*CAPT. J. F. STARR
Source: Fairbury, Jefferson Co., NE newspaper
Friday 21 Apr 1911
Life History of a Jefferson County Man
Veteran of the Civil War
A Student of Nature
The editor of the Journal feels a personal loss in the death of Capt. J. F. Starr, for he numbered him as a friend, one of those rugged, independent, studious, brainy, whole-souled vigorous kind of men, to meet whom does one good – to lose whom is almost a calamity. Capt. Starr was a character. He was Capt. Starr – not anyone else, nor just like anyone else, roughness, bluffness and vigor mixed with refinement, intellect and good nature.
When Capt. Starr talked, he used whatever language came handy. If he wanted a Greek phase to illustrate his point, he had it on the end of his tongue or he would snap in a bit of profanity so it would scintilate like a precious gem. I would always rather hear Capt. Starr swear than listen to the ordinary sermon – there was so much more sincerity about the Captain’s profanity than the sermon. There was no deceit, no guile in Capt. Starr. He said what he thot about any and every subject under the sun. He hated sham and hypocrisy and cant and form and grovelings to custom and aristocracy, and he said he hated these things, said so in picturesque language and without any beating about the bush. Yet Capt. Starr, ever the enemy of sham, was the friend of humanity. He loved to visit. He loved to talk. He loved his old friends and comrades and his home, his farm, his “dear old Horace”. He loved Nature, the great, big, glorious out of doors.
Years ago, he came to Nebraska and settled on a farm near Steele City and this was his home until about three or four years ago, when the infirmities of age made him part with it and make his home mostly in the south with his son, Will. When he parted with the home place, it was so dear to him and so full of pleasant memories, he could not leave it without some tribute to it. He caused a souvenir to be printed, which he called, “An Indiana Farm in Nebraska”. From this souvenir we have taken one picture which is reproduced here showing the Captain, his wife and son in the “Old Man’s Playground.”
From the souvenir, we take the following extracts: “A little farm well tilled, A little house well filled, A little wife well willed.”
“Is a good home and should be a happy one – to the owner, ‘A pearl of great price.’ But the pearl when worn, needs a new setting; and it is the setting and the fact that the owner is a Hoosier, that justifies the name given the book."
“These belts are not unlike the walls of timber that surround the Indiana clearings; inferior in height, but superior in the soundness and vigor of youth in lieu of the more or less decrepitude of age. The tops, sun kissed, waving the same way in breeze or gale; below the same deep shadows and comparative calm. In the low parts the grape vines climb the same way, and the same tangle of undergrowth. In spots are the same wild flow-flowers, jack-in-the pulpit and others. And greatest of all in their nests (there are no holes in the trees) the same gray squirrels, so dear to the heart of the ‘Hoosier Boy.’ In a considerable part the carpeting of blue grass suggests the wood pastures of the old home. And, all together, as you wander in the depths the heart is apt to fill with memories of the long ago, and the lines of dear old Horace are recalled, ‘Of all the world the dearest spot.’”
“And now, last but not least, is a view of a corner of ‘the old man’s playground’, most prized, for those who know her, for the picture of the little woman who graces the center. Other views could be given, by the score, all different and yet alike in lovliness, but, as the Dutchman said of his blue grass seed, ‘too much is a good deal and more as das is blentig’.
“Will we leave this? Yes. A couple already past the allotted years of man are not equal to the care of it; and we will already have robbed the grave of half its victory when we say good-bye to our Indiana Home in Nebraska.”
These extracts show how our old friend loved his home, which to him was almost a reproduction of the home of his youth “back in Indiana.” He was born in Richmond, Ind., in 1838 and for a time was one of the leading merchants and business men of that thriving city. The following extracts are from the Richmond, Ind., Daily Palladium: “His career was one of the most illustrous of the many prominent residents in the early history of Richmond. As a merchant and manufacturer he became identified in every movement for the benefit of the city and when the Civil war broke out he was one of the first to enlist and one of the last to be mustered out. He entered the service as a second lieutenant and retired as Captain of Company C of the Second Indiana, this company being organized in Richmond and mustered into service at Indianapolis in September, 1861. In 1886 Mr. Starr left the city to locate in Nebraska.
“Surviving him are, the widow, Mrs. Eliza B. Starr, three sons, John V. of Whitewater, Nebraska, William B. of Cisco, Texas, and Robert F. of Diller, Nebraska, and two daughters, Mrs. E. A. Wheatley of Chattanooga, Tenn., and Mrs. J. C. Stucker of Diller, Nebraska. He was next to the youngest child of Charles West Starr and wife, pioneers of Wayne county. He was a brother of Col. William C. Starr, Mrs. Hannah A. Leeds, Nathan H. Starr and Benjamin Starr, all of whom were prominently allied with Richmond business interests.
“After a school career, which included graduation form Haverford colllege in 1858, and attendance at the Greenmount boarding school, now Wernle Orphan’s home, he obtained employment in the administration department of the Pioneer Salt Works, of Pomroy, Ohio, with his brother, the late Col. William C. Starr. He then came to Richmond and with his brother, James Starr, engaged in the wholesale grocery business, the firm name being Starr & Starr.
“The manufacturing firm of Beard & Starr was then formed. Plows were the chief article of manufacture. After the war he returned to Richmond, and assumed the managership of the gas company, which had been organized by his brother, the late Jas. Starr. For ten years he continued in this capacity and then resigned to enter the lumber business, his place of business being on what is now North Tenth and E. streets.
“While in college he studied civil engineering and upon his return here, he laid out that part of his father’s farm which was still in natural forest. Practically all of Richmond from Tenth to the Glen and from Main to the River was laid out by him. On the death of his mother the affairs of the estate were placed in his hands for settlement. “Capt. Starr was rapidly promoted from second lieutenant of the Second Indiana cavalry which was a division of the Army of Cumberland. He saw active service for a little over three years and while he had many thrilling adventures, never was he injured more seriously than powder burns. Once he escaped from the Confederates who captured him and on another occasion was exchanged. He was captured by a party of General Morgan’s men, but given oppurtunity to escape on orders from Morgan, because of an act of bravery while a prisoner of this general. Since the war he has taken an active part in G. A. R. organizations and it was one of the greatest pleasures of his later life to attend the annual reunions of the army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga, Tenn. “Altho he has not been able ta take active part in the work of the Indiana Friends after leaving Richmond, he nevertheless always kept in close touch with their activities. He had continued his membership in the Whitewater Quarterly Meeting.
“For the past three months he has been in ill health, but not critically so until thirty-six hours before his death. He suffered from asthma which was the cause of his demise.”
For the past four years Capt. Starr has spent most of his time in the South – in Tennessee – the Mississippi Gulf Coast, New Orleans and Texas.
Among the “enemy” of century ago he made his warmest friends, and when he died at Cisco, Texas, his coffin was completely covered with flowers, sent by these Southern friends.
Among the many who followed his body to the train that was to bear it to the Northern resting place, were the old Confederate veterans of Cisco.
His kindly geniality had made for himself “brothers” of the one time bitter enemies.
Capt. Starr came from a noted family. One brother was the maker of the “Starr” piano, sold all over the land. His sister was the wife of the late W. B. Leeds, at one time head of the Rock Island system. Capt. Starr himself was a successful business man. He gave it up however, when he thot a life on the farm would be better for the health of his family. He was greatly devoted to horticulture and raised some of the finest apples ever produced in Jefferson county. Capt. Starr’s apples and pure apple cider were known all over the county as the very highest quality. Were there more Capt. Starr’s in this world, there would be less need for pure food laws.
*I left the typos in as they were printed. There are three corrections that I believe need to be made:
