Ida M. (McIntyre) HUFFMAN

HUFFMAN, MCINTIRE, STRIKER, STRYKER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 8/26/2008 at 11:03:36

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY, REMINISCENCE AND BIOGRAPHY, pages 485-486

JAMES G. HUFFMAN

Few men have had more vicissitudes, more ups and downs during their initiative career, than James G. Huffman. His parents, John and Lockie Huffman, were natives of Kentucky, whence they migrated to Indiana and later to Boone county, Iowa, in the fifties, where James G., was born May 15, 1860, soon after which the mother died. The father was again married about 1863, to a Missouri woman, and the same year moved down into that state among his wife's people. This being a locality of strong southern sympathy, Mr. Huffman's outspoken unionism made him an object of persecution by guerillas [sic] who infested the country. Two of his stepsons, he learned, were members of a band of "bushwhackers," as they were called. So great became the tension that his life was endangered, so he had to abandon his eighty-acre farm and flee in the night, taking with him only a part of his children. James G., then a lad of but seven, who was not home at the time, was left with the hope of going back for him later. However, all communication between them were broken, and for ten years the boy lived around among strangers, some of whom were unkind or even cruel to him. In 1877, by corresponding with people whom he could remember in Boone county, he learned his father had migrated to York county, Nebraska. He came out to this state and found that his parent and two sons had filed on a homestead twelve miles northwest from York. Being too young to file on a homestead, Mr. Huffman secured farm labor for one year and then tried farming for himself two years in the vicinity of York. Filing on a homestead in Charles, Mix county, South Dakota, on going to take possession, he found a squatter on his land, and after three months, owing to the expense of long litigation, abandoned his claim and returned to Iowa and worked on farms in that county for a year, and then for a like period rented a farm there.

Coming a second time to York county, he was employed for a year breaking prairie and then again took up farming, having wisely married about this time in Iowa. For two years after his marriage, Mr. Huffman farmed in York county, when he sold and moved to Grand Island to take a six months' course in a business college, showing a determination and ambition few men exhibit at his time of life. During his boyhood in Missouri, drudgery was his lot, none caring to give him enough of his time to attend school. He was in Grand Island during the memorable blizzard of January 12, 1888, and in the college at the time the storm broke. In making his way across an open square he became bewildered in the blinding whirl of snow, and ran into a house, whose he did not know. Knocking, he was admitted, warmed, and was directed to the end of a grove of trees at the other end of which his home was situated; making his way from tree to tree he reached home without further mishap. He next came to Verdigris, bought a lot, and with lumber brought from Creighton built a bakery, which, owing to a large foreign population proved to be unprofitable. Mr. Huffman then rented his ovens and bakery, and, with his wife, secured work in a bakery at Pierce for a few months to get funds for a new start. In July, 1889, he formed a partnership with C. M. Hall, the leading merchant of Plainview, and built and opened the first bakery there. After the first baking of bread was out of the ovens, Mr. Huffman had only fifteen cents, but prosperity came to him at once, the first month's profit being one hundred and fifty dollars. For two years the business was carried on in partnership, when Mr. Huffman bought his partner's interest and for seven years conducted the business alone. He then sold his bakery and opened a store of general merchandise, but owing to hard times prevailing then, he was forced to sell, having in eighteen months sunk three thousand dollars. He next opened a shoe department in another store, in which he was fairly successful. Selling the business a year later, together with his dwelling, he purchased a farm six miles south of Plainview, in 1899. Here he worked to such good advantage that in January, 1910, he rented his farm and moved to Plainview, where he and his helpmate may take some ease in life after so long a period of struggle and toil. This farm he sold at seventy-two dollars and fifty cents per acre, cash, investing part of the proceeds in a half-section near Rushville, Sheridan county. His meat market he traded for one hundred and sixty acres near Flagler, Colorado.

Mr. Huffman was married in Clarion, Iowa, October 13, 1885, to Miss Ida M. McIntire, a native of Vermont, Michigan, born August 30, 1865; she is a daughter of William and Ruena (Striker) McIntire, both natives of New York. They moved to Wright county, Iowa, in 1876, where they died in February, 1891, within a week of each other. Mr. and Mrs. Huffman have adopted two children: Elmer, born January 22, 1905; and Lela Margaret, born June 2, 1908. Mr. Huffman is a republican, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. When he first came to the state there were still a few antelope, and he has seen a bear on the prairies around Verdigris, in the early days. He witnessed the last of the grasshopper raids while in York county, and, as before stated, passed through the blizzard of January 12, 1888. His experience in a prairie fire came near resulting seriously. While driving into the country, in the spring of 1883, a prairie fire came over a hill on to them suddenly, when they lived near Foster, Nebraska; starting a counter fire they followed it as rapidly as possible, but not before their wagon cover was scorched and the horses' tails and manes set afire. For a minute or two it seemed as if the end had come, but as soon as the fire reached their back-fire it was over as quickly as it came. When Mr. Huffman first came to York, he might have bought a section of railroad land adjoining the town at five dollars per acre and had ten years in which to pay. The land is now worth hundreds of dollars per acre; but no one dreamed at that time that land in Nebraska would bring such a price. However, these are vain regrets, as we are all at fortune's beck and call. Although Mr. Huffman did not buy this valuable property when at a low figure, he is able to enjoy life more than in his earlier days; and contentment, peace and happiness are greater than all riches.