in the book,  Biographical Souvenir of the Counties of Buffalo, Kearney, Phelps, Harlan and Franklin, Nebraska published in 1890 by F. A. Battey & Company.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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GEORGE D. ASPINWALL, the subject of this sketch, was born in Henderson, Jefferson county, N. Y., August 19, 1849. He is a son of Joel A. Aspinwall, a native of Vermont but now residing in Jefferson county, Wisconsin. His mother was a native of New York, and bore the maiden name of Sarah E. Rose. She died in Jefferson county, Wis., in March, 1858, at the age of thirty-six. The Aspinwall family are of English extraction, the original ancestor on American soil being the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch.

In 1850 Mr. Aspinwall moved with his parents to Wisconsin, where he was reared on his father’s farm. He is the eldest of three children, of whom Salmon C. lives in Wisconsin, and Sarah E., wife of Merritt Rose, resides in Jefferson county, N. Y. He received a common school education and followed farming up to December, 1880. He immigrated to Nebraska, and settled in Buffalo county, where he took up a claim in December, 1873. Here he endured the hardships of pioneer life and the deprivations of the famous grasshopper period. He has worked himself up and no one can better appreciate the luxuries and conveniences of life than one of these old-timers who has known what it is to see the fruits of years of toil swept away by such calamities as the grasshopper scourge, and know what it is to be in want in a land where money has no purchasing power.

In December, 1880, he left the farm and moved to Kearney, where he has since resided. January 1, 1881, he was appointed deputy county clerk, the duties of which position he performed the succeeding two years. He then began business on his own account as a real estate and loan agent, in which he continued only one year, when he was elected clerk of the district court, his term of office expiring in 1887. In this position he gave general satisfaction. At the expiration of his term of office he again opened a real estate, loan and abstract office, which he continued to operate till April, 1890, when he was elected secretary and general manager of the Midway Loan and Trust Company and cashier of the Kearney Savings Bank. He assisted in the organization of and is a large stock-holder in both of these institutions. He was married, April 4, 1872, to Miss Cecelia I., daughter of Harvey Ransom, of Jefferson county, Wis. She shared with her husband the hardships of frontier life and proved a help-mate and comfort in times that tried men’s souls.

No man is better known in Buffalo county than Mr. Aspinwall. His strict adherence to principle, sterling integrity and business ability render him one of Kearney’s leading business men and most substantial citizens; always alive to every public movement for the common good, he is personally popular with all classes. Conservative without being non-progressive, generous without being extravagant, he ranks among the safe, level-headed men of the community. His home is as unostentatious and simple as his business career has been upright and successful. In his little family circle, tranquil and happy, we leave him to the enjoyment of the peace and plenty, which a lifetime of patient untiring industry has bequeathed him.

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This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in the book, Biographical Souvenir of the Counties of Buffalo, Kearney, Phelps, Harlan and Franklin, Nebraska published in 1890 by F. A. Battey & Company. 

View additional Buffalo County, Nebraska family biographies here: Buffalo County, Nebraska Biographies

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