My Genealogy Hound

ROLLIN H. ORCUTT is one of the rising young men of Kearney county. He was born in St. Joseph county, Mich., November 15, 1856, and is the son of Daniel L. Orcutt, who was born May 6, 1817, in New York State; is a farmer and merchant by occupation, and still living in good health in Branch county, Mich., but having been one of the earliest settlers in St. Joseph county. He crossed this section of Nebraska in 1849 on his way to California in search of gold. The mother of our subject, Lydia (Langdon) Orcutt, is also a native of New York and was born August 12, 1822. She is still living in Branch county, Mich. There are three children in the paternal family, two boys and one girl, as follows — Adelbert, Rollin H. and Lillian.

Rollin H. Orcutt, our subject, resided with his parents in St. Joseph county Mich., until eight years old, and then moved with them to Branch county, Mich., where he resided with them until twenty-two years of age, engaged in attending school and helping his father on the farm. He had poor health in early life and came West to Kearney county in 1878 to visit a cousin, with the hope of improving, his condition. His health improved rapidly, and he, becoming infatuated with the new country, decided to file claim on a quarter section and make it his home — a decision he has never yet regretted. He accordingly filed homestead papers on the northwest quarter of section 11, township 7, range 15. He returned home at once and announced his intention of making the West his future home, much to the surprise and consternation of his relatives and friends, who predicted that a few years of Western life would suffice for him. He returned to his claim the following spring, and hastily constructed a sod house, and began life on his own account with very small means, having only one hundred and fifty-five dollars with which to purchase his ticket on leaving Michigan, and with the balance he bought a yoke of oxen, with which he broke the first fifty acres of his land. He put out twenty-five acres of corn the first year and raised a good crop, having not only enough to feed his cattle through the year, but some to sell as well. For four years he lived alone in his sod house, and his nearest neighbors, in the early days, lived a distance of two miles. Becoming tired of the life of a bachelor, he wedded, October 15, 1882, Mary E. Bent, which union has been blessed with two children, as follows — Earl B., born October 26, 1883, and Horace, born August 3, 1889, but died March 13, the following spring, of lung fever.

Mrs. Orcutt was born at North Monmouth, Maine, March 30, 1865, and is the daughter of Isaac A. and Mary (Brown) Bent, both of whom are natives of Maine; the former, a farmer by occupation, was born in 1839, and the latter in 1836. They are both now living in Kimball county, Nebr., having come West and entered a homestead claim in the Platte valley in 1876. They moved to Kimball county, Nebr., four years ago, and entered a claim where they now reside. After marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Orcutt abandoned the old sod house and erected one of the finest and largest frame dwellings in Kearney county. Mr. Orcutt now owns four hundred and eighty acres of fine land, the most of which is well improved and stocked, and it may be said to his credit that he has made this honestly and honorably through the untiring industry of himself, and, instead of a few years of Western life sufficing for him, as his relatives and friends predicted in the beginning, he has erected a monument to his pluck and industry that will remain an example to the young men of the future. Mr. and Mrs. Orcutt have both joined the Methodist church recently, and are trying to rear their family in the virtues of that doctrine. Politically, Mr. Orcutt is a republican and served a term in 1887 and 1888 as supervisor, or member of the county board from Logan township. He is the kind of timber that will make for the farmers of Kearney county a good representative in the state legislature at some future day.