AGED 87 AT DEATH, HAD HOMESTEADED IN COUNTY’S EARLY DAYS

U.E. Baxter, 87, early Washington countian who homesteaded near Cuming City in the 1870’s, died Friday, April 7, at the home of his son, Roy Baxter of Blair. He had been bedfast for six months prior to his death.

Funeral rites were conducted Wednesday afternoon by the Rev. A.W. Clarke of Arlington, services being held at 1 o’clock at Bendorf Funeral Home in Blair, and later at Rose Hill church. Burial was in Rose Hill cemetery.

Uriah Edgar “Ed” Baxter, the second in a family of ten children, was the son of an early pioneer couple from North Carolina and Indiana. He “grew up with the country,” coming to Omaha in a covered wagon at the age of 12.

The family moved to Washington county a few years later, homesteading six miles northwest of Cuming City. Blair did not then exist, but Cuming City and DeSoto were prominent and thriving communities. The Baxter family lived for a time in a dugout, then moved into their homestead residence – a building made from poles hauled from the Missouri river bottom and covered with thatched hay roofing. Mr. Baxter withstood the hardships and privations of the first settlers, together with his neighbors whose names are graven on Washington county’s early history – the pioneer families of Asa Dixon, sr., William Ervy, William Rave, the McCowans, Ommermans, Allens, Olsons, and other early settlers.

He was married to Julia Johnson of Wisconsin in April, 1880, and the couple moved onto the Cuming City farm where Mr. Baxter continued to live until a short time ago. Mrs. Baxter died in September, 1938.

Surviving are three children, Roy and Ira of Blair, and Mrs. Pearl Seigel of Los Angeles, Calif. He also leaves six grandchildren.

#2-13 Apr., 1944 - The Enterprise

ED BAXTER, EARLY SETTLER, ANSWERS CALL

Ed Baxter Was Settler Of 1868. A Factor In Developing This County

Uriah Baxter, better known as Ed Baxter, was born near Alexandria, Indiana on September 2, 1856, and departed this life on April 7, 1944, having reached the ripe old age of 87 years, 7 months and 5 days. He had been bedfast for the past six months at the home of his son, Roy in Blair, but when the time came to go slipped quietly and peacefully away.

The deceased was the second in a family of ten children, three boys and seven girls, born to James and Caroline Baxter, early pioneers from North Carolina and Indiana. Only two brothers and two sisters survive: Martha Slaughter, 89, of Los Angeles, California, the oldest; Frank Baxter of Johnstown, Nebraska; Al Baxter of Portland, Oregon; and Edna Chesoro, also of Los Angeles.

Young Ed as a boy of 12 came with his parents from Indiana to Omaha by covered wagon. After a few years’ stop here, the family moved onto a homestead six miles northwest of Cuming City. At that time there was no town of Blair, but old DeSoto was still quite a town. On the homestead the family lived in a dugout while erecting buildings made from poles hauled from the Missouri River bottom and covering them with thatched hay roofs. He knew all the hardships and privations of the first settlers; grew up and lived in the neighborhood and associated with the pioneer families of Asa Dixon, Sr., William Ervey, William Raver, the McCowans, Ommermans, Allens, Olsons, and others of the early settlers, nearly all of whom are now gone on.

In April of 1880, Ed Baxter and Julia Johnson from Wisconsin were united in marriage at Cuming City and moved onto a farm adjoining that of his father and there he has continuously resided. To this union were born three children, Roy and Ira of Blair and Pearl Seigel now of Los Angeles, California. There are six grandchildren. His wife, Julia, passed on in September of 1938.

Deceased was held in highest esteem by all who know him. He liked to neighbor and associate with all his neighbors and would go out of his way to do anyone a favor. He was strictly honest and temperate in all things. He never united with a church, but had publicly confessed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He will be greatly missed by all, especially by his family who will remember him as a loving and solicitous father.

Funeral services were held Wednesday of this week at 1 p.m. from the Bendorf funeral Home, and later at Rose Hill where services were held for the benefit of his old neighbors who could not get to Blair. Rev. A. W. Clarke, who had known him for years, officiated. Interment was made in the Rose Hill cemetery.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

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