John Hamilton Shook, born on July 31, 1838, in Carlinville, Illinois, is a notable figure in Auburn, Nebraska, known for his varied life experiences, including Civil War service and frontier activities. His great-grandfather emigrated from Germany, and his father, James Shook, moved the family to Illinois. John and his brother William arrived in Nebraska in 1859, initially engaging in prairie farming. John served in the Civil War from 1861 to 1865, participating in major battles like Pittsburg Landing and Vicksburg. Post-war, he and his brother ran a successful sawmilling business. John married Ella Pike in 1870, and they had five children. He held several public offices, including postmaster and county commissioner.
John Hamilton Shook, of Auburn, Nebraska, is a man whose more than threescore years of life cover a varied experience, including a Civil War service, numerous travels, and frontier incidents. Mr. Shook came to Nebraska at an early day and has done his part toward bringing about the development which has been wrought here. A detailed review of his army life and his pioneer and later experience would require a large volume and would be interesting reading, too, but in this connection, for want of space, we can present only a brief sketch.
John Hamilton Shook was born in Carlinville, Illinois, July 31, 1838, and traces his ancestry on the paternal side back to his great-grandfather Shook, who was of German birth and who was for many years engaged in farming in Pennsylvania, where he died at a ripe old age. James Shook, his father, was born in Pennsylvania about the year 1797, and was reared in Tennessee. He died in Macoupin county, Illinois, at the age of forty-five years. Abraham Shook, the father of James, was born in Pennsylvania about 1775 and died in Tennessee in 1845. He was a Presbyterian minister. Of his family of four sons and three daughters, all married and reared families, and two of his sons were ministers of the gospel — Isaac, a Baptist minister in Ohio, and Abraham, a Presbyterian, preaching in Tennessee and Indiana. Each of these two sons lived to good old age and each was the father of four children. James Shook was twice married. By his first wife he had two sons and two daughters, namely: James, a farmer in Whiteside county, Illinois, died at the age of fifty-two years, leaving seven children, three sons and four daughters; Ellen, wife of Wilson T. Stout, died in 1863, leaving four children; Mary Jane, wife of Eli Daily, died in 1902, leaving seven children; and Robinson, who went west early in the fifties and was honored with a seat in the Oregon territorial and state legislatures, died some years ago, leaving three sons. In Carlinville, Illinois, in 1836, James Shook married for his second wife a Mrs. Good, widow of Ezekiel Good, and daughter of a British soldier whose name was Knickerbocker but was afterward changed to Bird. She was born in New York in 1800. By her first husband she had one son and three daughters, viz.: Sarah Ann, wife of a Mr. Burgess, died leaving two daughters and one son; Elizabeth, wife of Bennett Solomon, died about 1860 in Girard, Illinois, leaving two daughters; Minerva, wife of Lewis Johnson, of Carlinville, Illinois, has one son and one daughter; and Thomas Good, a bachelor, is a well-to-do farmer of Arkansas. The children of the second marriage of James Shook were four sons, as follows: John Hamilton and William B., twins. The latter is a resident of Lovington, Moultrie county, Illinois, where he is at this writing filling the office of probate judge; George R., now of Grand Valley, Colorado, was for a number of years a resident of Nemaha county, Nebraska, where he figured prominently in public affairs, serving six years as county surveyor and five terms in the territorial legislature, in both upper and lower houses. He is a veteran of the Civil War, having served in the Seventh and One Hundred and Forty-eighth regiments of Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He has reared a family of three sons and four daughters. The youngest brother of our subject, Albert, died at Hillsdale, Nebraska, in 1882, of disease contracted while he was a soldier in the Civil War. He left three sons. James Shook, the father of this large family, died in middle life, as already stated, and his widow did not long survive him, her death occurring in 1851. Side by side they rest in the little cemetery in Carlinville, Illinois. Both were church members, she a Presbyterian and he a Baptist.
John Hamilton Shook had limited advantages for obtaining an education in his youth. When only seven years old he was put to work driving a yoke of steers. His mother dying when he was only thirteen years old, he went to live with his half-sister, Mrs. Johnson, and remained a member of her family until he was twenty. Then, in March, 1859, he came to Nebraska, in company with his brother William. They made the journey by boat to Kansas City and were en route for Pike’s Peak. Hearing discouraging reports from Pike’s Peak, they changed their plans and came to southeastern Nebraska. Here they bought six yoke of oxen and plows and spent the summer in breaking prairie. They entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, each giving his note for two hundred dollars for one year, at thirty percent interest. When they landed here John H. had one hundred and thirty dollars and his brother ninety dollars, not enough with which to purchase their teams, but their credit was good and they went in debt and in due time discharged their obligations. That fall they returned to Illinois, and in the spring of the following year John H. came back to Nebraska, alone, and engaged in farming on his brother-in-law’s land. In 1860 the crop was poor, but it was better the next year and industry and good management brought success to Mr. Shook. He became the owner of two hundred and fifty acres, eleven acres of which were timberland. At this time Civil War was inaugurated, and Mr. Shook enlisted in Company F, Fifteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, on October 10, 1861, and served until January, 1865. His service included thirty-six different engagements, prominent among them being Pittsburg Landing, Corinth, the siege of Vicksburg, and the siege of Atlanta.
At the close of the war Mr. Shook returned to Nebraska and engaged in the sawmilling business on the Missouri River. His brother also became interested in this business and they were associated together under the firm name of Shook & Brother, until 1884, operating extensively, owning no less than three thousand acres in Nebraska at one time and employing forty men. They also owned three thousand two hundred acres of land in Texas. In Richardson county, Nebraska, where Mr. Shook made his home for some years, he owned a thousand acres of land and annually fed and sold two hundred head of cattle. He has disposed of all his holdings, however, and at this writing has only the five-acre place in Auburn, on which he built his present residence in 1890. He has a rented farm near Auburn, where he keeps a number of horses, cattle, and hogs.
Mr. Shook married, in August 1870, Miss Ella Pike, a native of Iowa, born in 1852; and their union has been blessed in the birth of five children. Their eldest son, William, is a practicing physician at Shubert, Richardson county, Nebraska. He has a wife and one daughter. The next in order of birth is Arthur, a postal clerk on the Union Pacific Railroad. Charles T. is attending college at Bellevue, Nebraska, and John R. is at home. A daughter died in infancy.
Mr. Shook is a Master Mason and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Politically he is a Republican. During his long residence in Nebraska he has many times been honored with official position, and in whatever office he has been called he has responded with faithful and efficient service. He was constable in 1860. For seven years he was postmaster of Hillsdale, was on the school board twenty-nine years, and twelve years was county commissioner, elected first in 1874. In 1895 he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature, and while a member of that body served on the Soldiers’ Relief Committee.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, 2 volumes, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.