Nelson William Short

  Noted events in his life were:

• Residence: From 1860 Census, 1860, Ballville Township, Sandusky, Ohio.

• Occupation: Farmer, 1860, Ballville Township, Sandusky, Ohio. From 1860 Census

• Residence: From History of Buffalo County and Its People by Samuel Clay Bassett, 1871, Valley, Buffalo, Nebraska. CHAPTER XXVI

HOMESTEADERS IN BUFFALO COUNTY--A LIST OF 1,265 PERSONS TAKING HOMESTEAD AND PRE-EMPTION CLAIMS IN BUFFALO COUNTY PREVIOUS TO 1880--ARRANGED BY TOWNSHIP AND RANGE, GIVING YEAR OF FILING ON CLAIM.

THE HOMESTEADER

As a pioneer in the settlement of the county and state the homesteader takes first place--first rank. As a rule the homesteader was of limited means and ventured everything in the effort to establish a home.

List of persons taking homestead and pre-emption claims in Buffalo County previous to the year 1880:

VALLEY TOWNSHIP--TOWN NO. 10, RANGE NO. 14

1871--N. W. Short, M. Gray.

• Residence: From History of Buffalo County and Its People by Samuel Clay Bassett, Apr 1871, Gibbon, Buffalo, Nebraska. CHAPTER XXI

SOLDIERS' FREE HOMESTEAD COLONY, CONTINUED OFFICIAL LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE COLONY A HABITATION A PLACE TO LIVE-RANGE OF PRICES-FIRST CROPS GROWN CONDITIONS CONFRONTING COLONISTS INSECT DEPREDATIONS LACK OF MOISTURE LIVE STOCK CONDITIONS GROWING SMALL GRAIN WHEAT AND OATS THE QUESTION OF FUEL.

OFFICIAL LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE COLONY
The following is an official list of the members of the Soldiers' Free Homestead Colony as adopted at the forty-fourth annual meeting of the Soldiers' Free Homestead Colony Association, April 7, 1915, held at Gibbon:

Marcelus Gray

Nelson W. Short

• Residence: From 1880 Census, 1880, Gibbon, Buffalo, Nebraska. Also lists his occupation as farmer.

His wife is identified as Nancy.

Children listed are Clarence age 11, Gilbert age 9, Frank C. age 5, and Vernon age 9/12.

• Family: Biographical Souvenir of the Counties of Buffalo, Kearney, and Phelps in Nebraska, Chicago, F.A. Battey and Company, 1890. NELSON W. SHORT. An old settler of Gibbon township, Buffalo county, an old soldier with an honorable record, and a citizen of exemplary habits and blameless private life, is Nelson W. Short, whose eventful career this article is designed to commemorate. Mr. Short is a native of Ohio, and is a descendant of two of the first settled families of that state, his grandparents on both sides being pioneers of the "Buckeye regions" of the Northwest Territory. His paternal grandfather, Elihu Short, moved from Delaware into Ohio, in 1810, and settled in Perry county, where he lived for several years, then moved to Sandusky county, where he subsequently lived and died. Mr. Short's father, Moulton H. Short, was born in Delaware but reared mainly in Ohio, being eleven years of age when his parents moved to that state. He grew up on the borders of civilization, as it were, and being fascinated with the free life of the frontier he in turn became a pioneer, becoming one of the first settlers of Fremont, Ohio. He died there in 1864, at the age of sixty-five years. He was an industrious farmer and led the plain and uneventful life common to his calling. Mr. Short's mother, Matilda Tracy, being a daughter of Phillip and Nancy Tracy, was born in Cumberland county, Pa., and was brought by her parents, when a child, to Ohio, settling in Sandusky county, where she was reared and where she afterwards lived and died. Her father was a Pennsylvanian by birth and her mother a native of Germany. To Moulton H. and Matilda Short were born a large family of children, thirteen of whom reached maturity, these being -- Celia, Susan, John, Phillip, Elihu, Rachel, Nelson W. George, Mary, Frank, Sarah, Matilda and James.

