HEMAN ALLEN BABCOCK

By Retta O. Babcock

c. 1909

Heman Allen Babcock was born May 19, 1842, to George Clark Babcock and Almira Ruth (Brown) Babcock, at Persia, Cattaraugus County, New York.

Four children were born to this family as follows: Oscar, Delia, Ellen (who died in infancy), and Heman Allen. He is descended from one of three brothers who came from England, settling in America, 1623.

When Heman was but three years old, his parents having became imbued with the western spirit of progress, moved to the then wild west and settled on a farm on Rock Prairie, Rock County, Wisconsin. Here they remained until 1849, when they removed to Dakota, Waushara County, Wisconsin. Here they resided continuously until after the close of the Civil War, so Heman was practically reared in Wisconsin.

Here he attended the public schools and obtained a good liberal education. He taught penmanship and artistic pen-drawing, and taught in the public schools for several years.

He was united in marriage to Miss Retta O. Bristol, August 28, 1861, in Dakota, Wisconsin. and lived there four year afterwards. It was here their first child, a son, was born, on June 27, 1863. He was named Everett Cicero Babcock. In 1863 Mr. Babcock went to Berlin, Wisconsin and learned the art of photography and was engaged successfully in that business for several years in Dakota, Westfield, Montello, Wisconsin and Albert Lea, Minnesota.

During the Civil War, when the country was in dire peril and the heart of every loyal American was stirred to its depth, he threw aside all personal aims and ambitions and with patriotic ardor placed himself among other brave defenders who were ready for the call to arms. He heard the voice of Abraham Lincoln calling for 500,000 more soldiers, and with two brothers-in-law, Henry A. Chase and Lawrence Theodore Bristol, who had pledge themselves to go together, enlisted as a private in Company G 37th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and in May 1864 went to Madison, Wisconsin to join his Regiment and be mustered into the Service. Soon after he was sent to the front and assigned to Army of the Potomac where he remained until the close of the war. Mr. Babcock was noted by his superiors as an efficient and courageous soldier and was rapidly promoted from the ranks, becoming Sergeant Major in a few months and at the close of the war was commissioned Second Lieutenant.

He was marching with Grant's army on the fateful day of Lee's surrender, and saw that brave, intrepid leader of a lost cause, as with his officers by his side, he rode past that mighty phalanx of union soldiers, which had been halted by the way in obedience to orders while Lee went to the front to meet Grant, there the terms of surrender were to be arranged.

The war was over, the slaves were freed, and the Nation was saved. Grant, the invincible had become the hero of the world! With gladsome hearts the soldiers marched to Washington to be mustered out of the service.

On July 27, 1865, the 37th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry received their muster-out papers, and were ordered to Madison, Wisconsin for the last official act of the Government to be performed. Before leaving Washington, Mr. Babcock participated in the Grand Review and when he reached Madison, received and honorable discharge dated August 18, 1865, and immediately returned to his home in Dakota.

Soon after this, with his wife and baby boy, then two years old, he removed to Albert Lea, Minnesota where he established a photographic studio, expecting to engage in that business and remain permanently. Unfortunately, however, that winter of 1865 and 1866 proved to be the coldest in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, and the fact that 150 people froze to death in Minnesota alone, induced him to seek a less severe climate.

A colony of Dakota, Wisconsin friends and relatives were locating in Linn County Missouri, and Mr. Babcock accompanied by his family and his sister and her husband, H. A. Chase and little girl, Mr. S. P Horr and his wife, a sister of Mrs. Babcock, and their two little boys, (these relatives having gone with him to Minnesota) and Ed St. John, a cousin from Albert Lea, making eleven people, in the spring of 1866, moved to Missouri by team. They bought land and engaged in farming for six years. Here he lost his health by ague, becoming so reduced that he had three chills in a day, and was unable to work. The chinch bugs destroyed his crops and the cholera killed his hogs, and it seemed necessary to make another change.

At this time a large colony from Dakota, Wisconsin under the leadership of his brother, Reverend Oscar Babcock, a Seventh Day Baptist minister, was being located in Valley County Nebraska, and that part of the state was receiving some attention through the press and otherwise, although there was not a settlement near this point. But with the prospect of being near his only brother once more he decided to go there and investigate conditions for himself, and if he found them satisfactory, take a homestead and try farming once more.

