My Genealogy Hound

L. J. BABCOCK is a representative business man of the town of Gibbon, Buffalo county. He is not an old timer, strictly speaking, and the record of his experiences does not, therefore, begin with the date of the settlement of the colony. He located in Gibbon, October 20, 1875, four years and a half after the colony was started. He struck the receding end of the grasshopper season and got a few breaths of hot air from the dry years. He saw something of the historic hard times. Still he is a man of more recent growth than the original old settlers. But he is, like them, almost a product of the soil. He came West, as most men do, with little or nothing. He started in, as the common saying goes, on the bottom round of the ladder. He is not yet either rich or famous, but he has secured a footing and, as appearances indicate, is in a fair way to get on in the world. The steps by which he has risen have necessarily been slow and tedious. His case at the outset of his career did not differ very widely from that of the average young man who comes West in pursuit of fortune. His methods and their results, however, have been decidedly different.

But few young men come West with a settled determination to locate in one place and by hard and persistent effort build up a business and a character which will serve them in years to come. The race for wealth, the contest for glory, becomes too absorbing to admit of the tedious processes of growth. It is worthy of note (and the fact is here emphasized because of the rarity of its occurrence), that the subject of this sketch, when he decided to stay in the West, made up his mind to locate in one place and remain there. His purpose was to grow with the place. He began at once to gather a practical knowledge of his intended business, of his surroundings and of the people among whom he expected to live.

Mr. Babcock served an apprenticeship to the tinner’s trade in his youth and worked at it as a journeyman after growing up. He was master of the craft when he came to Nebraska. It was the chosen business of his life. On settling he at once secured a location and opened a shop. In connection therewith he opened a small stock of hardware and tinware. His start in accordance with his means was modest. His chief income came from his labor at the bench. But as the town and county settled up, the demand for goods and wares in his line increased and his business prospered from year to year until now he owns the best equipped establishment of the kind in the town of Gibbon, and one which would be a credit to a town having twice the population that Gibbon has. Mr. Babcock has worked steadily at his trade during all these years and yet continues to do so. He has a business in the general line of hardware, which would reasonably occupy his entire time and attention, provided he chose to devote his time and attention to it. But he does not. This he carries on by means of a clerk while he, himself, works at the bench. Perhaps the explanation of this is to be found in the fact that competent clerks are plentiful while competent journeyman tinners are not. Certainly the fact illustrates one of the chief sources of his success. Besides his mercantile business, Mr. Babcock has an interest in the First National bank of Gibbon, being a stock-holder therein and a member of the boards of directors. He was one of the organizing members of this institution.

Recurring to Mr. Babcock’s earlier personal and ancestoral history, it will be in keeping with the character and purpose of this article to record that he was born in Walworth county, Wis., October 2, 1854. He was reared there and lived there till coming to Nebraska in 1875. He received an ordinary common-school education and was early apprenticed to the tinner’s trade, a trade he mastered and the business he has since followed. He is a son of James and Lovie (Roberts) Babcock, his parents both being natives of the town of Plattsburg on Lake Champlain, Vt. They were married there and moved West soon after and settled in Walworth county, Wis. There the mother died in 1856, in middle life, leaving a family of five children, of whom the subject, of this sketch is next to the youngest, the others being three sons and a daughter — Charles, Justina, Wesley and Marion. Mr. Babcock’s father, after a second marriage, lived some years in Wisconsin, dying in his adopted county, Walworth, in 1862, somewhat advanced in years. He was throughout life a farmer being a plain substantial representative of his calling.

In his own domestic relations Mr. Babcock has been as fortunate as the average man. He was married, in July, 1876, to Miss Elizabeth Thomas, of Walworth county, Wis. His wife was reared in the same community with himself, but is a native of New York State. Her parents moved West years ago and settled in Walworth county, Wis., where her father died and where her mother yet lives and her grandmother too.

Being a descendant of New England stock, Mr. Babcock retains many of the characteristics of his people. His patience, his industry, his perseverance, his economical habits and his business sagacity, come largely from this source. In addition he received a correct early training. He was brought up in accordance with the New England idea of rearing children to callings of usefulness. He was imbued with no unreal views of life. The fact was placed before his mind, in an exceedingly comprehensible form, that the matter of living is a serious problem to be solved in a practical way. His methods, therefore, are the methods of the man of business. He is plain in manner, pointed in speech, practical in means, and punctilious in all things. He is devoted exclusively to business.

He is engrossed with his own personal concerns. He makes no pretension in the matter of religion or politics. As a citizen he takes an interest in matters of general concern, at least as far as all good citizens are expected to. He gives to worthy purposes in proportion to his means. He is a zealous member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and his benevolent impulses take the practical shape inculcated by that fraternity.