My Genealogy Hound

ADELBERT B. ANDREWS is one of the early settlers and most prosperous farmers of Kearney county. He was born in Rhode Island, December 10, 1852, and is a son of Benton S. and Phoebe (Capwell) Andrews, natives of Rhode Island. The father was a cotton-spinner by occupation, and was born in 1826; the mother was born in 1828; and these were the parents of fourteen children, the subject being the second. The paternal grandfather, Jonathan Andrews, was born in Rhode Island in 1808, and the paternal grandmother, Phoebe (Sweet) Andrews, also a native of Rhode Island, was born in 1810.

Our subject moved with his parents to Brownsville, Minn., when only two years of age, and remained with them until he reached his sixteenth year. During the greater part of the time he attended school, receiving a good education. He next moved with his parents to Crossville, Tenn., where he was for six years engaged principally in farming. From there he went to Wheaton, Ill., and there farmed for two years, and in 1876 came to Nebraska and settled in Kearney county. He at once filed a claim under the homestead law on eighty acres, being a quarter of section 32, township 7, range 15. He erected a small frame house and began farming, which was considered a great experiment in Kearney county at that early day, and there were but few settlers at this time, and no roads, except a trail from Bloomington to Kearney, and one from Bloomington to Lowell, then the county seat. The prairie had been burned over the winter previous to his arrival, and presented a gloomy appearance. Mr. Andrews had very little with which to begin farming when he came to the county; nevertheless, he broke out twenty-five acres with an ox team and planted it in corn. This flourished for a time, and gave evidence of an abundant crop, but the grasshoppers destroyed every vestige of his crop in August, leaving him with practically nothing on which to live. Hard times, accompanied with many hardships and privations, followed. He was compelled to haul brush from the Platte river, a distance of twelve miles, and besides, the winters were colder then, the winds more severe, and the snow more abundant, so that it was a struggle to live; but he was determined to stick to his claim, notwithstanding that one summer he was compelled to go East and work in order to get money with which to harvest his own crop. Although very poor in the early days, he has since prospered far beyond his expectations, and now owns four hundred acres of well improved land. His success is due to his industry and good management.

Mr. Andrews married December 15, 1880, taking as a life companion Miss Ollie Semones. Their union has been blessed with five children, four of whom are now living.

In politics, Mr. Andrews is a stanch republican. In 1886 he served as justice of the peace, and in 1887-88 filled the office of supervisor. He and his excellent wife are highly esteemed in the community in which they live.