Fitting up a light wagon with cover and some few comforts, he took his wife and son, and drove through, meeting his brother at the appointed time and place in May 1872 where the head-quarters of the colony were established, near the land upon which the town of North Loup was afterward located. It was also the homestead of Reverend Oscar Babcock, where he still resides, in 1909.

Mr. Babcock located his homestead five north of this place and S. P. Horr, a brother-in-law to both, joined him on the east. The three men building their houses on the corners nearest to each other, making a very pleasant family group. Each man then returned to his home or place of business, preparatory to the moving of the families in October, that being the time granted by the Government for that purpose.

The mutual desire of the Babcock brothers, to be near each other had a double meaning for them, for they had married sisters. Oscar had married Metta A. Bristol and Heman had married Retta O. Bristol, and the two families were strongly attached to each other, especially on account of the children, who were double cousins.

The hopes of the brothers, were never to be realized, however, for just as Oscar had his arrangements about completed for the journey by team, (the physician advising that way of travel, in order he said, to save the life of the baby boy, who was very ill,) his wife was taken dangerously ill with typhoid fever, and lived three weeks. Her mother, Mrs. Bristol, and her sister, Kate Bristol Pope, had hastened to her relief, as soon as they heard of her sickness, and tenderly cared for her until the close of her earthly life.

She was buried by the side of her Grandfather, Job Warner, and her soldier brother, Lawrence T. Bristol in the beautiful cemetery of Dakota, Wisconsin.

After a few weeks, the boy having practically recovered, and it the being too late to travel by team, the family came by rail to Grand Island, where they were met by kind friends, and taken to the colony; but it was never the same. The life and light of the home was gone out forever.

Heman was the rock of strength, to which his elder brother anchored his frail bark, in the dark years that followed, and he never failed him.

Heman's homestead was eight miles from where Ord was afterward located and the county seat established. He farmed the land for six years, making the farm his home.

Misfortunes followed him here in quick succession; the grasshoppers came and destroyed the gardens, wheat and corn, for two consecutive years, and the voice of mourning was heard in the land. Undaunted he went forth to earn money with which to tide over the time until another harvest.

During these troublous times, on Nov. 3, 1874 his second child, a son, was born. He was named Royal Oscar, and his two boys were his pride and comfort in all the vicissitudes of his life, afterwards.

In 1876, after the harvest, a terrible prairie fire swept through that region for many miles that nothing could stay until it reached the North Loup River beyond his place. It burned sixty acres of his wheat stacked for the threshing, all of his fat hogs, his chickens, sheds and the other accumulations of a farm and his house was saved only by the utmost exertions, it having been on the fire a dozen times. His stock was being herded and in some way, saved themselves.

His son, Everett, was making a trip to Grand Island for supplies with the work horses and big wagon and was safe. His wife and baby boy, and her sister and baby girl, had gone with the single horse and carriage, to visit some old Dakota friends, a long distance from home, and were right in range of this fire; and although they saw that it looked dangerous, they did not realize that it was so near them until some men fleeing for their lives, saw them and frantically called out "run your horse for life." She ran like the wind and the flames swept over the ground just as they had cleared the spot.

It was a miraculous escape, and Heman's great heart was full of gratitude to God that he had preserved the lives of all his loved ones.

Edwin, the eldest son of Reverend Oscar Babcock, sixteen years old, was near Mira Creek, which runs through his father's farm, when the fire came sweeping upon him in all its fury, before he knew it; but he had presence of mind to slide down the steep banks covered with long dry grass and lie down in the narrow stream, rolling over and over in the shallow water, while the fire rushed over him. Even so he was singed a little and carries the scars to this day.

Such tragedies are incident to the life of all new countries; but there are always brave-hearted men and women, to rise above the discouragements and fight the fight to success. Thus it was here, and their courage spread abroad and settlers came pouring into the country in surprising numbers.

The time soon came when it was deemed necessary to organize the county. Mr Babcock knew every man who came to that part of the state, and as far to the southeast as Grand Island, fifty-five miles from Ord where all of the settlers had to go by team for supplies, and the trips had to be made often.

