My Genealogy Hound

JAMES F. LIPPINCOTT is a Pennsylvanian by birth and a descendant of old Pennsylvania stock. His father, John Lippincott, and his mother, Mary Dillon, were both born and reared in the “Keystone State,” the father in Delaware county, and the mother in Adams county. The father was a shoe-maker by trade and followed that nearly all his life, passing most of his years in his native state, dying, however, in Ohio in 1876, after having attained his fifty-second year. He was a quiet, industrious, useful citizen, a man of plain tastes, systematic habits and pleasant, genial disposition. Mr. Lippincott’s mother, Mary Dillon, was a daughter of Andrew Dillon, and an industrious, frugal housewife, and a dutiful and affectionate mother, who bore her husband the cherished companionship which he sought with her hand through the many years of their wedded life. She died in 1862 at the age of thirty-eight. Thirteen children were born to these, only five of whom, however, reached maturity; these being — James F., John F., Jeremiah F., William B. and Mary. These are still living. The first is the subject of this sketch. John F. is a resident of Fillmore county, this state, Jeremiah F. and William B. are residents of Hall county, this state, while the sister, now wife of Samuel Robaugh, lives in Altoona, Pa.

Our subject, James F., was born in Adams county, Pa., 1846. The first event of importance in his life, as it was the first of any moment in the lives of hundreds of others of his age, was his enlistment in the Union army. He entered the service September 7, 1861, enlisting in Company F, Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania volunteer infantry. The organization of his regiment having been completed the following October, it moved at once to Louisville, Ky., joined Buell’s army and saw its first active service at Pittsburg Landing, helping to save the day to the Union cause at that place. His regiment served afterwards in the campaign into Kentucky and in the Atlanta campaign and was with Thomas on his return into Tennessee in pursuit of Hood, as far as Nashville. At this point Mr. Lippincott was taken sick with the small-pox and disabled from service till April, 1865. He then joined his command, which was at that time at Nashville, and went with it to Texas, where it was stationed as an army of occupation till December, 1865. Returning thence to Pennsylvania it was mustered out at Philadelphia January 19, 1886. He served as a private from the date of his enlistment till mustered out, was never wounded, but was once captured and got some taste of prison life, having been taken prisoner at the battle of Stone river and confined for ninety days in “ Libby.” At the close of the war, Mr. Lippincott returned home and settled down to the peaceful pursuits of life, marrying in March, 1867, and engaging in farming. He came to Nebraska in the spring of 1878 and settled in Fillmore county, in June that year. He lived there till October, 1883, and moved then to Buffalo county, locating on Elm Island, in Platte township, where he has since resided. He has been steadily engaged in farming and has succeeded far beyond the average. He owns land in Adams, Hall, Buffalo and Gosper counties, a large part of which he has under cultivation and most of which is yielding him a revenue in some shape. His home-place in Buffalo county is one of the best farms on Elm Island, well improved and well supplied with comfortable buildings, ornamented with groves and stocked up to its capacity with good graded stock.

Mr. Lippincott has quite a family growing up around him, for whom he is providing with that care and thoughtful solicitude characteristic of him. He married, as noted above, in 1867, the lady whom he selected for a life companion being Miss Jane S. Vance, a daughter of Captain David Vance, of Loudon, Franklin county, Pa., Mrs. Lippincott and her parents both being natives of that place. She is one of a family of ten children, as follows — Winfield S. and John W., both of Loudon, Franklin county; George E., a conductor on the Pennsylvania Central railroad, he being the one who ran the express train out of Johnstown during the late flood; Jane, Mrs. Lippincott; James W., of Winfield, Kans.; Ann Rebecca, wife of George Mullom, of Chambersburg, Pa., and Catherine Abigail, still with her father at Loudon, Franklin county. Margaret and David are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Lippincott are the parents of seven children — John David, Mary Catherine, now wife of George W. Walverton; James William, Charles R., Abbie Jane, Ethel Alma and Kimber Augustus.

In politics Mr. Lippincott is a republican and is a stanch supporter of the principles and methods of his party. His first vote was cast for Grant in 1868, and he has supported his party’s ticket in each presidential election since, as well as in state and local elections. He has never aspired to public office himself, finding much more pleasant and remunerative employment in the pursuit of his own affairs. He is a man who is well informed on matters of general concern and takes much interest in them. He has pronounced views, and when occasion demands does not hesitate to speak them, and he is one of as kind, accommodating and hospitable gentlemen as can be found in Buffalo county.