Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Portrait and Biographical Album of the State Officers and the Members of the Nebraska Legislature: Twenty-Eighth Session, 1903, 1904, Containing a Directory of the Legislature and Official State Directory
John Hopwood Mickey is a native of the Hawkeye state, born six miles west of Burlington, Iowa, September 30, 1845. His father, Oliver Perry Mickey, was a pioneer in Iowa, locating there in 1836. His mother in maidenhood was Betsy Ann Davison, of English extraction. In 1847, two years after the birth of'governor Mickey, the family removed to Louisa county, Iowa, and there in the common schools of the day, the governor to be received his early education, well directed by careful parents who zealously guarded the moral environments of their growing children. In 1863 Governor Mickey enlisted as a private in Company D, 8th Iowa cav alry, and until the close of the war, with his regiment was in service in eastern Tennessee and with Sherman in his campaign until the surrender of Atlanta, and with Hood and Thomas in their Tennessee campaign. He was honorably mustered out of service in August, 1865. He returned to his Iowa home and for two years was a student at Wesleyan college at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Upon leaving college, he engaged in school teach ing and during the vacation periods be devoted himself to farming. On September 10, 1867, he was married to Miss Morinda mccray of Des Moines county, Iowa. One year after with his worldly wealth, the mater ial part of which he loaded into a prairie schooner, he set out for Polk county, Nebraska, and on the 3rd of September, 1868, he had reached the banks of the Blue river and there filed upon a homestead. At that time there was only one family living in Polk county, though quite a number of claims had been taken up by homesteaders. Governor Mickey remained upon his homestead until November, 1872, when he removed to Osceola, then a town consisting of a court-house and a small store.
The town could not, at that time, boast of a first settler as there was not a single residence in the town and there was much interest attached to who should be the first settler. Mr. Mickey, with his wife, their baby, and a two-horse team and lumber wagon laden with household effects, started for the town and at the same time another pioneer, 7. If. Kimmel, started over the same road for Osceola. It was a race between the uh) parties as to which Would reach the place first. Their horses ran neck by neck the last two miles of the road but as they neared the town, Mr. Kim mel having the lighter load, and perhaps the best team of horses, left Governor Mickey a little in the rear and thus was the Governor robbed of the honor of becoming first settler. This race was (lovernor Mickey's first and last horse race.
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