Yuma County, Colorado
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Yuma County Pioneers

Jesse E. and Maggie (Bowler) Smith



In 1880 Washington County, Nebraska, Edward Smith is 40, Ellen G. 38, Dora 18, Jesse 16, Minta 14, and Gertrude 7.

Jesse E. Smith, age 23, and Miss Maggie Bowler, age 24, both of Yuma, married April 24, 1887, recorded in Washington County, Colorado.
The ceremony was performed by John M. Abbott, county judge of Washington County, residing at Yuma. Witnesses were J.M. Palmer and Viola M. Abbott.

Jesse cash-claimed a quarter in 17, 3N 48W in 1891, near a number of other 1890-1891 cash claimants.

In 1900 Lincoln County, Nebraska, Jesse E. is farming, born October 1863 in Michigan, married 13 years to Maggie Nov 1858 Ohio.
Jesse Edmond Smith 1863-1924 is buried in Frontier County, Nebraska # 10937088, which says.
So is Maggie Smith 1858-1906 # 66438697.


Jesse Edmond Smith was born 25 October 1863 in Wright, Hillsdale County, Michigan. He was born the second of four children, and the only son, of Edmond Elliott and Ellen Godfrey Stubberfield Smith.

Jesse's father fought in the Civil War with the Ohio Infantry, around the time of Jesse's birth. Afterward, the family moved West, and lived in Iowa and Nebraska, where father Edmond homesteaded.

Jesse located in Yuma, Colorado and tried his hand at ranching. Later, he and his sister drove the herd of cattle that he had accumulated, from Yuma to Omaha, Nebraska to market. He worked in a store in Omaha for a while, and then went to Nebraska, to live on his father's homestead.

In 1887, at age 24, Jesse married an Irish woman named Maggie, who died childless in 1906. On 26 December, 1907, Jesse married Maude Teel. They had eight children together:

Elmer J (1908-1977) Eleanor F (1909-1989) Arthur E (1910-1967)Jessica D (1913-1999) Lucille B (1915-1995) Roland (Roll) M (1917-1981) Melba R (1919-1984), and Freda L (1922-1980)

The family settled in the Deer Creek area, south of Brady, Nebraska. The nearest community was Ingham, Nebraska. Jesse was a wheat farmer. It was a hard life in the drought-ridden canyon country.

Jesse was constantly striving to make things better for family and community. He introduced alfalfa to the area. He made great efforts to get telephone lines, and roads into the area, and was instrumental in organizing and building the first school.

Jesse died at the age of 60, on 15 July, 1924, the same night his crops were destroyed by a summer hail storm. He is buried in the Farnam Cemetery, near son Elmer.

Jesse's sister Minta J. Stinnette 1865-1945 is buried in Wauneta, Chase County, Nebraska.


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