Ninth Generation

(106) John Bell Dinsmore, (of Philander,) eldest son of Harriet Hall Alden Dinsmore, (51), was born at Ripley, N. Y., March 15, 1838. He was married at Asheville, N. Y., April 12, 1865, to Helen M. Matteson, who was born at Harmony, N. Y., March 20, 1844. He was brought up on a farm and had common school advantages. He removed to Kansas in 1859, and to Saline, Mo., in December of the same year, where he remained until the breaking out of the Civil war, when he returned to the State of New York, and enlisted, July, 1861, as a private in Co. I, 9th Regt., N. Y. V. Cavalry. He served in the army of the Potomac and of Northern Virginia as Corporal, Sergeant, and 2nd Lieut. He was honorably discharged October 20, 1864. He afterwards spent one year on a farm, then engaged in mercantile pursuits at Ashville, N. Y., for six years. He removed to Clay Co., Neb., in May, 1872, and settled on a homestead which he opened up and improved. He was appointed County Commissioner in April, 1873, for an un-expired term; was elected Sheriff in the fall of 1873; County Clerk in the fall of 1875; State Senator in the fall of 1880, and President pro tem, to the Senate, session of 1881. As one of the firm of Grimes & Dinsmore, he opened the first bank in Clay Co., Neb. The firm title was afterwards changed to J. B. Dinsmore & Co., Mr. Grimes retiring. The bank was converted into a National Bank in April, 1887. He was elected its first President and has served in such capacity, continuously, to the present time. He has served 26 years as a member of the State Board of Agriculture, four years as its President, and has filled several of the important offices in the Masonic grand bodies. He resides at Sutton, Nebraska.    

Transcribed by Darla Stimbert January 2004

Author; Harriet Chapin Fielding: The ancestors and descendants of Isaac Alden and Irene Smith his wife : (1599-1903) unknown: unknown, c1903, 149  pgs. Pg 55