There was no railroad nearer the settlement at that time than Grand Island. The neighbors went in company, it being no unusual thing to form a train of ten or twelve teams; here Mr. Babcock was the leader and the life of the company. He was always cheerful and happy, and a great story-teller. Best of all, he stood up loyally for the new state of Nebraska, and others followed his example.

If he met strangers looking for a location, he drew them to his way of thinking, and many are the settlers who afterward thanked him for inducing them to join the colony in those early days. He possessed a pleasing personality that attracted people to him in a wonderful manner.

He always found time to be acceptable to his fellow men. His strength and stability of character and his business qualifications soon brought him prominently before the people, and they saw in him a man to whom they could safely trust the affairs of the county. He took as active part in its organization in March 1873 was elected the first sheriff, and made the first arrest that was made in Valley County, that of a man by the name of McKellar, who killed a citizen in Arcadia. There was no jail in the county at that time and he brought the murderer to his own house, and employed Mr. George Larkin to guard him upstairs where he slept, while he guarded the lower part of the house. The prisoner was tried, convicted, and sentenced to the penitentiary.

In the fall of 1876, he was elected county clerk and clerk of the District Court, and by successive re-elections, served eight years. During these years he moved to Ord, and the partnership of Mortensen and Babcock was formed. This partnership was based upon personal friendship, and esteem to a degree that excited comment for more than twenty years. Together they were instrumental in organizing the First National Bank of Ord, of which Mr. Mortensen was elected president and Mr. Babcock, vice president. This relation continued until January 1, 1885, when he moved to Lincoln, to assume the duties of State Auditor of Pubic Accounts, to which he had been elected in 1884. Two years later he was re-elected for a second term. During this time he was admitted to the bar, and at the expiration of his term of office, he formed a partnership in the practice of Law with Honorable Thomas Darness, a valued friend of many years acquaintance, and an able counsellor in the state, and practiced law under the firm name of Darnall and Babcock, for several years.

Then he engaged in the life insurance business, and became a recognized authority on insurance matters. In 1901 he became Insurance Commissioner of the state, giving a strong and vigorous administration to that department, and introducing methods of reform, which have proven of great value to the state in its dealings with the insurance business of other states where gross wrongs had crept in.

He retired from this work to accept the deputy-ship of state treasurer, under his old-time friend Peter Mortensen, in January 1903, which position he filled up to the time of his death.

Outside of politics, he was always in demand. He had been a member of the I.O.O.F., was a charter member of Appomattox Post, G.A.R., had served on the Board of Education, for five years and was a valued member of the Board of Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Lincoln, where he regularly attended Divine service. His reverence for the Creator was supreme. His faith and belief in a future life, was strong and abiding. He lived his religion every day in Christ-like deeds.

In temperance he wielded a powerful influence, both by his precept and example and was a leader for good among other representative men of the country.

In politics he was a stalwart Republican, always active in the support of its policies and candidates. In private and official life he displayed an unwavering devotion to duty, fully justifying the confidence placed in him by his constituency and friends. He had long been prominently identified with the public interests of the state, whose marvelous growth and development he had greatly aided.

His delightful disposition, genial and free from the faults that usually go with such a nature, endeared him to all and made him one of the most popular of men. Pure and noble, and of spotless integrity, he held himself above those who joined in the ribald song or jest or vile oath, thereby commanding respect for better things.

Friends he had everywhere, seldom enemies. His hospitality was known of all men, and no one ever met with an unwelcome reception at his home. His one predominant characteristic, was love of kin, home and family. No greater reward for toil, or sacrifice, or enforced absence for home was found, than in his return to his own happy fireside, surrounded by wife and children. His home was his castle.

It was said of him at the close of his life that he was the best known man and the best loved man in the state of Nebraska. His death which occurred on May 29, 1904 was the result of serious sickness incurred during his army life, from which he had endured great suffering at times, ever since the War. These attacks had sapped his vitality, and after a few weeks illness, at the last, in the twinkling of an eye, his spirit passed through the gateway of death, into that life beyond, where he had said to his loved ones,

"I expect to meet you all in heaven,"

"SOMETIME, SOMEWHERE."

