Chester Reuben Camp, born March 4, 1828, in Ontario County, New York, was a prominent farmer and respected citizen of Nemaha County, Nebraska, for forty years. Moving from Michigan in 1863, he bought and developed a farm in Glen Rock precinct, achieving significant success through diligent work. Camp retired in 1899, selling his farm and relocating to Auburn. He married Sally M. Phillips on December 17, 1852, and they had two children, Alvaretta and Calvin. A dedicated Democrat, Camp served as a school director and road supervisor, and he and his wife were active members of the Highland Baptist Church.
Chester Reuben Camp, a retired farmer in Auburn in his seventy-sixth year, has been one of the enterprising and progressive citizens of Nemaha County for forty years, making him one of the old settlers who has witnessed a wonderful transformation of this country from unproductive prairies to a paradise of farms and towns. He has made his handsome property by diligence early and late and shrewd management, earning the prosperity and comfort that have come to his later years. He is public-spirited as well and has always been willing to help along any worthy enterprise for the general welfare.
Mr. Camp was born in Ontario County, New York, March 4, 1828. His father, John Camp, was born in Massachusetts about 1787 and died in Hillsdale County, Michigan, in 1856. He was a shoemaker and a farmer. He was married in New York to Amy Scott, who died in Michigan in 1863. They had come to that state in 1837. They were parents of five children and reared three of them. Sylvester died past middle life in Hillsdale County, Michigan, leaving one son and one daughter; Patience, the wife of Joseph Benfield, died in Lenawee County, Michigan, in 1846.
Chester Reuben Camp, the only survivor of the children, was reared on the home farm in Michigan. He received his education in the district school, and after completing its studies was asked to become its teacher but declined. He worked out by the month until he was married, and for two years he farmed the old homestead. In 1863 he came to Nemaha County and bought a quarter section in Glen Rock precinct, paying two yoke of oxen and one hundred dollars for it. He afterward traded this, with four hundred dollars to boot, for the farm on which he made his home for so many years. He has been an indefatigable worker and has made his farming operations pay unusually well. He continued his active work on the farm until 1899, and in that year sold his land for fifty dollars an acre, but it is now worth seventy-five. He then located in his nice home on one and a half lots in Auburn and is here surrounded with all the comforts desired by one whose life has been passed in such strenuous effort.
December 17, 1852, Mr. Camp was married to Miss Sally M. Phillips, who was born in St. Lawrence County, New York, June 9, 1832. Her parents, Allen and Lydia (Baker) Phillips, were born, respectively, in Vermont and New York, and were married in the latter state. They reared seven children, five daughters and two sons, all of whom had families, and all are now deceased except Mrs. Camp, who was the sixth child. They were farmers in New York and came from that state to Michigan in 1838. In the spring of 1857 they drove their team overland to Nebraska and laid a land warrant on one hundred and sixty acres in Glen Rock precinct, where they began humbly and experienced the trials and privations of a new country. They returned to Michigan in 1860 and spent the winter with Mr. and Mrs. Camp, but on March 25, 1861, they once more landed in Nebraska, where they spent the remainder of their lives.
Mr. and Mrs. Camp have had two children. Alvaretta is the wife of John M. Elliott, in South Auburn, and they have twelve of their fourteen children; Calvin, who died in 1876 at the age of seventeen years and seven months, of scarlet fever, was a promising youth, bright and energetic, and his death was a great sorrow to his parents. Mr. Camp has always voted with the Democrats, and officially has served as school director and supervisor of roads. He and his wife are esteemed members of the Highland Baptist church.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, 2 volumes, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.