My Genealogy Hound

EDWARD R. TILLOTSON, one of the first settlers of Harlan county, is a pioneer in the fullest sense of the word. He came to the county before the buffalo left, while the antelope were yet plentiful and the noble red man roamed the country in great force, and he knows what it is to endure the hardships of frontier life, its privations and many vicissitudes. He has lived in a sod shanty, has subsisted on short rations, has gone miles to market and miles further to mill. He has grappled with the famous Nebraska blizzard; has seen his fondest hopes, in the shape of a crop, disappear before the ravenous grasshopper, and has endured the scorching blasts of the hot wind. He has seen the country grow from a barren prairie, marked only by the hoof of the buffalo, into a never-ending stretch of farms and dotted all over with peaceful, happy homes. He has seen prosperous little villages spring up on every hand, furnished with all the necessaries and conveniences of modern metropolitan life, and each the center of a trade that would be the envy of many older places of twice the size in the East. Out of the chaos of frontier life he has seen come the order that marks Nebraska as one of the most law-abiding commonwealths of all the grand sisterhood of states. In the labor of bringing about these many changes, Mr. Tillotson has borne his full share as a humble citizen, and he is therefore deserving of the recognition which he receives in this volume.

Edward R. Tillotson was born in Medina county, Ohio, November 15, 1824, and was reared in his native county, growing up on the farm and being trained to the habits of industry and usefulness common to farm life. He resided in Medina county, engaged in farming till 1847, when he moved to Dane, Dane county, Wis., continuing in agricultural pursuits there till 1873. Coming to Nebraska at that date he settled in Harlan county, taking a homestead, on which he located, and began the life of the pioneer. It is not necessary to go over in detail the many experiences through which Mr. Tillotson passed during the earlier years of his residence in the county. These have been given to print as often as the life of an old settler has been written, and it will be sufficient to say in this connection that all that others saw and endured, he saw and endured, “even unto the uttermost,” and whatever praise is to be given the old settler for his fortitude and heroic bearing under the trials to which he was subjected may justly be bestowed upon the subject of this sketch individually. He is now one of the most prosperous farmers of his community, as he has always been one of its most highly esteemed citizens. He owns three hundred and twenty acres, all of which is susceptible of cultivation, and yields well.

Mr. Tillotson married October 2, 1846, taking to wife Miss Betsie Sandeson, who was born July 30, 1824, in Grand Isle county, Vt. Her parents were natives of Massachusetts and descendants of old Bay State stock. Mr. and Mrs. Tillotson have had born to them a family of seven children, as follows — Caroline, Erie, Amy, Marcia, Harriet, Zadock (now deceased) and Alonzo. Mr. and Mrs. Tillotson are members of the Seventh Day Adventists’ Society.

In politics, Mr. Tillotson is a republican, although he does not dabble in politics to the extent of allowing political pursuits to interfere with his own affairs.