CHAS. HOUGHTON, AGE 87, IS DEAD

COUNTIAN SINCE CHILDHOOD ONCE PLOWED ON PRESENT SITE OF BLAIR

Charles Houghton, 87, resident of this vicinity since early childhood, who, as a lad of 12 plowed on the present site of Blair with a team of oxen, died Sunday evening at his home, 600 east Lincoln street.

Injured a number of years ago when a team ran away, Mr. Houghton had been an invalid 12 years. He was confined to bed the last 15 months.

Mr. Houghton was born June 26, 1853, in New York, and came to Omaha with his parents as a child not yet three years old. They lived on the present site of the Brandeis store. A short time later they came to Cuming City, a now-extinct town north of the present site of Blair.

Mr. Houghton for a number of years operated the Houghton livery barn where the Arndt-Snyder garage now stands, and also was in the hay and coal business for a time.

He is survived by his wife and a daughter, Mrs. Enoch Moore; also by three children from a previous marriage, Everett Houghton of Omaha, Mrs. Myrle Rimmerman of Florence and Clarence Houghton of Blair. A fourth child by the first marriage, Mrs. Millie Carmichael, died six years ago.

Funeral services were held at First Baptist Church at 2 p.m. yesterday, the Rev. C.E. Hamilton, local pastor, and the Rev. T.J. Reese of Jefferson, Iowa, in charge. Pallbearers were Peter M. Tyson, Ed Grimm, C.E. McComb, E.B. Redfield, Harry L. Morris and John A. Rhoades. Interment was in Blair Cemetery.

#2-28 Nov., 1940 - The Enterprise - Charles Houghton

TERRITORIAL DAYS BUSINESS MAN PASSES

Charles Houghton Passes Away At The Age Of Eighty Five Years

CAME TO STATE IN YEAR 1859

Charles A. Houghton, eighty five years of age, passed away Sunday evening at 9 o’clock following a protracted illness of which the last fourteen months he was confined to his bed.

Deceased was born in New York state and came with his parents to this state in 1859 at the age of four years. For a time the family resided in Omaha, but later moved to this county, settling at Cuming City before Blair was founded; they later moved to Blair.

He followed farming after his marriage to Mary Hayhurst. To this marriage four children were born; one daughter, Mildred Carmichael died five years ago. Those remaining are Everett of Omaha; Mrs. Myrtle Zimmerman of Florence and Clarence of Blair. His wife passed away in 1900, and three years later he was married to Miss Clara Koontz of Bellwood, Nebraska. One daughter, Mrs. Beatrice Moore with the wife survived this marriage.

Deceased after leaving the farm settled in Blair where he operated a livery stable and later he operated a coal and feed yard. He retired from business twenty years ago.

Thus another pioneer has gone. He had lived in the age when this was a really new country, when the state was a territory and he lived to see the present development into a highly agricultural state with schools and churches and all the modern ways of living. But few of these early pioneers are left. Their ranks thinned by Father Time are dwindling fast and in a few short years they will be but a cherished memory.

Funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon from the local Baptist church, and interment was made in the Blair cemetery.

Rev. T. J. Reese, former Blair minister, presided at the funeral which was in charge of J. E. Campbell, undertaker.

~~~Obituary courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Public Library, Blair, Nebraska ~~~ (See Find-A-Grave Memorial # 69866183)