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF

HEMAN ALLEN BABCOCK

By Retta O. Babcock

c. 1909

Heman Allen Babcock was born May 19, 1842, to George Clark Babcock and Almira Ruth (Brown) Babcock, at Persia, Cattaraugus County, New York.

Four children were born to this family as follows: Oscar, Delia, Ellen (who died in infancy), and Heman Allen. He is descended from one of three brothers who came from England, settling in America, 1623.

When Heman was but three years old, his parents having became imbued with the western spirit of progress, moved to the then wild west and settled on a farm on Rock Prairie, Rock County, Wisconsin. Here they remained until 1849, when they removed to Dakota, Waushara County, Wisconsin. Here they resided continuously until after the close of the Civil War, so Heman was practically reared in Wisconsin.

Here he attended the public schools and obtained a good liberal education. He taught penmanship and artistic pen-drawing, and taught in the public schools for several years.

He was united in marriage to Miss Retta O. Bristol, August 28, 1861, in Dakota, Wisconsin. and lived there four year afterwards. It was here their first child, a son, was born, on June 27, 1863. He was named Everett Cicero Babcock. In 1863 Mr. Babcock went to Berlin, Wisconsin and learned the art of photography and was engaged successfully in that business for several years in Dakota, Westfield, Montello, Wisconsin and Albert Lea, Minnesota.

During the Civil War, when the country was in dire peril and the heart of every loyal American was stirred to its depth, he threw aside all personal aims and ambitions and with patriotic ardor placed himself among other brave defenders who were ready for the call to arms. He heard the voice of Abraham Lincoln calling for 500,000 more soldiers, and with two brothers-in-law, Henry A. Chase and Lawrence Theodore Bristol, who had pledge themselves to go together, enlisted as a private in Company G 37th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and in May 1864 went to Madison, Wisconsin to join his Regiment and be mustered into the Service. Soon after he was sent to the front and assigned to Army of the Potomac where he remained until the close of the war. Mr. Babcock was noted by his superiors as an efficient and courageous soldier and was rapidly promoted from the ranks, becoming Sergeant Major in a few months and at the close of the war was commissioned Second Lieutenant.

He was marching with Grant's army on the fateful day of Lee's surrender, and saw that brave, intrepid leader of a lost cause, as with his officers by his side, he rode past that mighty phalanx of union soldiers, which had been halted by the way in obedience to orders while Lee went to the front to meet Grant, there the terms of surrender were to be arranged.

The war was over, the slaves were freed, and the Nation was saved. Grant, the invincible had become the hero of the world! With gladsome hearts the soldiers marched to Washington to be mustered out of the service.

On July 27, 1865, the 37th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry received their muster-out papers, and were ordered to Madison, Wisconsin for the last official act of the Government to be performed. Before leaving Washington, Mr. Babcock participated in the Grand Review and when he reached Madison, received and honorable discharge dated August 18, 1865, and immediately returned to his home in Dakota.

Soon after this, with his wife and baby boy, then two years old, he removed to Albert Lea, Minnesota where he established a photographic studio, expecting to engage in that business and remain permanently. Unfortunately, however, that winter of 1865 and 1866 proved to be the coldest in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, and the fact that 150 people froze to death in Minnesota alone, induced him to seek a less severe climate.

A colony of Dakota, Wisconsin friends and relatives were locating in Linn County Missouri, and Mr. Babcock accompanied by his family and his sister and her husband, H. A. Chase and little girl, Mr. S. P Horr and his wife, a sister of Mrs. Babcock, and their two little boys, (these relatives having gone with him to Minnesota) and Ed St. John, a cousin from Albert Lea, making eleven people, in the spring of 1866, moved to Missouri by team. They bought land and engaged in farming for six years. Here he lost his health by ague, becoming so reduced that he had three chills in a day, and was unable to work. The chinch bugs destroyed his crops and the cholera killed his hogs, and it seemed necessary to make another change.

At this time a large colony from Dakota, Wisconsin under the leadership of his brother, Reverend Oscar Babcock, a Seventh Day Baptist minister, was being located in Valley County Nebraska, and that part of the state was receiving some attention through the press and otherwise, although there was not a settlement near this point. But with the prospect of being near his only brother once more he decided to go there and investigate conditions for himself, and if he found them satisfactory, take a homestead and try farming once more.

