John Kelley Lux
John Kelley Lux, son of William Gregory and Mary Ann (Kelley) Lux, was born in Brownstown, Jackson County, Indiana, on November 7, 1833. His father's first wife, Mary Osborne, died only six months after her marriage to William. John was descended from a long line of Lux, who first immigrated to Baltimore, Maryland, in the early 1700's. They were a family of merchants, and were at one time involved in transporting convicts from England to serve as cheap labor in the colonies, and in the shipment of rum from Barbados. The Lux were patriots during the Revolutionary War. William Saunders Lux, from whom John Lux was descended, was a merchant, a ship Captain, and shipowner in Baltimore and had been appointed the Continental prize agent for Maryland in April 1776. He was referred to in a 1777 letter to George Washington from Samuel Chase, as a supplier of flints for the rifles of the Continental army. William's brother Darby served as an officer in the Continental Army, with a rank of Lt. Colonel.
A letter written by William's son, William Walker Lux, to his children then living in Kentucky, one of which is John Lux's father, provides excellent advice, still excellent today!
John Lux was the third child of a family of 9, and was about 20 when the family moved to Tama County Iowa. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, John and his younger brother Jacob enlisted in Company C, 10th Iowa Infantry. His brother Jacob died of typhoid fever on March 27, 1862. Most likely he caught the disease while his company marched through the swamps, lugging supplies and artillery, and reached the outskirts of New Madrid, Missouri, on March 3, where they laid siege to the city.. During John's term of service, he participated in the engagements at Charleston, Missouri, New Madrid, and Island No. 10, in the latter of which 6,000 rebel prisoners were taken. He also participated in the battle of Corinth, the siege of Vicksburg, the battles of Jacksonville and Chatanooga, and went with Sherman's army to the sea. At the siege of Vicksburg he was severely wounded in the leg, and this wound somewhat crippled him the rest of his life. John was a Sergeant of Arms when mustered out August 15, 1865.
Caroline Melvina Fisher, daughter of Nathan and Sarah G. (Powell) Fisher, was born on April 28, 1845 in Hamilton, Indiana.
John married Caroline on November 20, 1865, in Toledo, Tama County, Iowa, and they had eight children:
| Ivan Ellsworth Lux was born on October 27, 1871, in Toledo, Iowa. He married Sadie Inez Hogg on January 30, 1895, in Shelton, Nebraska, and they had 10 children. He died on July 10, 1953, in Cherry County, Nebraska at the age of 81 and was buried in Valentine, Nebraska. |
| Marion Rolla Lux was born in 1879 in Nebraska. He died in 1949 at the age of 70. |
| Clarence Burton Lux was born in 1886. He died in 1963 in Nebraska, at the age of 77. |
| Alma Blanche Lux (was adopted) |
| Vernon Vivian Pearl Lux |
| William Emory Lux |
| Henry Fisher Lux |
| Viola "Ola" Jane Lux |
John and Caroline homesteaded in Sharon Township, near Gibbon, Nebraska, in April of 1871.
John was long-time member of the Methodist Church in Shelton, and had "lived a consistant Christian life". He had just returned home from attending an evening service alone on January 17, 1904. When he got down from the wagon, he suffered a heart attack and apparently died immediately. As it was thought that he might spend the night in Shelton with his son Rolla and family, his body wasn't discovered until the following morning. Caroline died on May 26, 1909, at the age of 64.