John Billings was born in England in 1775 and he and his sisters, Betsy and Flora, came to the United States in 1793. John was a Methodist preacher and later a farmer at Smyrna, New York. He married Eunice Cooley of Somers, Connecticut. They had a son, Augustine, in 1797.
Augustine had a son, Charles Sidney Billings in 1817. Charles married Lucinda Fields and they moved to Troga County, Pennsylvania and raised six children: Isaac, Mary Ann, Ella, William, Isabelle. Isaac, with his family, moved to Michigan and lived there for the next 20 years. In 1877, they moved to Nebraska in Holt County.
Isaac married Blanche Ball on
November 14, 1884. Blanche and her
family had come to Nebraska in 1880. Blanche’s father, Joseph Ball, had served in the Revolutionary
War. Joseph married Abigal and had
one daughter, Emma. Abigal died and
Joseph married Henrietta Lewis. They
had four children: Blanche, Will,
Bert, and Anna. The family
homesteaded south of Royal. Isaac and
Blanche homesteaded near the Elkhorn River. They had five children: Arthur, Charles, Earl, Gracie and Mable. Gracie died at age 14. In
1902 the family moved to a farm southeast of Orchard. Arthur married Bertha Rankin, daughter of
George Rankin and Julia Brewster, on November 19, 1882. They had four children: Carrie Rankin, Delbert Rankin, Bertha
Rankin and George Rankin. Arthur and
Bertha Billings moved to Neligh in 1944. They had three children: Charles, died in infancy, Grace and Harold. Arthur died in 1964 and Bertha in 1965.
Source Unknown: Originally submitted for this website in June 2007