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Foxwell G. Fletcher
Born: 5 JUN 1824 at Maine
Died: 29 DEC 1989 at Washington County, Nebraska
Buried: New England Cemetery; west of Herman, Washington County, NE
Married: Rachel or Ann Frost
Born: unknown
Died: unknown of diphtheria before Foxwell came to Nebraska.
Buried: unknown
Children:
Eliza, b. unknown, d. prior to 1867, bur. unknown
Robert, b. unknown, d. prior to 1867, bur. unknown
Syreno R., b. 6 MAY 1851 at Bangor, Maine, d. 8 JUN 1926 at Bancroft, Cuming Co. NE, bur. Bancroft City Cemetery, m. 4 JUL 1873 to Dora/Dovie Jane Lippencott b. 1850, d. 1930, bur. Bancroft Cemetery.
Linda, b. 26 OCT 1855 at Maine, d. 21 MAY 1927, bur. New England Cemetery, m. James Mathews b. 7 AUG 1857, d. 11 AUG 1936, bur. New England Cemetery.
Foxwell Fletcher homesteaded west of Herman, Washington County, Nebraska in 1867. This area became known as both Fletcher and New England, as most of the early settlers were from the New England area of the United States, primarily Maine. Mr. Fletcher was a Civil War veteran who came west after losing his wife, son Robert, and daughter, Eliza to a diphtheria epidemic in the east. He brought along his other two children, Linda and Syreno (see Syreno’s story below). Foxwell built a country store and in March of 1883, he was appointed postmaster of the Fletcher post office, a job he kept until August 1893.
Biography Album of Northeastern Nebraska, pub. 1893:
S. R. FLETCHER, at Bancroft, Cuming County, is agent for the Holmquist grain, lumber, coal and live stock Company, of Oakland. In August, 1885, he came to Cuming County, and took charge of an elevator belonging to the Crowell grain and lumber company. About 1887, he contracted a cold, culminating in a sciatic trouble, by which he lost the use of his limbs, and since that time has had to wheel himself in a rolling chair. In connection with his other business, he operates a grocery and confectionary.
He of whom we write was born in Maine, 1851. His parents were Foxwell and Rachel Fletcher, whose four children were: S.R., Eliza (deceased), Lyndia J., and Robert (deceased). S. R. remained in Maine until thirteen years of his life had passed, when he came to Washington County, Nebraska, where his parents engaged in farming, taking a piece of school land. His father commenced in without means and was a genuine pioneer.
When eighteen years of age, our subject commenced driving a stage between Omaha and Sioux City, and one year later went to work on a farm; we next find him at Blair clerking in a store. He then embarked in the grain business and followed that for three years, and tried farming, but was driven off by the grasshoppers and hailstorms. His next work was husking corn at seventy-five cents per day, but an improvement on this came when he got his uncle's team and hauled wood across the Missouri River, making three dollars per day. Later on he herded cattle by the month, and followed the agricultural implement business at Lippincott. He then returned to the grain business for two years and went into the mail service, under the Republican administration, and continued four years, but upon change of the administration resigned and came to Bancroft.
Mr. Fletcher was married, July 4, 1873, to Dora Lippincott, whose parents were natives of New Jersey and Virginia, respectively.
They are the parents of four children : Eva, Roy, Everid and Stacy.
Politically, Mr. Fletcher believes in the general principles of the Republican party. He has taken his first degree in Free Masonry.
Source: Ruth Moss, Washington County Genealogical Society
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