Captain C. F. Nye was a well-known citizen of Clay Township, Pawnee County, and a pioneer of this part of Nebraska, having arrived in 1867. Born on December 17, 1838, in Highgate, Vermont, he was the son of Nelson Nye and Eliza Fairbanks. Nelson Nye, born on December 17, 1810, in Keene, New Hampshire, lived to be ninety-three. C. F. Nye, educated at the University of Vermont, left to join the First Vermont Regiment during the Civil War, later serving in the Tenth Vermont Volunteer Infantry and rising to the rank of captain. After the war, he graduated in law and moved to Pawnee City, Nebraska, where he practiced law and served as county treasurer. Nye later focused on farming and stock-raising on his 640-acre farm. He married Maggie B. Dorrance in 1871, and they had five children. A lifelong Republican and a Mason, Nye was respected both as a private citizen and public official.
Captain C. F. Nye is one of the well-known citizens of Clay Township, Pawnee County, and he is also one of the pioneers of this part of Nebraska, having come here in 1867. He was born in Highgate, Franklin County, Vermont, on December 17, 1838. He is a son of Nelson Nye, born at Keene, New Hampshire, on December 17, 1810, and who lives at St. Albans, Vermont, at the age of ninety-three years. Nelson Nye is a son of Benjamin Nye and a Miss Wright, whose father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Nelson Nye was reared in New Hampshire on a farm and married Eliza Fairbanks, who was born in Vermont and was a daughter of Benjamin Fairbanks of New England stock. Nelson and Eliza Nye moved to Highgate after their marriage and located upon a farm. The children born to them were as follows: Laura F. Marsh, of Sheldon, Vermont; Benjamin, of Highgate, Vermont; Chester F.; and Albert, a prominent citizen of Highgate, who served in the Tenth Vermont Volunteer Infantry and made a fine record during the Civil War.
Mr. C. F. Nye was reared upon his father’s farm and was early taught that industry, thrift, and integrity are essentials to real success. His education was an excellent one; he had the advantage of a course at the university at Burlington, Vermont, but he left that institution to enlist a few days after Fort Sumter was fired upon and entered the First Vermont Regiment for ninety days. At the expiration of his term of service, he returned to the University, but his patriotism would not allow him to remain there, and after a year enlisted, in September 1862, in the Tenth Vermont Volunteer Infantry, Colonel A. B. Jewett and Captain H. Piatt commanding. Among the battles participated in by our subject may be mentioned Locust Grove, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Cedar Creek, and the campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. He participated in the battle of Petersburg and was wounded at Monocacy, July 9, 1864; his wound proved a very serious one and he was confined to the hospital for some time. Later he participated in the battle of Cedar Creek under General Sheridan’s command with the Sixth Army Corps and was again wounded and forced to go to the hospital. He enlisted as a private both times and after his second enlistment, he was promoted in the Wilderness to captain and continued in command until his final discharge.
He graduated in law at St. Albans, Vermont, in 1867, after which he came west to Pawnee City and practiced law for some time, associated with Captain George M. Humphrey. In 1893 Mr. Nye was elected treasurer of Pawnee County and served two terms with great credit to himself and the satisfaction of his constituents. Of late years he has lived upon his beautiful farm on Turkey Creek, Clay Township, where he owns six hundred and forty acres of the finest land in Nebraska, on which he carries on general farming and stock-raising. He makes a specialty of blooded cattle and hogs. Plots of bluegrass surround his beautiful home, in the rear of which there is an excellent orchard.
In 1871 Mr. Nye was married to Maggie B. Dorrance, who was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and is a daughter of William Dorrance, a native of Pennsylvania of Scotch-Irish descent, whose wife, Mary Jane (Duncan) Dorrance, was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Dorrance went to Tazewell County, Illinois, where the father died at the age of forty-seven years. He was a hatter by trade but followed farming. In politics, he was first a Whig and then a Republican. The wife died on September 11, 1894, aged seventy-nine years. They had five children, as follows: Ellen North, of Marshall, Kansas; Marian Wagner, of Pawnee City, Nebraska; J. G., of Clay Township; Mrs. Margaret Nye, and J. W., of Pawnee City, Nebraska.
Mr. and Mrs. Nye have five children, as follows: W. Nelson, a well-known citizen of Clay Township; Laura M., wife of L. R. Dillon, of Peru, Nebraska; Jane Ellen, wife of Arthur Pelton, of Dubois, Nebraska; Chester Gilmore; and Florence Elizabeth. Mr. Nye has been a Republican ever since he cast his first vote, and he is a prominent Blue Lodge and Chapter Mason. He and his wife are members of the Eastern Star. His wife is a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church. He is genial, courteous, and pleasing in manner, and both as a private citizen and public official has made himself highly respected throughout the community.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, 2 volumes, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.