Thomas J. Stockman, born April 28, 1838, near Goshen, Elkhart County, Indiana, was a well-known businessman in Adams, Nebraska. Along with his son Samuel, he operated the Adams livery and sales stables and served as a land agent. A Civil War veteran, Stockman enlisted in 1863 in the Nebraska Cavalry and served on the frontier. After various relocations, he settled in Gage County, Nebraska, in 1887. He married Mary Jane McKibben in 1859, and they had seven children. Stockman was respected for his business acumen and community contributions.
Thomas J. Stockman, who, with his son Samuel, owns and conducts the Adams livery and sales stables and is land agent at Adams, Nebraska, has lived in this part of southeastern Nebraska for over fifteen years. He has displayed executive ability and good management in his business affairs, and as a man and citizen is held in high esteem by friends and associates. He became acquainted, mainly in his capacity as a soldier of the government during the Civil War, with the territory of Nebraska as it was forty years ago, so that he may be considered among the ranks of the old settlers.
Mr. Stockman was born near Goshen, Elkhart County, Indiana, April 28, 1838. His father, Samuel Stockman, was one of the first settlers of Elkhart County, having come from Bedford County, Pennsylvania, of a family of German stock. His wife was a Miss Johnson, a native of Ohio, and they were parents of four sons and four daughters. Two daughters and one son live in Wisconsin, and another son is in Adams, Nebraska, besides Thomas. Three sons were in the Civil War: T. J.; George, who was first lieutenant in the Seventy-fourth Indiana, and died in 1891; and John, of the Forty-eighth Indiana Infantry.
Thomas J. Stockman was reared and educated in Indiana, and in boyhood moved to a farm near Warsaw, Kosciusko County, Indiana. At the age of twenty-one he came west to the territory of Nebraska, and in 1863 enlisted at Omaha in Company A, First Battalion of Nebraska Cavalry, under Captain George Armstrong. He was stationed on the frontier guarding the government trains and settlers from hostile Indians, and the troops did excellent service in suppressing the depredations. He was at Fort Kearney and Plum Creek much of the time. While arresting parties at Camp Douglas he was struck by a gun, breaking his collarbone and otherwise being injured so that he was crippled for two years.
He was honorably discharged at Omaha, and then returned east. He was in Indiana until 1877, when he went to Wisconsin, and for the following ten years was engaged in farming in Dunn and Barron counties. He came to Gage County, Nebraska, in 1887, and later bought the livery business which he and his son are now carrying on so successfully. They have a good barn, good facilities, and their patronage is large. Mr. Stockman is also agent for Wisconsin lands in Dunn, Barron, Polk, and Chippewa counties, and has some fine agricultural lands there, which are destined to reach a high value when developed and improved. He is an excellent authority on real estate in those counties because of his long residence there. Mr. Stockman is in every way a first-class businessman, and his reliability and integrity have never been questioned.
In 1859 Mr. Stockman was married at Warsaw, Indiana, to Mary Jane McKibben, who was reared and educated in Indiana and was a daughter of Samuel McKibben, of Warsaw. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stockman: Parthena Burton, of Cameron, Wisconsin; Tillie Cook, of Cumberland, Wisconsin; Alice Evans, of Adams, Nebraska; Samuel, the partner of his father in the livery business; E. L., in the barber business at Adams; Frank; and Retta, who died in Wisconsin at the age of sixteen. Mrs. Stockman, who was a member of the Methodist church and a beautiful character and devoted wife and mother, died in July, 1896.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, 2 volumes, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.