1861-1904

Adoniram Judson Colby

Businessman/Broom Maker                        IA/KS/AR

Adoniram Judson Colby was born August 20, 1861, in Mitchell, Iowa, where his father, also named Adoniram Judson Colby, was pastor of the Baptist Church (see entry 1835?-1910). He married Alma Margaret (King) Abernathy on Sept. 14, 1881 in Phillips County, Kansas, and their children are unknown. He is listed as a Broom Manufacturer in an 1883 edition of the Phillipsburg (KS) Herald.  The A. J. Colby son cared for his father when the elderly Baptist pastor retired to Phillipsburg, KS, in 1890. Businessman and broom maker, Adoniram Judson Colby died July 10, 1904 at age 42 in Hoxie, Lawrence Co., Arkansas.[1]

[Compiler’s Note: While researching the story of A. J. Colby in Iowa, Kansas and Arkansas, I stumbled on this sad story of an A. J. Colby from Minneapolis. We do not know if he was named for Adoniram Judson so he did not make the final cut.  The story involves a railroad wreck between two freight trains where two were killed. Listed among the injured is “A. J. Colby, Minneapolis, brakeman, perhaps fatally.… Brakeman Colby was throwed a long distance into Vermillion slough and so seriously injured that he may die…”[2]]

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[1] Adoniram Judson Colby, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Colby-1416

[2] “Milwaukee Wreck,” Grand Forks Daily Herald (Grand Forks, ND) Volume 20, Issue 271, Tues, September 17, 1901, p. 1.

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