My Genealogy Hound

L. B. Prouty, police judge of El Dorado Springs, and grocer, established the last named business at that place in 1886. He was born in Vermont in 1825, and is the son of Abijah J. and Lydia (Hill) Prouty, natives of New York and Vermont, and born in 1795 and 1797, respectively. They were married in Vermont, and in 1832 removed to Licking County, Ohio, where they remained until 1845, and then removed to Iowa. Here the father died, about 1863 or 1864, but the mother died in Cedar County, Mo., about 1880. The father was of Irish descent, and was a farmer by occupation. They were the parents of nine children, L. B. Prouty being the eldest. He received his education in the old log school-house of pioneer days, and was married in 1847 to Miss Lucy Piper, a native of Ohio, and the daughter of Sylvanius Piper, who was born in Massachusetts, and who died in Iowa. To Mr. and Mrs. Prouty were born nine children, four sons and three daughters living. One son, James, was burned to death at the age of twenty-two years, at the burning of the Mings Hotel, in Warrensburg. In 1852 or 1854 Mr. Prouty removed to Iowa, and from there, about 1857, to Nebraska, where he was one of the first settlers. He remained there until 1869, when he removed to Cedar County, settling in Box Township, and there has a farm of 400 acres, all the result of his own efforts. He was coroner of Richland County, Neb., for two years during the war, and was also ex-officio sheriff. He has been a school officer many years, and from 1878 to 1882 he was presiding judge of Cedar County Court. Mr. Prouty lived on his fine farm, near El Dorado Springs, until he engaged in his present business, since which time he has resided in town. He was elected police judge in April, 1889. When about eleven years of age, he learned the printer’s trade, which he followed for a few years, after which he engaged in farming, and this followed successfully until embarking in his present business, with the exception of a few years spent in Nebraska. While in the last-named State he was prevailed upon to take charge of the Broad Ax (in 1862-63, during the war), a weekly paper at Fall City, Neb. This he edited and published for about two years, with much credit and ability, also defending the rights of the Government during the stormy time of the Rebellion. He has always taken an active interest in educational affairs, and also in the general upbuilding of the country. He was reared a Whig, but since the dissolution of that party he has been a Republican, and his first presidential vote was cast for Gen. Taylor in 1848. His first wife was reared in the Universalist faith. She died July 21, 1885, and March 27, 1889, Mr. Prouty married Mrs. Elizabeth Sherman, widow of John Sherman, who came from Ohio to Cedar County, Mo., before the war, and here spent the rest of his life. John Sherman was a leading citizen of the county, and for many years served as justice of the peace. Elizabeth Sherman Prouty was born in Ohio in 1830, and has been a member of the Baptist Church since the age of fourteen years, and is active in the work of that denomination.