My Genealogy Hound

JOHN HAWKSBY is a prominent citizen of the town of Ragan, Antelope township, Harlan county, Nebr. His father, George Hawksby, and his mother, Catherine Sharp, were both natives of the Emerald Isle, always lived there, and there also died. The father was a farmer and passed all his years in the peaceful pursuit of agriculture, living the industrious, useful life common to his calling. He died when the subject of this notice was only about three years old, and but little of his early history, therefore, has been preserved. The mother survived her husband some years, dying in 1832 during the great cholera scourge. These were the parents of four children, of whom the subject hereof is the third in point of age. One sister, Mrs. Catherine Elliott, also resides in this county, being now well advanced in years. Our subject was born November 29, 1817, in the county of Leitrim, Ireland; was reared on a farm until he was about fifteen years of age, when he was bound an apprentice to the boot and shoe making in the town of Manorhamilton, and at that trade he worked until he was twenty-two years of age, when he went to Dublin and joined the Metropolitan police force, and through the influence of his friend, Lord Enniskillen, was taken into the office of the chief superintendent, where he was employed in the statistical department, and after spending about fifteen years there he resigned and was immediately afterwards appointed station master at Dundalk, which position he held for about eleven years, when he resigned and went to Manchester, England, where he secured a place in a large establishment as book-keeper, which place he held till 1875, when his wife died, and, never having had any family, he felt lonely in the world and struck out for America, and spent two years with friends in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, after which he joined his sister’s family (the Elliotts) at Freewater, Harlan county, Nebr., and with them he remained until 1887, when he erected the second building that was put up in the new town of Ragan, and was appointed post-master, which position he still holds, and is much respected by the whole community.