The subject of this notice, Nelson W., was born in Ohio in March, 1835. He was reared in his native place and married there in 1856, and shortly afterwards immigrated West and settled in Missouri, where he was residing when the war came on. With an alacrity born of the patriotism in him -- a patriotism characteristic of the sons of Ohio -- he offered his services to the Union cause, enlisting in 1862 in Company H, Third Missouri state militia, and served in this command till local troubles were quelled and confidence was established in the Union cause, and Southern sympathizers were either driven out of the country or forced to go into the Southern ranks. He then entered the volunteer service, enlisting in Company K, Forty-seventh Missouri infantry, being at once elected second lieutenant of his company and going to the front with his regiment to take part in the stirring scenes then being enacted at the theater of war. His regiment covered a wide area, serving in Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky and Alabama; it helped to repel the several raids made into Missouri by Price, Marmaduke and Jeff Thompson, and it took part in the hard fought battles at Franklin and Nashville, Tenn., it being ordered there to re-enforce Thomas. Mr. Short served till the surrender, being mustered out at St. Louis in April, 1865. For the next six years he lived at St. Louis, Mo., Columbus, Ky., and intermediate points, being engaged at the Kingman iron works, Carondelet dry docks, and other places. In the fall of 1871 he came to Nebraska, reaching Gibbon, where he now resides, October 6th. He selected a homestead at once in the northwest part of the township, taking eighty acres in the southeast quarter of section 3, township 9, range 14 west, which, however, he afterwards sold, buying another eighty acres in section 35, township 10, range 14 west, in Valley township. He lived on the farm till October, 1880, when he moved into Gibbon, where he has since resided and has been variously engaged. He has held a number of local public offices and is at present marshall of the town of Gibbon and overseer of the village highways. Mr. Short is an industrious, useful citizen and an honest, upright, capable public officer. Like most of the old settlers, he has seen many hard-ships since coming to the county, but he has borne them with the courage and fortitude becoming an old soldier. He has many friends, and with the better class of society -- the intelligent, law-abiding, home-loving citizens --he is very popular. He has a family himself -- a wife and four children--having married, as before noted, in his native county in Ohio. His nuptials were celebrated August 3, 1856, the lady whom he selected to share his life's fortunes being Miss Maria Gray, daughter of George and Nancy M. Gray. Mrs. Short's parents were natives of New York. They moved to Ohio in 1844 and settled in Sandusky county, where the father died in July, 1871, then in his seventy-first year, the mother surviving him some years, dying at the home of Mrs. Short in Gibbon, February 16, 1888, being near her eighty-first year. Mrs. Short was born in Oswego county, N. Y, and was a child when her parents moved to Ohio, she being reared in Sandusky county. She is one of eight children, all of whom reached maturity and are now living. Mr. and Mrs. Short have had born to them a family of five children, all boys -- Clarence (now deceased), Gilbert, Frank, Vernon and Archie.

In politics, Mr. Short was reared a democrat, but, differing widely with that party on the war issues, he cast his lot with the republicans and affiliated actively with them for some years and still votes their ticket occasionally; but, being a strong temperance man he has in recent times given his support to the prohibition ticket, especially in local and state elections. Mr. Short believes in temperance, sobriety, in preserving the purity of the moral atmosphere where he lives, and in defending the sanctity of home and the innocence of youth and the helplessness of women, and for these reasons he favors strong laws and their strict enforcement against the liquor traffic.

• Death: FamilySearch™ Ancestral File v4.19, 1898, Gibbon, Buffalo, Nebraska. Ancestral File Record

Note: Birth date and burial place differ from Find a Grave data.

name: Nelson William SHORT
gender: Male
birth: 1835 Mar 14 Ballville Twp, Sandusky Co, Oh
death: 1898 Mar 4 Gibbon, Buffalo Co, Ne
burial: Gibbon, Sandusky Co, Oh
afn: WNCT-T6
Marriages (1)
spouse: Maria M GRAY
marriage: 1856 Aug 3 , Sandusky Co, Oh
children (8)


child 1: Vernon Nelson SHORT
gender: Male
birth: 1879 Aug 29 , Buffalo Co, Ne
death: 1969 Abt Amarillo, Potter Co, Tx
burial: Amarillo, Potter Co, Tx

child 2: Archibald L SHORT
gender: Male
birth: 1881 Jul 18 , Buffalo Co, Ne
death: 1935 Jul 26 Omaha, Douglas Co, Ne
burial: Omaha, Douglas Co, Ne

child 3: Marshall L SHORT
gender: Male
birth: 1858 Feb 25 St Louis, , Mo
death: 1859 Aug 6 St Louis, , Mo

Above is incorrect as he is listed in the 1860 census as age 2, born in Ohio

child 4: Edwin SHORT
gender: Male
birth: 1861 St Louis, , Mo
death: Gibbon, Buffalo Co, Ne
burial: , Buffalo Co, Ne

child 5: Charles SHORT
gender: Male
birth: 1865 St Louis, , Mo
death: , Buffalo Co, Ne
burial: , Buffalo Co, Ne

child 6: Clarence SHORT
gender: Male
birth: 1869 Feb 28 St Louis, , Mo
death: 1890 Feb 10 , Buffalo Co, Ne
burial: , Buffalo Co, Ne

child 7: Frank Carroll SHORT
gender: Male
birth: 1875 Jun 7 , Buffalo Co, Ne
death: 1964 Feb 27 Omaha, Douglas Co, Ne
burial: Omaha, Douglas Co, Ne

child 8: Gilbert Marcillis SHORT
gender: Male
birth: 1871 May 3 , Buffalo Co, Ne
death: 1940 Oct 11 Ogallala, Keith Co, Ne
burial: Ogallala, Keith Co, Ne

• Cemetery: From Find a Grave, 1898, Gibbon, Buffalo, Nebraska. Nelson W Short

Birth: Mar. 13, 1834
Death: Mar. 4, 1898

Inscription:
47 MO Infantry Lt. Co. K & 3 MO Militia

Burial:
Riverside Cemetery
Gibbon
Buffalo County
Nebraska, USA

Created by: Tony & Cindy Lloyd
Record added: Aug 31, 2010
Find A Grave Memorial# 57972947

Nelson married Maria (Mariah) Nancy Gray, daughter of George N. Gray and Nancy M. Hutchinson, on 3 Aug 1856 in Sandusky, Ohio. (Maria (Mariah) Nancy Gray was born on 16 Sep 1840 in Oswego Town, Oswego, New York, died on 1 Aug 1913 in Omaha, Douglas, Nebraska and was buried in Gibbon, Buffalo, Nebraska.)