Fitting up a light wagon with cover and some few comforts, he took his wife and son, and drove through, meeting his brother at the appointed time and place in May 1872 where the head-quarters of the colony were established, near the land upon which the town of North Loup was afterward located. It was also the homestead of Reverend Oscar Babcock, where he still resides, in 1909.

Mr. Babcock located his homestead five north of this place and S. P. Horr, a brother-in-law to both, joined him on the east. The three men building their houses on the corners nearest to each other, making a very pleasant family group. Each man then returned to his home or place of business, preparatory to the moving of the families in October, that being the time granted by the Government for that purpose.

The mutual desire of the Babcock brothers, to be near each other had a double meaning for them, for they had married sisters. Oscar had married Metta A. Bristol and Heman had married Retta O. Bristol, and the two families were strongly attached to each other, especially on account of the children, who were double cousins.

The hopes of the brothers, were never to be realized, however, for just as Oscar had his arrangements about completed for the journey by team, (the physician advising that way of travel, in order he said, to save the life of the baby boy, who was very ill,) his wife was taken dangerously ill with typhoid fever, and lived three weeks. Her mother, Mrs. Bristol, and her sister, Kate Bristol Pope, had hastened to her relief, as soon as they heard of her sickness, and tenderly cared for her until the close of her earthly life.

She was buried by the side of her Grandfather, Job Warner, and her soldier brother, Lawrence T. Bristol in the beautiful cemetery of Dakota, Wisconsin.

After a few weeks, the boy having practically recovered, and it the being too late to travel by team, the family came by rail to Grand Island, where they were met by kind friends, and taken to the colony; but it was never the same. The life and light of the home was gone out forever.

Heman was the rock of strength, to which his elder brother anchored his frail bark, in the dark years that followed, and he never failed him.

Heman's homestead was eight miles from where Ord was afterward located and the county seat established. He farmed the land for six years, making the farm his home.

Misfortunes followed him here in quick succession; the grasshoppers came and destroyed the gardens, wheat and corn, for two consecutive years, and the voice of mourning was heard in the land. Undaunted he went forth to earn money with which to tide over the time until another harvest.

During these troublous times, on Nov. 3, 1874 his second child, a son, was born. He was named Royal Oscar, and his two boys were his pride and comfort in all the vicissitudes of his life, afterwards.

In 1876, after the harvest, a terrible prairie fire swept through that region for many miles that nothing could stay until it reached the North Loup River beyond his place. It burned sixty acres of his wheat stacked for the threshing, all of his fat hogs, his chickens, sheds and the other accumulations of a farm and his house was saved only by the utmost exertions, it having been on the fire a dozen times. His stock was being herded and in some way, saved themselves.

His son, Everett, was making a trip to Grand Island for supplies with the work horses and big wagon and was safe. His wife and baby boy, and her sister and baby girl, had gone with the single horse and carriage, to visit some old Dakota friends, a long distance from home, and were right in range of this fire; and although they saw that it looked dangerous, they did not realize that it was so near them until some men fleeing for their lives, saw them and frantically called out "run your horse for life." She ran like the wind and the flames swept over the ground just as they had cleared the spot.

It was a miraculous escape, and Heman's great heart was full of gratitude to God that he had preserved the lives of all his loved ones.

Edwin, the eldest son of Reverend Oscar Babcock, sixteen years old, was near Mira Creek, which runs through his father's farm, when the fire came sweeping upon him in all its fury, before he knew it; but he had presence of mind to slide down the steep banks covered with long dry grass and lie down in the narrow stream, rolling over and over in the shallow water, while the fire rushed over him. Even so he was singed a little and carries the scars to this day.

Such tragedies are incident to the life of all new countries; but there are always brave-hearted men and women, to rise above the discouragements and fight the fight to success. Thus it was here, and their courage spread abroad and settlers came pouring into the country in surprising numbers.

The time soon came when it was deemed necessary to organize the county. Mr Babcock knew every man who came to that part of the state, and as far to the southeast as Grand Island, fifty-five miles from Ord where all of the settlers had to go by team for supplies, and the trips had to be made often.

