Joshua S. Lord, born November 11, 1865, near Rushville, Illinois, was a notable figure in Richardson County, Nebraska. A son of Joseph and Anna (Boyd) Lord, he moved to Nebraska at age three and witnessed the area’s development from pioneer days. His father, originally from England, became a successful farmer in Richardson County before his death in 1874. Joshua, after initially helping on the family farm, ventured into the drug business and later into politics, serving as a state legislator and county treasurer. Beginning in 1910, he served as the cashier of the First National Bank of Falls City. He married Eliza P. Boyd in 1884, and they had three children: Vera, Harold, and Mildred. The family was active in the local community and social organizations.
Joshua S. Lord, cashier of the First National Bank of Falls City, a substantial landowner of Richardson county, former treasurer of the county, former representative from this district in the Nebraska General Assembly and for years actively identified with the political and business affairs of this county, is a native of the state of Illinois, but has been a resident of Nebraska and of this county since he was three years of age and has thus been a witness to and a participant in the development of this part of the state since pioneer days. He was born on a farm in the immediate vicinity of Rushville, Illinois, November 11, 1865, son of Joseph and Anna (Boyd) Lord, the former a native of England and the latter of Illinois, who became pioneers of Richardson county and here spent their last days.
Joseph Lord, who was born in 1828, remained in his native England until he was sixteen years of age, when, in 1844, he came to this country and proceeded to Illinois, where he became a farmer and where he presently married Anna Boyd, who was born in that state in 1830, daughter of pioneer parents. In 1868 Joseph Lord became attracted to the possibilities then open to settlers in the new state of Nebraska and disposing of his interests in Illinois came out here with his family and bought a partly-broken tract of land in this county, a portion of the old Indian Reservation, three and one-half miles southwest of Salem, and there established his home. He proceeded to improve and develop that tract and had a well-improved farm when death put a stop to his endeavors on February 10, 1874. His widow survived him many years, her death occurring on the old home farm in 1902, she then being seventy-two years of age. They were the parents of twelve children, seven sons and five daughters, of whom the subject of this sketch was the tenth in order of birth, the others being James, Frances, William and Elizabeth, now deceased; Robert A., a retired farmer now living at Oklahoma City; Mrs. Sarah Ellen Clark, of Oklahoma; Joseph and Josephine, twins, the former of whom is a farmer south of Salem, this county, and the latter the wife of J. D. Harris, of Salem; Amanda M., widow of Herl Moore and the owner of an extensive ranch in this state; Charles A., who is engaged in the automobile business at Lincoln, and is one of the largest automobile distributors in this state, and Thomas, a well-to-do farmer living in the vicinity, of Peru, in the neighboring county of Nemaha.
Joshua S. Lord was but a small child when he came to this county from Illinois with his parents and he was but nine years of age when his father died. He was reared on the home farm in the precinct of Salem, receiving his schooling in the neighborhood schools, and remained on the farm with his mother until 1883, when he turned his attention to business lines and became a druggist. He married in 1884 and later took a course in pharmacy and in 1889 engaged in the drug business on his own account at Salem and was there very successfully engaged in that line until 1903. In the meantime he had been giving considerable attention to local political affairs and in 1904 was elected, as the nominee of the Democratic party, to represent this district in the state Legislature, thus being one of the seven Democrats who served in the Nebraska House of Representatives in the memorable session of 1905. In the fall of 1905 Mr. Lord resigned his legislative office in order to accept the nomination for the office of county treasurer. He was elected to that office and his course in administering the affairs of the county treasurer’s office proved so satisfactory that he was re-elected in 1907, the Democratic county convention having re-nominated him by acclamation, and he thus served for four years as county treasurer, one of the most popular officials in the court house. Meantime, Mr. Lord had taken up his residence in Falls City and upon the completion of his term of official service he was elected, in 1910, cashier of the First National Bank of Falls City, succeeding Governor Moorehead in that position, and has ever since been thus engaged, long having been recognized as one of the leading bankers in this part of the state. In addition to his banking interests Mr. Lord has a fine farm of three hundred acres in Salem precinct, a part of which is the old Lord homestead place, and takes much interest in the management of the farm.
In 1884 Joshua S. Lord was united in marriage to Eliza P. Boyd, of Salem, who was born in Forest City, Missouri, daughter of S. A. and Arminda Boyd, both now deceased, who were early settlers at Salem, and to this union three children have been born, namely: Vera, born on November 15, 1887, who married Russell A. Hiatt, of Morrell, Kansas, and died on November 10, 1916, leaving a six-year-old daughter, Jean; Harold, born in 1892, who married Vera M. Watson and is now living on his father’s farm in Salem precinct, and Mildred M., 1895, a graduate of the Falls City high school, who is at home with her parents. The Lords have a very pleasant home at Falls City and take an interested part in the general social and cultural activities of their home town. Mr. Lord is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and takes an active part in the affairs of that fraternal organization.
Source: Edwards, Lewis C., History of Richardson County, Nebraska : Its People, Industries and Institutions, Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen, 1917.