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Francis M. Cushing, born in Ulysses, Potter County, Pennsylvania, December 7, 1847, was ninth of ten children in the family of Leavitt and Jane (Goodrich) Cushing. Francis grew up in Pennsylvania and was a farm boy of Potter County, Pennsylvania, the father being one of the original settlers of that county. Francis M. Cushing, in company with T. N. Bennett and others, came to Nebraska in 1872, having left Pennsylvania the eighteenth of March. Mr. Cushing stopped in Howard County, remaining until July, 1872, when he came on up into Valley County, taking up a pre-emption claim in the southwest quarter of section fourteen, township nineteen, range fourteen, and occupied land on the north side of the North Loup River, which at the time was but little settled. He proved up on his land in 1873 by hunting, trapping, farming and working on the railroad, and did so until May, 1876, when with other gold seekers he went to the Black Hills. In February 1881, he made a trip east to his old home in Ulysses, Potter County, Pennsylvania returning west in the fall when again he resumed work on the railroads. He returned again in the fall of 1883 for the girl of his heart, and on December 13 was married in Potter county to Miss Kate A. Bassett, at the home of her parents, Orren R. and Zeruah (Lewis) Bassett. Remaining in the Keystone state until June, 1884, Mr. and Mrs. Cushing came to Ord, Nebraska and built a town residence.
During the years intervening between 1872 and 1884,Mr. Cushing retained the ownership of his original pre-emption farm; after employment for a number of years in Ord as carpenter and bridge builder, during this time being engaged in the bridge department of the Northwestern railroad, erecting all the bridges between Plum creek, in Brown county, and Valentine. Mr. Cushing erected a comfortable dwelling on the farm in 1903, which is now his residence.
Francis and Kate Cushing had three children: Frank Leavitt, Marion J., and Herbert Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Cushing and family have had much to do with the upbuilding of Valley County, and are widely and favorably known along social and educational lines.
Mr. Cushing, whilst not active along political lines, is independent in politics, and has always done his part toward the uplifting of his home county and state. The family are members of the Baptist church.
Mr. Cushing has weathered several of the worst Nebraska blizzards since he came to the west, and has seen the country devastated by grasshoppers, hail and drought. Mr. Cushing is fond of hunting and came to Loup Valley before the antelope, deer and elk had been driven from the plains.
Sources:
1. The Genealogy of the Cushing Family (An account of the Ancestors and Descendants of Matthew Cushing, who came to America in 1638) by James Cushing, The Perrault Printing Co - Montreal, 1905. First Edition, 1877, by Lemuel Cushing, D1881 (Finished by his family) Pg 502.
2. The Genealogy of the Cushing Family, 1905 to 1969, Allston T. Cushing, Kansas City MO: Published by the Author, Pg 18
3. FamilySearch™ Ancestral File v4.19
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