There was no railroad nearer the settlement at that time than Grand Island. The neighbors went in company, it being no unusual thing to form a train of ten or twelve teams; here Mr. Babcock was the leader and the life of the company. He was always cheerful and happy, and a great story-teller. Best of all, he stood up loyally for the new state of Nebraska, and others followed his example.

If he met strangers looking for a location, he drew them to his way of thinking, and many are the settlers who afterward thanked him for inducing them to join the colony in those early days. He possessed a pleasing personality that attracted people to him in a wonderful manner.

He always found time to be acceptable to his fellow men. His strength and stability of character and his business qualifications soon brought him prominently before the people, and they saw in him a man to whom they could safely trust the affairs of the county. He took as active part in its organization in March 1873 was elected the first sheriff, and made the first arrest that was made in Valley County, that of a man by the name of McKellar, who killed a citizen in Arcadia. There was no jail in the county at that time and he brought the murderer to his own house, and employed Mr. George Larkin to guard him upstairs where he slept, while he guarded the lower part of the house. The prisoner was tried, convicted, and sentenced to the penitentiary.

In the fall of 1876, he was elected county clerk and clerk of the District Court, and by successive re-elections, served eight years. During these years he moved to Ord, and the partnership of Mortensen and Babcock was formed. This partnership was based upon personal friendship, and esteem to a degree that excited comment for more than twenty years. Together they were instrumental in organizing the First National Bank of Ord, of which Mr. Mortensen was elected president and Mr. Babcock, vice president. This relation continued until January 1, 1885, when he moved to Lincoln, to assume the duties of State Auditor of Pubic Accounts, to which he had been elected in 1884. Two years later he was re-elected for a second term. During this time he was admitted to the bar, and at the expiration of his term of office, he formed a partnership in the practice of Law with Honorable Thomas Darness, a valued friend of many years acquaintance, and an able counsellor in the state, and practiced law under the firm name of Darnall and Babcock, for several years.

Then he engaged in the life insurance business, and became a recognized authority on insurance matters. In 1901 he became Insurance Commissioner of the state, giving a strong and vigorous administration to that department, and introducing methods of reform, which have proven of great value to the state in its dealings with the insurance business of other states where gross wrongs had crept in.

He retired from this work to accept the deputy-ship of state treasurer, under his old-time friend Peter Mortensen, in January 1903, which position he filled up to the time of his death.

Outside of politics, he was always in demand. He had been a member of the I.O.O.F., was a charter member of Appomattox Post, G.A.R., had served on the Board of Education, for five years and was a valued member of the Board of Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Lincoln, where he regularly attended Divine service. His reverence for the Creator was supreme. His faith and belief in a future life, was strong and abiding. He lived his religion every day in Christ-like deeds.

In temperance he wielded a powerful influence, both by his precept and example and was a leader for good among other representative men of the country.

In politics he was a stalwart Republican, always active in the support of its policies and candidates. In private and official life he displayed an unwavering devotion to duty, fully justifying the confidence placed in him by his constituency and friends. He had long been prominently identified with the public interests of the state, whose marvelous growth and development he had greatly aided.

His delightful disposition, genial and free from the faults that usually go with such a nature, endeared him to all and made him one of the most popular of men. Pure and noble, and of spotless integrity, he held himself above those who joined in the ribald song or jest or vile oath, thereby commanding respect for better things.

Friends he had everywhere, seldom enemies. His hospitality was known of all men, and no one ever met with an unwelcome reception at his home. His one predominant characteristic, was love of kin, home and family. No greater reward for toil, or sacrifice, or enforced absence for home was found, than in his return to his own happy fireside, surrounded by wife and children. His home was his castle.

It was said of him at the close of his life that he was the best known man and the best loved man in the state of Nebraska. His death which occurred on May 29, 1904 was the result of serious sickness incurred during his army life, from which he had endured great suffering at times, ever since the War. These attacks had sapped his vitality, and after a few weeks illness, at the last, in the twinkling of an eye, his spirit passed through the gateway of death, into that life beyond, where he had said to his loved ones,

"I expect to meet you all in heaven,"

"SOMETIME, SOMEWHERE."

Retta O. Babcock

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